Collaborated understandings of context-specific psychosocial challenges facing South African school learners: a participatory approach

Abstract

South African teachers are not sufficiently equipped to address psychosocial challenges that they encounter in under-resourced contexts among learners at school, and which impact negatively on learning and teaching. In this article, we report on the first cycle of a community-based participatory action research project undertaken with teacher participants to facilitate a collaborative understanding of the contextual psychosocial challenges that learners face. The aim of the study was to equip teachers with sustainable capacity to conduct a participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) enquiry that would enhance their ability to identify and address contextual psychosocial challenges to promote wellness. Following a PALAR design, we collaborated with 10 volunteer teachers for the generation of qualitative data through relationship building activities, individual interviews, the creation of visual artefacts, and informal group discussions. Data were analysed thematically in collaboration with the community of participants. Findings suggest that the process assisted the teachers to gain a deeper understanding of learners' psychosocial challenges, encouraged a sense of group identity among coresearchers, and fostered their agency to begin to address the identified challenges and to network with community stakeholders to promote wellness among themselves and among learners.

An integrated multisectoral and multidisciplinary community of practice collaboration to enhance child wellbeing in South Africa

“…The seeming lack of ownership of collaboration efforts has been noted by other researchers (Setlhare et al ., 2016). This is concerning because, as Goodwin (2016) emphasizes, what matters most in collaborative integrated care is not the organizational solutions but how they are received and employed by the end users.…”

“…At one school, where buy-in to the project was initially a challenge, it was clear that the teachers thought of the meetings as something that they were doing for us, as researchers, instead of together with us for the children, as practitioners with a common goal: enhancing children's wellbeing. The seeming lack of ownership of collaboration efforts has been noted by other researchers (Setlhare et al, 2016). This is concerning because, as Goodwin (2016) emphasizes, what matters most in collaborative integrated care is not the organizational solutions but how they are received and employed by the end users.…”

Teacher awareness of psychosocial support available as per the Integrated School Health Policy in South Africa

“…Due to the various overlapping psychosocial challenges that learners simultaneously face, many South African teachers feel they are not sufficiently equipped to support their learners (Setlhare et al 2016 The districts are responsible with ensure all schools have functioning SBSTs and that the principals, SGBs, educators and support teachers are familiar with the ISHP protocol and that the schools adhere to this protocol and use the prescribed monitoring tools appropriately.…”

“…Under-resourced South African schools are still undergoing various psychosocial stressors that affect their children and teachers' well-being (Setlhare, Wood & Meyer 2016). The most pertinent psychosocial stressors children face relate to family concerns of poverty, absent parents, domestic violence, parents' physical health and parents' mental health (Stats SA 2018); negative environmental factors in the schools such as gangsterism, bullying and stigma (Setlhare et al 2016); personal factors such as teenage pregnancies and substance abuse (Department of Basic Education 2013) and lastly personal mental health factors of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), learning disorders (Grosser 2016), depression, anxiety and suicide ideation (Strydom, Pretorius & Joubert 2012). As a response to support schools in improving the overall well-being of their children and the community around them, the South African government initiated the Integrated School Health Policy (ISHP) in 2012 (South Africa 2012).…”

“…However, despite the ISHP regulations in place, some publications indicate that teachers in under-resourced government schools are not sufficiently equipped to address their learners' psychosocial challenges (eds. Donald et al 2014;Setlhare et al 2016;Spaull 2013). This study aims to establish the level of knowledge of the ISHP among the school teachers with a focus on the level of information and insights the school teachers have in terms of psychosocial challenges their learners face and the child-well-being interventions available to them at their schools, as provided by the Departments of Social Welfare, Health and Education.…”