Abstract
The provision of specialised education in South Africa has reflected inequalities from the previous apartheid regime, particularly among the disadvantaged sectors of the population. There have been inadequate institutions that cater for specialised education in some instances and nothing at all in other cases. However, it has been observed that even where there are institutions that provide for specialised education or learning support, parents, and in certain instances educators, do not take timeous advantage thereof.
The review of literature relevant to this study involves: the historical development and the understanding of the phenomenon of learning difficulties; the role of parents in the education of their children and in home-school partnerships, both generally and more specifically with reference to the South African context. The study was conducted against the theoretical background of systems theory. Systems theory views the various levels and entities as sub-systems within the larger system, which is the social context. The functioning of the whole, that is, the social context, is dependent on the interaction within and between the ‘smaller’ systems. The family (parents) and the school (educators) form sub-systems, and both of them share the membership of the child. These two sub-systems need to collaborate with each other to ensure maximum development of the child.
This study sets out to explore and describe factors that prevent parents from seeking learning support for their children early, when they start failing in the foundation phase. The research question arose from the observation of the tendency by parents to bring their children for assessment long after the children had been experiencing repeated failures across the three primary school phases, namely the foundation, intermediate and senior phases. In most cases, parents brought the children when they were in the intermediate or senior phase, in spite of having had several failures in the foundation phase as well. It was this delay by parents to seek learning support for the children that became a cause for concern to the researcher and prompted an investigation in order to answer the question: What factors prevent parents from seeking learning support for their children in the Foundation Phase?
A case study design was chosen in order to explore answers to the question posed above. The purpose of using a case study was an endeavour to gain an understanding of the research question from the participants’ perspective. The case study was made up of sub-cases that were parents of children who all went to a particular school at the time of their referral for assessment of learning difficulties.
The data collected through unstructured interviews were analysed using the constant comparative method. The finding that emerged as a major factor that prevented parents from seeking learning support when children started failing in the foundation phase was ignorance of the phenomenon of learning difficulties and what could be done in the face of it. The other factors that were identified related to parents’ understanding of their children’s learning difficulties; their being illiterate; and the belief in cultural issues.
Recommendations were suggested for both the Educational Psychologist and educators relating to the need for parent education on the learning and development of their children with specific emphasis on learning difficulties. The role parents can play in partnership with educators was also highlighted.
Mrs. H. Krige