South African Clinical Psychology, Employment (In)Equity and the “Brain Drain”

Pillay, Anand; Kramers, Anne L.

doi:10.1177/008124630303300107

Cited by 34 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…Pillay and Kramers (2003) argue that it is obligatory that universities vigorously recruit black (especially African) students into their educational programmes. Although Fisher et al (2003) accentuate the significance of the selection process as an essential part of training and a first step in the delivery of health care, it is argued in the present study that marketing of these programmes either through medium of road shows to HBUs and media that is relevant to the targeted communities should be the first step.…”

Section: Students' Perceptions Of Transformation In the Schoolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of university students regarding transformation in South Africa

Seabi

Seedat

Khoza-Shangase

et al. 2014

International Journal of Educational Management

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2005),"Equal opportunity and affirmative action for South African women: a benefit or barrier?", Women in Management Review, Vol. 20 Iss 1 pp. 56-71 http://dx.Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:368933 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' perceptions of the challenges that they face and the factors that facilitate and impede teaching and learning within the context of transformation at the University of the Witwatersrand. The paper also explores students' perceptions of transformation directly and their ideas related to facilitating this process. The authors reflect briefly on colonialism and apartheid in South Africa and the state of higher education after 18 years of democracy. Design/methodology/approach -A qualitative, explorative, descriptive survey research design was employed to gain a deeper understanding of how students experience living, learning and teaching in higher education. A sample of 194 students with a mean age of 22.40 participated in the study. Findings -The results revealed positive facilitative factors such as quality of teaching, social support, material resources and practical/clinical training; as well as negative hindering factors that included high workload, English as a medium of instruction and limited access to "other" resources which impacted the learning processes. There was a general feeling of dissatisfaction with the current status of the school regarding transformation. Originality/value -This study makes novel contributions to the literature, especially related to the South African context. For instance, white students in professional degree programs reported that their inability to speak indigenous African languages hindered their provision of services to clients. This finding contrasts with previous literature that suggests that students who speak English as a first language have greater advantages than multilingual students whose mother tongue is not English.

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Section: Students' Perceptions Of Transformation In the Schoolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of university students regarding transformation in South Africa

Seabi

Seedat

Khoza-Shangase

et al. 2014

International Journal of Educational Management

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“…The country has seen its psychologists usurped by a number of high-income nations, especially the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand (Pillay & Kramers, 2003). While this is a troubling matter for poorer countries, it is a very healthy indication of the general appraisal of the quality of local training and perceptions abroad.…”

Section: Teaching and Professional Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychology’s health and future in South Africa

Pillay

2016

South African Journal of Psychology

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Psychology has a considerable history in South Africa, with some of the older universities commencing the teaching of courses in the subject about a century ago. Much has transpired, of course, in the period leading up to the present-day psychology as we know it. Historically, psychology followed the path and lead of the governments of the day, doing little or nothing to challenge the prevailing social order and injustices, tending rather to collude with them. A fair amount has been written on the history of psychology in the country, including the popularity of the subject as a choice of undergraduate and graduate study as well as the contributions made by psychology professionals (Cooper & Nicholas, 2012). Nevertheless, pondering the current state of the discipline over two decades into democracy and contemplating its future must remain a critical exercise.There are a number of issues germane to how the discipline is viewed presently and which will influence its developmental trajectory. Some of these are considered below but an exhaustive listing and discussion of the relevant issues are beyond the scope of this article. Registration categoriesWhile the country has made significant progress in the development of professional psychology programmes and the establishment of five registerable 'psychologist' career options (i.e., clinical, counselling, educational, industrial/organisational, and research) as well as a 'Psychometrist' and 'Registered Counsellor' registration categories, one has to question the discipline's movement from that position. The past 30 years or so has seen little advancement and initiative to take the profession and discipline further. The Registered Counsellor category emerged during this period but, while it constituted a necessary mid-level psychology professional, it failed to realise all of the expected gains considering the ethos and idea within which it was conceived. Psychology created the professional but failed to develop and encourage the appropriate job market and employment opportunities. The ideal would have been a plethora of positions created around the country within the Department of Health to enable the provision of basic mental health services for the multitudes of indigent communities reliant of government health services. Considering the prevalence of mental health problems (Stein et al., 2008), such an initiative would have had immense benefits for

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“…Hopefully one day it won't, but I think that at the moment it needs to be acknowledged. Some participants noted that the incorporation of equity into selection was 'too late' because if universities wanted to increase diversity they would have to cater for those disadvantaged people who are unable to 'financially afford [the] selection process' (see also Fisher et al 2003;Mayekiso et al 2004;Pillay and Kramers 2003). Participants commented that the selection process was expensive in terms of travel requirements, the photocopying of documents and application fees.…”

Section: Relevance Versus Irrelevancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Organised professional psychology has committed itself to working towards such change, and there is a growing literature on the experience of black trainees entering a formerly 'white' profession (Ahmed and Pillay 2004;Christian, Mokutu, and Rankoe 2002;Duncan, van Niekerk, and Townsend 2004;Mayekiso et al 2004;Nicholas 1993;Pillay 2003;Pillay and Kramers 2003;Pillay and Petersen 1996;Suffla, Stevens, and Seedat 2001;Swartz 1998). The road to transformation in professional psychology since the advent of democracy in 1994 has, however, not been as smooth as once might have been hoped (Mayekiso et al 2004), equity targets are not being fully met.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

White clinical psychology trainees' views on racial equity within programme selection in South Africa

Traub

Swartz

2013

Teaching in Higher Education

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The issue of diversity in both physical and epistemological access to programmes in higher education is an important concern worldwide. In South Africa, as elsewhere, access to professional clinical psychology training programmes is extremely competitive, and there is an important imperative to diversify the student profile. Perspectives of black students on access to clinical psychology training in South Africa have been extensively studied, but the views of white students are minimally documented. We interviewed four white professional clinical psychology trainees on their views about the role race plays in selection for professional training. Four major themes arose from the participants' responses: uncertainty versus transparency; internal shame versus external blame; race versus socio-economic status and language and relevance versus irrelevance. Participants expressed discomfort with selection procedures, and though there are several limitations to this study, such as the small sample size, the need to open the door to discussions on the frightening topic of race is essential for a socially responsible approach to future equity, diversity and representativeness in professional training in higher education in South Africa.

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South African Clinical Psychology, Employment (In)Equity and the “Brain Drain”

Cited by 34 publications

References 19 publications

Experiences of university students regarding transformation in South Africa

Experiences of university students regarding transformation in South Africa

Psychology’s health and future in South Africa

White clinical psychology trainees' views on racial equity within programme selection in South Africa

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