Towards the development of a theoretical framework to guide child and youth care practice in South Africa

Abstract

There has been limited scholarly research undertaken to understand child and youth care practice in South Africa. While there have been research studies undertaken on the Isibindi model, the focus on the actual practice of child and youth care workers has been minimal. The Isibindi model was developed to provide child and youth care services to vulnerable children in the context of their families and communities in South Africa. The core components of the Isibindi model focussed on the recruitment, training, and deployment of unemployed women and men in rural communities as paraprofessional or auxiliary level child and youth care workers. The roles of these child and youth care workers were to visit vulnerable families in local communities and provide children and families with a broad range of child and youth care services. The aim of this study was to identify the unique needs of children and their families within different community contexts across South Africa, and to develop a theoretical framework for understanding how child and youth care practice within the Isibindi model responded to these needs. A qualitative research inquiry was used to implement this study, with a grounded theory approach to guide the inquiry and to understand how Isibindi child and youth care workers practised with children and families in South African communities. The samples of child and youth care workers, children and youth, and community members who were selected as research participants came from three provinces in three specific Isibindi projects that demonstrated good practices according to identified criteria (Alice – Eastern Cape, Naas – Mpumalanga, and Hlabisa – KwaZulu-Natal). Three participants from each of the three research samples were interviewed through a semi-structured interviewing process. In addition, focus group discussions were held with the child and youth care workers in the Isibindi projects that were selected. The study presents the process of data analysis that underlies the emergence of the theoretical framework with the grounded theory concepts of theoretical sampling, memoing, coding, and constant comparison being discussed herein. The search for patterns and connections in the data through the constant comparison approach resulted in the identification of the core category and basic social processes in the child and youth care practice. The findings are discussed with the core category of practising intentionally and its unique properties are presented. This is followed by a discussion of the basic social processes, viz. embedding spirit in practice and embedding love in care, encompassing their respective categories. The integrated elements of practice, namely, practising relationally, creating a child rights culture, and championing social justice and equity are also deliberated, along with their particular properties. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the research findings in relation to the weave of the core category practising intentionally through the theoretical framework discovered. The theoretical framework Inhlanganisela: Integrated Patterns of Practice that emerged from the study was one that in Barney Glaser’s (1998: 68) words: “fits, works and is relevant” for practice, education, policy, and further research. Inhlanganisela is an IsiZulu word referring to a “multi-pronged system of activities which results in a web of movements all with differing directions but all aimed at a singular outcome”.