Browsing by Author "Moosa, Shaaista."
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Item Children’s meanings of same-sex sexualities: a study of 8 and 9 year-old boys and girls in a primary school.(2020) Sithole, Nosipho Marcia.; Bhana, Deevia.; Moosa, Shaaista.This study explores the meanings of same-sex sexualities among Grade 3 children aged eight and nine years old. This study took place at Moonlight Primary School (pseudonym) situated in Newlands West, north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Thirty learners were involved in this study; they were all interviewed individually in order to share their meanings of same-sex sexualities. Findings reveal that children in primary schools define same-sex sexuality as boys who display feminine traits or girls who display masculine traits. Within this study, findings also reveal that children do not regard same-sex sexuality as a sexual identity, but as an ‘act’ that is done by boys and girls who do not want to conform to normative gendered traits. Boys and girls in primary school have been deemed innocent and asexual. However, this study reveals that children in primary school monitor normative gender traits and bully peers who do not conform to heteronormative traits. The school playground is one of the sites where children’s sexualities are scrutinised by peers. In primary school, games are gendered and children who do not conform to that are marginalised and victimised by peers. In South Africa, the foundation phase curriculum does not include same-sex sexualities. Families and places of worship condemn same-sex sexualities. Parents do not want their children to be associated with homosexuality. Parents also presume that all children are heterosexuals. They also believe sexuality is for adults and not for children because they are deemed to be still young and innocent. Study also reveals that media (television) helps children to identify non-normative gendered traits. Findings reveal that religious institutions do not share their thoughts and views about same-sex sexualities. Some places of worship clearly state that homosexuals are bad people because they do not conform to normative gendered traits and are perceived as a threat to the status quo. The findings also reveal that boys and girls always want to maintain normative gendered traits in school, therefore they always play with peers of the same sex to avoid being bullied by peers. Homophobic insults and homophobic bullying are very common in primary schools, therefore usage of the word gay or isitabane (derogatory word for gay) is very frequently used by children.Item Failing to attract males in the early years of teaching : a study of male undergraduate Bachelor of Education students at the Univerisity of KwaZulu-Natal (Edgewood Campus)(2013) Moosa, Shaaista.; Bhana, Deevia.This qualitative study addresses the problem of the reluctance of males in a South African higher education institution to pursue teaching in the early years. The main question to arise from this problem is this; why are males in a local South African higher education context reluctant to pursue teaching in the early years? The central claim in addressing this question is that the constructions of masculinity play a huge role in influencing the concentration of men opting to teach young children to be low. My aims and purpose of this study is to therefore understand why males in a local South African higher education context are reluctant to pursue teaching in the early years and the implication for gender equality. The research context of this study lies in the domain of literature on studies of men, masculinities and teaching in the early years, particularly from the West, as there has been a dearth of research on this matter in the South African context. I begin from the premise that the constructions of masculinity play a role in influencing the low concentration of men opting to teach young children. The method I used to achieve these aims was that of conducting individual qualitative interviews with 15 male undergraduate BEd students at Edgewood Campus who were not specialising in the Foundation Phase (early years of teaching). My results show that that the constructions of masculinity indeed play a role in influencing these men not to opt to teach young children and from these I am able to conclude that male pre-service teachers’ account of teaching and teachers of young children is an account of gender and doing masculinity. It was found that several issues served to deter the male students in this study from entering into the early years of teaching and these issues dealt largely with the dominant constructions of masculinity and femininity. These issues included instances where the male students constructed the early years of teaching as a profession ideally suited towards females because females according to the students were caring, nurturing and had more patience to work with young children in the early years of schooling. The higher years of teaching on the other hand was considered to be a more suitable profession for males as a result of it being characterized by a greater intellectual capacity and thus a higher status profession. The significance of this study lies in designing suitable interventions which will encourage more men to enter teaching in the early years. In short, this dissertation addresses the problem of understanding why males are so reluctant to enter teaching in the early years of schooling. It has done so by highlighting the reasons why males in a local South African higher education context are reluctant to pursue teaching in the early years. This becomes necessary in order to develop suitable intervention strategies in order to achieve a more balanced ratio of male and female teachers in the early years of teaching. Furthermore achieving a balanced ratio of male and female teachers in this area of teaching can be seen as a significant step towards the realization of gender equality in the workplace.Item Gender, sexuality and violence: an ethnographic case study of 12-13-year-old school girl femininities at a primary school in KwaZulu-Natal.(2022) Govender, Naresa.; Bhana, Deevia.; Moosa, Shaaista.This ethnographic study is situated at the intersection of gender, sexuality and violence in illuminating the experiences of 12- and 13-year-old girls in a primary school in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Rejecting a dominant focus on girls as passive and docile, the thesis illustrates the complex ways through which young femininity is produced, accommodated and challenged in relation to heterosexuality. Given the relative scholarly silence around primary school girls’ constructions of heterosexuality in South Africa, the thesis asserts that such girls’ investment in heterosexuality is a contradictory pursuit: their desires and active agency are self-evident, but so are the oppressive ways through which their own actions serve male interests. I argue that the primary school context is an active site through which young femininities are produced, as girls reinforce and challenge gender norms. Firstly, I focus on the expectations and respectability accorded to the ‘proper girl’ status. Being a proper girl was a dominant expectation and pervaded girls’ experiences in their family, community, and school. Proper girl femininity rested on pre-dominant norms founded on sexual docility and subordination to gender and cultural traditions. These norms were emphasized in relation to male power, and the presumption of girls’ vulnerability and victimhood in regards to sex and sexual violence. Secondly, and notwithstanding these dominant messages, girls contested proper girl femininity. They drew on particular heterosexual strategies and were subjected to - and subjected themselves to - the societal compulsion towards obligatory heterosexuality. The study shows that girls invested in boys and boyfriends, modified their bodies and dressed and engaged in sexual talk and practices through which their existence as sexual beings was illuminated in direct contrast to proper girl femininity. However, their insistent expressions of sexual agency occurred in the context of rape culture at school. Thus, thirdly, the study highlights detailed accounts, from girls’ own perspectives, of the ways in which sexual harassment, violence and inequalities manifested at school through the insidiousness of rape culture. Nearly all the girls interviewed spoke of sexual harassment meted out by boys and other girls, which they either experienced or witnessed. However, girls’ attempts to contest and redress rape culture at school were limited as a result of the broader social and cultural system they lived in being based in turn on patriarchal conditions which offered little support for girls’ experiences of harassment and violence. In this regard, the girls spoke of how their teachers paid little to no attention to gendered and sexual relations as such within the school environment. Rape culture was tolerated and normalised. In this way, the school was found to be complicit in the casualisation of gender binaries, gender-based violence and misogyny. Culturally-embedded notions of emphasised femininity were also used as a powerful tool to regulate girls and a means of disassociating them from expressing agency and speaking out about their experiences of sexual violence within the school environment. Finally, the greatest significance of a study of this nature lies in its contribution to the designing of suitable intervention strategies to support South African primary schoolgirls in their experiences of gender, sexuality and violence. These strategies must take into account the complex and early formations of femininities that are outlined in this study. An approach that recognises girls’ pleasurable investments in the development of their own sexuality, as well as their potentially damaging investments, while also underscoring the need for a greater focus on younger girls’ femininity in South Africa, is more necessary than ever. This should be a vital and necessary step in working towards ensuring that schoolgirls are equipped with the skills and knowledge to negotiate their sexualities in more positive and gender-equitable ways, rather than in ways that are harmful to their sexual and emotional well-being. IQOQA Lolu cwaningo olu-ethnographic luzinze kwimpambanonjulalwazi yobulili, ngokobulili kanye nodlame ekuqoqweni kwesipiliyoni samantombazane aneminyaka eyi-12 neyi-13 ezikoleni ezisemazingeni aphansi KwaZulu-Natali. Kuchithwa umbono odumile wokuthi izingane zamantombazane kummele zingatshengisi mizwa. Ucwaningo luveza ubunkimbinkimbi bendlela izingane zamantombazane ezikhuliswa ngayo kanye nendlela ezizizwa ngayo ngobunye ubulili. Ngenxa yokwentuleka kocwaningo mayelana nendlela amantombazane abuka ngayo ubulili eNingizimu Afrika, lolu cwaningo lugcizelela ukuthi izingane zamantombazane mazifundiswe ukucabanga ngobulili ngendlela ehlukile: izifiso zazo kanye nokwenza kwazo kuba sobala, kanti kanjalo nezindlela ezicindezelayo ezenza ukuthi zenganyelwe ngabesilisa kufezeke nezidingo zabesilisa. Ngiqakulisa ngokuthi unzikandaweni wasesikoleni esisemazingeni aphansi yindawo ekahle yokubumba imiqondo yamantombazanyana ukuba amelane nobunye ubulili. Okukuqala, ngagxila kokulindelekile kanye nenhlonipho eye inikwe ‘intombazane eqotho’. Lokhu kwenza izingane zamantombazane zibe nesipiliyoni nemfundiso ethile emakhaya azo, emphakathini nasesikoleni. Ukuba intombazane eqotho kuncike kwimfundiso edumile eyakhelwe phezu kwemikhuba yokuthoba efundiswa izingane zamantombazane etholakala nasemasikweni. Le mikhuba ibifakwa ezingqondweni ukuze abesilisa babe namandla kunabesifazane okugcine sekwenza abesifazane bahlukunyezwe. Okwesibili, yize kunjalo, amantombazane abe eselwela ukuzimela njengabesifazane. Asebenzise amandla alobu obunye ubulili, okusuke kulindeleke kubulili ngabunye emphakathini. Ucwaningo luveza ukuthi amantombazane azinikele ukubukeka kubafana, nasemasokeni, ashintsha indlela yokugqoka, ashintsha nemizimba yawo kanye nengxoxo yawo mayelana nezobulili okwenza ukuba avele ngenye indlela eyehlukile kunale elindeleke entombazaneni, axoxa ngezocansi njengalokhu benza abesilisa. Kepha indlela aziphatha ngayo ngokobulili akwenza kuzikandaweni womkhuba wokudlwendulwa owenzeka ezikoleni. Ngakho-ke, okwesithathu, ucwaningo lubeka imininingwane, ngeso lamantobazane, ngezigameko zokunukubewa ngokocansi , udlame kanye nokungalingani okukhona ezikoleni ngenxa yesiko lokudlwengula. Cishe wonke amantombazane abe ababambiqhaza akhulume ngokuhlukunyezwa ngokocansi okwenziwa ngabafana namanye amantombazane, bekubona kwenzeka noma kwenzeka kubona. Kepha izikhalo zawo amantombazane azibanga nampumelelo ngenxa yendlela umphakathi kanye nesiko okucabanga ngayo lusishaya indiva lesi sikhalo. Ngale ndlela, amantombazane akhuluma ngendlela othisha nabo abangawunaki umkhuba wokuhlukumeza ngokobulili kanye nagokocansi esikoleni. Ukudlwengula kwakubekezelelwa futhi kubukeka kuyimpilo. Lokhu kwenza isikole sibe nesandla ukubhebhethekisa lesi sihlava. Kanti nalo usiko lunesandla ngokuba lubheke amantombazane ngendlela yokuthi akumele akhulume ngezimo zokuhlukunyezwa ngokobulili abhekana nazo esikoleni. Okokugcina, ukubaluleka kocwaningo olunjenganalolu kuncike ekutheni lube nomthelela ekuletheni izinguquko ezikoleni zaseNingizimu Afrika ezinkingeni zobulili, ngokobulili kanye nodlame. Lawo masu kuyomele abheke ubunkimbinkimbi nokushesha kokuqala ukuzinaka ngokobulili okuvezwa yilolu cwaningo. Ucwaningo oluthinta injabulo yamantombazane ekuzikhuliseni ngokobulili bawo, kanjalo nobungozi balokhu, kube kubhekwa ukubaluleka kokugxila emantombazaneni asemancane eNingizimu Afrika lubaluleke kakhulu. Lokhu kumele kube yisinyathelo esibaluleke kakhulu ekuqinisekiseni ukuthi amantombazane athola amakhono nolwazi okufanele ukubhekana nobulili ngendlela efanele okunezindlela ezilimazayo ngokobulili nemizwa.