Liesel Ebersohn
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 107727 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Liesel Ebersohn |
| PRENOMES | Liesel |
| SOBRENOME | Ebersohn |
| ASSINATURA | EBERSOHN L |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Pretoria |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2616-4973 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 40 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 22 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 40 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2003 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
Spaces that ‘hold’ us, spaces that ‘stretch’ us
This paper investigates how spatial conditions affect learning experiences in Africa. The qualitative study asked postgraduate students and lecturers to share recollections of how everyday learning spaces affected their learning, to discover meaningful and transformational experiences. The transdisciplinary group of participants represented Architecture, Education and Theology. The research is situated in South Africa, an example of low- and midd…
Intentional play to support the development of children-in-distress in spaces of high need and resource constraint
High numbers of children-in-distress globally indicate the need for evidence on low-threshold interventions to buffer against risk and promote positive developmental outcomes. Especially in spaces where structural disparity challenges and abuse result in excessively high numbers of children-in-distress, limited options exist for care and support, given contextual resource constraints. This article draws on comparative study data exploring intenti…
Social connectedness as a pathway to teacher resilience in challenged contexts
Study explored a social connectedness intervention in six peri-urban South African schools. • Teachers showed improved motivation, emotional regulation, and professional efficacy. • Intervention fostered trust, collaboration, and context-specific professional support. • Low-cost, Ubuntu-inspired model helped sustain teacher well-being in under-resourced settings. This study explores the role of social connectedness in fostering teacher resilience…
Reconceptualising social (in)justice for research in rural South African schools
Time to flock
This study applies an Afrocentric theory (Relationship-Resourced Resilience [RRR]) to analyze teacher resilience in a less-researched context in the Global South. The Isithebe-intervention study in South African schools investigated how time together to strengthen relationships promotes teacher resilience despite structural disparities. Teachers were conveniently sampled, and South African schools were purposively sampled using concurrent mixed-m…
Academic flocking and global distress
Higher education uses community engagement-partnership as a research space to build knowledge
Adolescent pregnancy and young motherhood in rural Zimbabwe
Pregnant adolescents and young mothers comprise a vulnerable group, particularly in low and middle income countries, yet there is limited research describing this population, particularly in rural Zimbabwe. Using tablet-administered questionnaires concerning maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, psychosocial well-being and parenting, we recruited 442 pregnant and young mothers (14-24 years) with the support of social workers …
Negotiating Leadership in Interdisciplinary Co-Productive Research
In the absence of empirical and conceptual considerations of the negotiation of leadership in teams doing community-based research, this article adds to the leadership literature by offering a critical reflection on positioning and collaborative teams in the context of one interdisciplinary, co-productive, cross-generational and international research project. The project focused on youth and community resilience to drought in South Africa. Fourt…
Youth Resilience to Drought
Exposure to drought is on the increase, also in sub-Saharan Africa. Even so, little attention has been paid to what supports youth resilience to the stressors associated with drought. In response, this article reports a secondary analysis of qualitative data generated in a phenomenological study with 25 South African adolescents (average age 15.6; majority Sepedi-speaking) from a drought-impacted and structurally disadvantaged community. The them…
Collective resilience to global challenge
COVID-19 is a large scale and unpredictable global challenge. It predicts extreme negative outcomes for development – including education. Those with privilege will benefit and those living on the margins will be additionally side-lined. Responses to equalise the unevenness of opportunities to learn is often perceived as goodwill attempts to help ‘a few in distress’ to thrive – with the norm that a majority has well-established resourced pathways…
Flocking Together
An indigenous psychology perspective on psychosocial support in S outhern A frica as collective, networking, and pragmatic support
This comparative case study seeks to describe the traditional African psychosocial support practices used in postcolonial Southern Africa. We use an indigenous psychology theory (relationship‐resourced resilience) as a theoretical lens to understand and supplement dominant Western discourses on psychosocial support. Seven Southern African communities with high need and indigenous belief systems were conveniently sampled. Participatory reflection …
Making the Most of Culture and Context
Research aimed at generating evidence to address elicitation challenges that arise because of extreme inequality and marginalized perspectives requires deliberation on relevant methodologies that can elicit insights by both revering marginalized sociocultural strengths and being sensitive to power imbalances. In this article, we provide examples of participatory methods that make the most of often silenced non-Western sociocultural strengths and …
Teacher agency in challenging contexts as a consequence of social support and resource management
Age‐old care and support practices in Southern Africa functioning robustly as sophisticated social technology interventions
High‐need contexts, such as those in postcolonial Southern Africa, require interventions that provide psychosocial and socioeconomic care and support. This comparative case study uses the lens of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) to supplement predominantly Western knowledge of care and support interventions. Participatory reflection and action (PRA) were used in 7 conveniently selected Southern African regions reflective of bounded systems with…
Disquiet Voices Foretelling Hope
South African teachers leave teaching due to factors such as lack of support and adverse working conditions. This study investigated rural teachers' resilience experiences of teaching in a resource-constrained school. A life history design was used to generate data. The research site was visited six times over 20 months. Fifteen interview-conversations were collected and transcribed. The results indicate that the teachers faced chronic poverty as…
Telling stories and adding scores
Telling stories and adding scores: Measuring resilience in young children affected by maternal HIV and AIDS", demonstrates how a concurrent mixed method design assisted cross-cultural comparison and ecological descriptions of resilience in young South African children, as well as validated alternative ways to measure resilience in young children. In a longitudinal randomised control trial, which investigated psychological resilience in mothers an…
Practicing the science of sustainability
Power-sharing Partnerships
Based on these findings, we developed a framework of power sharing partnerships to extend Gaventa's power cube theory. This framework, and its five interrelated elements (leadership as power, identifying vision and mission, synergy, interdependent role of partners, and determination), provide insight into the way coresearchers shared their experiences of participatory research methodology. We theorise power-sharing partnerships as a complimentary…
Power-Sharing Partnerships
Background: This article reports on the experiences of teachers as coresearchers in a long-term partnership with university researchers, who participated in an asset-based intervention project known as Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience (STAR). In an attempt to inform participatory research methodology, the study investigated how coresearchers (teachers) experienced power relations. We utilized Gaventa’s power cube as a theoretical framew…
Taking note of obstacles research partners negotiate in long-term higher education community engagement partnerships
Adolescents' Views on the Power of Violence in a Rural School in South Africa
This study aims to explain how adolescents in a rural high school conceptualise school violence. Qualitative data were collected over two two-day periods (24 hours) through child-centred tasks like drawing and the completion of open-ended sentences, informal conversations regarding the given activities, observations documented as visual data (photographs), a research journal, and focus group discussions. In total, four boys and five girls partici…
Establishing a Reading Culture in a Rural Secondary School
The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary school in South Africa before and after a literacy intervention. The systems theory with interpretivism as the epistemological paradigm was employed. A rural secondary school was selected as part of an on-going Flourishing Learning Youth and Supportive Teachers Assets and Resilience studies on resilience and rural schools. Language teachers …
Behavior and psychological functioning of young children of HIV-positive mothers in South Africa
Adults with HIV are living longer due to earlier diagnosis and increased access to antiretroviral medications. Therefore, fewer young children are being orphaned and instead, are being cared for by parents who know they are HIV positive, although they may be asymptomatic. Presently, it is unclear whether the psychological functioning of these young children is likely to be affected or, alternatively, whether it is only when a mother is ill, that …
Making the Most of Culture and Context
Research aimed at generating evidence to address elicitation challenges that arise because of extreme inequality and marginalized perspectives requires deliberation on relevant methodologies that can elicit insights by both revering marginalized sociocultural strengths and being sensitive to power imbalances. In this article, we provide examples of participatory methods that make the most of often silenced non-Western sociocultural strengths and …
Taking note of obstacles research partners negotiate in long-term higher education community engagement partnerships
Disquiet Voices Foretelling Hope
South African teachers leave teaching due to factors such as lack of support and adverse working conditions. This study investigated rural teachers' resilience experiences of teaching in a resource-constrained school. A life history design was used to generate data. The research site was visited six times over 20 months. Fifteen interview-conversations were collected and transcribed. The results indicate that the teachers faced chronic poverty as…
Adolescents' Views on the Power of Violence in a Rural School in South Africa
This study aims to explain how adolescents in a rural high school conceptualise school violence. Qualitative data were collected over two two-day periods (24 hours) through child-centred tasks like drawing and the completion of open-ended sentences, informal conversations regarding the given activities, observations documented as visual data (photographs), a research journal, and focus group discussions. In total, four boys and five girls partici…
Teacher agency in challenging contexts as a consequence of social support and resource management
An indigenous psychology perspective on psychosocial support in S outhern A frica as collective, networking, and pragmatic support
This comparative case study seeks to describe the traditional African psychosocial support practices used in postcolonial Southern Africa. We use an indigenous psychology theory (relationship‐resourced resilience) as a theoretical lens to understand and supplement dominant Western discourses on psychosocial support. Seven Southern African communities with high need and indigenous belief systems were conveniently sampled. Participatory reflection …
Age‐old care and support practices in Southern Africa functioning robustly as sophisticated social technology interventions
High‐need contexts, such as those in postcolonial Southern Africa, require interventions that provide psychosocial and socioeconomic care and support. This comparative case study uses the lens of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) to supplement predominantly Western knowledge of care and support interventions. Participatory reflection and action (PRA) were used in 7 conveniently selected Southern African regions reflective of bounded systems with…
Practicing the science of sustainability
Establishing a Reading Culture in a Rural Secondary School
The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary school in South Africa before and after a literacy intervention. The systems theory with interpretivism as the epistemological paradigm was employed. A rural secondary school was selected as part of an on-going Flourishing Learning Youth and Supportive Teachers Assets and Resilience studies on resilience and rural schools. Language teachers …
How post-apartheid children express their identity as R citizens D
Children in South Africa are educated to identify with democratic values and democracy in post-apartheid society. As yet, we have no empirical evidence on their views on and identification with the new South African democracy. When given an opportunity to express their life experiences, the 9-year-old child citizens of this case study revealed their democratic identity on various levels. These children expressed a weak identification with democra…
Career Practice Implications of Finalist Education Students' Personality Type Preference
The personality type of 116 finalist education students at the University of Pretoria was assessed over a two-year period, using the Jung Personality Questionnaire (JPQ). The main goal of this article is to establish the natural preferences of these students and to help them understand how their preferences relate to their career exploration. Students' type preferences and their specified career type according to typology literature are indicated…
Determining Selection Criteria for South African Dentistry Students
The aim of this study was to determine selection criteria for prospective dentistry students at the University of Pretoria. A study of the relevant literature was undertaken, and experts at universities in South Africa and Britain were interviewed. A job analysis questionnaire was used to identify the relevant job requirements that could serve as selection criteria. Potential selection criteria that were identified include physical potential (e.g…
Reconceptualising vulnerable children by acknowledging their assets
We report on a study that sought to find alternative pathways to conceptualising vulnerable children. We have extracted a section from a longitudinal study that focuses on the ways in which vulnerable children in a rural community in South Africa cope with the impact of HIV and AIDS. We relied on the concepts of assets, resources and capacities to guide our understanding of 'vulnerable children', in an attempt to open up conceptualisations of the…
Exploring facilitation skills in transdisciplinary teamwork
This article describes the facilitation skills relevant to asset-based transdisciplinary team collaboration within an Early Childhood intervention social setting in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The authors describe the conceptual framework of the underlying study, the methodology and the findings, the facilitation skills that have been identified, and the attitudes, values, knowledge and complimentary approaches that were deemed necessary by the particip…
From microscope to kaleidoscope
What new understandings concerning children and significant others in their life-worlds have become apparent because of the HIV & AIDS pandemic? This innovative book argues that new insights on education and psychosocial aspects surface when research in the realm of HIV & AIDS is viewed through a positive psychology lens. By converging in-depth exploration and description, the book pinpoints vital persons supporting children’s wellbeing, and posi…
Children's Resilience as Assets for Safe Schools
In this article I argue that employing positive psychology conceptions in research allows for a continuum of findings for educational psychology. I illustrate my contention by means of a participatory action research (PAR) survey-based case study in which methodological decisions were informed by an asset-focused resilience conceptual framework. First I provide a rationale, as well as contextual information for the article. Then I explicate asset…
Teachers' Use of Memory-Box-Making to Provide Psychosocial Support in Their Pastoral Role
This study investigated the use of memory-box-making by teachers in their pastoral role. Ten female teachers participated in the study. The site of the study is in a South African primary school in an urban informal settlement. We used multiple data collection strategies (observation, focus groups, visual data and research diaries), which were documented in various ways (field notes, audio recordings and verbatim transcriptions and photographs). …
The Effect of Narrative Career Facilitation on the Personal Growth of a Disadvantaged Student—A Case Study
This article describes the effect of narrative career facilitation on the personal growth of a disadvantaged undergraduate student at a tertiary institution in South Africa. The participant was selected purposively from among a group of undergraduate students at the tertiary education institution who shared a similar background. The intervention involved Narrative Career Facilitation and occurred over a period of one year. Data on student career …
Resilience and Career Counseling
This article describes the manner in which educational psychology students (n = 11 females) used quadrant mapping when doing career counseling with Grade 9 youths (n=88, 47 = male, 41 = female) in a rural secondary school in South Africa. Quadrant mapping involves a depiction of measured intrapersonal and environmental risk factors and protective resources. The qualitative case study generated data which was based on individual interviews with st…
How post-apartheid children express their identity as R citizens D
Children in South Africa are educated to identify with democratic values and democracy in post-apartheid society. As yet, we have no empirical evidence on their views on and identification with the new South African democracy. When given an opportunity to express their life experiences, the 9-year-old child citizens of this case study revealed their democratic identity on various levels. These children expressed a weak identification with democra…
Formative evaluation of the STAR intervention
The article describes the pilot phase of a participatory reflection and action (PRA) study. The longitudinal investigation explores teachers' ability to provide psychosocial support within the context of HIV/AIDS following an asset-based intervention. The study ensued from our desire to understand and contribute to knowledge about the changed roles of teachers due to adversity in the community, specifically in relation to HIV/AIDS and education. …
I am doing okay”
In this case study, we utilized a Resilience framework and Sense of Coherence theory to understand how a group of children coped while living in an institution as a consequence of HIV/AIDS. We followed a qualitative and interpretivist approach. The experiences of nine children (5 girls and 4 boys) aged between 11 and 15 years is highlighted. The primary data generation strategy was informal interviews. However, we based these interviews upon part…
Intervention Groups for HIV-Infected Women
The Kgolo Mmogo study is a randomised controlled intervention trial that examines the effectiveness of a group intervention to enhance resilience in HIV-infected South African mothers ( N = 427) and their young children ( N = 435). We describe here how the severity of psychological and social problems experienced by some of the study participants required referrals for other services and discuss the barriers encountered in facilitating such refer…
Adding ‘Flock’ to ‘Fight and Flight’
In this article I explain how solidarity can support positive adjustment, collective in nature, where people face chronic, cumulative stress and largely lack resources. I propose that when individuals use relationships as a way to access and mobilise resources, an enabling ecology is configured to foster positive adjustment. Applying a collectivist, transactional-ecological view of resilience I propose Relationship-Resourced Resilience (RRR) as a…
Behavior and psychological functioning of young children of HIV-positive mothers in South Africa
Adults with HIV are living longer due to earlier diagnosis and increased access to antiretroviral medications. Therefore, fewer young children are being orphaned and instead, are being cared for by parents who know they are HIV positive, although they may be asymptomatic. Presently, it is unclear whether the psychological functioning of these young children is likely to be affected or, alternatively, whether it is only when a mother is ill, that …
The Role of Parenting in Affecting the Behavior and Adaptive Functioning of Young Children of HIV-Infected Mothers in South Africa
Taking note of obstacles research partners negotiate in long-term higher education community engagement partnerships
Adolescents' Views on the Power of Violence in a Rural School in South Africa
This study aims to explain how adolescents in a rural high school conceptualise school violence. Qualitative data were collected over two two-day periods (24 hours) through child-centred tasks like drawing and the completion of open-ended sentences, informal conversations regarding the given activities, observations documented as visual data (photographs), a research journal, and focus group discussions. In total, four boys and five girls partici…
Establishing a Reading Culture in a Rural Secondary School
The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary school in South Africa before and after a literacy intervention. The systems theory with interpretivism as the epistemological paradigm was employed. A rural secondary school was selected as part of an on-going Flourishing Learning Youth and Supportive Teachers Assets and Resilience studies on resilience and rural schools. Language teachers …
Telling stories and adding scores
Telling stories and adding scores: Measuring resilience in young children affected by maternal HIV and AIDS", demonstrates how a concurrent mixed method design assisted cross-cultural comparison and ecological descriptions of resilience in young South African children, as well as validated alternative ways to measure resilience in young children. In a longitudinal randomised control trial, which investigated psychological resilience in mothers an…
Practicing the science of sustainability
Power-sharing Partnerships
Based on these findings, we developed a framework of power sharing partnerships to extend Gaventa's power cube theory. This framework, and its five interrelated elements (leadership as power, identifying vision and mission, synergy, interdependent role of partners, and determination), provide insight into the way coresearchers shared their experiences of participatory research methodology. We theorise power-sharing partnerships as a complimentary…
Power-Sharing Partnerships
Background: This article reports on the experiences of teachers as coresearchers in a long-term partnership with university researchers, who participated in an asset-based intervention project known as Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience (STAR). In an attempt to inform participatory research methodology, the study investigated how coresearchers (teachers) experienced power relations. We utilized Gaventa’s power cube as a theoretical framew…
Teacher agency in challenging contexts as a consequence of social support and resource management
Age‐old care and support practices in Southern Africa functioning robustly as sophisticated social technology interventions
High‐need contexts, such as those in postcolonial Southern Africa, require interventions that provide psychosocial and socioeconomic care and support. This comparative case study uses the lens of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) to supplement predominantly Western knowledge of care and support interventions. Participatory reflection and action (PRA) were used in 7 conveniently selected Southern African regions reflective of bounded systems with…
Psychology (31 obras) · Sociology (24 obras) · Political science (19 obras) · Social Psychology (19 obras) · Resilience and Mental Health (15 obras) · Social Psychology (15 obras) · Psychological resilience (14 obras) · Medicine (13 obras) · Developmental psychology (12 obras) · Community Health and Development (10 obras)