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A study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in South Africa

The development of early literacy skills is critical for all children in South Africa. Children receive language and literacy development support in the home, school, and community environments. Vulnerable children, such as orphans, may receive this support from volunteers in their home environments...

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Main Author: Zoetmulder, Amy
Other Authors: Kathard, Harsha
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences 2020
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access_status_str Open Access
author Zoetmulder, Amy
author2 Kathard, Harsha
author_browse Kathard, Harsha
Zoetmulder, Amy
author_facet Kathard, Harsha
Zoetmulder, Amy
author_sort Zoetmulder, Amy
collection Thesis
description The development of early literacy skills is critical for all children in South Africa. Children receive language and literacy development support in the home, school, and community environments. Vulnerable children, such as orphans, may receive this support from volunteers in their home environments. Additional language development support systems in the form of programmes run by volunteers are important. This study describes and analyses the process of collaboration between six volunteers who are involved in languageliteracy programmes by examining how volunteers negotiate collaboration in promoting literacy development. This qualitative research study used a participatory action cycle design to investigate collaboration. A range of research methods such as focus groups, interviews, reflections and observations were used. Findings from this study provided insight into the identity of volunteers. They were people who had strong values in respect of literacy, a positive experience of volunteering, a sense of civic responsibility and an empathetic personality. The collaborative process was established through the presence of a strong common cause, vulnerability and trust among volunteers, a structured and well-led action cycle process, the development of self-reflection, and a passion to be change agents. Volunteers were able to problem solve and act to make changes to the intervention programme which included actions at a programme and volunteer level. The speechlanguage therapist (SLT’s) role was critical in a literacy-related intervention as a support for volunteers. The expertise of SLTs, namely knowledge in language and literacy development, was valued in streamlining the process of taking appropriate actions to enrich the literacy programme.
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id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31001
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:50:46.738Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
publisher Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
publisherStr Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31001 A study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in South Africa Zoetmulder, Amy Kathard, Harsha Pillay, Mershen Speech-Language Pathology The development of early literacy skills is critical for all children in South Africa. Children receive language and literacy development support in the home, school, and community environments. Vulnerable children, such as orphans, may receive this support from volunteers in their home environments. Additional language development support systems in the form of programmes run by volunteers are important. This study describes and analyses the process of collaboration between six volunteers who are involved in languageliteracy programmes by examining how volunteers negotiate collaboration in promoting literacy development. This qualitative research study used a participatory action cycle design to investigate collaboration. A range of research methods such as focus groups, interviews, reflections and observations were used. Findings from this study provided insight into the identity of volunteers. They were people who had strong values in respect of literacy, a positive experience of volunteering, a sense of civic responsibility and an empathetic personality. The collaborative process was established through the presence of a strong common cause, vulnerability and trust among volunteers, a structured and well-led action cycle process, the development of self-reflection, and a passion to be change agents. Volunteers were able to problem solve and act to make changes to the intervention programme which included actions at a programme and volunteer level. The speechlanguage therapist (SLT’s) role was critical in a literacy-related intervention as a support for volunteers. The expertise of SLTs, namely knowledge in language and literacy development, was valued in streamlining the process of taking appropriate actions to enrich the literacy programme. 2020-02-11T10:26:03Z 2020-02-11T10:26:03Z 2019 2020-01-28T11:50:57Z Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31001 eng application/pdf Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Speech-Language Pathology
Zoetmulder, Amy
A study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in South Africa
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in South Africa
title_full A study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in South Africa
title_fullStr A study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed A study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in South Africa
title_short A study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in South Africa
title_sort study of the collaborative process of volunteers in a literacy intervention programme in support of vulnerable children in south africa
topic Speech-Language Pathology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31001
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