The Role of School Engagement in Strengthening Resilience among Male Street Children

Abstract

Globally, considerable numbers of at-risk children continue to disengage from school by dropping out and adopting street life for various reasons. These children survive in environments that are devoid of resilience-promoting resources. In South Africa, non-governmental organisations accommodate street children in shelters and send them to schools. This qualitative South African study examined whether or not school engagement strengthened resilience among male school-going street children in residential care. We conducted three semi-structured focus group interviews with the street children who volunteered participation in this study. The study involved 17 street children aged between 11 and 17 years. The participants had lived on the streets for periods ranging from three months to five years. The participants were in Grades 6–11. The transcribed interviews were thematically analysed. The findings showed that school engagement strengthened resilience among the participants by promoting pro-social change, future orientation, opportunities for support, learning of basic skills and restoration of childhood. The findings show researchers, health-care and educational practitioners that through school engagement, schools can expose street children to healthy and supportive social and academic environments in order to enable them to regain their childhoods, remain in school and function resiliently. The findings therefore, reconfirmed school engagement as a powerful, multifaceted resilience-promoting resource even for children with street life experiences.

Factors affecting the academic achievement in socioeconomically disadvantaged students

“…Another study highlighted that the disadvantaged high-achieving students establish stronger connections with the school and attach more value to the school compared to the low-achieving ones (Gonzales & Padilla, 1997). While there were some studies asserting that positive attitudes towards school do not affect achievement (Adıgüzel & Karadaş, 2013;Yavuz, 2015), the general tendency in the literature is that it improves achievement (Cheng & Chan, 2003;Ford & Ill, 2008;Lamb & Fullarton, 2002;Malindi & Machenjedze, 2012;OECD, 2003;Tatar, 2006). In fact, the academic achievement of a student who does not like the school and does not like going to the school cannot be expected to be the same as the academic achievement of a student who likes the school, enjoys going to the school, and cares about the school.…”

“…The positive attitudes towards school consitute a protective factor (Maddox & Prinz, 2003) and this serves as a bridge between student-school and student-achievement for disadvantaged students (Ungar & Liebenberg, 2013). Therefore, as the students' positive attitudes towards the school increases, their level of academic resilience (Malindi & Machenjedze, 2012) and academic achievement (OECD, 2003) increase and the dropout rates decrease (Orfield, 2004). Considering this and the related results from this study, the socioeconomically disadvantaged highachieving students can show a high performance independent from their attitudes and sense of belonging towards the school.…”

“…Bir başka çalışmada da, dezavantajlı yüksek başarılı öğrencilerin, düşük başarılara göre okula karşı daha olumlu bağ kurdukları, okula daha çok değer verdikleri vurgulanmaktadır (Gonzales & Padilla, 1997). Okula yönelik olumlu tutumun başarıyı etkilemediğini bildiren çalışmalara rastlanmakla birlikte (Adıgüzel & Karadaş, 2013;Yavuz, 2015) alanyazında genel eğilim başarıyı artırdığı yönündedir (Cheng & Chan, 2003;Ford & Ill, 2008;Lamb & Fullarton, 2002;Malindi & Machenjedze, 2012;OECD, 2003;Tatar, 2006). Esasen okulunu sevmeyen, okula gitmekten hoşlanmayan, bir öğrencinin akademik başarısı ile okulunu seven, okula gitmekten zevk alan, okulu önemseyen bir öğrencinin akademik başarısının aynı olması beklenmez.…”

“…Çünkü okula karşı geliştirilen olumlu tutum, bir koruyucu faktördür (Maddox & Prinz, 2003) ve bu durum dezavantajlı öğrenciler için öğrenci-okul ve öğrenci-başarı arasında köprü vazifesi görmektedir (Ungar & Liebenberg, 2013). Bu nedenle, öğrencinin okula yönelik olumlu tutumu arttıkça akademik yılmazlık düzeyinin (Malindi & Machenjedze, 2012), akademik başarısının (OECD, 2003) yükseleceği ve okul terkinin azalacağı (Orfield, 2004) belirtilmektedir. Bu durum ve araştırmanın bu sonucu dikkate alındığında, sosyoekonomik açıdan dezavantajlı yüksek başarılı öğrencilerin okula yönelik tutum ve okula aidiyet hissinden bağımsız olarak yüksek performans gösterebildikleri söylenebilir.…”

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

“…An asset-based paradigm (McKnight & Kretzmann, 1993;Pillay, 2012) suggests that teachers possess the potential and willingness to support vulnerable learners if they are equipped with the knowledge and skills to do this (Hoadley, 2007;Malindi & Machenjedze, 2012;Mampane & Bouwer, 2006;Theron, 2009). In this article, the authors suggest that a participatory action learning and action research (PALAR, Zuber-Skerritt, 2012) process would be suitable to improve the capacity of participating teachers to support learners and thereby feel less overwhelmed and anxious.…”