A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Needs Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2015 / The family is a child‟s primary context for socialisation and may greatly affects a child‟s well-being negatively or positively. The family context might affect the child‟s entire life and also interferes with learning. Historically, families have been changing for ages due to social and economic factors, thus resulting in various family structures worldwide. It appears that a stable family structure is most conducive to a child‟s academic success whereas unstable family structure predicts academic problems. This situation seems to be a major obstacle to the quality of education. Thus, it was imperative for the researcher to undertake this study. The researcher reviewed different theories on how family structures may contribute to school-based problems. Over and above that, current study is underpinned by three theories, namely behaviouralism, system theory and Bandura‟s social learning theories. The objectives of the study were to ascertain the extent to which a relationship exists between selected family structures and school-based problems; to determine whether there was any association between school-based problems and the variables such as learners‟ age, learners‟ gender and learners‟ educational level, and to establish educators‟ recommendations so as to develop an intervention model. The mixed approach design was employed. A cluster sampling technique was used to randomly select 165 participants in six districts of KwaZulu-Natal province. The educators were requested to rate learners. A biographical questionnaire, the “Student Behaviour Survey” (SBS) and an open-ended questionnaire were used to collect data. The data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. This implies that the SBS manual, thematic approach, Person Chi squire and Log-Linear analysis techniques were utilized to analyse data. A computer package known as Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) was also employed. The findings of the present study revealed that learners from KwaZulu-Natal schools experienced various problems due to the influence of their family background or family structures and learners‟ characteristics such as age, gender and educational level. The study also revealed that family structure was influential on the following problems: academic habits, interpersonal relations and emotional distress. Learners‟ age was found to be associated to conduct problems, interpersonal relations, social withdrawal, emotional distress, as well as physical aggression. Gender was found to have an impact on learners‟ health and social interactions. The study focused on nuclear, extended, single parent, child-headed, grand parenting, polygamous and divorced families. Finally, the model of intervention was developed. This model also aimed at introducing a school-based approach that will empower both parents and teachers to handle and prevent school-based or psychological problems among learners in different grades. These problems were found in a sample which was constituted of predominately African learners. The present study also reflected that there is a need of contributions from different specialists, including parents. Educational psychologist and other mental health professions should assist educators to implement the developed model and also play their role in changing and minimising the various problems faced by learners in KwaZulu-Natal schools, more especially in rural areas. The Department of Education should support all stakeholders with the resources needed to implement the proposed intervention model to improve the entire physical environment of the school, as well the infrastructure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1447 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Zulu, Sibongile Primrose |
| Contributors | Sibaya, P.T., Hlongwane, M.M. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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