The Role of Mathematics and Science Education in the Adult Offender Rehabilitation Process
Siphelele Mbatha 
, Halalisani Mngomezulu , Nonhlanhla Nduku & Onelisa Mbathu
Issue: Vol.5 No.14 Issue Article 2 pp.2464 – 2479
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245142 | Published online 28th November, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
After the advent of democracy, the South African Department of Correctional Services implemented offender rehabilitation programmes as a means towards the humanistic approach to imprisonment, as opposed to the punishment approach. These programmes, even though not ostensible at first, were designed as the means for catalysing positive social behaviour, and for equipping offenders with the necessary skills to function in the work of skilled trade. The paper sought to explore, amongst the plethora of offender rehabilitation programmes, the role of mathematics and science education post-offender incarceration. From the pragmatic epistemological stance, qualitative and quantitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires, from four conveniently sampled ex-offenders. Framed within the QUANT-QUAL explanatory sequential mixed methods research design, and analysed thematically, through the lens of Vroom’s (1964) Expectancy Motivation Theory, the findings revealed that mathematics and science offender education does not significantly correlate with offenders’ ex-offenders’ employment prospects. The study also revealed an insignificant correlation between mathematics and science education and reduced recidivism. The researchers recommend the intervention from the South African legal; framework, to reduce ex-offenders’ criminal record duration so that their employment prospects will be broadened. The study presented in this intellectual piece will contribute to scholarship by situating mathematics and science learning within the ubiquitous offender rehabilitation cycle. The study will further aid in disseminating the unique role of offender mathematics and science education, particularly for scholars and policymakers whose focus is on offender rehabilitation in the democratic dispensation.
Keywords: Mathematics and Science Education, Ex-offenders, Correctional Centres, Offender Rehabilitation Process
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Dr. Siphelele Mbatha is a lecturer at the University of the Free State, South Africa. His research interests lie within correctional education, adult offenders’ mathematics learning and educationists’ andragogical strategies for teaching mathematics in correctional centre classrooms. He advocates for the use of formal education as the resource for and towards the completion of adult offenders’ rehabilitation process. He has published scholarly articles in national and international journals.
Dr. Halalisani Mngomezulu is a lecturer at the University of the Free State, South Africa. His research interests is on Assessment in Science education, inquiry-based learning as well as professional teacher development. He published articles in accredited journals, He presented papers in National and International Conference. Amongst his other accolades; Dr Mngomezulu has been a visiting scholar at the United States, Columbia University-Teachers College.
Dr Nonhlanhla Nduku is a lecturer at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Her research interests lie within the teaching and learning of Agricultural Sciences. She also explores the role of professional teacher development in Agricultural Sciences’ pedagogical practices in the Further Education and Training phase.
Dr Onelisa Nomfundo Mbathu is a lecturer at the University of Zululand with a Doctorate in African Languages from the University of Johannesburg (UJ). She worked as a lecturer at the University of the Free State (UFS). Onelisa also holds a Post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), completed with the University of South Africa (UNISA). Her research interests are African literature, onomastics, poetry, morphology, phonology, semantics, sociolinguistics, and language education.
Mbatha, Siphelele , Halalisani Mngomezulu, Nonhlanhla Nduku & Onelisa Mbathu. “The Role of Mathematics and Science Education in the Adult Offender Rehabilitation Process,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.14 (2024): 2464 – 2479. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245142
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
