Melanie Moen

Establishing a Reading Culture in a Rural Secondary School: A Literacy Intervention with Teachers

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary school in South Africa before and after a literacy intervention. The systems theory with interpretivism as the epistemological paradigm was employed. A rural secondary school was selected as part of an on-going Flourishing Learning Youth and Supportive Teachers Assets and Resilience studies on resilience and rural schools. Language teachers (n = 6, male = 1, female = 5) were purposively selected to participate. The literacy intervention was developed with phonetic acquisition as the basis to develop reading skills. It became evident that implementing English (additional language) as teaching and learning language in the school may have contributed to barriers to learning. Limited resources and reading instruction training exacerbated the problems. However, once the teachers acquired new skills and the children received the needed support, the improvement in overall academic achievement was significant.

Disquiet Voices Foretelling Hope: Rural Teachers’ Resilience Experiences of Past and Present Chronic Adversity

South African teachers leave teaching due to factors such as lack of support and adverse working conditions. This study investigated rural teachers’ resilience experiences of teaching in a resource-constrained school. A life history design was used to generate data. The research site was visited six times over 20 months. Fifteen interview–conversations were collected and transcribed. The results indicate that the teachers faced chronic poverty as life-span risks. The teachers listed the unstable education system, resource-constrained teaching environment and chronic adversity as risk factors in their environment. They were also concerned with the illiteracy of parents and demotivated students. Significantly, this study shows how rural teachers fostered hope despite chronic adversity in order to be resilient in their chosen profession.

Telling stories and adding scores: Measuring resilience in young children affected by maternal HIV and AIDS

“Telling stories and adding scores: Measuring resilience in young children affected by maternal HIV and AIDS”, demonstrates how a concurrent mixed method design assisted cross-cultural comparison and ecological descriptions of resilience in young South African children, as well as validated alternative ways to measure resilience in young children. In a longitudinal randomised control trial, which investigated psychological resilience in mothers and children affected by HIV/AIDS, we combined a qualitative projective story-telling technique (Düss Fable) with quantitative data (Child Behaviour Checklist). The children mostly displayed adaptive resilience-related behaviours, although maladaptive behaviours were present. Participating children use internal (resolve/agency, positive future expectations, emotional intelligence) and external protective resources (material resources, positive institutions) to mediate adaptation. Childrens maladaptive behaviours were exacerbated by internal (limited problem-solving skills, negative emotions) and external risk factors (chronic and cumulative adversity).

How Inclusive Education Is Understood by Principals of Independent Schools.

Inclusive education has become a practice that has been adopted by many schools across the globe and most usually in first-world countries. As a whole-school system, it occurs less frequently in developing countries including South Africa which unlike many developing countries has a sound infrastructure and many excellent schools in both the state and the independent sectors. Education White Paper 6: Special education: Building an inclusive education and training system was published in 2001 with the express intention of developing an inclusive education system in South Africa. Some South African independent schools have successfully implemented valuable forms of inclusion in their schools and this is the phenomenon that was studied. This study reveals various aspects of the inclusive process including the pivotal role that principals play in the transformation process of which inclusive education is the harbinger. It also analyses why principals choose to embrace a paradigm that on the surface is uncomfortable and not an easy option. We used narrative research as methodology for this qualitative research. The basic tenet was that inclusion leads to belonging and excellence in education. The major findings were that inclusion to most principals was about taking action, humanity and emotion. The principals also described inclusion as personal and pragmatic. The implications for action are of interest not only to principals, but to anyone who is seriously interested in innovative and more humane forms of anti-oppressive education.

Drawing sadness: what are young children telling us?

ABSTRACT This article reports on the emotional factors that contribute to children’s sadness. As teachers are the most appropriate caregivers to detect problems and to address the impact of these challenges, 30 teachers asked 224 children (N=224) to draw and describe their experiences of sadness. From these drawings, two distinctive themes emerged, namely violence mostly relating to bullying, and experiences of loss. This article provides empirically derived insights which are important in the understanding of young children’s emotional and social needs within the broader society and have implications for teacher training curricula at higher education institutions. Student teachers need to be made aware of the factors that impact on the child’s emotional well-being. Teachers should also be equipped to support and deal with these adversities in a school situation. Future research studies relating to children’s experiences of violence and loss should be conducted in more diverse contexts where ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds should be considered.

Adolescents’ Views on the Power of Violence in a Rural School in South Africa:

This study aims to explain how adolescents in a rural high school conceptualise school violence. Qualitative data were collected over two two-day periods (24 hours) through child-centred tasks like drawing and the completion of open-ended sentences, informal conversations regarding the given activities, observations documented as visual data (photographs), a research journal, and focus group discussions. In total, four boys and five girls participated in the study. Results of the study indicate that the adolescents (aged 15–17 years) view school violence both as negative, in that it causes harm, and positive, in that it serves as a strategy to ensure order and protection. The adolescents conceptualise violence as interweaving constructs of power, discipline and aggression. Future adolescent-focused interventions regarding violence must include conversations about these nuanced understandings.

Principals' Perceptions and Experiences of the Role Parents Play in School Governing Bodies in Rural Areas.

ABSTRACT This study investigated the perceptions and experiences of rural school principals in South Africa of the role that parents in the school governing bodies (SGBs) play in improving school management and governance. The study reports on a literature review as well as on the empirical investigation, which was based on a qualitative research paradigm. Semi-structured interviews with the principals of three different rural schools were employed to collect data. The literature findings revealed that including parents as part of the SGB is seen as an essential component for the successful functioning of the school. The empirical study also emphasised the importance of including parents. However, the principals were concerned about the fact that many members of the SGB are illiterate and uncertain of the role they play in school governance. The principals emphasised the need for training of the members of SGBs as regards their working knowledge of school governance activities.

UNCOVERING YOUNG CHILDREN'S EMERGING IDENTITIES RELATED TO THEIR LITERACY EXPERIENCES: SUGGESTIONS TO STRENGTHEN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

The study explored how young children’s identities emerged from their drawings and accounts of their favourite stories as we argue the importance of understanding children in the context of school and language education. Sixty-six (n=66) children of two urban schools in Pretoria, South Africa were asked to write about and draw their favourite story. The participants were between the ages of six and seven years. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Chen’s theory of the construction of identity in a social context were used as conceptual framework. This conceptual framework could be linked to the findings which suggested that the children related their drawings and versions of their favourite stories to their interpretations of their life worlds. The prominent themes from the data could be associated with the self, the family, familiar objects and known animals. Their literacy experiences and the socio-cultural influences on the children’s construction of their identities were apparent in their work. We argue that teachers need to better understand how children understand themselves in relation to the world around them when making decisions about effective language education.

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Abstract Children are placed in the care of educators on a daily basis. Accidents and incidents occur despite the best efforts of schools to ensure the safety of children and educators. This study investigated how prepared schools are to keep children and educators safe and also ways of improving school safety. The study was carried out at four urban public schools in South Africa. Interviews, non-participant observations and document analysis were used to investigate the phenomenon. The study indicated, that legislation was not adequately implemented. The main barrier to proper implementation of the Act related to access control and preparedness for searches, child supervision and discipline, preparedness for emergencies, South African Police Services and community relations, school safety policy suitability and implementation, hazards on the schools’ premises, understanding the concepts of liability and a lack of Departmental support and staff training. Comprehensive safety training is recommended to improve school safety.