This study explored the barriers to education experienced by a group of learners in the context of HIV and AIDS. It also examined the extent to which HIV/AIDS is viewed as an exclusionary factor in the schooling experiences of primary school children. The research site was a co-educational school that is a service provider to mostly disadvantaged learners from a lower socio-economic background. There were twelve participants in the study: six girls and six boys. Four focus group interviews were conducted with the children to explore their experiences of potential barriers to education. Within the focus group sessions, various participatory research techniques were employed in data collection, including projective techniques, drawing exercises and ranking exercises. The study provides evidence of a complex, at times contradictory, and intricate web of barriers to education that learners experience in this schooling context. In general, various contextual factors have a profoundly negative impact on the children’s schooling experiences, in particular their access to quality education. Children are exposed to multiple, complex layers of risk and trauma from growing up in the context of HIV and AIDS. There is little evidence that the school has the resources to provide emotional and psychological support. The study has implications for the development of policy and intervention strategies that may meet these children’s needs. Finally, the study makes a contribution to research methodology in its use of participatory research techniques for data collection. The data exemplifies that children are active participants in and competent interpreters of their world – in this case their lives and schooling in the context of HIV and AIDS. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 2008.

This study investigated teachers’ management of learner problems in the context of an impoverished school community. The rationale for the study took into consideration the constant demands placed on learners and teachers by poverty-related issues. By illuminating the factors that affect teachers’ work performance in the context of an impoverished school community, it is hoped that all education stakeholders would be motivated to support, assist and guide teachers to overcome the current challenges with regard to poverty in schools, thus enhancing their work performance as well as that of their impoverished learners. The study employed a qualitative research design. Through a process of purposive sampling, five teachers from a primary school from the Phoenix Ward of the Pinetown District in KwaZulu-Natal were selected. The data were generated by means of semistructured interviews. The data gathered were coded and organized into themes, categories and sub-categories. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings suggest that the consequences of poverty at school level are numerous and become even more complex when there is a lack of parental support at community level. Furthermore, they reveal that poverty impacts negatively on learners’ academic performance. Factors associated with poor work performance by learners included abuse, parental apathy, the environment, and a lack of resources, to name but a few. Praise and recognition, as well as democratic leadership styles on the part of teachers have a positive influence on learners’ work performance. Flexibility, care and visible intervention by teachers and the school have been found to have a positive impact on learners’ attitude towards school. The study concludes with a number of recommendations to address and manage the problems experienced by learners in impoverished contexts. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.