Environment and Social Psychology

Fifty shades of ambivalence: South African student leaders’ belonging experiences as indigenous foreigners within higher education

Dr. Neo Pule

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Mr. Vuyani Muleya

Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Prof. Aden-Paul Flotman

Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/esp.v10i6.3517

Keywords: higher education; social dream drawing; student leadership; sense of belonging; socioanalysis

---

Abstract

The transformation of South African universities is complex because of the intersections of social, historical, political, cultural, and economic circumstances. Due to the transformation mandate, universities engage student leaders in co-governance to facilitate collaborative efforts toward establishing a sense of belonging for student leaders. However, the complexity of the environment and the transformation task create discrepancies that affect student leaders' sense of belonging. Therefore, this article explores South African student leaders' sense of belonging in the university, using socioanalysis. We gathered verbal and visual data through social dream drawing with student leaders to present an account of their conscious and unconscious lived experiences of belonging. We used thematic analysis to organize the identified themes and sub-themes and interpreted them using a socio-analytic understanding.

The findings suggest that student leaders experience belonging paradoxically as “indigenous foreigners” in higher education, but also ambivalently, hence the reference to Fifty shades of ambivalence in the title. They perceive membership dynamics in various ways: as fluid belonging, with strings attached, as complicated bonding, and as the paradoxical dance between dominance and submission, as well as connecting to shades of legacies and patrimony.

We argue that learning about student leaders' sense of belonging through social dream drawing enhances their leadership agency and facilitates a co-productive, collaborative, and active participation strategy. This process strengthens co-governance practices on multi-relational levels and multiple domains of belonging. Thus, dynamically understanding student leaders' sense of belonging produces positive outcomes for academic structures and integration processes through innovative student engagement.

---

References

[1]. 1.Allen, K-A., Kern M. L., Rozek, C. S., McInerney, D. M. & Slavich, G. M. (2021). “Belonging: a review of conceptual issues, an integrative framework, and directions for future research”. Australian Journal of Psychology, 73(1), 87–102. DOI:10.1080/00049530.2021.1883409

[2]. 2.Adejumo, V. (2021). Beyond diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Leadership, 17(1), 62-73.

[3]. 3.Itam, U. & Bagali M. M. (2018). Diversity and Inclusion Management: A Focus on Employee Engagement. In N. Sharma, V. Singh, & S. Pathak (Eds.), Management Techniques for a Diverse and Cross-Cultural Workforce (pp. 149-171). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-4933-8.ch009

[4]. 4.Brannon, T. N., & Lin, A. (2021). “Pride and prejudice” pathways to belonging: Implications for inclusive diversity practices within mainstream institutions. American Psychologist, 76(3), 488.

[5]. 5.Iso-Ahola, S.E., & Baumeister, R.F. (2023). Leisure and meaning in life. Front. Psychol. 14:1074649. https://doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1074649

[6]. 6.Pule, N.T. & May, M. (2021). “Insights on student leadership using social dream drawing: Six propositions for the transformation role of South African student leaders”. Transformation in Higher Education, 6(0), a138. https://doi.org/10.4102/the. v6i0.138

[7]. 7.Allen, K. A., Gray, D. L., Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (2022). The need to belong: A deep dive into the origins, implications, and future of a foundational construct. Educational psychology review, 34(2), 1133-1156.

[8]. 8.Bazana, S., & Mogotsi, O.P. (2017). “Social identities and racial integration in historically white universities: A literature review of the experiences of black students.” Transformation in Higher Education, 2(a25). https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v2i0.25

[9]. 9.Segal, H. (2019). "The achievement of ambivalence." Common Knowledge, 25(1)-3: 51–62.

[10]. 10.Badat, S. (2010). “The Challenges of Transformation in Higher Education and Training Institutions in South Africa.” Development Bank of Southern Africa 8.

[11]. 11.Davids, N., & Waghid, Y. (2022). Democratic Education as Inclusion. Lexington Books.

[12]. 12.Lambert, C.T. (2021). The impact of environmental and social factors on learning abilities: a meta-analysis. Biological Reviews. 96(6), 2871-2889. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12783

[13]. 13.Long, S. (2017). The socioanalytic approach to organisations. Socio-Analysis, 19: 1–7.

[14]. 14.Freud, S. (1912). The Dynamics of Transference. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XII (1911-1913): The Case of Schreber, Papers on Technique and Other Works, 97-108.

[15]. 15.Mersky, R. R. (2013). “Social Dream Drawing: Drawing Brings the Inside Out.” In Psychosocial Methods: Discovering the Hidden in Organisations and Social Systems, S. Long (ed):153–178. Karnac.

[16]. 16.Long, S. & Harney, M. (2013). “The Associative Unconscious”. Socioanalytic Methods: discovering the hidden in organisations and social systems S. Long (ed.) 3 – 22. London: Routledge.

[17]. 17.Mayer C-H. & Oosthuizen R. M. (2022). “Unconscious system-psychodynamics

[18]. 18.within a German 4IR engineering company in South Africa”. Front. Psychol. 13:926245. https://doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.926245

[19]. 19.Mersky, R. & Sievers, B. (2019). “Social photo-matrix and social dream-drawing”. K. Stamenova and R.D. Hinshelwood (eds.) Methods of research into the unconscious: Applying psychoanalytic ideas to social science: 145–168. Routledge.

[20]. 20.Long, S., & Manley, J. (2019). (eds.) Social dreaming: Philosophy, research, theory and practice. Routledge.

[21]. 21.Vince, R. (2018). Institutional illogics: The unconscious and institutional analysis. Organisational Studies, 40: 953–973.

[22]. 22.Trotter, W. (1909). Sociological application of the psychology of herd instinct. The Sociological Review, 2(1): 36–54.

[23]. 23.Pedler, M. L., Willis, R., & Nieuwoudt, J. E. (2021). A sense of belonging at university: student retention, motivation and enjoyment. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(3), 397–408. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2021.1955844

[24]. 24.Bion, W. R. (1961). Experiences in groups. Tavistock.

[25]. 25.Bain, A. (1998). Social defenses against organizational learning. Human relations, 51(3), 413–429.

[26]. 26.Lawrence, W. G. (2005). Introduction to Social Dreaming. Transforming Thinking. Karnac.

[27]. 27.Manley, J. (2014). Gordon Lawrence's Social Dreaming Matrix: background, origins, history, and developments. Organisational and Social Dynamics, 14(2), 322–341.

[28]. 28.Lawrence, W. G. (1999). Exploring individual and organisational boundaries. Karnac.

[29]. 29.Mersky, R. R. (2012). Contemporary methodologies to surface and act on unconscious dynamics in organisations: An exploration of design, facilitation capacities, consultant paradigm and ultimate value. Organisational and Social Dynamics, 12(1), 19–43.

[30]. 30.Schneider, J.A. (2010). From Freud’s dream‐work to Bion’s work of dreaming: The changing conception of dreaming in psychoanalytic theory. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 91(3), 521–540

[31]. 31.Anant, S.S. (1966). Belongingness and mental health: Some research findings.

[32]. 32.Acta Psychologica 26: 391–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-6918(67)90035-2.

[33]. 33.Gopalan, M., & Brady, S.T. (2019). College Students’ Sense of Belonging: A National Perspective. Educational Researcher, 49(2): 134–137 https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19897622

[34]. 34.Filstad C, L., Traavik, E.M. & Gorli, M. (2019). Belonging at work: the experiences,

[35]. 35.representations and meanings of belonging. Journal of Workplace Learning. 3(2), 116–142. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-06-2018-0081

[36]. 36.Lambert, N.M., Stillman, T.F., Hicks, J.A., Kamble, S., Baumeister, R.F., & Fincham, F.D. (2013). To Belong Is to Matter: Sense of Belonging Enhances Meaning in Life” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(11): 1418–1427. DOI:10.1177/0146167213499186

[37]. 37.DHET. (2020). Revised Strategic Plan 2020-2025. Retrieved from https://www.dhet.gov.za/ Site Assets/DHET%20Strategic%20Plan%202020.pdf

[38]. 38.Soroka, O., Kalaur, S., & Balendr, A. (2020). Monitoring of Corporate Culture Formation of Specialists of Social Institutions. Postmodern Openings,11(1Supl1), 218-233. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/11.1sup1/131

[39]. 39.Davids, N. (2021). Democratising South African universities: From activism to advocacy. Policy Futures in Education 19(5), 568–581. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103211003421

[40]. 40.Hlengiwe, A., McKenna, S., & Njovane, T. (2018). “The lenses we use to research student experiences.” Higher Education Pathways: South African Undergraduate Education and the Public Good Paul Ashwin and Jennifer M. Case (eds). African Minds.

[41]. 41.Osterman K.F. (2023). Teacher Practice and Students’ Sense of Belonging. In: Lovat, T., Toomey, R., Clement, N., Dally, K. (eds) Second International Research Handbook on Values Education and Student Wellbeing. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24420-9_54

[42]. 42.Griffiths, D. (2019). #FeesMustFall and the decolonised university in South Africa: Tensions and opportunities in a globalising world. International Journal of Educational Research 94: 143–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2019.01.004

[43]. 43.Swartz, R., Ivancheva, M., Czerniewicz, L. & Morris, N.P. (2019). Between a rock and a hard place: Dilemmas regarding the purpose of public universities in South Africa. Higher Education 77(4), 567–583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0291-9

[44]. 44.Akhtar, S. (2018). Mind, Culture, and Global Unrest: Psychoanalytic Reflections. Routledge.

[45]. 45.Pule, N. (2022). South African student leadership unrest and unsettled constructions: a CIBART analysis. South African Journal of Higher Education, 36 (2): 239–257.

[46]. 46.Leedy, P.D., & Ormrod, J.E. (2014) (eds). “Practical research: Planning and design.” Qualitative research: 141–172. Pearson Education.

[47]. 47.Jansen, J. (2019). As by Fire: The End of the South African University. Tafelberg.

[48]. 48.Salinsky, J. (2018). Balint groups and the Balint method." Supervision and Support in Primary Care.79–90. CRC Press.

[49]. 49.Whitelaw, E., Branson., N., & Leibbrandt, M. (2022). Social stratification around the NSFAS funding threshold: A dynamic approach to profiling the missing middle. (SALDRU Working Paper No.288) Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.

[50]. 50.Davids, N. (2021). Democratising South African universities: From activism to advocacy. Policy Futures in Education, 19(5), 568–581. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103211003421

[51]. 51.Bion, W. R. (1978). Selections from “Experiences in groups”. In A. D. Colman and W. H. Bexton (Eds.), Group relations reader 1: 11–20. A. K. Rice Institute.

[52]. 52.Bion, W. R. (1991). Learning from experience. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. (Original work published 1961).

[53]. 53.Ahn, M. Y., & Davis, H. H. (2020). Students’ sense of belonging and their socio-economic status in higher education: a quantitative approach. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(1), 136–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1778664