Abstract
South African teachers are not sufficiently equipped to address psychosocial challenges
that they encounter in under-resourced contexts among learners at school, and which
impact negatively on learning and teaching. In this article, we report on the first cycle of
a community-based participatory action research project undertaken with teacher
participants to facilitate a collaborative understanding of the contextual psychosocial
challenges that learners face. The aim of the study was to equip teachers with sustainable
capacity to conduct a participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) enquiry
that would enhance their ability to identify and address contextual psychosocial
challenges to promote wellness. Following a PALAR design, we collaborated with 10
volunteer teachers for the generation of qualitative data through relationship building
activities, individual interviews, the creation of visual artefacts, and informal group
discussions. Data were analysed thematically in collaboration with the community of
participants. Findings suggest that the process assisted the teachers to gain a deeper
understanding of learners’ psychosocial challenges, encouraged a sense of group identity
among coresearchers, and fostered their agency to begin to address the identified
challenges and to network with community stakeholders to promote wellness among
themselves and among learners.