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A service framework for interventions for rural families affected by a relative’s substance use disorder
(University of the Western Cape, 2026) Marinus-Baartman, Denise Ronelle
The devastating impact of substance use on families of a person with a Substance Use Disorder (SUD) has been documented. However, services to support such families are under-emphasised as interventions primarily focus on the person with the SUD, while the family has to take on added family responsibilities to deal with the substance-related problems within the family. This is particularly the case in rural areas in South Africa due to, among others, socioeconomic conditions and the lack of infrastructure, family values and cultural influences, and the availability and supply of substances in rural communities. South African policies and legislation recognise the impact of SUDs on families, and provide guidelines emphasising the need for support services to both the person with a SUD and their families. Despite these guidelines, families are often overlooked when services are provided. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a service framework for interventions for rural families affected by a relative’s SUD. For this, a critical engagement was required to determine their lived experiences, challenges and coping strategies. It also required an exploration of the perspectives of social workers working in the field of substance use in rural areas.The strengths-based approach and the family resilience and ecological systems theories served as the theoretical framework that underpinned this study. From a functional pragmatic paradigm, this researcher employed the convergent parallel mixed methods approach utilising the survey, contextual and narrative research designs. The population consisted of families and registered social workers in rural areas of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. Non-probability purposive and snowball sampling were employed to identify 25 family members affected by a relative’s SUD, and 17 registered social workers working in the field of substance use in the Cape Winelands and Overberg Districts of the Western Cape. A survey was used to collect the quantitative data, and semi-structured interviews with family members and online focus groups with social workers to collect the qualitative data. The IBM Statistical Package for the Social Science Sciences (SPSS) were used to analyse the quantitative data, and qualitative data analysis was done according to the framework provided by Maguire and Delahunt (2017).
Indigenous Wild Flowers of Robben Island
(University of the Western Cape, 1999) University of the Western Cape
Critical thinking pedagogy and teacher education
(University of the Western Cape, 2026) Moodley, Désireé Eva
Higher education institutions play a pivotal role in knowledge creation and distribution. Teacher education is forefront to this engagement. In recent years higher education has undergone considerable transformation in response to equity and equality. In South Africa there is a call for real–world transformation in pedagogical practices to address individual academic, socio–economic, and cultural inclusion and emancipation. As a human right for enabling voices, seeking peace, developing a healthy citizenry, and a sought–after skill for student achievement, critical thinking is key in engaging quality and fair pedagogical practices. However, such practices are complex and contradictory. This thesis through publication investigates ways in which critical thinking pedagogy is conceptualised, contextualised, and confronted in teacher education examining contributions, complexities, and contradictions for South Africa, the geopolitical setting. Underpinned in educational philosophy, psychology and sociolinguistics, critical theory and culture, this multidisciplinary study aims to understand critical thinking pedagogy through the scholarship of Foucault, Freire, Lipman, Rose and Meyer, among others. Five peer reviewed articles in accredited journals form part of the chapters. It is hoped that the contribution of this thesis will promote and provoke further research and development of critical thinking pedagogy in teacher education for a new generation.
Threatened Plants of the South-Western Cape
(University of the Western Cape, 1993) University of the Western Cape
Unravelling the complexities of patriarchy: investigating female same-sex relationships in Cape Town
(University of the Western Cape, 2026) Cornelius, Michaelyn
The desire to be recognised as a human being is universal, yet patriarchy dictates the terms of this recognition by imposing that bodies be recognised firstly as gendered subjects before they are recognised as human beings. This thesis seeks to explain how patriarchy functions as an all permeating system of power. More particularly, within women-loving-women relationships, especially in its unconscious form, in their everyday rhythms and rituals. In this investigation I employ a qualitative approach, with daily diaries and interviews as the method of data collection, to enable an in-depth exploration of participants’ behaviours and innermost thoughts on a daily basis. This methodology enables me to distil the nuanced subtleties of the power relations within women-loving-women relationships; it specifically allows an exploration of the intrinsic embeddedness within these relationships. A fundamental point of this study is to unveil the insidious unconscious gendered practices within women-loving-women relationships. The daily diary methodology allows for the unveiling of these moments. To show the insidious nature of patriarchy, I include heterosexual couples as research participants. This comparative approach is crucial to fully understanding patriarchy, as a pervasive all-encompassing system of power, and that its logic finds resonance in both the heterosexual context and female same-sex relationships. In confronting these sites of intervention, I deploy the work of Engels, Althusser, Foucault and Butler. These theoretical tools construct the foundation for my explanatory apparatus to investigate the quiet and hidden manifestations of a patriarchal logic, more specifically within women-loving women relationships.