Gaofetoge Ganamotse

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

An investigation of coach autonomy support, life skills acquisition, and the five Cs among junior and senior secondary school athletes in Botswana

By Tshepang Tshube

Guided by models of positive youth development (PYD), this study examined the associations among perceived coach autonomy support, life skills acquisition, and the Five Cs of PYD. Cross-sectional data were collected from a purposive sample of 300 youth athletes (M-age = 17.16, SD = 1.28, male = 53.5%) recruited from public junior and secondary schools in Botswana. Participants completed measures of coach autonomy support, life skills acquisition, and the Five Cs. Results from regression analyses indicated that perceived coach autonomy support was significantly associated with the perceived acquisition of eight life skills through sport (e.g., teamwork, goal setting), as well as character (B = .10, p = .001), connection (B = .15, p < .001), and caring/compassion (B = .10, p = .006) dimensions of PYD. Of the eight sport-specific life skills examined, perceived acquisition of teamwork was significantly related to athletes' perceptions of competence (B = 0.21, p = .023), confidence (B = 0.14, p = .009), and connection (B = 0.16, p = .012), while perceived acquisition of social skills was significantly related to athletes' perception of character (B = 0.11, p = .022). These findings highlight perceived coach autonomy support as important to life skills acquisition and positive developmental outcomes among Botswana youth athletes. Importantly, in this African context, sport appears to be a compelling pathway through which youth can attain valuable competencies, such as teamwork and social skills, that promote positive personal (i.e., competence, confidence, character) and social outcomes (i.e., connection) external to sport.

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Reflecting on Experiences of Learning among Adult Learners with Multiple Responsibilities: A Case of Evening Programmes at a University in Tanzania

By Tshepang Tshube

The focus of this paper is to report the findings of a qualitative study whose purpose was to analyse the experiences of adult learners pursuing evening postgraduate degree programmes at the university level in Tanzania. Using ethnographic research combined with multiple case research design, together with in-depth interviews and documentary review, data were generated from 20 postgraduate students from one school within a university in Tanzania. The resulting qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis. The study found that university adult learners in these evening programmes combined learning with their full-time employment, family, and social responsibilities as well as extra income-generating activities. Inevitably, these multiple responsibilities, as the study established, adversely affected their academic performance and duration for programme completion. In fact, completion on a part-time basis depended on dispositional factors such as individual learner's efforts and strategies adopted to cope with the situation, with many others either delaying completion or dropping out altogether. This scenario invites rethinking the modus operandi of programmes to facilitate postgraduate students' completion rates amid widening participation in higher education.

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