Introduction: Research on school-based sexuality education in South Africa, taught within Life Or... more Introduction: Research on school-based sexuality education in South Africa, taught within Life Orientation (LO), has mainly focused on learners' responses, how teachers approach the subject, and the curriculum content. Critiques have included heteronormative biases, an emphasis on danger, disease and damage, a reinforcement of gendered binaries, and the lack of pleasure or well-being discourses. In contrast, our research focused on the unexpected moments teachers experience, i.e., the ethical, emotional or psychological challenges they encounter in their interactions with learners. Methods: We interviewed 49 teachers across a range of schools in three provinces. Data were analyzed using narrative thematic analysis. Results: Teachers' narratives referred to an alarming array of traumas and psychosocial problems experienced by learners, including sexual abuse, substance abuse, neglect, HIV diagnosis, unsafe abortion, witnessing murders, and attempted suicide. Teaching particular topics, they indicated, triggered learner distress, although, sometimes, distress was triggered by innocuous topics. Teachers felt insufficiently skilled to teach certain topics sensitively to promote the well-being of learners who experienced current or past trauma. They also felt ill-equipped to deal with learners reporting trauma or psychosocial problems to them. Strategies narrated included allowing learners to skip relevant classes, building trust, understanding learners' needs, being a learner's advocate, and drawing on learners' grounded expertise. Teachers spoke of experiencing burnout and secondary trauma themselves. Discussion: We argue that LO teachers are, in effect, sexual, reproductive and mental health frontline workers. They need in-depth training in learner-centered and dialogical approaches to build trust within the classroom sensitively and in basic screening, containment, referral and lay counselling skills to assist distressed learners outside the class. A wellbeing approach to sexuality education requires providing LO teachers with ongoing support and consultation with peers and mental health professionals to avoid burnout and promote well-being.
Introduction Policy decisions about young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRH... more Introduction Policy decisions about young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) have far-reaching implications for their well-being. Few SRHR policies, however, focus specifically on youth. Rather, youth SRHR tends to be subsumed within national policies of Health, Youth, Education and Development Ministries, particularly in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, complicating an assessment of the overall state of youth SRHR policies. Given the fact that youth SRHR policies focus on a particular segment of the population-youth, teenagers or adolescents-how policies depict these subjects has implications for how policy objectives, programmes and interventions are conceptualised and the kind of sexual and reproductive health concerns that are prioritised. Methods Using a subject positioning lens, our critical review of youth SRHR policy in force between 2010 and 2020 spans policy domains to examine depictions of young people across 88 ESA policy documents. Our analysis aimed to identify the qualities and responsibilities associated with different youth subject positions and the broader implications thereof for young people's SRHR. Results We identify two dominant youth subject positions-risky youth and youth-at-risk-both of which construct risk as inherent to young people, overwhelmingly emphasise negative repercussions of youth sexual practices, foreground individualised interventions and hold young people responsible for preventing negative sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes in the absence of policy objectives that meaningfully address structural constraints on their agency. Conclusions Considering the dominance of public health research underpinning youth SRHR, our findings contribute a much-needed critical social theory complement that supports holistic, justice-oriented and contextually embedded policy responses to young people's SRHR. Policy Implications Based on our findings, we provide policy recommendations that support a conceptual shift away from vulnerable youth to vulnerabilising contexts, such that young people's vulnerability to adverse SRH outcomes is situated in the enabling and constraining conditions in which they live their lives.
Out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programmes are viewed by UNFPA as important... more Out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programmes are viewed by UNFPA as important in empowering youth. These programmes may, however, be critiqued for, firstly, inadvertently equating empowerment with individual agency to the exclusion of social justice; and, secondly, using the word empowerment as a self-evident signifier. We propose that empowerment be conceptualised within a critical sexual and reproductive citizenship (CSRC) framework that draws on feminist and queer re-workings of the principles of citizenship. To operationalise this conceptualisation, we developed the Masizixhobise toolkit from the five key issues outlined in the CSRC framework. The aim of the toolkit is to aid in the design and refinement of theoretically embedded empowerment CSE programmes. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of the toolkit. To do so, we analyse the Partners in Sexual Health’s (PSH) Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights facilitator’s manual. A template analysis was conducted on this manual using a priori of themes from the toolkit. We sift through the PSH manual’s alignments or misalignments with the CSRC framework and make recommendations for enhancing the empowerment components of the manual. This example may assist others in designing and refining theoretically embedded and socially just youth empowerment CSE programmes.
Out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) pro-grammes are viewed by UNFPA as importan... more Out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) pro-grammes are viewed by UNFPA as important in empowering youth. These programmes may, however, be critiqued for, firstly, inadvertently equating empowerment with individual agency to the exclusion of social justice; and, secondly, using the word empowerment as a self-evident signifier. We propose that empowerment be conceptualised within a critical sexual and reproductive citizenship (CSRC) framework that draws on feminist and queer reworkings of the principles of citizenship. To operationalise this conceptualisation, we developed the Masizixhobise toolkit from the five key issues outlined in the CSRC framework. The aim of the toolkit is to aid in the design and refinement of theoretically embedded empowerment CSE programmes. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of the toolkit. To do so, we analyse the Partners in Sexual Health’s (PSH) Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights facilitator’s manual. A template analysis was conducted on this manual using a priori of themes from the toolkit. We sift through the PSH manual’s alignments or misalignments with the CSRC framework and make recommendations for enhancing the empowerment components of the manual. This example may assist others in designing and refining theoretically embedded and socially just youth empowerment CSE programmes.
Background: Research on abortion counselling generally uses retrospective interviewing regarding ... more Background: Research on abortion counselling generally uses retrospective interviewing regarding providers' and users' experiences. In this paper we explore how requests for abortion are made and received in real time in (officially non-mandatory) pre-abortion counselling conducted by nurses and counsellors in South African public abortion clinics. Methods: To capture turn-by-turn interactions, we recorded, using consecutive sampling, 28 sessions at three abortion clinics in 2017/2018. No researcher was present. Conversation analysis, based on an ethnomethodological paradigm, was used to understand the conversational projects of the sessions and to outline how the provider and user oriented to the request for an abortion as a conversational task. Results: Establishing reasons for the abortion featured in most individual counselling sessions. Through posing directive questions, providers required users to justify their request to access abortion. Users complied by providing multiple reasons. These reasons were often followed by a provider question demanding accountability in relation to contraceptive (non)use, thus establishing poor usage as the real reason. Conclusion: As abortion is legal on request in the first trimester in South Africa, no reason for presenting for an abortion is needed. The demand for users to perform "doctorability"-i.e., to present their situation as worthy of a health professional's (in this case abortion provider's) timeserved as a precursor to discipline the abortion seeker for assumed poor contraceptive usage. Providers should be trained in user-centred care that supports pregnant people's autonomy in accessing legally induced abortion. A limitation of this study is its restriction to three abortion clinics in one region of South Africa.
On the occasion of 30 years of South African democracy, we reflect on the current state of Psycho... more On the occasion of 30 years of South African democracy, we reflect on the current state of Psychology research in South Africa. We conducted a situational analysis of all papers appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword 'South Africa' over the last 5 years and compared the results with a previous review that used the same methodology. Findings show an increase in papers using 'hard' science approaches and a decrease in systems-oriented theories. Assessment remains a major topic. While COVID-19 and climate change featured, there remains a lack of or low focus on several key psycho-social issues experienced by South Africans. People living in poorer provinces and young and older people are under-represented in knowledge production. Collaborations or comparisons with other African or South American countries have decreased. Positively, production is being spearheaded by South African scholars or people affiliated with South African institutions. Using a decolonising lens that foregrounds epistemic justice, we conclude that substantial work remains to be done for knowledge production in South African Psychology to fulfil the decolonising imperative of distributive epistemic justice.
The notion of 'sexual justice' has gained traction in academic and policy arenas in recent years.... more The notion of 'sexual justice' has gained traction in academic and policy arenas in recent years. This paper presents a scoping literature review of the regimes of truth, following Foucault, of 'sexual justice' appearing in the scientific literature from 2012 to 2022. Thirty-eight papers were coded using (1) content analysis of the studies' central problematics, the programmes referred to, and institutional location(s); and (2) thematic analysis of how the notion was deployed. Central problematics centred on (1) critiques of, or alternatives to, dominant approaches to sexual and reproductive health; and (2) highlighting injustices. As such, 'sexual justice' is fighting for legitimacy in the truth stakes. There is a distinct paucity of papers tackling the translation of 'sexual justice' into practice. South Africa dominates as the site in which papers on 'sexual justice' have been produced, but there is a lack of South-South collaboration. Two themes were apparent around which conceptions of sexual justice cohere. Firstly, sexual justice is seen as a vital, yet politically ambivalent goal, with neoliberal co-optation of progressive rights agendas being warned against. Secondly, sexual justice is viewed as a means, in which sexual justice is described as having potential to repair established frameworks' shortcomings and oppressive legacies.
Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a... more Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.
International Journal of Critical Psychology, 2002
In this paper we argue that globalisation imposes on ‘developing’ countries more than an economic... more In this paper we argue that globalisation imposes on ‘developing’ countries more than an economic order; they find themselves with the moral imperative to align themselves with the West against its Others, increasingly portrayed as Islamic fundamentalists. The 11 September terror attacks in the United States of America have pushed this process to a new level, with the attacks represented as no less than a barbaric attack on ‘civilisation’. Through an analysis of a newspaper article reporting on the disciplining of a Muslim woman in for wearing an Osama Bin Laden t-shirt to work in South Africa, we indicate how this moral representation of the 11 September events and the Islamic Other have unique local effects. In South Africa it creates yet more possibilities for racialising practices to continue without being framed in explicitly racial terms. We further reflect on the implications of these events, and the complex interplay of the global and the local they demonstrate, for critical psychology in South Africa.
Research on sexual practices among young South Africans has proliferated in light of the national... more Research on sexual practices among young South Africans has proliferated in light of the national imperatives to challenge the spread of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and unwanted early pregnancies. It has been widely acknowledged that, in order to respond to these social problems, we need to understand the enmeshment of gender, class, age and other forms of social inequality, and how these are played out in 'normal' heterosexual relationships.
This paper compares two forms of sexual socialisation to which learners are exposed: the sexualit... more This paper compares two forms of sexual socialisation to which learners are exposed: the sexuality education components of the Life Orientation (LO) manuals and the lyrical content and videos of popular songs. We performed a textual analysis of the sexual subject positions made available in, first, the LO manuals used in Grade 10 classes and, second, the two songs voted most popular by the Grade 10 learners of two diverse schools in the Eastern Cape. Of interest in this paper is whether and how these two forms of sexual socialisation - one representing state-sanctioned sexual socialisation and the other learners' chosen cultural expression that represents informal sexual socialisation - dovetail or diverge. Against a backdrop of heterosexuality and an assumption of the 'adolescent-in-transition' discourse, the main sexual subject positions featured in the LO manuals are the responsible sexual subject and the sexual victim. A number of sexualised subject positions are por...
Objectives: There is a need to hone reproductive health (RH) services for women who sell sex (WSS... more Objectives: There is a need to hone reproductive health (RH) services for women who sell sex (WSS). The aim of this review was to collate findings on non-barrier contraception, pregnancies, and abortion amongst WSS in Eastern and Southern African (ESA).Methods: A scoping review methodology was employed. Inclusion criteria were: 1) empirical papers from 2) ESA, 3) published since 2010, and 4) addressing WSS in relation to 5) the identified RH issues.Results: Reports of rates of non-barrier contraceptive usage varied from 15% to 76%, of unintended pregnancy from 24% to 91%, and of abortion from 11% to 48%. Cross-cutting factors were alcohol use, violence, health systems problems, and socio-economic issues. Pregnancy desire was associated with having a non-paying partner. Barriers to accessing, and delaying, antenatal care were reported as common. Targeted programmes were reported as promoting RH amongst WSS.Conclusion: Programmes should be contextually relevant, based on local pattern...
The lack of feedback of research results to research participants, or the lack of reflection on t... more The lack of feedback of research results to research participants, or the lack of reflection on the feedback process where it does occur, is problematic. Some fundamental issues appear to inform the feedback process, these being the approach adopted by the researchers to research and the uses envisaged for the research and feedback. In this paper, we reflect on feedback sessions conducted with research participants and local community in a community-based mental health programme in a rural area of South Africa. The results of a comprehensive needs assessment were discussed in four different meetings. This paper reflects upon, amongst others, practical/logistical issues, attendance and non-attendance, the issue of language, group dynamics, challenges from participants, and social and cultural constructions of knowledge. It is concluded that when feedback of research results is seen as part of an on-going process of programme development and engagement with various stakeholders, it is...
The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research, 2018
Ethics committees standardly require that the researchers address questions concerning anonymity ... more Ethics committees standardly require that the researchers address questions concerning anonymity and confidentiality. The conventional practice is to ensure that participants’ names and identifying details are expunged from public records of the research and that high levels of confidentiality of data are maintained in the research process. In this introduction, we outline how authors of chapters in this section ask questions concerning these imperatives, including circumstances where participants actively want their identity revealed and their voice heard or when anonymising might not be possible or may further disadvantage marginalised populations. We explore the argument made by authors that the automatic anonymising of data and the imposition of confidentiality can constrain ethical conduct.
Objectives: There is a need to hone reproductive health (RH) services for women who sell sex (WSS... more Objectives: There is a need to hone reproductive health (RH) services for women who sell sex (WSS). The aim of this review was to collate findings on non-barrier contraception, pregnancies, and abortion amongst WSS in Eastern and Southern African (ESA). Methods: A scoping review methodology was employed. Inclusion criteria were: 1) empirical papers from 2) ESA, 3) published since 2010, and 4) addressing WSS in relation to 5) the identified RH issues. Results: Reports of rates of non-barrier contraceptive usage varied from 15% to 76%, of unintended pregnancy from 24% to 91%, and of abortion from 11% to 48%. Cross-cutting factors were alcohol use, violence, health systems problems, and socioeconomic issues. Pregnancy desire was associated with having a non-paying partner. Barriers to accessing, and delaying, antenatal care were reported as common. Targeted programmes were reported as promoting RH amongst WSS. Conclusion: Programmes should be contextually relevant, based on local patterns, individual, interpersonal and systemic barriers. Targeted approaches should be implemented in conjunction with improvement of public health services. Linked HIV and RH services, and community empowerment approaches are recommended.
In this special issue, we bring together papers that speak to feminisms in relation to decolonisa... more In this special issue, we bring together papers that speak to feminisms in relation to decolonisation in the discipline of psychology. The six articles and two book reviews address a range of issues: race, citizenship, emancipatory politics, practising decolonial refusal, normalising slippery subjectivity, Islamic anti-patriarchal liberation psychology, and decolonisation of the hijab. In this editorial we outline the papers’ contributions to discussions on understanding decolonisation, how feminisms and decolonisation speak to each other, and the implications of the papers for feminist decolonising psychology. Together the papers highlight the importance of undermining the gendered coloniality of power, knowledge and being. The interweaving of feminisms and decolonising efforts can be achieved through: each mutually informing and shaping the other, conducting intersectional analyses, and drawing on transnational feminisms. Guiding principles for feminist decolonising psychology inc...
The barriers to education associated with menstruation vary from country to country and within co... more The barriers to education associated with menstruation vary from country to country and within countries. We report on a cross-sectional survey conducted in diverse schools in 2 districts of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Using multi-stage sampling (stratified random sampling of schools, and purposive sampling of Grade 11 female-identifiedii learners), we accessed 1,035 respondents with an average age of 17.2 years. Respondents completed a questionnaire developed from previous questionnaires and our readings of the literature. We report here on results pertaining to the social and structural barriers related to menstruation. Just over one fifth of young womeniii across the whole sample reported missing an average of 1.8 days of school per menstrual cycle, while a significant minority reported restrictions related to sporting and classroom activities. Results show, contrary to expectations, that young women attending under-resourced schools report missing fewer days than young women...
Abstract Boulind and Edwards (2008) present a case study of Grace, a women suffering, in their wo... more Abstract Boulind and Edwards (2008) present a case study of Grace, a women suffering, in their words, from post-abortion syndrome (PAS). In this commentary I argue that while Boulind and Edwards'(2008) report is useful in terms of documenting the therapeutic ...
Introduction: Research on school-based sexuality education in South Africa, taught within Life Or... more Introduction: Research on school-based sexuality education in South Africa, taught within Life Orientation (LO), has mainly focused on learners' responses, how teachers approach the subject, and the curriculum content. Critiques have included heteronormative biases, an emphasis on danger, disease and damage, a reinforcement of gendered binaries, and the lack of pleasure or well-being discourses. In contrast, our research focused on the unexpected moments teachers experience, i.e., the ethical, emotional or psychological challenges they encounter in their interactions with learners. Methods: We interviewed 49 teachers across a range of schools in three provinces. Data were analyzed using narrative thematic analysis. Results: Teachers' narratives referred to an alarming array of traumas and psychosocial problems experienced by learners, including sexual abuse, substance abuse, neglect, HIV diagnosis, unsafe abortion, witnessing murders, and attempted suicide. Teaching particular topics, they indicated, triggered learner distress, although, sometimes, distress was triggered by innocuous topics. Teachers felt insufficiently skilled to teach certain topics sensitively to promote the well-being of learners who experienced current or past trauma. They also felt ill-equipped to deal with learners reporting trauma or psychosocial problems to them. Strategies narrated included allowing learners to skip relevant classes, building trust, understanding learners' needs, being a learner's advocate, and drawing on learners' grounded expertise. Teachers spoke of experiencing burnout and secondary trauma themselves. Discussion: We argue that LO teachers are, in effect, sexual, reproductive and mental health frontline workers. They need in-depth training in learner-centered and dialogical approaches to build trust within the classroom sensitively and in basic screening, containment, referral and lay counselling skills to assist distressed learners outside the class. A wellbeing approach to sexuality education requires providing LO teachers with ongoing support and consultation with peers and mental health professionals to avoid burnout and promote well-being.
Introduction Policy decisions about young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRH... more Introduction Policy decisions about young people's sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) have far-reaching implications for their well-being. Few SRHR policies, however, focus specifically on youth. Rather, youth SRHR tends to be subsumed within national policies of Health, Youth, Education and Development Ministries, particularly in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, complicating an assessment of the overall state of youth SRHR policies. Given the fact that youth SRHR policies focus on a particular segment of the population-youth, teenagers or adolescents-how policies depict these subjects has implications for how policy objectives, programmes and interventions are conceptualised and the kind of sexual and reproductive health concerns that are prioritised. Methods Using a subject positioning lens, our critical review of youth SRHR policy in force between 2010 and 2020 spans policy domains to examine depictions of young people across 88 ESA policy documents. Our analysis aimed to identify the qualities and responsibilities associated with different youth subject positions and the broader implications thereof for young people's SRHR. Results We identify two dominant youth subject positions-risky youth and youth-at-risk-both of which construct risk as inherent to young people, overwhelmingly emphasise negative repercussions of youth sexual practices, foreground individualised interventions and hold young people responsible for preventing negative sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes in the absence of policy objectives that meaningfully address structural constraints on their agency. Conclusions Considering the dominance of public health research underpinning youth SRHR, our findings contribute a much-needed critical social theory complement that supports holistic, justice-oriented and contextually embedded policy responses to young people's SRHR. Policy Implications Based on our findings, we provide policy recommendations that support a conceptual shift away from vulnerable youth to vulnerabilising contexts, such that young people's vulnerability to adverse SRH outcomes is situated in the enabling and constraining conditions in which they live their lives.
Out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programmes are viewed by UNFPA as important... more Out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programmes are viewed by UNFPA as important in empowering youth. These programmes may, however, be critiqued for, firstly, inadvertently equating empowerment with individual agency to the exclusion of social justice; and, secondly, using the word empowerment as a self-evident signifier. We propose that empowerment be conceptualised within a critical sexual and reproductive citizenship (CSRC) framework that draws on feminist and queer re-workings of the principles of citizenship. To operationalise this conceptualisation, we developed the Masizixhobise toolkit from the five key issues outlined in the CSRC framework. The aim of the toolkit is to aid in the design and refinement of theoretically embedded empowerment CSE programmes. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of the toolkit. To do so, we analyse the Partners in Sexual Health’s (PSH) Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights facilitator’s manual. A template analysis was conducted on this manual using a priori of themes from the toolkit. We sift through the PSH manual’s alignments or misalignments with the CSRC framework and make recommendations for enhancing the empowerment components of the manual. This example may assist others in designing and refining theoretically embedded and socially just youth empowerment CSE programmes.
Out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) pro-grammes are viewed by UNFPA as importan... more Out-of-school comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) pro-grammes are viewed by UNFPA as important in empowering youth. These programmes may, however, be critiqued for, firstly, inadvertently equating empowerment with individual agency to the exclusion of social justice; and, secondly, using the word empowerment as a self-evident signifier. We propose that empowerment be conceptualised within a critical sexual and reproductive citizenship (CSRC) framework that draws on feminist and queer reworkings of the principles of citizenship. To operationalise this conceptualisation, we developed the Masizixhobise toolkit from the five key issues outlined in the CSRC framework. The aim of the toolkit is to aid in the design and refinement of theoretically embedded empowerment CSE programmes. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of the toolkit. To do so, we analyse the Partners in Sexual Health’s (PSH) Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights facilitator’s manual. A template analysis was conducted on this manual using a priori of themes from the toolkit. We sift through the PSH manual’s alignments or misalignments with the CSRC framework and make recommendations for enhancing the empowerment components of the manual. This example may assist others in designing and refining theoretically embedded and socially just youth empowerment CSE programmes.
Background: Research on abortion counselling generally uses retrospective interviewing regarding ... more Background: Research on abortion counselling generally uses retrospective interviewing regarding providers' and users' experiences. In this paper we explore how requests for abortion are made and received in real time in (officially non-mandatory) pre-abortion counselling conducted by nurses and counsellors in South African public abortion clinics. Methods: To capture turn-by-turn interactions, we recorded, using consecutive sampling, 28 sessions at three abortion clinics in 2017/2018. No researcher was present. Conversation analysis, based on an ethnomethodological paradigm, was used to understand the conversational projects of the sessions and to outline how the provider and user oriented to the request for an abortion as a conversational task. Results: Establishing reasons for the abortion featured in most individual counselling sessions. Through posing directive questions, providers required users to justify their request to access abortion. Users complied by providing multiple reasons. These reasons were often followed by a provider question demanding accountability in relation to contraceptive (non)use, thus establishing poor usage as the real reason. Conclusion: As abortion is legal on request in the first trimester in South Africa, no reason for presenting for an abortion is needed. The demand for users to perform "doctorability"-i.e., to present their situation as worthy of a health professional's (in this case abortion provider's) timeserved as a precursor to discipline the abortion seeker for assumed poor contraceptive usage. Providers should be trained in user-centred care that supports pregnant people's autonomy in accessing legally induced abortion. A limitation of this study is its restriction to three abortion clinics in one region of South Africa.
On the occasion of 30 years of South African democracy, we reflect on the current state of Psycho... more On the occasion of 30 years of South African democracy, we reflect on the current state of Psychology research in South Africa. We conducted a situational analysis of all papers appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword 'South Africa' over the last 5 years and compared the results with a previous review that used the same methodology. Findings show an increase in papers using 'hard' science approaches and a decrease in systems-oriented theories. Assessment remains a major topic. While COVID-19 and climate change featured, there remains a lack of or low focus on several key psycho-social issues experienced by South Africans. People living in poorer provinces and young and older people are under-represented in knowledge production. Collaborations or comparisons with other African or South American countries have decreased. Positively, production is being spearheaded by South African scholars or people affiliated with South African institutions. Using a decolonising lens that foregrounds epistemic justice, we conclude that substantial work remains to be done for knowledge production in South African Psychology to fulfil the decolonising imperative of distributive epistemic justice.
The notion of 'sexual justice' has gained traction in academic and policy arenas in recent years.... more The notion of 'sexual justice' has gained traction in academic and policy arenas in recent years. This paper presents a scoping literature review of the regimes of truth, following Foucault, of 'sexual justice' appearing in the scientific literature from 2012 to 2022. Thirty-eight papers were coded using (1) content analysis of the studies' central problematics, the programmes referred to, and institutional location(s); and (2) thematic analysis of how the notion was deployed. Central problematics centred on (1) critiques of, or alternatives to, dominant approaches to sexual and reproductive health; and (2) highlighting injustices. As such, 'sexual justice' is fighting for legitimacy in the truth stakes. There is a distinct paucity of papers tackling the translation of 'sexual justice' into practice. South Africa dominates as the site in which papers on 'sexual justice' have been produced, but there is a lack of South-South collaboration. Two themes were apparent around which conceptions of sexual justice cohere. Firstly, sexual justice is seen as a vital, yet politically ambivalent goal, with neoliberal co-optation of progressive rights agendas being warned against. Secondly, sexual justice is viewed as a means, in which sexual justice is described as having potential to repair established frameworks' shortcomings and oppressive legacies.
Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a... more Discursive constructions of abortion are embedded in the social and gendered power relations of a particular socio-historical space. As part of research on public discourses concerning abortion in South Africa where there has been a radical liberalisation of abortion legislation, we collected data from male group discussions about a vignette concerning abortion, and newspaper articles written by men about abortion. Our analysis revealed how discourses of equality, support and rights may be used by men to subtly undermine women's reproductive right to ‘choose’ an abortion. Within an Equal Partnership discourse, abortion, paired with the assumption of foetal personhood, was equated with violating an equal heterosexual partnership and a man's patriarchal duty to protect a child. A New Man discourse, which positions men as supportive of women, was paired with the assumption of men as rational and women as irrational in decision-making, to allow for the possibility of men dissuading women from terminating a pregnancy. A Rights discourse was invoked to suggest that abortion violates men's paternal rights.
International Journal of Critical Psychology, 2002
In this paper we argue that globalisation imposes on ‘developing’ countries more than an economic... more In this paper we argue that globalisation imposes on ‘developing’ countries more than an economic order; they find themselves with the moral imperative to align themselves with the West against its Others, increasingly portrayed as Islamic fundamentalists. The 11 September terror attacks in the United States of America have pushed this process to a new level, with the attacks represented as no less than a barbaric attack on ‘civilisation’. Through an analysis of a newspaper article reporting on the disciplining of a Muslim woman in for wearing an Osama Bin Laden t-shirt to work in South Africa, we indicate how this moral representation of the 11 September events and the Islamic Other have unique local effects. In South Africa it creates yet more possibilities for racialising practices to continue without being framed in explicitly racial terms. We further reflect on the implications of these events, and the complex interplay of the global and the local they demonstrate, for critical psychology in South Africa.
Research on sexual practices among young South Africans has proliferated in light of the national... more Research on sexual practices among young South Africans has proliferated in light of the national imperatives to challenge the spread of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and unwanted early pregnancies. It has been widely acknowledged that, in order to respond to these social problems, we need to understand the enmeshment of gender, class, age and other forms of social inequality, and how these are played out in 'normal' heterosexual relationships.
This paper compares two forms of sexual socialisation to which learners are exposed: the sexualit... more This paper compares two forms of sexual socialisation to which learners are exposed: the sexuality education components of the Life Orientation (LO) manuals and the lyrical content and videos of popular songs. We performed a textual analysis of the sexual subject positions made available in, first, the LO manuals used in Grade 10 classes and, second, the two songs voted most popular by the Grade 10 learners of two diverse schools in the Eastern Cape. Of interest in this paper is whether and how these two forms of sexual socialisation - one representing state-sanctioned sexual socialisation and the other learners' chosen cultural expression that represents informal sexual socialisation - dovetail or diverge. Against a backdrop of heterosexuality and an assumption of the 'adolescent-in-transition' discourse, the main sexual subject positions featured in the LO manuals are the responsible sexual subject and the sexual victim. A number of sexualised subject positions are por...
Objectives: There is a need to hone reproductive health (RH) services for women who sell sex (WSS... more Objectives: There is a need to hone reproductive health (RH) services for women who sell sex (WSS). The aim of this review was to collate findings on non-barrier contraception, pregnancies, and abortion amongst WSS in Eastern and Southern African (ESA).Methods: A scoping review methodology was employed. Inclusion criteria were: 1) empirical papers from 2) ESA, 3) published since 2010, and 4) addressing WSS in relation to 5) the identified RH issues.Results: Reports of rates of non-barrier contraceptive usage varied from 15% to 76%, of unintended pregnancy from 24% to 91%, and of abortion from 11% to 48%. Cross-cutting factors were alcohol use, violence, health systems problems, and socio-economic issues. Pregnancy desire was associated with having a non-paying partner. Barriers to accessing, and delaying, antenatal care were reported as common. Targeted programmes were reported as promoting RH amongst WSS.Conclusion: Programmes should be contextually relevant, based on local pattern...
The lack of feedback of research results to research participants, or the lack of reflection on t... more The lack of feedback of research results to research participants, or the lack of reflection on the feedback process where it does occur, is problematic. Some fundamental issues appear to inform the feedback process, these being the approach adopted by the researchers to research and the uses envisaged for the research and feedback. In this paper, we reflect on feedback sessions conducted with research participants and local community in a community-based mental health programme in a rural area of South Africa. The results of a comprehensive needs assessment were discussed in four different meetings. This paper reflects upon, amongst others, practical/logistical issues, attendance and non-attendance, the issue of language, group dynamics, challenges from participants, and social and cultural constructions of knowledge. It is concluded that when feedback of research results is seen as part of an on-going process of programme development and engagement with various stakeholders, it is...
The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research, 2018
Ethics committees standardly require that the researchers address questions concerning anonymity ... more Ethics committees standardly require that the researchers address questions concerning anonymity and confidentiality. The conventional practice is to ensure that participants’ names and identifying details are expunged from public records of the research and that high levels of confidentiality of data are maintained in the research process. In this introduction, we outline how authors of chapters in this section ask questions concerning these imperatives, including circumstances where participants actively want their identity revealed and their voice heard or when anonymising might not be possible or may further disadvantage marginalised populations. We explore the argument made by authors that the automatic anonymising of data and the imposition of confidentiality can constrain ethical conduct.
Objectives: There is a need to hone reproductive health (RH) services for women who sell sex (WSS... more Objectives: There is a need to hone reproductive health (RH) services for women who sell sex (WSS). The aim of this review was to collate findings on non-barrier contraception, pregnancies, and abortion amongst WSS in Eastern and Southern African (ESA). Methods: A scoping review methodology was employed. Inclusion criteria were: 1) empirical papers from 2) ESA, 3) published since 2010, and 4) addressing WSS in relation to 5) the identified RH issues. Results: Reports of rates of non-barrier contraceptive usage varied from 15% to 76%, of unintended pregnancy from 24% to 91%, and of abortion from 11% to 48%. Cross-cutting factors were alcohol use, violence, health systems problems, and socioeconomic issues. Pregnancy desire was associated with having a non-paying partner. Barriers to accessing, and delaying, antenatal care were reported as common. Targeted programmes were reported as promoting RH amongst WSS. Conclusion: Programmes should be contextually relevant, based on local patterns, individual, interpersonal and systemic barriers. Targeted approaches should be implemented in conjunction with improvement of public health services. Linked HIV and RH services, and community empowerment approaches are recommended.
In this special issue, we bring together papers that speak to feminisms in relation to decolonisa... more In this special issue, we bring together papers that speak to feminisms in relation to decolonisation in the discipline of psychology. The six articles and two book reviews address a range of issues: race, citizenship, emancipatory politics, practising decolonial refusal, normalising slippery subjectivity, Islamic anti-patriarchal liberation psychology, and decolonisation of the hijab. In this editorial we outline the papers’ contributions to discussions on understanding decolonisation, how feminisms and decolonisation speak to each other, and the implications of the papers for feminist decolonising psychology. Together the papers highlight the importance of undermining the gendered coloniality of power, knowledge and being. The interweaving of feminisms and decolonising efforts can be achieved through: each mutually informing and shaping the other, conducting intersectional analyses, and drawing on transnational feminisms. Guiding principles for feminist decolonising psychology inc...
The barriers to education associated with menstruation vary from country to country and within co... more The barriers to education associated with menstruation vary from country to country and within countries. We report on a cross-sectional survey conducted in diverse schools in 2 districts of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Using multi-stage sampling (stratified random sampling of schools, and purposive sampling of Grade 11 female-identifiedii learners), we accessed 1,035 respondents with an average age of 17.2 years. Respondents completed a questionnaire developed from previous questionnaires and our readings of the literature. We report here on results pertaining to the social and structural barriers related to menstruation. Just over one fifth of young womeniii across the whole sample reported missing an average of 1.8 days of school per menstrual cycle, while a significant minority reported restrictions related to sporting and classroom activities. Results show, contrary to expectations, that young women attending under-resourced schools report missing fewer days than young women...
Abstract Boulind and Edwards (2008) present a case study of Grace, a women suffering, in their wo... more Abstract Boulind and Edwards (2008) present a case study of Grace, a women suffering, in their words, from post-abortion syndrome (PAS). In this commentary I argue that while Boulind and Edwards'(2008) report is useful in terms of documenting the therapeutic ...
Adolescent sexual and reproductive health is a field beset with a number of controversies, rangin... more Adolescent sexual and reproductive health is a field beset with a number of controversies, ranging from whether and to what kind of sexuality education young people should be exposed to whether teenagers should be able to decide on abortion without parental consent. It is within these controversies as well as local social dynamics that public sexual and reproductive health interventions aimed at adolescents take place. I start this chapter with an outline of the major global public health approach to adolescent sexual and reproductive health: the health and human rights framework. I then briefly overview some of the key issues concerning sexuality education, contraception, pregnancy, abortion, HIV, and lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) issues amongst adolescents, concentrating on questions surrounding taken-for-granted assumptions and health injustices. With this as a backdrop, I argue for a sexual and reproductive justice approach that draws from transnational feminism. Such an approach would focus on health injustices, analyze gendered power relations that cohere around sexuality and reproduction amongst adolescents, highlight the intersectionality of race, class, location, religion, ability and sexual orientation in health outcomes, and deconstruct normative frameworks and taken-for-granted assumptions.
Early research on teenage pregnancy sought to highlight the negative consequences of early reprod... more Early research on teenage pregnancy sought to highlight the negative consequences of early reproduction, both for the infant and for the mother, and, as a result, to tease out the causes of, or factors leading to, such pregnancies. Research on interventions that reduce the rates of teenage pregnancy, and that improve the health, education, and social functioning of those teenagers who do become pregnant followed. Revisionist authors started to express concern, however, about the straightforward association of early reproduction with negative outcomes. They argued that the research showing such negative outcomes was methodologically flawed. Still later, authors taking a constructionist approach began to unravel the gender, race, class, and colonialist underpinnings of the standard approach to teenage pregnancy, and to highlight the power relations interwoven in public responses to, and interventions with, young pregnant women.
Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, New York: Springer
In a book on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes in developing countries, t... more In a book on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes in developing countries, the World Health Organisation (2011) declares that ‘adolescent pregnancy’ contributes to maternal, perinatal and infant mortality, and to a vicious cycle of poverty and ill-health. This statement reflects the common public assumption that ‘teenage pregnancy’ represents an individual, social, health, educational and financial risk that requires remediation. This kind of public perception is spurred by media coverage in which young girls with large protruding stomachs are etched in profile and stories of calamity are told (e.g. Time (21 June 2005) magazine).
And yet the very notion of 'teenage pregnancy' is a relatively recent one. Depending on the country one talks about, it has been around since between the1960s and 1980s. In the United States, for example, the rise of ‘teenage pregnancy’ as a social problem was associated with a shift in gendered power relations. Prior to the late 1960s the morally loaded concepts of 'unwed mother' and 'illegitimate child' were used to describe young women who conceived. For the most part, young pregnant women were excluded from society, with the accompanying shame around the lack of proper conjugal arrangements. The use of the term 'teenage pregnancy' removed the implied moral judgement and replaced it with seeming scientific neutrality. Young pregnant women now became publicly visible and thus the object of scientific scrutiny (Arney & Bergen, 1984).
Over the last several decades, the ‘coming out’ story has become entrenched as the central narrat... more Over the last several decades, the ‘coming out’ story has become entrenched as the central narrative with which lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people can narrate their experiences of claiming a sexual identity and storying their lives in general (Bacon, 1998; Blackburn, 2009). It has developed into a “canonical narrative” (Bruner, 1987, p. 15), or a culturally recognisable story for LGB people, in that it involves the recounting of a series of familiar events in moving from a place of shame to one of self-acceptance about one’s sexual identity (Cohler & Hammack, 2007; Plummer, 1995). The ‘coming out’ canonical narrative additionally operates as a counter-narrative, which has enabled LGB people to voice their sexuality within heterosexist and heteronormative confines (Blackburn, 2009). Nevertheless, there are limitations (and limiting effects) to this narrative, and further refinement of how we understand sexual identity narratives is required. To illustrate this argument, we draw on a narrative-discursive study of eight lesbians’ stories of sexual identity in post-apartheid South Africa.
In 1992 Speckhard and Rue argued in the Journal of Social Issues for the recognition of a diagnos... more In 1992 Speckhard and Rue argued in the Journal of Social Issues for the recognition of a diagnostic category, post-abortion syndrome (PAS). This term was first used in 1981 by Vincent Rue in testimony to the American Congress, but was only formalised in a published paper a decade later. Speckhard and Rue (1992) posit that abortion is a psychosocial stressor that may cause mild distress through to severe trauma, creating the need for a continuum of categories, these being post-abortion distress, post-abortion syndrome and post-abortion psychosis. PAS, which is the main focus of their paper, and which has taken root in some professional language as well as lay anti-abortion discourse, is described as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Book Chapter in Developmental Psychology 2nd ed, 2009
In this chapter we shall examine the theoretical assumptions that drive developmental psychology ... more In this chapter we shall examine the theoretical assumptions that drive developmental psychology research and literature in South Africa.
The basic underlying models utilised in developmental research may be described as (a) mechanistic; (b) organismic; (c) contextual and (d) social constructionist. A description of the fundamental premises of each of these will be followed by examples of research that utilise the particular approach. In the discussion, some of the controversies that plague developmental psychology research will be highlighted.
The continued dominance of the individual/society and private/public dualisms in psychological th... more The continued dominance of the individual/society and private/public dualisms in psychological theory and practice has been bemoaned by critical psychologists. What we need to understand, however, is that these dualisms are essential to maintaining psycho-medical expertise in its present position of authority in the power/knowledge nexus of the human condition. Drawing on Derridean and Foucauldian theory, this chapter explicates how psychomedical expertise re-produces these dualisms while at the same time providing the interstice between the individual and the social, the private and the public required for governmental concerns to be installed in the everyday lives of people. The argument is illustrated by examples of expertise surrounding teenage pregnancy. Issues of governmental security translate into the incentive to manage risk at the individual level. For this to occur the individual needs to be rendered as an object of government. Psycho-medical experts achieve this by providing the language needed to describe her/him (in intricate detail), the grids of visibility to bring him/her into the plane of sight, and calibrations of normalisation. This object, finally, is converted into a subject of self-government who monitors and regulates him/herself and renders him/herself true to him/herself in confession to the expert. Psychomedical expertise is as much part of political power as are the formal bureaucratic instruments of government. However, this power is simultaneously masked and made possible by the individual/society and private/public divides.
The Cambridge Handbook of the International Psychology of Women, 2020
Major historical shifts in the field of fertility, childbirth and parenting have implications for... more Major historical shifts in the field of fertility, childbirth and parenting have implications for feminist psychologists working on these topics. These shifts include approaches to sexuality and reproduction: a population control emphasis in the late 1940s, a reproductive rights paradigm in the 1990s, and progression from reproductive rights to reproductive justice. Feminist psychologists must traverse the political landscape created by these broad approaches. In this chapter, we suggest ways in which such engagement may be facilitated through examination of mainstream assumptions and outcomes and the use of nuanced feminist research. Drawing from transnational feminisms, the principles of reproductive justice, and examples of research and interventions in reproductive decision-making, abortion, obstetric violence, 'deviant' (m)others, early reproduction and contraception, we argue that feminist psychology should attend to both global and cross-cutting power relations concerning fertility and reproduction, as well as localised dynamics.
In this chapter, we show how the boundaries of acceptable mothering are demarcated and regulated ... more In this chapter, we show how the boundaries of acceptable mothering are demarcated and regulated through reference to the ‘Other’ (Woollett & Phoenix, 1997). Using examples of ‘womxn’ who refuse motherhood, terminate pregnancies and reproduce when considered to be too young, we outline how womxn who ‘fail’ at normative mothering or who deviate from expected reproductive decisions form the pathologised presence that pre-defines the absent trace of normative mothering and the successful accomplishment of womxnhood (Macleod, 2001). We use the term ‘womxn’ and ‘womxnhood’ to disrupt normative assumptions about gender and sex, here taken to be socially constructed, which write gender and sex onto individuals. In this chapter, the term ‘womxn’ denotes and recognises womxn-identifying persons with the biological capacity to become pregnant, including intersex and transgender individuals. We also use this term to foreground the experiences of womxn of colour, womxn from/living in the global South, trans, queer and intersex womxn, as well as all womxn-identifying persons who have been excluded from dominant constructions of ‘womanhood’ and feminist praxis on the subject (Ashlee, Zamora & Karikari, 2017; Merbruja, 2015).
Researchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal... more Researchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal silences or such things as laughter. We consider the analysis of veiled silences where participants speak, but their speaking serves as ‘noise’ that ‘veils’, or masks, their inability or unwillingness to talk about a (potentially sensitive) topic. Extending Lisa Mazzei’s ‘problematic of silence’ by using our performativity-performance analytical method, we propose the purposeful use of ‘unusual conversational moves’, the deployment of researcher reflexivity, and the analysis of trouble and repair as methods to expose taken-for-granted normative frameworks in veiled silences. We illustrate the potential of these research practices through reference to our study on men’s involvement in reproductive decision-making, in which participants demonstrated an inability to engage with the topic. The veiled silence that this produced, together with what was said, pointed to the operation of procreative heteronormativity.
Judith Butler’s theory of performativity provides gender theorists with a rich theoretical langua... more Judith Butler’s theory of performativity provides gender theorists with a rich theoretical language for thinking about gender. Despite this, Butlerian theory is difficult to apply, as Butler does not provide guidance on actual analysis of language use in context. In order to address this limitation, we suggest carefully supplementing performativity with the notion of performance in a manner that allows for the inclusion of relational specificities and the mechanisms through which gender, and gender trouble, occur. To do this, we turn to current developments within discursive psychology and narrative theory. We extend the narrative-discursive method proposed by Taylor and colleagues, infusing it with Butlerian theory in order to fashion a dual analytical lens, which we call the performativity-performance approach. We provide a brief example of how the proposed analytical process may be implemented.
Over the last several decades, the ‘coming out story’ has become entrenched as the canonical narr... more Over the last several decades, the ‘coming out story’ has become entrenched as the canonical narrative with which lesbians can narrate their experiences of claiming a sexual identity and their lives in general. This narrative is culturally recognisable, involving the speaker recounting a series of familiar events in moving from a place of shame to one of self-acceptance about one’s sexual identity. A central metaphor is that of ‘coming out’ of the closet through self-disclosure. Although the coming out story has enabled lesbians to voice their sexuality within heterosexist confines, there are limiting effects to this narrative, which should be examined. This is evidenced in a narrative-discursive study of eight lesbians’ stories of sexual identity in post-apartheid South Africa. Given the heterosexist and patriarchal relations of power which still circulate in South Africa, this country provides a pertinent space for exploring how lesbians resist this canonical narrative. These women are seen not to simply draw on the coming out story; instead, they actively challenge it at times, and draw on various interpretative repertoires to construct an alternative narrative of ‘normalisation’. Using this narrative, they are able to negotiate their sexual identities within different contexts of their lives and challenge the imperative of self-disclosure. The coming out canonical narrative cannot capture this on-going process of identity construction and should not, therefore, be unquestioningly applied to explain lesbians’ sexual identities and the spaces which they occupy.
How does the decision to become a parent unfold for heterosexual men? Is becoming a father a 'dec... more How does the decision to become a parent unfold for heterosexual men? Is becoming a father a 'decision' at all or a series of events? These questions are the starting point for this critical book, in which the authors unravel the social and interpersonal processes – shaped by deeply entrenched socio-cultural norms – that come to bear on parenthood decision-making in the South African context. Drawing on the narratives of white, Afrikaans women and men, Men's Pathways to Parenthood uses an innovative discursive method to illuminate the roles masculinity, whiteness, class, and heteronormativity play in these accounts. Men's Pathways to Parenthood addresses an under-researched topic in gender studies – namely, men and reproductive decision-making – and will be an important resource for scholars in gender studies, sexualities, and reproductive health, as well as those interested in innovative approaches to discursive research.
Uploads
Papers by Catriona Macleod
And yet the very notion of 'teenage pregnancy' is a relatively recent one. Depending on the country one talks about, it has been around since between the1960s and 1980s. In the United States, for example, the rise of ‘teenage pregnancy’ as a social problem was associated with a shift in gendered power relations. Prior to the late 1960s the morally loaded concepts of 'unwed mother' and 'illegitimate child' were used to describe young women who conceived. For the most part, young pregnant women were excluded from society, with the accompanying shame around the lack of proper conjugal arrangements. The use of the term 'teenage pregnancy' removed the implied moral judgement and replaced it with seeming scientific neutrality. Young pregnant women now became publicly visible and thus the object of scientific scrutiny (Arney & Bergen, 1984).
The basic underlying models utilised in developmental research may be described as (a) mechanistic; (b) organismic; (c) contextual and (d) social constructionist. A description of the fundamental premises of each of these will be followed by examples of research that utilise the particular approach. In the discussion, some of the controversies that plague developmental psychology research will be highlighted.