Submitted in fulfillment of a degree of requirement of a degree of
Masters in Community Work
In the Department of Social Work in the Faculty of Arts
At the University of Zululand
Supervisor: Prof N.H. Ntombela
Co-Supervisor: Dr J.D. Adams
Date of Submission: November 2014 / The essence of the study was on the experiences of orphaned learners at school. These
experiences were limited to the psychosocial support being provided by educators and their
peers to the orphaned learners during their time at school. Bearing in mind the level of stress
these orphaned learners go through after the loss of their biological parents, the purpose of the
study was hence to explore how orphancy was being supported psychosocially and the extent
to which these support contributes to their learning and continuation of schooling. The
researcher objective was to understand how orphaned learners perceive themselves through
the psychosocial support they receive from their peers and educators. The significance of this
study was to provide an account of how orphanhood should be catered during their schooling.
To attain the research objective, a qualitative research design was used to explore the
experience of the orphaned learners consequently an exploratory study. Semi-structured
interviews were used as an instrument for data collection and seven participants were
purposively selected due to their rarity. These participants were within high schools from the
Eskhaleni Township. These participants were double orphans because they had lost both
parents prior to study and residing with extended families and others reside in child-headed
homes.
The analysis of the data revealed that orphaned learner do experience support from their peers
and educators while at school. Within the boundaries of psychosocial support the findings
showed that these learners received social support from both educator and peers. Social
support was in the form of motivational talk, empathized and sympathized concerns were
expressed from their peers and educators. Peculiar to peers were the social attention they
received during school hours most especially when their countenance were perceived to be
moody. Whilst most educators only reacted in the provision of social support after realizing
that the participants were not performing well at school. Unlike social support, the
participants revealed that they did not receive any form of psychological support from neither
peers nor educators. Out of the scope of the study the participants nonetheless acknowledged
other forms of supports that they got from their peers and educators such as financial supports
and were of much valuable and appreciative from their perspective.
The researcher therefore recommended that township school should be provided with
professional counselors at schools. Furthermore the South African School Act, Children’s
Right and School based policies should be amended in considerations of orphaned leaners
necessities. / University of Zululand Research Fund,
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1383 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Mshengu, Nosipho Precious |
| Contributors | Ntombela, NH, Adams, JD |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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