Emotional Intelligence, Academic Resilience, and Educational Achievement among Post-Apartheid University Students in South Africa: A Mixed Methods Study
Keywords:
emotional intelligence, academic resilience, post-apartheid education, ubuntu, South African higher educationAbstract
This mixed methods study investigates the roles of emotional intelligence and academic resilience in shaping educational achievement among post-apartheid university students in South Africa. Grounded in positive psychology and sociocultural resilience frameworks, the study employed a sequential explanatory design combining quantitative surveys administered to 398 undergraduate students from three historically disadvantaged and formerly advantaged universities across Johannesburg and Cape Town, with qualitative semi-structured interviews involving 24 participants. Findings reveal that emotional intelligence significantly predicted academic resilience (β = .61, p < .001), which in turn mediated the relationship between socioeconomic background and educational achievement. Qualitative data illuminated how ubuntu philosophy, community connectedness, and culturally specific coping strategies constituted distinctive resilience resources among Black African students navigating the persistent structural inequities of post-apartheid higher education. The study proposes a culturally responsive, ubuntu-informed resilience framework for supporting academic success in South African universities.
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