Jacqui Akhurst
Biographic Data
| ID | 4150159 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jacqui Akhurst |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jacqui |
| FAMILY NAME | Akhurst |
| SIGNATURE | AKHURST J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rhodes University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1566-9092 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Building partnerships for community-based service-learning in poverty-stricken and systemically disadvantaged communities
Post-apartheid resource constraints in South Africa demand responses beyond individually focused psychology. People’s health and well-being are impacted by contextual challenges such as: family dislocation and disruption, widespread unemployment and poverty, and the high incidence of violence and crime (given the violent past of the apartheid state). Increased access to psychological assistance may offer support and promote mental health. Recentl…
Hope
In this end note we will revisit the primacy of the ecological crisis as a lens through which to view changing social structures, alliances and possibilities for change. We will then go on to consider ways in which critical community psychological thought and praxis can work with others to recognise the realities of people’s lives and engender hope for the future. We recognise the playfulness of the end note. Here we utilise it as a commentary on…
Okokuqala ngokuya ndandiqala kwakungekho easy”: Feeling empowered to take collective action through community engagement
Community engagement (CE) at Rhodes University (RU) and community psychology draw on similar principles: using an asset‐based community development approach; recognising and drawing on the skills, capabilities, and knowledge of all parties, which they contribute to a partnership. Working from a strategic model of engagement, mutuality is foreground in all CE activities, where both student volunteers and community partners jointly benefit from the…
Quantifying the psychosocial outcomes of outdoor adventure education for adolescent learners in a South African setting
This aim of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on the psychosocial outcomes of outdoor adventure education. In doing so, it explores the relationship between Journey, a school-based programme and life effectiveness skills, emotional literacy, and resilience for adolescents in a South African setting. Employing a pre–post quasi-experimental design, a purposive convenience sample of 144 Grade 10 learners was recruited for this s…
A South African exploration into outdoor adventure education and adolescent psychosocial development
This study explored the psychosocial outcomes of an outdoor adventure program for adolescents. A purposive sample of 144 Grade 10 learners participated in the Journey outdoor adventure education (OAE) programme (female = 48.6%, black = 27.5%; mean age =16.5 years; SD = 3.45 years). Applying a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design, the adolescents completed self-report measures (including the Life Effectiveness Questionnaire, Emotional Lite…
Do state governments have the right to kill civilians to defeat international terrorism? Views from US, Israel and South Africa
Purpose This study aim to examine the themes of moral disengagement (MD) and engagement in reasoning regarding a putative governmental right to kill innocent civilians when fighting terrorism. Design/methodology/approach In total, 147 participants from Israel, 101 from the USA and 80 from South Africa provided quantitative rating scale responses and qualitative explanations about such a putative right. Qualitative responses were coded for presenc…
Community Psychology in higher education in Europe: Results of a survey and discussion of the basic competency approach
This report from the Standing Committee on Community Psychology of the European Federation of Psychological Association provides an overview of higher education in Community Psychology (CP) in 14 European countries. Our findings show that 10 countries have some kind of CP teaching in their educational system. Twenty European universities offer a CP‐oriented Master degree, two universities at the Bachelor level and 16 universities also have CP‐ori…
A South African perspective on community psychology practice competencies
The appropriateness of the paradigm underlying competency frameworks and their specific application in the list of definitions developed by a Task Group of Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) for US community psychologists need further consideration. This paper considers the technicist and behavioural roots of some of these concepts, illustrating tensions when applying them to community psychology. It then proposes a competency persp…
Perceived benefits of nature-based experiences as mediators of connectedness with nature: The case of Mystic Mountain
Perceived nature disconnection lies at the heart of the world’s socio-ecological crisis. Finding ways to reconnect with nature is fundamental towards reducing the adverse psychological–social–ecological consequences of this disconnection. Understanding the psychological and social benefits of nature-based experiences is important towards actualising reconnection. This article discusses such benefits for child and adult participants from the Easte…
Young people’s investments in sexual relationships: A different prioritization of self in the negotiation of safe sex practices in South Africa
In the South African context of high HIV prevalence, sexual relationships are entwined with risk. This qualitative study in a rural context examined how young people negotiate sexual practices and engage with this risk. Data was gathered from men and women (aged 15 to 33) in eight focus groups and 11 individual interviews. Abdication of self-care and deprioritization of self in the negotiation of safe sexual practices are reformulated into an und…
A narrative analysis of four UK community project founders: A generativity perspective
As part of the UK government’s ‘Big Society’ agenda, increasing policy drivers have encouraged partnerships between commissioners, service providers and local-level organisations and charities to organise and deliver educational, practical, and emotional support to vulnerable people within communities. Community-based projects require leadership to initiate and enhance service provision, hence the need to explore the experiences of founders of ex…
Benefits of walking and solo experiences in UK wild places
This paper examines human-nature interaction and how therapeutic this relationship is by investigating the efficacy of structured outdoor experience. Two walking and solo experience (WSEs) explored university students' (aged 20-43 years) perceptions of walking through and being with nature. The first was a 5-day journey (n = 4; 3 females and 1 male) and the second (n = 5; 3 females and 2 males) took place over two weekends, with a 2-week interval…
Community‐Based Learning and Critical Community Psychology Practice: Conducive and Corrosive Aspects
Community‐based learning (CBL) has been more recently introduced into some psychology programmes in the UK than in the USA, where it has existed for a number of decades in the form of ‘service learning’. CBL holds promise as a means of promoting and developing critical community psychology practice, but there are risks involved in its acritical adoption in the psychology curriculum. If associated power dynamics are not considered, CBL has the cap…
Embedding community-based service learning into psychology degrees at UKZN, South Africa
From 1999 to 2002, the centrally funded Community-Higher Education Service Partnership (CHESP) aimed to drive community engagement in several South African universities. It intended to develop socially accountable models of meaningful student engagement in communities. This led to community-based service learning (CBSL) being embedded into a number of psychology modules for over a decade (progressing from undergraduate to postgraduate levels of s…
Engaging moral agency for human rights: Outlooks from the Global South
Locked into the System? Critical Community Psychology Approaches to Personal Debt in the Context of Crises of Capital Accumulation
The considerable and sustained boom in personal debt recently has in many countries around the world led to experiences of over‐indebtedness that are associated with very considerable distress and suffering. This article explores critical perspectives that situate personal debt, material deprivation and suffering, and specific ways of knowing and acting, within the context of recent political and economic practices. There is a need to focus on po…
Community psychology and qualitative methods: Opportunities for building a sound research base
Polish Young Peoples' Narratives: Impacts of Living and Studying in the UK
Migration plays an important role in shaping contemporary society in the European Union (EU), with constituent countries being affected differently. As a result of the most recent expansion of the EU in 2004, the United Kingdom (UK) has experienced an influx of economic migrants from former “Eastern Bloc” countries, including many young people from Poland. In this study, we explore the experiences of a group of nine young Polish adults living, st…
Exploring the Nexus between Wilderness and Therapeutic Experiences
This article was written in South Africa, where there are still tracts of wilderness in which people are able to spend a number of days away from the pressures of modern existence. The narrative draws from personal experiences in the wilderness, and explores aspects of the “call” of the wilderness for some, and links between wilderness experiences and effective psychotherapy. The cognitive freedom possible in the wilderness is contrasted with the…
Counseling Psychology in South Africa: Current Political and Professional Challenges and Future Promise
Counseling psychology in South Africa is undergoing significant changes, much like the country itself. The authors examine the state of counseling psychology in South Africa through discussion of both its racial history and present-day positions. The history of psychology cannot be devoid of its politicized past, and remnants of its history are found today, though much has changed. Current issues such as HIV/AIDS, educational legacies, and mistru…
Counseling Psychology in South Africa: Current Political and Professional Challenges and Future Promise
Counseling psychology in South Africa is undergoing significant changes, much like the country itself. The authors examine the state of counseling psychology in South Africa through discussion of both its racial history and present-day positions. The history of psychology cannot be devoid of its politicized past, and remnants of its history are found today, though much has changed. Current issues such as HIV/AIDS, educational legacies, and mistru…
Locked into the System? Critical Community Psychology Approaches to Personal Debt in the Context of Crises of Capital Accumulation
The considerable and sustained boom in personal debt recently has in many countries around the world led to experiences of over‐indebtedness that are associated with very considerable distress and suffering. This article explores critical perspectives that situate personal debt, material deprivation and suffering, and specific ways of knowing and acting, within the context of recent political and economic practices. There is a need to focus on po…
Embedding community-based service learning into psychology degrees at UKZN, South Africa
From 1999 to 2002, the centrally funded Community-Higher Education Service Partnership (CHESP) aimed to drive community engagement in several South African universities. It intended to develop socially accountable models of meaningful student engagement in communities. This led to community-based service learning (CBSL) being embedded into a number of psychology modules for over a decade (progressing from undergraduate to postgraduate levels of s…
Engaging moral agency for human rights: Outlooks from the Global South
Polish Young Peoples' Narratives: Impacts of Living and Studying in the UK
Migration plays an important role in shaping contemporary society in the European Union (EU), with constituent countries being affected differently. As a result of the most recent expansion of the EU in 2004, the United Kingdom (UK) has experienced an influx of economic migrants from former “Eastern Bloc” countries, including many young people from Poland. In this study, we explore the experiences of a group of nine young Polish adults living, st…
Counseling Psychology in South Africa: Current Political and Professional Challenges and Future Promise
Counseling psychology in South Africa is undergoing significant changes, much like the country itself. The authors examine the state of counseling psychology in South Africa through discussion of both its racial history and present-day positions. The history of psychology cannot be devoid of its politicized past, and remnants of its history are found today, though much has changed. Current issues such as HIV/AIDS, educational legacies, and mistru…
Exploring the Nexus between Wilderness and Therapeutic Experiences
This article was written in South Africa, where there are still tracts of wilderness in which people are able to spend a number of days away from the pressures of modern existence. The narrative draws from personal experiences in the wilderness, and explores aspects of the “call” of the wilderness for some, and links between wilderness experiences and effective psychotherapy. The cognitive freedom possible in the wilderness is contrasted with the…
Community psychology and qualitative methods: Opportunities for building a sound research base
Polish Young Peoples' Narratives: Impacts of Living and Studying in the UK
Migration plays an important role in shaping contemporary society in the European Union (EU), with constituent countries being affected differently. As a result of the most recent expansion of the EU in 2004, the United Kingdom (UK) has experienced an influx of economic migrants from former “Eastern Bloc” countries, including many young people from Poland. In this study, we explore the experiences of a group of nine young Polish adults living, st…
Locked into the System? Critical Community Psychology Approaches to Personal Debt in the Context of Crises of Capital Accumulation
The considerable and sustained boom in personal debt recently has in many countries around the world led to experiences of over‐indebtedness that are associated with very considerable distress and suffering. This article explores critical perspectives that situate personal debt, material deprivation and suffering, and specific ways of knowing and acting, within the context of recent political and economic practices. There is a need to focus on po…
Engaging moral agency for human rights: Outlooks from the Global South
Benefits of walking and solo experiences in UK wild places
This paper examines human-nature interaction and how therapeutic this relationship is by investigating the efficacy of structured outdoor experience. Two walking and solo experience (WSEs) explored university students' (aged 20-43 years) perceptions of walking through and being with nature. The first was a 5-day journey (n = 4; 3 females and 1 male) and the second (n = 5; 3 females and 2 males) took place over two weekends, with a 2-week interval…
Community‐Based Learning and Critical Community Psychology Practice: Conducive and Corrosive Aspects
Community‐based learning (CBL) has been more recently introduced into some psychology programmes in the UK than in the USA, where it has existed for a number of decades in the form of ‘service learning’. CBL holds promise as a means of promoting and developing critical community psychology practice, but there are risks involved in its acritical adoption in the psychology curriculum. If associated power dynamics are not considered, CBL has the cap…
Embedding community-based service learning into psychology degrees at UKZN, South Africa
From 1999 to 2002, the centrally funded Community-Higher Education Service Partnership (CHESP) aimed to drive community engagement in several South African universities. It intended to develop socially accountable models of meaningful student engagement in communities. This led to community-based service learning (CBSL) being embedded into a number of psychology modules for over a decade (progressing from undergraduate to postgraduate levels of s…
A narrative analysis of four UK community project founders: A generativity perspective
As part of the UK government’s ‘Big Society’ agenda, increasing policy drivers have encouraged partnerships between commissioners, service providers and local-level organisations and charities to organise and deliver educational, practical, and emotional support to vulnerable people within communities. Community-based projects require leadership to initiate and enhance service provision, hence the need to explore the experiences of founders of ex…
Young people’s investments in sexual relationships: A different prioritization of self in the negotiation of safe sex practices in South Africa
In the South African context of high HIV prevalence, sexual relationships are entwined with risk. This qualitative study in a rural context examined how young people negotiate sexual practices and engage with this risk. Data was gathered from men and women (aged 15 to 33) in eight focus groups and 11 individual interviews. Abdication of self-care and deprioritization of self in the negotiation of safe sexual practices are reformulated into an und…
A South African exploration into outdoor adventure education and adolescent psychosocial development
This study explored the psychosocial outcomes of an outdoor adventure program for adolescents. A purposive sample of 144 Grade 10 learners participated in the Journey outdoor adventure education (OAE) programme (female = 48.6%, black = 27.5%; mean age =16.5 years; SD = 3.45 years). Applying a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design, the adolescents completed self-report measures (including the Life Effectiveness Questionnaire, Emotional Lite…
Do state governments have the right to kill civilians to defeat international terrorism? Views from US, Israel and South Africa
Purpose This study aim to examine the themes of moral disengagement (MD) and engagement in reasoning regarding a putative governmental right to kill innocent civilians when fighting terrorism. Design/methodology/approach In total, 147 participants from Israel, 101 from the USA and 80 from South Africa provided quantitative rating scale responses and qualitative explanations about such a putative right. Qualitative responses were coded for presenc…
Community Psychology in higher education in Europe: Results of a survey and discussion of the basic competency approach
This report from the Standing Committee on Community Psychology of the European Federation of Psychological Association provides an overview of higher education in Community Psychology (CP) in 14 European countries. Our findings show that 10 countries have some kind of CP teaching in their educational system. Twenty European universities offer a CP‐oriented Master degree, two universities at the Bachelor level and 16 universities also have CP‐ori…
A South African perspective on community psychology practice competencies
The appropriateness of the paradigm underlying competency frameworks and their specific application in the list of definitions developed by a Task Group of Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) for US community psychologists need further consideration. This paper considers the technicist and behavioural roots of some of these concepts, illustrating tensions when applying them to community psychology. It then proposes a competency persp…
Perceived benefits of nature-based experiences as mediators of connectedness with nature: The case of Mystic Mountain
Perceived nature disconnection lies at the heart of the world’s socio-ecological crisis. Finding ways to reconnect with nature is fundamental towards reducing the adverse psychological–social–ecological consequences of this disconnection. Understanding the psychological and social benefits of nature-based experiences is important towards actualising reconnection. This article discusses such benefits for child and adult participants from the Easte…
Building partnerships for community-based service-learning in poverty-stricken and systemically disadvantaged communities
Post-apartheid resource constraints in South Africa demand responses beyond individually focused psychology. People’s health and well-being are impacted by contextual challenges such as: family dislocation and disruption, widespread unemployment and poverty, and the high incidence of violence and crime (given the violent past of the apartheid state). Increased access to psychological assistance may offer support and promote mental health. Recentl…
Hope
In this end note we will revisit the primacy of the ecological crisis as a lens through which to view changing social structures, alliances and possibilities for change. We will then go on to consider ways in which critical community psychological thought and praxis can work with others to recognise the realities of people’s lives and engender hope for the future. We recognise the playfulness of the end note. Here we utilise it as a commentary on…
Okokuqala ngokuya ndandiqala kwakungekho easy”: Feeling empowered to take collective action through community engagement
Community engagement (CE) at Rhodes University (RU) and community psychology draw on similar principles: using an asset‐based community development approach; recognising and drawing on the skills, capabilities, and knowledge of all parties, which they contribute to a partnership. Working from a strategic model of engagement, mutuality is foreground in all CE activities, where both student volunteers and community partners jointly benefit from the…
Quantifying the psychosocial outcomes of outdoor adventure education for adolescent learners in a South African setting
This aim of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on the psychosocial outcomes of outdoor adventure education. In doing so, it explores the relationship between Journey, a school-based programme and life effectiveness skills, emotional literacy, and resilience for adolescents in a South African setting. Employing a pre–post quasi-experimental design, a purposive convenience sample of 144 Grade 10 learners was recruited for this s…
Sociology (17 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Community Health and Development (9 works) · Social science (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Public relations (6 works) · Law (5 works)