Liesel Ebersöhn

• PhD (Educational Psychology)
• Managing Director at University of Pretoria

Although the role of the home in supporting early childhood development, early learning and school outcomes is well established, the perspectives of caregivers on child development and schooling outcomes are comparatively underexplored. This qualitative study was conducted with caregivers of children aged 6–10 years in Mahikeng, South Africa and ai...

A base de conhecimento global, que informa políticas e práticas educacionais é enviesada - privilegiando evidências do Norte Global e lentes eurocêntricas. Consequentemente, as políticas e as práticas educativas em espaços globalmente marginalizados (seja do Sul Global, dos países BRICS ou de outros espaços pós-coloniais, de países de baixa e média...

With this article we aimed to contribute evidence on reliable and valid measurement of teacher resilience in an under researched African context and population. Scales from an existing instrument, ENTREEi, were used to measure the resilience of pre-service teachers at a South African university. The sample constituted 1,193 final-year pre-service t...

Introduction Adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are exposed to several challenges and risk factors, linked to historical legacies. Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest rates of poverty and inequality in the world, is one of the regions most negatively affected by climate change, performs poorly on many health measures, and has high rates...

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 we...

In this article we apply an Afrocentric Resilience Theory (relationship-resourced resilience) to the domain of education research partnerships. We posit academic flocking as an equitable research partnership approach aimed at developing education knowledge that responds to collective distress and supports collective quality education. We provide su...

This article reports a case study in a rural South African school on promoting critical-analytic thinking through teacher discourse moves and pedagogical principles. The study investigated the use of teacher discourse moves and pedagogical principles as a component of the Quality Talk model. The Qualitative research methodology and a case study des...

The purpose of the current article was to compare the retrospective experiences of community partners with higher education (HE) qualifications, in community engagement (CE) in order to inform global citizenship as a HE agenda. Qualitative methodology was appropriate in this study as we were interested in gaining in-depth insight into the understan...

The nature of discourse within classrooms strongly predicts students’ ability to think about, around, and with text and content (i.e. comprehension and critical-analytic thinking). However, little is known about the nature of classroom discourse in remote, rural South African schools, a context in which students face well-documented language challe...

The aim of this study is to discuss how South African higher education (HE) is a mechanism to enable global citizenship. This qualitative secondary analysis study draws on retrospective qualitative case study data generated by multiple partners (parents, teachers, young people, HE students, researchers) in a long-term community engagement (CE) stud...

In this chapter I describe significant interdependent cultural beliefs and practices that inform flocking processes. I therefore engage with the proposition that, despite cultural marginalisation, interdependent cultural beliefs and practices continue to inform resilience responses to structural marginalisation. In addition, the interdependent cult...

Flocking is dependent on relationships (social opportunities in kinship systems) and therefore require relational adeptness (socio-emotional competence). In this chapter I describe salient Afrocentric socio-emotional competence indicated for flocking. I argue that the presence of such socio-emotional competence enables flocking, and equally, the ab...

This chapter frames my account of an indigenous psychology of resilience. I introduce propositions of the relationship-resourced resilience theory regarding flocking as pathway to resilience. I attend specifically to propositions related to structural and cultural constraints and enablers with regards to resilience. I substantiate the proposition t...

In this chapter I describe flocking as a resilience-enabling indigenous knowledge system of collaboration to manage social resources through social support—an age-old, culturally salient supply chain management system of distributing social resources within social networks to buffer against inequality-associated risks. I define flocking as instrume...

This chapter situates a the relationship-resourced resilience theory, a Southern African indigenous psychology of interdependent resilience, within existing resilience knowledge. I revist all propositions by substantiating that, given the wide range of pathways to resilience known to be used during hardship, social support is a preferred pathway to...

In this chapter I explain the evidence base for a Southern African indigenous psychology theory of resilience. In this way I expand on propositions related to culture and context in the relationship-resourced resilience theory. I describe how we built the indigenous psychology theory grounded in data derived from three case studies with people from...

This book describes how those individuals who are often most marginalised in postcolonial societies draw on age-old, non-western knowledge systems to adapt to the hardships characteristic of unequal societies in transformation. It highlights robust indigenous pathways and resilience responses used by elders and young people in urban and rural setti...

Assessment results from rural schools have shown little improvement in over a decade, mainly because many of the barriers to learning, such as poverty and limited resources, still prevail. Without the necessary English language skills, language can become another barrier to learning. The assessment results of Progress in International Reading Liter...

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...

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 communiti...

Teacher resilience is an issue of international concern, yet few cross-national studies exist. This chapter examines teacher resilience in two postcolonial, economically disparate, Southern hemisphere contexts: South Africa and Australia. Data from studies in each country are examined to investigate the nature of risks and resources to support teac...

The purpose of this study is to inform global citizenship practice as a higher education agenda by comparing the retrospective experiences of a range of community engagement partners and including often silent voices of non-researcher partners. Higher education–community engagement aims to contribute to social justice as it constructs and transfers...

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 (P...

This article outlines how an analysis of a first sand tray of youth at a rural school can be used to identify indicators of risk and resilience. An instrumental case-study design was used to identify risk and resilience in the first sand trays of 25 young people at a rural school in Mpumalanga. The youth were between the ages of 13 and 19 years. Da...

Teachers in post-colonial settings are required to function within the constraints of structural disparities. Teacher agency is explained as an outcome of collectivist coping, using instrumental social support for resource management. Following an asset-based intervention with teachers (n = 37, male = 4, female = 33) in high-risk schools (n = 4, se...

In this paper I argue that the health and well-being outcomes of people at different levels of a social hierarchy, as studied by epidemiologists and psychologists has relevance for educational research, especially in unequal societies. When addressing poverty-associated risk, the educational emphasis need not only be on attaining more individual we...

Single case studies are prolific in South African education research. I equate the abundance of case studies to the urgency for evidence to transform the highly unequal landscape of education opportunities. In contrast however, stand-alone case study evidence does not offer much impact in building an evidence-based body of knowledge for education i...

Questions related to how we practice sustainability science remain salient in the face of the failure to achieve broad-scale sustainability objectives. Transdisciplinarity is an essential part of sustainability science. Transdisciplinary conceptual scholarship has been more prevalent than empirical scholarship or applications, especially in develop...

"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....

This article uses a South African case study to argue that postcolonial, emerging economy societies in transition often contain schools characterised as high risk and high need. Such schools require teachers to adapt to roles other than facilitating learning, such as psychosocial support and care, and which requires additional professional developm...

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 coresearc...

Debates on the role of scientific knowledge to affect behaviour are continuing. The theory of planned behaviour suggests that behaviour is influenced by attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control and not by knowledge. However, a large body of knowledge argues that increased HIV/AIDSrelated knowledge leads to the adoption of safe...

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–conversat...

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 coresearch...

In this article, I hope to provide some novel insights into teacher resilience and poverty on the basis of ten-year long-term ethnographic participatory reflection and action data obtained from teachers (n = 87) in rural (n = 6) and urban (n = 8) schools (n = 14, high schools = 4, primary schools = 10) in three South African provinces. In resilienc...

Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of an intervention designed to promote resilience in young children living with their HIV-positive mothers. Design/methods: HIV-positive women attending clinics in Tshwane, South Africa, and their children, aged 6-10 years, were randomized to the intervention (I) or standard care (...

In South Africa teachers' and learners' mother tongues are often different from the language of learning and teaching, which is mostly English. Non-mother tongue teaching and learning in high schools are impeded by learners' limited proficiency in English as a cognitive academic language. In addition, secondary school English language teachers lack...

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 (photo...

In this paper we argue that community volunteers may partner with schools to holistically support vulnerable children, as well as their families and community members on a broad level. More specifically, we present a case where community volunteers (n=35) have been partnering with primary school teachers in developing and implementing school-commun...

Prior investigations suggest that maternal HIV/AIDS poses significant challenges to young children. This study investigates the relationships between mothers' psychological functioning, parenting, and children's behavioral outcomes and functioning in a population of women living with HIV (N = 361) with a child between the ages of 6 and 10 years in...

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 S...

In this chapter, my aim is to introduce the relationship-resourced resilience (RRR) model as a generative theory depicting collective resilience and to explain how I built the theory from case study research. My first goal is to provide procedural steps to induct theory using case studies. My subsequent goals are to define core concepts of RRR and...

Abstract 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 th...

Pre-toria, donde también es profesora de tiempo completo en el Departamento de Psicología de la Educación, Facultad de Educación. Como investigadora reconocida por la Fundación Nacional de Investigación, Prof. Ebersöhn interroga a la capacidad de recuperación como proceso transaccio-nal ecológico sostenido dentro de los entornos de educación de esc...

In this article we report on the manner in which participatory action research (PAR) was utilised by teachers in developing a Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) schoolplan, in collaboration with university researchers. The need for a structured HIV and Aids school plan emerged during the course of a bro...

In this article we describe how using a visual, child-friendly measure of resilience in a randomised control trial (RCT), the Kgolo Mmogo (KM) project, resulted in representative insights on resilience in a mother-child relationship where the mother is HIV-positive. We used the existing psychological method Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD) to measure r...

In an ongoing longitudinal intervention study (STAR)1 we found that, although similarities existed in the way teachers promoted resilience, rural schools (in comparison to other STAR case schools) took longer to implement strategies to buoy support and found it difficult to sustain such support. Using rurality we wanted to understand how forces, ag...

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...

This study reports on the use of the Ericksonian approach combined with sandplay therapy to assist children who present with depression, a troublesome developmental barrier. Participants were six children and/or adolescents with depression (two males and four females; age range 7 to 18; ethnicity: five white and one black). The intervention occurre...

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...

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 req...

This paper explains how teachers in schools function as resources to buoy resilience in the face of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome-compounded adversities. We draw on participatory reflection and action data from a longitudinal study with teachers (n = 57, 5 males, 52 females) from six schools in three South African...

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 pr...

Our investigation forms part of a broader study that commenced in 2003. Supportive Teachers, Assets and Resilience (STAR) is an ongoing collaborative project between South African primary and secondary school teachers from three provinces and educational psychology researchers from the Unit for Education Research in AIDS and the Department of Educa...

This article reports on a study that explored how a community-based intervention with ten teachers could enhance their knowledge and skills related to supporting community members coping with HIV/ AIDS. We conducted a case study using participatory action research methods. Individual interviews, observation, field notes, visual data and reflective...

This article describes an action research intervention to augment community-based volunteer counsellors’ support capacity. We conducted a case study with purposefully selected community-based volunteers (N = 30). From a narrative and positive psychology framework we developed and implemented an intervention which focused on memory box-making (MBM)....

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 thei...

The purpose of this article was to describe students' experiences of community engagement in an Educational Psychology practicum in order to inform relevant educational psychology training literature with experiences of students' community engagement. Experiential learning served as our theoretical framework and we employed an instrumental case stu...

This paper describes the participatory development of a new curriculum for an Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) (Inclusive and Special Needs Education) programme in the Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria. Several challenges in the existing programme necessitated curriculum re-design and development. These challenges included respond...

This article reports on the findings of a qualitative study that investigated the potential use of the body map technique by educators in fulfilling their pastoral role. The study formed part of a broad research project - the STAR3 intervention. As part of the broader project, the study we report on was undertaken in parallel with another study in...

This exploratory and descriptive study investigated the use of the asset-based approach in career facilitation in South Africa. Five adolescents (3 females and 2 males) aged 16 to 18 years participated. An intervention study following a qualitative approach was conducted. We developed and implemented an asset-based career facilitation intervention...

This article reports on an analysis of person attributes of e-learning practitioners at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). Findings from a study of the latent structure of an e-learning practitioner construct, are presented to illuminate the cha-racteristics and personal profiles of the e-learning practitioners at TUT. Rich sources of data...

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 in...

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 re...

This article reports on the findings of an empirical study aimed at empowering ten selected educators to mobilise potential yet unused assets within a community, in order to support that community in coping with HIV/AIDS. Despite numerous studies on various aspects of HIV/AIDS, limited research is currently undertaken on intervention strategies, es...

This article describes the ways in which postmodern(1) career facilitation was applied to enhance achievement motivation in a male adolescent from a community with a high unemployment rate. A case study following a mixed-method approach was conducted with a purposefully selected youth and a postmodern career facilitation intervention was developed...

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 docu...

In this article I argue that employing positive psychology conceptions in research allows for a continuum of findings for educational psychology. 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. Firs...

The purpose of this article is to locate children's own voices within the discourse of ‘disadvantaged children’. I commence by proposing that foregrounding vulnerable children's knowledge of protective factors may enable resiliency in similar scenarios. After that, from a positive psychology framework, I explicate the conceptual framework integrati...

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...

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...

In this article we contemplate resilience in vulnerable children as a form of emotional giftedness. By foregrounding relevant segments of six ongoing studies and focusing on ways in which vulnerable children in communities in South Africa cope with the impact of HIV&AIDS. The concepts of protective factors, processes and cumulative protection shape...

In this article we argue that the asset-based approach is one explanation for sit stain ability in programmes supporting vulnerable children. We structure our argument by formulating five questions and then pursuing tentative answers to them. We start our contention by highlighting the particularity of the challenges faced in schools to support vul...

The importance of early childhood intervention in a developing country is indisputable. Even though we have a relatively clear idea of what effective early childhood intervention (ECI) means, there are still uncertainties about the roles of professionals in this ever‐changing field. In South Africa we face particular challenges because of huge disp...

2 narrative approach to career counselling can be utilized to address complexities in career counselling settings characterized by diversity. We also contemplated whether the inclusion of multiple approaches towards the data collection for assisting clients in career choices is indeed pos- sible. Our expectation was that this article could contribu...

Incl. graphs and bibl. The ten essays in this volume look at the many and complex relationships between HIV/AIDS and education. It is clear that education in an AIDS-infected world cannot be the same as that in an AIDS-free world. It is imperative to adapt educational planning and management principles, curriculum-development goals, and the provisi...

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 s...

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. Stude...

Many researchers still consider measured intelligence as the most significant predictor for academic and life success, despite the fact that research time and again confirms that proven academic achievement is a far better predictor of academic achievement than a mere IQ score. This article examines the possible meaning of the construct “emotional...

This article explores the complexity of the inquiry process concerning South African children coping with the effects of HIV/AIDS. The aim is to start a debate on this issue and to review coping literature relating to children and HIV/AIDS. The article makes use of the metaphor of a tapestry, in order to convey the intricacies, complexities and mul...

The needs-based approach to intervention in the helping professions has come under increasing attack during recent years. In South Africa this has mainly been the result of the realities of the social context, but it also relates to the growing resistance in many professionals to focus mostly on what is deficient or lacking or needed when they are...

The aim of this study was to develop a selection programme for prospective dental students at the University of Pretoria. A study of relevant literature was undertaken, and experts at universities in South Africa, Britain and Belgium were interviewed, in order to research and analyse existing selection procedures with a view to developing a concept...

The purpose of this case study is to determine the extent to which an Afrikaans language textbook series addresses Apartheid stereotypes. Data sources for the content analysis are press reports, parliamentary records and interviews with the publisher of the series, the authors as well as leading academics at the time. We start by situating the stud...

We describe how selected adolescent learners experience their current HIV/AIDS programmes in school. The rationale of the instrumental case study was that knowing, appreciating and understanding learners ' prefer ences and experiences should inform future HIV/AIDS curriculum design. Research was conducted at three specifically selected secondary sc...

In this article we explore a rural community's strategies for career education from the asset-based approach in order to expand on existing career theory and models of intervention. In a qualitative case study exploring a community's expectations of career education, one of the themes that emerged from four focus group interviews was possible inter...