Resolving the Problem of the Expression “Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed” in Matthew 17:20
Ebenezer Quaye 
Issue: Vol.5 No.14 Issue Article 3 pp.2480-2489
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245143 | 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
Alexander, Melissa. “Applying Implementation Research to Improve Community Corrections: Making Sure That New Thing Sticks.” Fed. Probation 75 (2011): 47.
Balfour, Gillian. “Searching Prison Cells and Prisoner Bodies: Redacting Carceral Power and Glimpsing Gendered Resistance in Women’s Prisons.” Criminology & Criminal Justice 18, no.2(2018):139–55.
Bozick, Robert, Jennifer Steele, Lois Davis, and Susan Turner. “Does Providing Inmates with Education Improve Postrelease Outcomes? A Meta-Analysis of Correctional Education Programs in the United States.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 14 (2018): 389–428.
Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, no. 2 (2006): 77–101.
Conway, Patrick Filipe. “Getting the Debate Right: The Second Chance Pell Program, Governor Cuomo’s Right Priorities Initiative, and the Involvement of Higher Education in Prison.” Harvard Educational Review 90, no. 4 (2020): 598–616.
Daouk-Öyry, Lina, and Hadi El-Farr. Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. SAGE Publications, Inc., 2023.
Drápal, Jakub. “Using Re-Conviction Data to Measure Re-Offending: Incorporating Seriousness and Frequency into a Single Non-Binary Measure.” Charles University in Prague Faculty of Law Research Paper No (2021).
Halim, Syahrina‘Adliana Abdul, Julizaerma Mohamad Khudzari, Nor Ezrine, Sharifah Faatihah Syed Mohd Fuzi Yusoff, Siti Hajjar Mohd Amin, and Noor Hanim Rahmat. “Exploring The Relationship between Learning Approaches and Vroom Motivation AMONG Undergraduate Learners at Malaysian Universities,” 2023.
Hinton, Perry R, Isabella McMurray, and Charlotte Brownlow. SPSS Explained. Routledge, 2014.
Lokman, Asmidar, Farihah Hassan, Yus Aznita Ustadi, F A A Rahman, Z M Zain, and Noor Hanim Rahmat. “Investigating Motivation for Learning via Vroom’s Theory.” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 12, no. 1 (2022): 504–30.
Lopez, Amy K. “The Impact of Career and Technical Education Program Outcomes in the Windham School District on Offender Post-Release Employment Status.” Sam Houston State University, 2020.
Mbatha, Siphelele. “The Role of Translanguaging in Teaching Mathematics at Adult Correctional Centre Classrooms in South Africa.” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no. 6 (June 4, 2024): 825–34. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2024563.
McGuire, James. “‘What Works’ to Reduce Re‐offending: 18 Years On.” What Works in Offender Rehabilitation: An Evidence‐based Approach to Assessment and Treatment, 2013, 20–49.
Mnisi, Nomalanga Ellen, and Marelize Schoeman. “An Analysis of Offender Social Reintegration Programmes Delivered by Non-Governmental Organisations.” Acta Criminologica: African Journal of Criminology & Victimology 36, no. 3 (2023): 1–20.
Mokoele, Matata. “Correctional Sentence Plan: A Pathway to Adult Correctional Education.” Adult Learning 27, no. 2 (2016): 87–89.
Mokoele, N J, M J Masenya, and K I Makalela. “Performance Management as a Mechanism to Effective Public Service Delivery in South Africa.” African Journal of Public Affairs 10, no. 4 (2018):106–18.
Netto, Nicholas Raphael, James Michael Carter, and Christopher Bonell. “A Systematic Review of Interventions That Adopt the ‘Good Lives’ Approach to Offender Rehabilitation.” Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 53, no. 6 (2014): 403–32.
Newton, Danielle, Andrew Day, Margaret Giles, Joanne Wodak, Joe Graffam, and Eileen Baldry. “The Impact of Vocational Education and Training Programs on Recidivism: A Systematic Review of Current Experimental Evidence.” International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 62, no. 1 (2018): 187–207.
Spaull, Nicholas. “Poverty & Privilege: Primary School Inequality in South Africa.” International Journal of Educational Development 33, no. 5 (2013): 436–47.
Spaull, Nicholas, and Janeli Kotze. “Starting behind and Staying behind in South Africa: The Case of Insurmountable Learning Deficits in Mathematics.” International Journal of Educational Development 41 (2015): 13–24.
Spaull, Nicholas, Elizabeth Pretorius, and Nompumelelo Mohohlwane. “Investigating the Comprehension Iceberg: Developing Empirical Benchmarks for Early-Grade Reading in Agglutinating African Languages.” South African Journal of Childhood Education 10, no. 1 (2020): 1–14.
Stein, Mary Kay, and Julia H Kaufman. “Selecting and Supporting the Use of Mathematics Curricula at Scale.” American Educational Research Journal 47, no. 3 (2010): 663-93.
Subramanian, Arvin, A Seetharaman, and Koilakuntla Maddulety. “Critical Review Of Binge Watching Behaviour Through The Prism Of Vroom’s Expectancy Theory.” Academy of Marketing Studies Journal 24, no. 3 (2020): 1–11.
Vandala, Ntombizanele Gloria. “The Transformative Effect of Correctional Education: A Global Perspective.” Cogent Social Sciences 5, no. 1 (2019): 1677122.
Ebenezer Quaye, PhD in Theology (New Testament Studies) is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theological Studies, Valley View University. He is a known transformational author, speaker and influencer through his seminar, workshop, conference and other personal engagements as well as a discussant of diverse issues of global significance. He combines both academic and public speaking in a seamless manner to reach thousands across the world. As a biblicist, he researches in pistology, mother-tongue and translation issues, lexicography, leadership and other areas of global scope that transform societies.
Quaye, Ebenezer. “Resolving the Problem of the Expression “Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed” in Matthew 17:20,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.14 (2024): 2480-2489. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245143
© 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/).
