Dublin Core
Title
AN EXPLORATION OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF DEAF PEOPLE IN ACCESSING,
PARTICIPATING AND COMPLETING HIGHER EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE
PARTICIPATING AND COMPLETING HIGHER EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE
Creator
PHILLIPA MUTSWANGA
Description
The study qualitatively employed the phenomenology design to explore the
experiences of the 32 participants selected through snowballing and purposive
sampling to establish the extent to which Zimbabwean Universities enabled deaf
people to access, participate and successfully complete their studies. Point of
saturation determined the sample size. Access to higher education [HE] is
currently recognised as a bridge to a fulfilling life for all people but its applicability
to deaf people was reported by several studies as insignificant despite the
influences of robust legislations. Narratives, in-depth interviews, non-participant
observations, focus group discussions and document analysis were used to
collect data which was further thematically analysed. Emerging patterns and
themes were then generated and triangulated to augment the findings.
Augmentation made the data trustworthy and creditable although its
generalisability was not representative enough because of the sample size, a
limitation which triangulation took care of. The findings were guided by the social
justice principles of the ubuntu philosophy and the symbiotic transformative
theory. The study participants argued that institutions of higher education did not
include deaf people [PWDs] in their plans and that benchmarked the formidable
barriers which made their participation remain insignificant. However, the study
noted other contributing factors as; unfocused visions of universities,
inappropriate teaching styles, unfriendly infrastructures, negative attitudes and
styles of leadership. Furthermore, deaf participants felt that universities’
deliberate delay to respond to their applications was meant to frustrate them and
make them lose hope in persuing the status of their applications. The study
recommended that universities should redevelop their policies and provisions
with deaf people in mind. Further studies recommended that monitoring tools be
design as a measure to determine the preparedness of universities to deaf
applicants.
experiences of the 32 participants selected through snowballing and purposive
sampling to establish the extent to which Zimbabwean Universities enabled deaf
people to access, participate and successfully complete their studies. Point of
saturation determined the sample size. Access to higher education [HE] is
currently recognised as a bridge to a fulfilling life for all people but its applicability
to deaf people was reported by several studies as insignificant despite the
influences of robust legislations. Narratives, in-depth interviews, non-participant
observations, focus group discussions and document analysis were used to
collect data which was further thematically analysed. Emerging patterns and
themes were then generated and triangulated to augment the findings.
Augmentation made the data trustworthy and creditable although its
generalisability was not representative enough because of the sample size, a
limitation which triangulation took care of. The findings were guided by the social
justice principles of the ubuntu philosophy and the symbiotic transformative
theory. The study participants argued that institutions of higher education did not
include deaf people [PWDs] in their plans and that benchmarked the formidable
barriers which made their participation remain insignificant. However, the study
noted other contributing factors as; unfocused visions of universities,
inappropriate teaching styles, unfriendly infrastructures, negative attitudes and
styles of leadership. Furthermore, deaf participants felt that universities’
deliberate delay to respond to their applications was meant to frustrate them and
make them lose hope in persuing the status of their applications. The study
recommended that universities should redevelop their policies and provisions
with deaf people in mind. Further studies recommended that monitoring tools be
design as a measure to determine the preparedness of universities to deaf
applicants.
Publisher
ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY
Date
2016
Position: 51 (60 views)