“Munhu wese ihama yako (everyone is your relative)”: Ubuntu and the social inclusion of students with disabilities at South African universities
- Authors: Chiwandire, Desire
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: College students with disabilities -- Education -- South Africa , Inclusive education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/170578 , vital:41938 , 10.21504/10962/170578
- Description: Background: During apartheid, South African students with disabilities (SWDs) were educated in special schools and taught an inferior curriculum. Black learners with disabilities were discriminated against on grounds of both race and disability. Following South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) government put in place arrange of new laws to address the educational and other needs of those disadvantaged under apartheid, including persons with disabilities (PWDs). The South African government is a signatory of the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which has resulted in the country assuming obligations to promote inclusive education for ASWDs. However, research (see, for instance, Chiwandire & Vincent 2019; Chiwandire 2019; Mutanga 2019; Majoko & Phasha 2018; Mutanga et al. 2018; Mutanga 2017a; Chiwandire 2017; Israel 2017) has shown that SWDs continue to fare differently in comparison to their non-disabled peers in terms of participation in education with the likelihood of success. Higher education institutions (HEIs) have thus been urged to create conducive environments for the academic inclusion of SWDs with particular attention being paid to lecturers employing inclusive instructional strategies as well as flexible curricula, if they are to ensure the equal opportunity for academic success of SWDs in the regular classroom setting. The focus, to date, on academic inclusion, while important, has meant that issues relating to the social inclusion of SWDs have received minimal attention. Purpose: To date, there is a dearth of South African studies which have investigated the social inclusion needs of SWDs on South African campuses. Although a number of studies have given voice to the perspectives of SWDs and lecturers, with respect to their experiences in relation to matters of academic inclusion in South African higher education (HE), few have focused on Disability Unit Staff Members(DUSMs) who are pivotal to ensuring fair and equitable policies and practices for SWDs in HEIs. Disability Studies (DS) as a field has been criticised for being dominated by voices from the Global North, which fail to consider or effectively theorise Global South disability experiences in a contextually relevant way. The thesis argues that the failure to recognise the value of diversity and to treat SWDs as valued and welcomed participants in South African HEIs partly stems from policy, practice and relationships being informed by the Western individualist paradigm that prizes individual achievement and success rather than cooperation and mutuality. The African philosophy of Ubuntu, which stresses values of communalism, hospitality and respect for human dignity is offered here as an alternative starting point for achieving genuinely inclusive campuses. Methods: In-depth face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 participants, most of whom were, at the time of being interviewed, Heads of Disability Units and DUSMs based at 10 different universities in four of South Africa’s nine provinces. Data were coded and analysed using Braun & Clarke’s (2006) method of inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Results: The findings of this study indicate that South African campuses are ableist spaces in which the social needs of SWDs are not prioritised. The thesis argues that in order for campuses to become genuinely inclusive, South African campuses ought to seek to inculcate in their members the values of the African worldview Ubuntu, in contrast to the dominant Western individualist orthodoxy. SWDs are being excluded and denied a sense of belonging and equal participation despite universities giving lip service to embracing such inclusive education-oriented values as co-operative learning. Non-disabled students steeped in Western individualism, which affirms the solitary pursuit of individual success rather than the value of interdependence and diversity, end up marginalising SWDs who are seen as less capable. DUSMs addressing the needs of SWDs through an ableist/Western individualist lens are not challenging unfair practices which are impairing the dignity of SWDs, particularly students with physical disabilities who are being forced to “fit into” oppressive inaccessible built environments on campuses. These DUSMs may unwittingly re-inscribe ableist assumptions that normalise discrimination against SWDs. Conclusions and Recommendations: Ubuntu values offer a starting point for building mutual respect and interdependence between SWDs and their non-disabled peers. The thesis finds however that as was the case in traditional African communities, which embraced the values of Ubuntu, acts of leadership are required if Ubuntu’s values of human dignity, mutual respect and acceptance are to be fostered on campuses. In a range of important ways, the dignity of SWDs is not respected at HEIs in South Africa. This includes, for example, such practical matters as the inaccessibility of toilets to wheelchair users and the lack of appropriate signage for blind students. Disrespectful attitudes and assumptions about SWDs on the part of non-disabled university members also result in SWDs’ human dignity being impaired. Ubuntu’s value of hospitality stresses the importance of promoting relations of group solidarity and interdependence between SWDs and their non-disabled peers. Both academic inclusion-oriented programmes and the promotion of a wide range of social activities, involving both SWDs and non-disabled students, can play an important role in cultivating the formation of long-term fruitful and respectful friendships between SWDs and non-disabled students. An enabling classroom environment alone is not enough to holistically address the social inclusion needs of SWDs. South African HEIs that embrace the Ubuntu values of communalism, human dignity and hospitality will be in a position to respect the needs of SWDs as “whole persons”. Amongst other things, this requires DUSMs to be fully empowered to make important decisions regarding vital matters such as disability inclusion, and it necessitates university management to relinquish their power, so that they may work collaboratively with DUSMs and SWDs, all on equal footing, to ensure that HE funding allocation, policy and planning also prioritises the social needs of SWDs.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Wheelchair users, access and exclusion in South Africa higher education
- Authors: Chiwandire, Desire , Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59984 , vital:27717 , doi: 10.4102/ajod.v6i0.353
- Description: Background: South Africa’s Constitution guarantees everyone, including persons with disabilities, the right to education. A variety of laws are in place obliging higher education institutions to provide appropriate physical access to education sites for all. In practice, however, many buildings remain inaccessible to people with physical disabilities. Objectives: To describe what measures South African universities are taking to make their built environments more accessible to students with diverse types of disabilities, and to assess the adequacy of such measures. Method: We conducted semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews with disability unit staff members (DUSMs) based at 10 different public universities in South Africa. Results: Challenges with promoting higher education accessibility for wheelchair users include the preservation and heritage justification for failing to modify older buildings, ad hoc approaches to creating accessible environments and failure to address access to toilets, libraries and transport facilities for wheelchair users. Conclusion: South African universities are still not places where all students are equally able to integrate socially. DUSMs know what ought to be done to make campuses more accessible and welcoming to students with disabilities and should be empowered to play a leading role in sensitising non-disabled members of universities, to create greater awareness of, and appreciation for, the multiple ways in which wheelchair user students continue to be excluded from full participation in university life. South African universities need to adopt a systemic approach to inclusion, which fosters an understanding of inclusion as a fundamental right rather than as a luxury.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Conscientious objection and South African medical practitioners' constructions of termination of pregnancy and emergency contraception
- Authors: Chiwandire, Desire
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Abortion -- South Africa , Abortion -- Moral and ethical aspects -- South Africa , Emergency contraceptives -- South Africa , Contraception -- Moral and ethical aspects -- South Africa , Medical personnel -- Attitudes -- South Africa , Patients -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa , Reproductive rights -- South Africa , Women's rights -- South Africa , Liberty of conscience
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:2888 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017863
- Description: Aim: The 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act decriminalized abortion in South Africa and the South African Medicines Control Council in 2000 approved the dispensing of emergency contraceptive methods by pharmacists to women without a doctor's prescription. This legislation has been hailed as among the most progressive in the world with respect to women's reproductive justice. However the realisation of these rights in practice has not always met expectations in part due to medical practitioners' ethical objections to termination of pregnancy and the provision of related services. The aim of this study was to interpret the varying ways in which medical practitioners frame termination of pregnancy and emergency contraceptive services, their own professional identities and that of their patients/clients. Methods: Sample of 58 doctors and 59 pharmacists drawn from all nine provinces of South Africa. Data collected using an anonymous confidential internet-based self-administered questionnaire. Participants were randomly recruited from online listings of South African doctors and pharmacists practicing in both private and public sectors. Data were analysed using theoretically derived qualitative content analysis. Results: Participants drew on eight frames to justify their willingness or unwillingness to provide termination-of-pregnancy related services: the foetal life frame, the women's rights frame, the balancing frame, the social justice frame, the do no harm frame, the legal and professional obligation frame, the consequences frame and the moral absolutist frame. Conclusion: Health professionals' willingness or unwillingness to provide termination of pregnancy related services is highly dependent on how they frame or understand termination of pregnancy, and how they understand their own professional identities and those of their patients/clients.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Medical practitioners and conscientious objection to the provision of termination of pregnancy services:
- Authors: Chiwandire, Desire , Vincent, Louise
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143838 , vital:38287 , https://ischp.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/ischp_2015_abstract_booklet.pdf
- Description: The 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act decriminalized abortion in South Africa and the South African Medicines Control Council in 2000 approved the dispensing of emergency contraceptive methods by pharmacists to women without a doctor’s prescription. This legislation has been hailed as among the most progressive in the world with respect to women’s reproductive justice. However, the realization of these rights in practice has not always met expectations, in part due to medical practitioners’ ethical objections to termination of pregnancy and the provision of related services. The aim of this study was to interpret the varying ways in which medical practitioners frame termination of pregnancy services, their own professional identities and that of their patients/clients. A Sample of 58 doctors and 59 pharmacists were drawn from all nine provinces of South Africa. Data were collected using an anonymous confidential internet-based self-administered questionnaire. Participants were randomly recruited from online listings of South African doctors and pharmacists practicing in both private and public sectors. Data were analysed using theoretically derived qualitative content analysis.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Rehearsing or reversing harmful masculine scripts?: South African men's romance narratives
- Authors: Vincent, Louise , Chiwandire, Desire
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/141844 , vital:38009 , DOI: 10.1080/10130950.2013.807081
- Description: In this Article we discuss the results of 42 in-depth qualitative interviews with young black South African men who self-identified as heterosexual and who reported that they were at the time of the interview or had at some time in their lives, experienced being ‘in love’ with a woman. South Africa, as is commonly pointed out, is in the throes of an epidemic of gender based violence. To declare oneself ‘in love’ potentially contradicts some of the core features of what Mogomotsi Mfalapitsa (IRIN, 2009) has referred to as ‘harmful masculinity’ and which he has argued is causally related to male violence against women. These features include emotional detachment, promiscuity, interest in casual sex rather than long-term engagement with a single partner, unwillingness to be ‘tied down’, the hierarchical ordering of gendered relations constructed as men's entitlement to women's ‘respect’ and the need to publically enact masculine heterosexuality. We are interested in whether, in these narratives, the research participants position themselves in opposition to these harmful precepts or, whether they confirm and reiteratively perform assumptions that can be construed as damaging to the prospects of generating more equitable, fair and loving relations between men and women.
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- Date Issued: 2013