23 November 2019
University of Pretoria

Ms Basson was one of six students that were invited to present as part of the rapid-fire student sessions, chaired by Amanda Cromhout at the founding Symposium of the South African Positive Psychology Association in November 2019. The symposium entitled ‘Positive Psychology in South Africa: Transcending Boundaries’ was hosted at the Future Africa campus and brought together established and aspiring academia who works from a positive psychology framework.

Ms Basson’s presentation focused on her recently accepted PhD proposal: “A systematic review of resilience-enabling educational psychology pathways in challenged education spaces in Africa”. The presentation aimed to provide an overview of the study including research questions and methodology. By making use of a mixed-method systematic review methodology, the study aims to take a look at the current state of research in the African context in order to create a solid foundation from which researchers can create opportunities for tackling issues together through future research projects and interventions.  During her presentation, Ms Basson emphasised that it is important that research focus areas should be unique to Africa and concentrate on our strengths as a diverse and extraordinary continent.  As South African researchers, we need to shift away from solely focussing on the problems we experience, instead, we should aim to pursue and promote positive adaptive behaviour through interdisciplinary research and collaborations.