Disability, Resilience and Career Construction in Rural Lesotho

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to explore career construction of a man with dysarthria and how he resiled to the golden age of 50 despite disability and illiteracy. Through a qualitative idiographic case study, three members of Seithati’s family were interviewed: the mother, a sister and a brother. The interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed and three themes that emerged were: Exclusion/inclusion dynamic, Biopsychosocial model of support and Informal/formal careers. The article concludes that informal careers are feasible alternatives for people with disabilities not in education, employment or training. Informal careers can assist them to develop skills to be employable.

KEYWORDS:

• Career construction
• disability
• dysarthria
• employability
• Lesotho
• resilience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. ‘Resile’ is a resilient word; it’s been around in English since at least 1529. It’s also a cousin of ‘resilient’ – both words derive from the Latin verb ‘resilire’, which means to ‘jump back’ or ‘recoil’.

2. This is a Sesotho description of an extremely clean and well-groomed person.