Sexual abuse is not being reported adequately. Teachers are in an ideal position to
deal with and report sexual abuse. However, research, as well as practical
experience, shows that teachers are not sufficiently trained to deal with sexual abuse.
Various establishments offer training initiatives to teachers, but it is unclear what the
teachers’ perceptions are of the training after completion thereof.
The goal of this research was to explore the perceptions of teachers after they had
been exposed to an available training programme called “Understanding the Scope of
Child Abuse”. The programme forms part of the training material of Forensic
Assessment Consultation Training (FACT). FACT is a training company which offers
support and training to professional people on the topic of sexual abuse.
The researcher followed a qualitative approach. Twenty teachers from Welkom,
Odendaalsrus, Virginia, Wesselsbron and Bothaville were involved in two separate
training sessions. After completion of the training sessions, two focus group
interviews were conducted in order to explore the participants’ perceptions regarding
the training programme.
The results show clearly that the perceptions of the teachers who participated in the
Understanding the Scope of Child Abuse programme were significantly positive. It is
also clear that there was a certain need among teachers for information such as
provided by the programme. Besides the dispensation of relevant information, which was regarded as valuable and appropriate, participants valued the group
consolidation and felt confident to share experiences regarding sexual abuse.
Participants cherished the information not only as teachers, but also in their capacity
as parents. They agreed there was a need for such training, even before
participating in the study. It was recommended that colleagues, student teachers and
parents should undertake the same training, conducted in a similar way. / MSW (Forensic Practice), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/14718 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Barnard, Suria |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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