Employing developed sewing training material in an intervention for low-literate participants of rural income generating projects

Abstract

The lack of appropriate training materials has been found to be a hindrance in sewing income generating projects (IGPs) in rural communities. While the development of material for these communities has been undertaken and a variety of commercial materials exist, its appropriateness (in terms of grade level, content, language and format) for application in rural sewing IGPs has remained questionable. The aim of this study was therefore to review existing training materials and to determine the sewing training needs in order to develop and implement new sewing training material interventions for IGP participants, and to evaluate the appropriateness of these materials employed in the rural sewing IGPs in the North-West Province (NWP), South Africa (SA). This study comprised five objectives using both qualitative and quantitative methods which were executed within the six phases of the intervention research (IR) design. During the IR phase one, situation analysis and project planning was undertaken. In the IR phase two, existing sewing training materials were reviewed for appropriateness and application in rural sewing IGPs. This was achieved by conducting interviews with IGP community facilitators and undertaking document analysis of the commercially available sources. The findings of this explorative and descriptive qualitative phase provided the researcher with an understanding of the uses and challenges of textual sewing training material within the unique context of the rural sewing IGPs, while also identifying the most prominent sewing training needs within these units. The outcome revealed a need to redesign training materials for these rural sewing IGPs and proposed criteria to ensure appropriateness for low-literate end-users. Based on these findings, two sewing training instructional pamphlets were designed (IR phase 3) and pilot tested (IR phase 4). The design attempted a decolonised approach by incorporating an indigenous framework with factors related to culture and language being applied throughout the development. Pilot testing was undertaken to determine the perceived readability and understanding of the IGP participants as intended users thereof, as well as the usefulness, learning and quality of the pamphlets. The results of the pilot test revealed that the participants liked the pamphlets, that they perceived it to be easy to read and understand, and that they understood all the visual materials within them. Three of the four participants indicated that they should be shorter. Based on these results, the pamphlets were modified prior to the main investigation. The results of the intervention (presented within IR phase 5) indicated that both of the sewing training instructional pamphlets exerted a large impact on the outcomes of the interventions. The results also showed large effect sizes across all three rankings of educational attainment (for low-literate; low-to-medium literate; and literate individuals) confirming the appropriateness of the sewing training materials for the participants in rural sewing IGPs (as disseminated within IR phase 6).