1. UNDERSTANDING THE MIND OF the STUDENT: INSIGHTS FROM A STUDENT LEADERSHIP STUDY Doctoral study for completion of PhD in Consulting Psychology Neo Pule NASDEV CONFERENCE, October 2015

2. The study - Overview  Student leadership studied from a social construction perspective  Analysed with a psychosocial lens  As a result, students were given an opportunity to be involved in the co – construction student leadership  through the means of social dream drawing.

3. Overview  The results portrayed a psychodynamic dimension in the use of language in the social construction process (during the co – construction).  This dimension has pointed out to how students have worked with diversity at an unconscious level.  As such, working with diversity has been evidenced to be important in the social construction of student leadership

4. Proposal from the study It therefore appears to be useful to view students as PSYCHOSOCIAL PARTICIPANTS in the pursuit to understand the mind of the student

5. Case for PSYCHOSOCIAL approach  Participant viewed as both social and psychological (psychic)  avoid asking why – get an explanation but never really understand motivation, aspiration etc.  Rather to understand for intentional and directed intervention rather then explain  Introduce the concept of Defendedness (ward off anxiety or master it)

6. The defended participant/ less defended space  I propose SC amongst others happens beyond the conscious (refer to traditional SC idea)  ALSO discursive; which means that issues of power, power dynamics and position as well as positioning of others come into play  Therefore threat ANXIETY PROVOKED  The warding or mastering of the threat/ anxiety happens below the surface (unconscious in nature)

7. The defended participant/ less defended space  Having recognised the defended participant – facilitate a less  defended space by introducing  FREE ASSOCIATION

8. Social dream drawing  Data collected on three levels  Dream sharing  Dream owned by the group – Associations and amplifications  Conversation about the topic (conscious level)

11. The value of free association  Free association affords the opportunity to tap into unconscious material in a research project (Clarke & Hoggett, 2009, Holloway & Jefferson, 2013)  When looking at data with a psychosocial lens; the interest moves further than the study of the language itself (Parker, 2010) to interest in the unconscious dynamics that are used to avoid anxiety or to master it (Holloway & Jefferson, 2013).  According to Holloway and Jefferson (2005), free association makes visible what may have been otherwise invisible.

12. Approach to data analysis Discourse analysis through a psychosocial lens  What do I notice?  Why do I notice what I notice?  How is defendedness played out or what is the anxiety that participants are defending themselves from?  What is my reflexivity?  What is the meaning of what I notice in the context of the whole context?

13. The mind games people play  What we listen for in language  How language in interaction is represented  Positions of defendedness

14. Preliminary findings: Observations made  Initially when I interacted with the data, I was more drawn and found it easy to relate to the conversation level.  Obsv :  when student leaders interact with others they seem to be more comfortable with cognitive engagement  others may also get stuck at what the student leaders are saying with less consideration for the other layers or levels that are part of the interaction.  When others get stuck on what the student leaders are saying on the conscious level they may miss out on the rest of the social construction process  They also remain with a ‘limited’ version of the story that is most probably not explored.

15. Preliminary findings: Observations made  On the other hand,  the student leaders may also be wanting to provide the ‘limited’ version  and eliminate to talk about what can be what is represented by associations(pre-conscious) and dream drawings (unconscious) in the language of this research.  The ‘game’ they play is to leave others with the easily perceivable rather than going into the crux of matters or the real conversation that may be hidden ; represented by the pre- conscious and unconscious levels of the conversation.

16. Subjectivity  Respective individual participants’ thinking, feeling and experience (Harper & Thompson, 2012).  Plays a role between the interplay between emotional responses and interpersonal dynamic  To be aware of the participants’ subjectivity makes room for the observations of the beneath the surface issues (dynamics )

17. Main Line in the story  I am anxious about diversity  It’s blurry

18. Preliminary findings: themes that emerge  I defend myself in student leadership  Discourse of diversity  Agency/scripts of authorisation  Working with dichotomies  Reality in vs. reality out  Cane

19. Preliminary findings: themes that emerge  Depressive discourse  Agency/ scripts of de-authorisation  The South African story  Leadership context is dark and a container  Faceless and facades

20. Preliminary findings: themes that emerge  Interpersonal connections and disconnections  Also implicating leadership identity development  Ego – centric approach  Boer vs child then gangsterism  Guns to shoot  Guns in victory  Ghandi (non – fighting with guns)  Mandela

21. Preliminary findings: themes that emerge  Trade off: Violence and Peace  As a means of communication  Power, competition, normalised discriminatory strategies  Rollercoaster ride

22. Concluding remarks  The student sample provides us an opportunity to become innovative and creative in terms of research methodology  The complexity of the sample and the dynamics involved in their process invites us to think more critically and to go beyond the obvious  The student sample also provides us an opportunity to understand the dynamics of what is beyond them – that, that happens outside their sphere and has a direct or indirect impact on them or that, that they influence or that influences them (that is the system psychodynamics )