Abstract
The School-Based Support Teams are designed to ensure that inclusive policies are executed at school level. The aim of this structure is to provide care and support for all learners (including learners with same-sex sexual orientations). The school should be an affirming space, where homosexuals are embraced and where the status quo (heterosexuality) is not the only sexual orientation that is accepted. However, through this study it is evident that the school studied is still lacking in terms of the implementation of inclusive education. For instance, data revealed that the school does not embrace sexual diversity. As a result, the welfare of learners with same-sex sexual orientations in this educational setting is compromised because of the compulsory heteronormative culture that is dominant in these institutions. This study explores the responses of members in the School-Based Support Team (SBST) to the care and support of learners with same-sex sexual orientations in a township school. The researcher took a qualitative approach with a constructivist paradigm. In this study, data was collected by means of face-to-face interviews with ten selected participants. All of these members were in SBSTs. Themes then developed from the data. The first theme showed that educators in the SBST do not perceive learners with same-sex sexual orientations as learners who require care and support. According to them, learners who need support are those with medical deficits. The second theme shows that the educators in the SBST are nonresponsive when it comes from discrimination and prejudice faced by learners with same-sex sexual orientations. The last theme revealed that many educators are perpetrators of homophobia and violence. The findings from this research provide evidence that through intensive inservice training it is possible for the SBST and educators to fight forms of oppression against learners with same-sex sexual orientations. The main conclusion from this study is that educators in the SBST lack knowledge on how to care for and support learners with same-sex sexual orientations. Thus, the SBST must be trained and developed in order to respond to the needs of learners with same-sex sexual orientations.
M.A. (Education)