In this paper, we will present a reflection on reviewed literature on African indigenous understanding of spirituality, highlighting the influence of this concept on notions of the self, motivation and well-being. The indigenous understanding of spirituality is central to the understanding of the self as distinct, but positioned within the relational-collective self. This African indigenous perception of the self is grounded within the autonomous experience of the tenets of spirituality, which is explored in this paper through the lens of self-determination theory. The experience of autonomy, which is represented in this paper as choice and consent, competence and relatedness within spirituality, is considered as an intrinsic motivation factor for African indigenous communities to achieve well-being. Hence, we argue for the relevance of identifying and exploring ways that an understanding of the African indigenous spiritual belief systems, and the various ways that this understanding impacts on well-being for African indigenous communities, can be unearthed and scrutinized.

BackgroundDisability inclusion in the curricula of higher education institutions contributes to socially responsive graduates with a capacity to address the cross-cutting issue of disability in development. This article discusses a study conducted at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, to explore disability inclusion.MethodologyAn instrumental case study approach was adopted and a thematic analysis of data was done.FindingsAcademic staff found a variety of ways to include disability, such as discussions in class, practice and service learning, but mainly as part of disciplinary requirements. Including disability as an issue of social justice stems mostly from the personal interest of staff, and is done in an ad hoc manner.ConclusionDisability should be valued, and integrated into the curriculum in a structured manner as a perspective on diversity with which to interrogate our beliefs about ourselves and society. Theorising on disability is needed, as well as the unique perspectives that emerge across interdisciplinary boundaries, especially within the African context.

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Policies guide how we practice as professionals and service providers. A critical engagement with policy analysis is needed and the field of disability and rehabilitation is no exception. This is because the discourse of rehabilitation is a fluid construct that has been subject to the changing understandings of, and approaches to, disability. Research indicates that professionals and service providers struggle with the divide that regularly exists between policy formation and policy implementation. Reasons for this divide include the fact that the process of policy formation does not take the context of implementation into account, leaving professionals and service providers on their own to interpret and apply the policy to their work. We posit that policy literacy is a core contributor to the capacity to understand policy content, to interpret it in light of existing factors and to implement policy in a contextually relevant manner. In this paper, we describe a practice-based teaching innovation of authentic learning through which a cohort of 11 postgraduate diploma student-participants was supported to address the challenge of understanding, implementing and contributing to policy in their own work contexts.

In this article, we reflect on the process of the implementation of enacted social justice through the concepts of conscious affirmation and informed compassion, within the methodological processes utilized when carrying out a qualitative research study in a South African Indigenous community. The enactment of social justice during the study conceptualization and implementation process is evidenced by ensuring the conformity of the research processes to relevant and culturally congruent approaches as endorsed by the participants and context. We further reflect on the challenges and benefits experienced in this process while arguing for the relevance of exploring the use of conscious affirmation and informed compassion to support an enacted social justice process for research within African Indigenous communities.