Thematic content analysis of lockdown and domestic violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa

South Africa has been battling the scourge of the COVID-19 Pandemic which has negatively affected many individuals and families. The South African government imposed a national lockdown to mitigate the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the lockdown also brought more challenges such as increased violence cases. Against this background, this study sought to analyse the COVID-19 lockdown and domestic violence in South Africa. A non-empirical research design was used where documents from search engines such as Google scholar, EBSCOhost and ProQuest were sampled and reviewed using keywords and phrases related to COVID-19, lockdown and domestic violence to filter relevant data, restricted to 2002-2022. The inductive Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was used to analyze the collected data. Findings reveal that the South African Lockdown has contributed to the rise of domestic violence cases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results further indicate that victims of domestic violence face psychosocial challenges due to domestic violence. Programs that are aimed at creating awareness and empowering victims of domestic violence are recommended by this study. It is further recommended that policies protecting citizens against domestic violence be reviewed and strengthened.

Analysing coping strategies of students for online teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the adoption of online teaching and learning. Several studies show that both students and lecturers benefit from online teaching and learning in cases where contact learning cannot take place. However, other studies reveal that some students face challenges during online teaching and learning, requiring them to develop coping mechanisms. Thus, the objective of this study was aimed at accentuating the coping strategies of students for online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A non-empirical research design was adopted for this study. Search engines such as 'Google scholar were used to sample and review documents using keywords to source relevant data that is from 2002 to 2022. Data were analysed using inductive Thematic Content Analysis (TCA). The study's findings show that access to online teaching and learning is challenging for some students. It was also revealed that some students cope with the challenges of online learning and teaching by employing positive strategies such as seeking support while some students employ harmful coping mechanisms such as using drugs and alcohol to cope with the challenges they face during online teaching and learning. The underlined conclusion suggests that online teaching and learning should be accessible and support systems for students should be available. Mobilisation of resources that will help all students to participate in online teaching and learning is needed.