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Understanding Educational Psychology •

Understanding Educational Psychology

Copyright © 2017. Juta and Company [Pty] Ltd. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted
Understanding Educational Psychology is a collaboration between researchers and
practitioners from 16 South African universities. They provide succinct, thoughtful and
contextually relevant insight into the field of Educational Psychology in South Africa today.

The text presents examples rooted in the South African context and nuanced
understandings of the complexities of Educational Psychology as a developing field.

Understanding
The text:
• covers diverse themes, and focuses on areas such as teaching and learning, teachers,
cognition, language, health and well-being, inclusion, schools, careers and educational
psychological support;
• presents a multitude of insights on some of the most urgent challenges faced by
educational psychologists; Educational
• offers innovative approaches in dealing with the multifaceted challenges at the
individual and systemic levels, including the opportunities that are inherent to contexts
of high adversity;
• suggests contemporary interpretations of Educational Psychology, while simultaneously
Psychology
responding to the vibrant global discourses in this and related fields; and
• is written in highly accessible language.

Understanding Educational Psychology is aimed at scholars and students of Educational

Psychology. It can be used by undergraduate students as an introduction to the field,
at the same time serving as a valuable insight for scholars into recent research and
interventions. It will also be of interest to teachers in understanding the psychological
dimensions of their critical role.

Irma Eloff & Estelle Swart (editors)

The editors:
Irma Eloff is a professor of Educational Psychology in the Department of Educational
Psychology at the University of Pretoria, a registered educational psychologist and a rated
social scientist.
Estelle Swart is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Stellenbosch
University, a registered educational psychologist and also a rated researcher.

under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Irma Eloff & Estelle Swart (editors)

www.jutaacademic.co.za

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Understanding educational psychology
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24 Promoting psychosocial
well-being in teaching
and learning environments

Cheryl Ferreira, Connie Haasbroek, Beverly Feldman,

Monkie Moseki & Chantel Weber

What transforms education, is a transformed being in the world.

(Parker Palmer)

Introduction
Imagine a thirteen-year-old girl whose parents have passed away. She has three
siblings, lives in a shack in an informal settlement and, because of flooding, she
has been left homeless. Their only source of income is a meagre state subsidy.
Adding to these devastating circumstances, she is pregnant, has contracted
HIV/AIDS and is bullied mercilessly by a group of girls in her school. These are
the stark realities of many learners in the South African schooling system. At the
same time, in classrooms around the country, many teachers are overwhelmed
and often debilitated by overcrowded classrooms, a constantly changing
curriculum, mounting administrative tasks and limited resources for assisting
and supporting the learners in their classrooms. All these factors can impede on
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both the learners’ and the teachers’ psychosocial well-being.

In this chapter, we will be exploring the factors that play a role in the
psychosocial well-being of both the learners and the teachers in these
demoralising teaching and learning environments. Subsequently, we will suggest
ways to promote psychosocial well-being in educational settings.

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Promoting psychosocial well-being in teaching and learning environments 24

Understanding the term ‘psychosocial well-being’

The term ‘psychosocial’ emphasises the interrelationship between psychological

aspects that involve personal thoughts, emotions and behaviour and social
experiences that pertain to relationships, tradition and culture (UNICEF, 2009).
Well-being may be defined as having sufficient internal or external resources to
balance and strengthen the demands made on a person’s life or the challenges
that have to be faced (Dodge, Daly, Huyton & Sanders, 2012). Together, these
terms imply a state of physical, psychological, mental, social and spiritual well-
being, also referred to as psychosocial well-being, which enables learners and
teachers to cope with daily stressors and to fulfil their potential. Psychosocial
support facilitates resilience within individuals, families and communities. ‘It
promotes the restoration of social cohesion and infrastructure by respecting the
dignity, independence and coping mechanisms of individuals and communities.’
(Inter-Agency Network of Education in Emergencies, 2016).
At the heart of psychosocial well-being sits social and emotional competence,
which can be developed and taught at school. Education, therefore, is an
important psychosocial intervention in building learner resilience, since learners
can acquire knowledge, attitudes, decision-making and other skills to enable
them to cope better in the face of psychosocial challenges. Learning to cope
socially and emotionally is referred to as socio-emotional learning, described
by UNICEF (2015) as ‘the process of acquiring social and emotional values,
attitudes, competencies, knowledge, and skills that are essential for learning,
being effective, well-being, and success in life’. Zsolnai (2015) considers socio-
emotional competence to be significant in improving an individual’s ability to
activate the most appropriate skill to handle a given situation.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory is of particular significance for
identifying the complex influences, interactions and interrelationships that can
either impede or promote learners’ and teachers’ psychosocial well-being. It is
important for teachers to be familiar with this theory themselves as it will assist
them to provide supportive learning and teaching environments in the South
African schooling context (Nel, Nel & Hugo, 2013).
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory of human

development
Bronfenbrenner’s multidimensional model looks at the various interacting
systems that affect child development and result in change. Bronfenbrenner
identified five levels or systems, which are circular in nature. This means that
what happens in one system or level will affect the other systems and may cause
a ripple effect for further change. Figure 24.1 illustrates these levels at a glance.

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Chronosystem
* Relation to time
* External timing of death of close ones
* Internal psychological changes over time

Macrosystem
* Cultural values and beliefs, customs,
laws, social conditions

Exosystem
* Other people: Parents' workplace,
extended family, neighbourhood

Mesosystem
* Connections between the
structures in the microsystem
* Teacher/parent

Microsystem
* Immediate environment
* Family and caregivers

Figure 24.1 Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory

As illustrated in Figure 24.1, the microsystem is the first level and includes the
relationships with family, peers, teachers and caregivers.
The mesosystem provides the connections between the structures of an
individual’s microsystem (Berk, 2000), for example, the interaction between a
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child’s parents and the school and the school’s participation in the child’s life.
The exosystem refers to environments in which the child is not directly
involved, but which still play an important part in the child’s development, for
example, the parents’ workplace or the neighbourhood in which they grow up.
The macrosystem refers to the attitudes, beliefs and values of a society
or culture, which may be further influenced by the other systems that play a
part in the child’s development, for example, values and beliefs could include
democracy, social justice and ubuntu (Nel, et al, 2013).

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Promoting psychosocial well-being in teaching and learning environments 24

The chronosystem looks at the developmental timeframes that are

involved in the interactions between these systems and their influence on child
development. They may be external moments that affect the child’s life such as a
parent’s death, or internal psychological changes such as inferiority complexes,
which may also influence the child as he/she gets older.

Learners’ psychosocial well-being

In examining learners’ psychosocial well-being within the framework of
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, it becomes clear why the thirteen-
year-old girl mentioned earlier, who was possibly sexually abused, may eventually
experience academic failure and drop out of school. It is also possible that she
may come to display violent behaviour. On all levels, her adverse circumstances
may influence her psychosocial well-being.
Sexually abused children often suffer from anxiety, post-traumatic stress,
guilt, depression and low self-esteem (Carr, 2000; Gardner, 2002). Education
provides an opportunity for children to understand that they have the right to
be protected from abuse, how to respond in high-risk situations and where to
seek help in the event of abuse. The life skills curriculum, for example, provides
important socio-emotional lessons on appropriate touching, assertiveness and
self-awareness.
There is a thin line between abuse in general and school violence, with abuse
generally being the major reason for violence at school. Schools then become
sites of violence, and this has become a national concern. Consequently, in
2012, the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention (CJCP), with the support of
the Department of Education (DoE) at that stage, undertook a National School
Violence Study (NSVS) focusing on secondary schools in all nine provinces
(Burton & Leoschut, 2012:xi). The study sample consisted of 5 939 learners,
121 principals and 239 teachers. The key findings indicated that one in five
learners (22.2%) had experienced some form of violence that year while at
school. This amounted to 1 020 597 secondary school learners. Certain forms
of victimisation, specifically bullying, were found to create vulnerability for
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

other more serious and criminal offences such as alcohol and drug abuse and
even murder, as weapons were found to be readily available to many learners.
Violent incidents at schools also included violence committed against and
by teachers (Burton & Leoschut, 2012). As much as schools are the sites of
such violence, they also have the potential to support learners psychosocially
through socio-emotional learning experiences that includes conflict resolution,
appropriate ways to express and regulate anger and other extreme emotions.
In schools, learners may have opportunities to experience basic social justice

215

that is restorative, rather than retributive in how conflicts and code of conduct
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violations are handled.

Depression and fatigue, two other common results of school violence, can
translate to enduring psychosocial effects, which have an influence not only
on the individual victim but also on the way victims associate with and adjust
to society’s norms and values in general. School violence further erodes the
ability of casualties to form healthy, pro-social and trusting relationships with
peers and adults. Their sense of hope and optimism in their future erodes and,
consequently, their ability to cope with any adversity and difficulties they may
face (Burton & Leoschut, 2012). Learners may internalise feelings and withdraw
from everyday interactions with peers and others. For these reasons, teachers
should observe sudden changes in behaviour and moods in their learners and as
pastoral caregivers should be supportive when a learner seems to display needs
of an emotional or physical nature. For this and other reasons mentioned in this
chapter, it is necessary for teachers to develop their skills repertoire to include
lay counselling for the benefit of learners in need of such support.
Another study on post-traumatic stress in HIV/AIDS orphaned children
found that these children were more prone to symptoms of depression and
behavioural problems at school. Such social issues can also affect teachers,
learners and the community at large. This in turn can impact on the different
subsystems and are illustrated by the systems ecological theory (Donald,
Lazarus & Lolwana, 2001). Nonetheless, psychosocial support was considered
to have beneficial effects, particularly in buffering responses to such extreme
stress (Cluver, Fincham & Seedat, 2009). Teachers, therefore, not only have to
play a pastoral or caregiver role but also have a legal responsibility to take on
some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent. They need to act in loco
parentis, a Latin term which means ‘in the place of a parent’. There are further
constitutional obligations and policies that teachers should take cognisance of
that pertain to the psychosocial well-being of learners.

Legal support for psychosocial well-being in learners

under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Republic of South

Africa, 1996b) guarantees the right to a basic education for all children in South
Africa, including vulnerable groups, and to take into account the child’s best
interests. This includes learners who are in conflict with the law, those who have
never enrolled in school such as learners living in poverty, children with HIV/
AIDS and children with disabilities (Landsberg, Krüger & Swart, 2016). These
vulnerable groups are also covered by the Children’s Act No. 38 of 2005 (Republic
of South Africa, 2005). The right to a basic education further incorporates the
right to equality and the right not to be discriminated against; these basic human

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rights are also stipulated in the Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy
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(Department of Education, 2001), as well as the South African Schools Act No.
84 of 1996 (Republic of South Africa, 1996c).
Additionally, the Care and Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL)
Programme is a Southern African Development Community (SADC) initiative
to realise the educational rights of all children, including those who are most
vulnerable, through schools becoming inclusive, caring and supportive. To
realise its goal by 2015, the Department of Education identified nine priority
areas, of which psychosocial support is one. In this regard, school-based support
entails the school acting as the primary service provider or as the vehicle for
other service providers to reach vulnerable children and youth. This programme
highlights the prominent role that schools and teachers have to play in creating
safe and caring psychosocial teaching and learning environments.

The importance of the teacher’s psychosocial

well-being
For a better understanding of teachers’ psychosocial well-being, a definition
proposed by the Psychosocial Working Group (2003) of the United Nations
is useful. This definition views the psychosocial well-being of individuals and
communities through three core domains which are described in the sections
that follow.

Human capacity
Human capacity refers to teachers’ mental and physical health with specific
focus on their knowledge base, capabilities and skills. It may be thought of as the
teachers’ awareness of their strengths and values and being able to draw on them
when necessary, especially when confronted by challenges and demands within
their personal lives and work environment, as described previously.

Social ecology
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Social ecology refers to the network of support surrounding the teacher or the
school community. This includes personal and professional support, cohesive
relationships, as well as support structures at all levels of the teacher’s ecosystem
such as the department, district, community, school and personal support and
relationships (see also Chapters 25 and 27).

Culture and values

Cultural values relate to the value system that influences the norms and
behaviour within every society and links to individual and social expectations.

217

Both culture and value systems play a major role in psychosocial well-being in
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that they influence individual and social aspects of functioning. This system may
affect the way a particular society sees the teaching profession, and ultimately
how a teacher is respected and supported.
These three domains simultaneously reflect areas in which teacher resilience
can be strengthened and developed to improve their psychosocial well-being.
A closer look indicates how these domains align with the macro systems of
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and how one system can affect the
other either positively or negatively.

The teachers’ role in creating a safe psychosocial

environment
School ecologies or systems are by nature filled with protective factors that
support children to adjust constructively to various challenges (Theron, 2016).
According to resilience-focused literature, schools can be regarded as
mesosystemic resources that are, or can be, instrumental to the process of resilience.
Consequently, by using the protective resources available, one can mediate an
ecology of resilience risk factors (here poverty-related). Furthermore, teachers’
socio-emotional competence is equally important for promoting positive
learning environments for the learners they teach (Hen & Goroshit, 2016).
Now, reimagine the thirteen-year-old girl we mentioned earlier. Irrespective
of her social challenges, she may have had a loving and nurturing caregiver,
a caring teacher, traditional and religious surroundings and supporting
community-based centres. Her context could, therefore, serve as resilience-
building factors, thereby becoming assets (Landsberg, Krüger & Swart, 2016).
These aspects may, from an African perspective, also incorporate a spiritual
domain, which includes spiritual and traditional healers. All these affirming
factors can contribute to her psychosocial well-being.
Teachers are uniquely positioned to support positive psychosocial
outcomes for children living in adverse contexts, as their position within the
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children’s social ecologies allows them to reach out to children living difficult
lives (Theron & Engelbrecht, 2012). However, they should be aware that they
are only a part of the collection of any ecology’s protective resources that are
involved in facilitating resilience in children. It is therefore crucial for schools to
identify others who can offer resources that are beyond the school’s capability in
promoting psychosocial well-being in teaching and learning environments from
an inclusive and holistic perspective.
Research further indicates that teachers may be the only social, emotional,
material and spiritual refuge that a learner encounters (Landsberg, Krüger &

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Promoting psychosocial well-being in teaching and learning environments 24

Swart, 2016). Literature has highlighted the following skills for teachers which
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play a vital role in fostering well-being, resilience and coping (Acevedo &
Hernandez-Wolfe, 2014; Cefai, 2007; Masten, 2014; Theron, 2016).
For example, teachers should:
• Develop warm, respectful connections by conveying the message that they
are ‘there’ for the learners in all circumstances, thereby showing compassion
and empathy, irrespective of the negative behaviour learners may exhibit;
• Communicate achievable, consistent expectations by recognising existing
strengths and competencies and using their strengths to overcome challenges
and problems;
• Facilitate the learning of other life skills such as anger management,
assertiveness, communication skills, goal setting and conflict resolution;
• Engage and develop learners as active, capable agents by allowing them to
participate in all school activities, even curriculum planning and evaluation
strategies;
• Develop learners’ creativity in dealing with any classroom or school-related
problems so as to promote a physically and psychologically safe teaching and
learning environment; and
• Develop networking and collaborative relationships with appropriate
stakeholders.
Taking the above aspects into consideration, it is important to point out that
rendering psychosocial care does not belong to the Life Orientation teacher
and the school-based support team alone. All teachers have a major role to
play in providing life orientation skills to learners. Training all teachers in life
orientation would also enable them to cope with the large numbers of orphans
and vulnerable children (OVC) in public schools (Wood & Goba, 2011). It is thus
every teacher’s responsibility to render psychosocial support and to create and
maintain an enabling teaching and learning environment. One can, therefore,
recommend basic counselling skills as a strategy that could be employed
to equip teachers with the knowledge and expertise to identify learners with
psychosocial needs and refer them to the right services, especially the OVC
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(Mwomai & Pillay, 2015).

Promoting psychosocial well-being within diverse

teaching and learning contexts
Teachers should understand their roles and responsibilities as active
multidisciplinary team members in rendering psychosocial support and
promoting psychosocial well-being in various education and learning

219

environments. The roles and responsibilities for teachers, as illustrated in the

South African norms and standards for educators (Department of Education,

2000), do not require teachers to become therapists, but they do require teachers
to have the knowledge and skills to screen, identify and assess, as well as to
render first-level support to any school community.
The multidisciplinary team members should include not only professionals
trained within the western medical model, such as psychologists and social
workers, but also traditional healers, faith-based leaders and organisations,
as well as community elders and leaders. The skilled teacher should be able
to identify and appreciate contributions made by different role players in the
interests of the individual’s and the school community’s well-being.
In order to be able to screen, identify and assess, and to render first-level
psychosocial support, teachers should have a thorough understanding of child
development and learning theories and be sensitive to cultural differences within
diverse contexts. In South Africa, the South African Council for Educators
(SACE) recognises that an educational institution serves the community and
also that there will be various customs and belief systems in that community
(Landsberg, Krüger & Swart, 2016). Respect for tribal and traditional belief
systems is a crucial element for any successful counselling process. The principles
of ubuntu are therefore crucial for understanding and upholding these systems
as well as for enabling teachers to bridge cultural differences by using different
cultural lenses as prescribed by or in a particular cultural context (see also
Chapters 3, 6 and 12).

Conclusion
In this chapter, we explored the psychosocial factors that can inhibit or promote
the well-being of learners and teachers in educational environments within the
framework of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. We discussed the
teacher’s role in creating a safe psychosocial educational environment, which
includes various teaching and learning contexts. We ascertained that teachers
should consider how an ecology of resilience-risk factors such as poverty, HIV/
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

AIDS and other adverse social factors can be mediated and serve as assets by
using available protective resources from the micro- to the macro level. Skills
related to counselling, in which teachers play a vital role should also be honed
and employed to foster and promote psychosocial well-being in educational
environments.

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25 A relationship-focused
approach to the optimal
development of learning
and well-being

Ansie Elizabeth Kitching

When relational well-being is at the centre of our concern we approach a

life-giving future. (Gergen, 2009)

Introduction
Human beings are relational beings who cannot develop optimally without
the presence of others. Relationships therefore play a significant role in the
co-construction of positive learning environments (Roffey, 2012). From this
position, schools and classrooms can be perceived as relational spaces in which
the interactions between teachers, learners and parents will contribute to the
achievement of academic outcomes and the promotion of children’s well-
being. The co-construction of relational spaces, that presents a basis for the
development of learning and well-being, are a concerted effort between all role
players. However, teachers, due to their position, play a significant role in the
co-construction of the process and should therefore be equipped to guide the
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

process.
Educational psychology as a discipline, that applies the understanding of the
processes of human interaction in contexts of learning and well-being, is positioned
to equip teachers to facilitate such positive learning environments in their class-
rooms and schools. In this chapter, a relationship-focused approach is presented
to guide teachers to incorporate six key elements, identified through research
conducted in schools from an educational psychology perspective, to facilitate the
co-construction of relational spaces, that are conducive for the optimal development
of learning and well-being.

Why a relationship-focused approach?

Teachers are often trained to perceive people as individuals, who can function
independent of one another. Gregen (2009), challenges this perception and
argues that, as human beings, we are relational beings who cannot exist without
others. From the perspective of complexity theory on human behaviour, schools
and classrooms are complex, interactive and dynamic processes of relating and
interacting (Jörg, 2009; Mason, 2008; Shaw, 2002; Stacey, 2001, 2003, 2007).
These complex interactive ways of relating and interacting influence how those
involved experience these spaces (Morrison, 2002). Teachers should, therefore,
be equipped to apply a relationship-focused approach to ensure that they
effectively deal with the complexity of human relating and interacting in their
classrooms, as a basis for optimising learning and well-being.

The critical role of relationships in the optimal

development of learning and well-being
Research literature in the field of educational psychology strongly emphasises the
importance of the relationships as a basis for the optimal development of learning
and well-being. Meier and Wood (2004) argue that schools are transformed
and through human relationships. The role of relationships is emphasised in
school climate literature (Cohen, Pickeral & McCloskey, 2008; Thapa, Cohen,
Guffrey & Higgins-D’Alessandro, 2013). Positive and supportive relationships
enhance the healthy functioning and development of both teachers and learners
(Zandvliet, Den Brok, Mainhard & Van Tartwijk, 2014). The positive impact
of warm and supportive relationships on learner motivation and engagement
is evident as relationships facilitate a productive learning environment (Fraser,
2007; Martin, 2014). Konu and Rimpelä (2002) include social relations as an
important category in the evaluation of well-being in schools. Roffey (2008,
2010) argues that a focus on relationships on all levels has a positive ripple effect
on well-being and on the motivation and performance of learners. Individuals
in school communities should, therefore, be embedded in networks of positive
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

and supporting relationships in order to flourish (McCubbin, McCubbin,

Zhang, Kehl & Strom, 2013). According to Molemane (2000), a web of caring
relationships contributes to a school climate that fosters school effectiveness.
Trusting, respectful and cooperative relationships also promote the maintenance
of discipline (Mokhele, 2006).

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A relationship-focused approach to the optimal development of learning and well-being 25

What does a relationship-focused approach to the

optimal development of learning and well-being

encompass?
Human behaviour is too complex to design a blueprint programme with a set
of rules that teachers can apply to facilitate relational spaces in their classrooms
and school communities (Cilliers, 1998). The facilitation of such supportive
relational spaces, necessitates an understanding that the teachers, learners and
parents form a web of interrelatedness through their interactions with one
another (Josselson, 1996).
In this web of interrelatedness, patterns of relating and interacting develop:
A restraining relational pattern may be, for example, the exclusion of certain
learners or parents through name-calling and gossiping, while caring for fellow
learners or colleagues by assisting them with an assignment or complimenting
them indicates a nurturing relational pattern. Teachers should be able to
recognise these relational patterns and associated interactions to be able to give
voice to the relational dimension of being together. This implies that teachers
have to be equipped to observe and reflect on interactions among themselves,
learners and parents on a continual basis. Teachers should also be able to engage
with one another, learners and parents in spontaneous dialogue about how they
relate and interact with one another. These dialogical conversations should be
reflexive and ongoing in nature, which means that teachers should be able to
reflect on their own experiences as well as guide learners and parents to reflect
on their experiences of being together in a specific context. Through these
reflexive engagements with one another, they can obtain a deeper understanding
about what they should do together to co-construct relational spaces that will
contribute to the optimal development of learning and well-being.
In the next section, six key elements identified through research conducted
in South African school contexts (Kitching, 2010; Kitching, Roos & Ferreira,
2011, 2012; Ungerer, 2012; Wagner, 2014), that should be incorporated in the
ongoing conversations between teachers, learners and parents, are presented.
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

The brief discussions indicate how each key element might contribute to
the co-construction of relational spaces in which learning and well-being
could be developed:
1. Connectedness as a key element of ongoing conversations implies the
enhancement of a sense of connectedness across all levels of interrelatedness,
ie, between teacher−teacher, teacher−learner, learner−learner, teacher−
parents, learner−parent, and parent−parent. Enhancing a sense of
connectedness implies more than merely telling people to reach out to one
another by greeting one another or knowing the names of individuals. A sense

223

of connectedness is described in research literature as getting acquainted on

a more personal level within and beyond the boundaries created by a system
(McLauglin & Clarke, 2010). To facilitate a sense of connectedness, teachers,
learners and parents should become more visible to one another as human
beings, regardless of their capacity and status. In this way a deep sense of
understanding for one another, that will facilitate what Roffey (2015) refers
to as inclusive belonging, as opposed to exclusive belonging where only
certain groups are connected.
2. Respect as a key element of ongoing conversations encompasses a mutual
process of respect due and respect earned (Dillon, 2007; Hajii, 2006).
Teachers, learners and parents should be encouraged to view each other as
equals and show consideration for one another by accepting one another
and appreciating one another. Input should be valued with regard to the
process of co-constructing enabling spaces. Teachers—by default—often
accept that respect is an intrinsic value that should be displayed by all
involved. However, research conducted by Jones (2002) found that respect
is not necessarily linked to intrinsic worth but based on the nature and
quality of relationships between people. People show respect if it is shown
to them, but, if they perceive another person as dismissive, inattentive or
unaware, no respect is awarded. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance
that teachers emphasise the mutual, reciprocal character of respect. Van der
Merwe (2004) concurs that persons, who would like to be respected, should
show respect. In relationships with learners, the responsibility to initiate and
maintain respect rests on the shoulders of adults.
3. Care as a key element of ongoing conversations implies the acceptance
of the unique capabilities and characteristics of all individuals (Roffey,
2012). Furthermore, care involves an emphatic engagement between these
individuals. The love for fellow human beings and a willingness to serve
others and to address legitimate needs in formal and informal support
networks form the basis of this emphatic engagement (Barnes & Duck, 1994).
An emphasis on the principle of love and kindness as a basis for serving
and supporting others should hence be emphasised on a continuous basis
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to counter rigorous academic standards and high performance expectations

that can dehumanise people (McLennan, 2008). Teachers should also model
a deep sense of care in their interactions with colleagues, learners and parents
while encouraging other role players to be caring, kind and supportive
towards one another (Noddings, 2002, 2010).
4. Responsibility as a key element of ongoing conversations emphasises the
shared responsibility of all involved in a relational space for changing it into
a space for optimal learning and well-being. Responsibility is often perceived

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as a core duty of teachers but viewed from a complexity perspective, teachers

as individuals cannot construct a relational space on their own. Ongoing

conversations should emphasise the role of every role player involved. Shared
responsibility can best be illustrated by thinking of relational spaces as a web
of threads that connect all involved in a particular space—movement in any
part of the web influences the whole web. This implies that teachers, learners
and parents should understand that they, for example, cannot blame others
for existing tension in a relational space, without taking responsibility for
their own role in creating tension in the first place.
5. Power as a key element of ongoing conversations implies that teachers
have to understand that power is present in all relationships and that they
cannot disregard the role of power in the co-construction of enabling spaces.
Foucault (1982) describes power relations as a set of actions that induces
others to act in a manner that makes it either easier or more difficult for
them to act in a particular context. An in-depth understanding of these
two sides of power and power relations is critical for the co-construction
of supportive relational spaces. Teachers often become engaged in power
plays due to a lack of understanding—power forms part of all relationships.
When teachers do not understand these two sides of power, they might
become engaged in power struggles with colleagues, learners and parents
that will create interactive dynamics that can disrupt the co-construction
of relational spaces that enhance learning and well-being. However, when
teachers understand power dynamics, they will be able to allow learners and
parents to have a voice in the co-construction of classrooms and schools into
such supportive relational spaces (Nelson & Prilleltensky, 2010).
6. Communication is a key element of ongoing conversations and encompasses
more than sending and receiving messages and information. Commu-
nication implies a process of making sense of what happens in a particular space
and sharing that with others (Suchman, 2006). Through this process people
co-construct inter-subjective spaces in which they encounter one another as
individuals and explore challenges together (Heslep, 2001). Teachers should,
therefore, make sure they facilitate open and honest communication about
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their own experiences and the experiences of learners and parents of how
they function together in classrooms and school communities. In practice,
this implies that conversations among teachers, learners and parents should
move beyond merely discussing academic work. The conversations should
also include reflections on the way they relate and interact with one another
across all levels of interrelatedness and the identification of strategies for
creating relational spaces in which all involved, are included.

225

In the graphic representation depicted in Figure 25.1, a relationship-focused

approach is represented visually.

Continuous conversations

Ways of relating and

interacting

Feedback
Focal points to
punctuate
Reflexive engagement

Connectedness

Respect

Restraining
Nurturing

Care

Reflexive engagement
Responsibility

Power
Feedback

Communication

Ways of relating and

interacting

Continuous Conversations

Figure 25.1 Graphic representation of a relationship-focused approach

In the graphic representation, the discussed key elements are indicated as focal
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points in ongoing conversations among teachers, learners and parents. These

elements are always present as part of the complex interactive dynamics that
are created when people interact with one another. Teachers can use these key
elements to determine whether the ways in which role players relate and interact
are restraining or nurturing the co-construction of relational spaces that will
enhance the optimal development of learning and well-being.
If a group of learners keep shouting derogatory remarks at another learner,
for example, a teacher should not merely identify the behaviour of learners
as unacceptable, but identify these remarks as a restraining way of relating

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and interacting with reference to respect and reprimand the learners for not
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respecting fellow learners and influencing the atmosphere in classrooms

negatively. If more of these incidents occur on a regular basis, they must be
able to address the patterns of disrespectful engagement in the classroom as a
relational space in a more proactive way.
If a group of learners, for example, support other learners who have limited
resources, teachers can identify this effort as a way of relating and interacting
that nurtures the co-construction of enabling spaces—through the learners
caring for each other. This pattern can be strengthened by encouraging learners
to act in supportive ways on a more regular basis.
It is critically important to understand that this process is ongoing—
teachers should maintain these conversations. Teachers should keep in mind
that both nurturing and restraining ways of relating and interacting are always
present in a space. The co-construction of relational spaces that will enhance
learning and well-being therefore, have to be viewed as a fluid process in which
teachers should continually engaged to ensure that the relationships on all the
levels of interrelatedness are nurturing rather than restraining. By applying a
relationship-focused approach, the co-construction of relational spaces for the
optimal development of learning and well-being becomes a concerted effort of
all those involved—teachers, learners and parents.

Why is the application of a relationship-focused

approach relevant in a South African context?
The relevance of applying a relationship-focused approach in a South African
context is evident if we consider the emphasis on relationships as a critical
competency of teachers as indicated in performance standard 6 of the Integrated
Quality Management Systems (IQMS) for school-based educators (Education
Labour Relations Council, 2003). Unfortunately, policies and practices that deal
with the relational dimension of human behaviour in schools do not consider
the complex nature of human interactive dynamics and are, therefore, not
always effective in improving relationships and promoting relational well-being
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in South African school communities. This state of affairs clearly emphasises the
need for the introduction of an alternative approach to enhance relationships
between teachers, learners and parents as a basis for changing schools into
humanised relational spaces where people can flourish.

227

Conclusion
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A relationship-focused approach is proactive and encompasses ongoing

conversations, informed by key elements relevant to the co-construction of
relational spaces in which the development of learning and well-being are
optimised. The approach implies the involvement of all role players in school
communities as equal partners in the co-construction of these relational
spaces. The commonly accepted focus on individuals as bounded beings and
the sole agents of social change is, therefore, challenged and the attention shifts
towards relationships among people with the conviction that when we focus on
relationships in our classrooms and schools, we ensure a future for all involved
(Gergen, 2009).
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26 Positive psychology
and diversity:
Accumulation of
strengths

Fumane Portia Khanare

As for the future, it remains unwritten. Anything can happen, and often
we are wrong. The best we can do with the future is prepare and savor the
possibilities of what can be done in the present. (Todd Kashdan)

Introduction
Listen my child! You are smart but other children are smart too in their own
ways. (Annacleta ‘Maqhaola Ntlhoi, 1978)
Annacleta Ntlhoi was my grandmother who did not have any formal education
or teaching qualification. Her comment, which she used to make about my
siblings too, make a good theme for this chapter—and even for teaching in
general. Children differ in various ways, both individually and because of their
association with families, communities or cultural groups. All of us, including
teachers, have a particular way of moulding a child. Sometimes, diverse
backgrounds through which the children live can make classroom teaching
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more challenging, but other times, as Annacleta Ntlhoi implied, children

simply enrich classroom life. Or to put it another way: it is important to support
children by instilling positive images about themselves where possible, but also
make them aware that the existence of other children is important for everyone.
This chapter outlines a perspective that is a prerequisite for diversity. It
begins by introducing the socio-educational context in South African schools.
It then examines a positive psychology perspective as a dynamic approach
that includes diversity. The perspectives of positive psychology are grounded

in Western perspectives and might seem rather distant from the many people
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in remote areas in the African context. However, in order to understand the

importance of positive psychology and diversity, the integration of selected
African proverbs (Mokitimi, 1997), in particular, Sesotho proverbs (one of the
eleven official languages in South Africa) are used as concepts applicable for
explaining the practices of Africans in their endeavours to mould and shape the
well-being of children. Integrating these proverbs could also be seen as advancing
positive psychology ‘beyond the reactionary phase’ (Eloff, 2013). The theoretical
underpinnings or principles of positive psychology could be explained as a
specific way to promote diversity as an asset or resource that promotes learning,
not only for academic purposes, but also—and even more importantly—for the
ultimate moral purpose of creating environments for all learners to thrive in life
as enshrined in human rights and children’s rights laws and policies. The chapter
will conclude by highlighting the benefits and challenges of positive psychology
in a diverse and unequal society in South Africa.

A socio-educational context
The educational landscape has seen enormous changes since the establishment
of a democratic dispensation in South Africa. It has diverse learners from a
variety of cultural groups and backgrounds—all of who have the potential to
learn and thrive. The Constitution (Republic of South Africa, 1996a) supports
the principle of the best interest of the child. Hlalele (2012) explains why learners’
success in school is important for South Africa’s emerging economy. He argued
that all children ‘represent the economic lifeblood of the economy’ (Hlalele,
2012). While the Constitution indicates messages of hope for all the children,
it is also problematic because it seems to portray a utopian kind of a classroom,
school or even a community. That is, although children’s success is crucial for
their well-being, the well-being of schools, families, and the whole community,
it is insufficient to explain children’s success in isolation from their interactions
with the diverse people and environments in their everyday lives.
Diversity, as the author of this chapter perceives it, relies on interaction
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with self, other people, and geographies for social negotiation of the possible.
In today’s education, especially in an African setting, hope for the children as
‘future leaders’ seem to be increasingly a collective effort. Thus, we understand
children’s success as including active participation in their classrooms as well as
forming partnerships with their teachers, parents and whole school-community
partnerships—especially since the implementation of the Education White
Paper 6 (Department of Education, 2001). People are, after all, social beings and
much development would be impossible without drawing from a diverse social

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Positive psychology and diversity: Accumulation of strengths 26

reality. The stance that the author takes in this chapter is drawn from the work
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of Martin Seligman, which is then utilised in synergy with African proverbs,

especially, Sesotho proverbs. In this instance, the author wishes to illustrate that
proverbs can be an indication that diversity is a resource. It also shows how
recent developments in scientific research can connect with age-old wisdoms
within oral traditions.

Positive psychology perspective

The positive psychology perspective (Seligman, 2004) is gaining momentum
in the South African education system. A number of studies have expressed
the value of positive psychology, and the needs for educational processes to
be properly contextualised within enabling learning environments (school,
home and wider community of schools) in South Africa (Eloff, 2013). In 2000,
Martin Seligman made a particular shift towards children’s development and
learning (Linley & Joseph, 2004). Seligman discovered the need to study the
development of internal strength, a sense of self-worth and how to support
children to live full, rich lives (Wehmeyer, 2017). In particular, the important
role of self-worth is to move away from pathology-based practices or models
to strengths-based approaches and supportive interventions (Wehmeyer, 2017).
This part of psychology is now known as positive psychology (Seligman, 2004;
Wehmeyer, 2017).
The question might well be asked: Was/Is there a negative psychology?
For more than six decades, psychology worked within a ‘disease’-model or
‘deficit’-model, whereby, the focus was about finding what is wrong with
people (Seligman, 2004). Furthermore, learners were classified according to
their cognitive abilities, popularly known as IQ. Those with lower IQ were
often regarded negatively and in need of treatment. I remember when I was in
primary school, my teacher used to point at some learners’ foreheads and say
‘what is wrong upstairs?’ Though anecdotal, these kinds of incidents pointed to
the ‘deficit’-approach, where shortcomings were emphasised to the detriment
of individual strengths. However, the application of positive psychology points
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out that many of the functional disorders in children may take an alternative
pathway with the emergence of strength-based approaches aimed at improving
people’s lives by rather focusing on their strengths.
To guide teachers through such a perspective of positive psychology, Seligman
(2004) proposes a set of principles towards full and rich lives and livelihoods.
Though there are many principles and ideas about positive psychology, I opted
to adhere to those that could help teachers to view diverse classrooms as an
opportunity to learn and share knowledge. He noted different principles for
analysing diverse classrooms which include ‘be as concerned with strengths as

231

with weakness’, ‘be as interested in building the best things in life as in repairing
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the worst’, and ‘be as concerned with making the lives of all people fulfilling and
with nurturing high talent as with healing pathology’ (Seligman, 2004).
Given the various backgrounds that make up a diverse classroom in many
schools in South Africa, the teacher and learners may draw from each other’s
strengths and build resources to deliver curriculum content. Building enabling
classrooms and contributing towards resources for learning is part of learners,
is likely to have a positive impact on their development and they may succeed
in reaching their full potential. This change of attitude could also be traced in
some of the Sesotho proverbs on a variety of occasions. The Sesotho proverb
that reads: Bohlale ha bo ahe ntlong e le nngoe (wisdom is found in the counsel
of many) endeavours to create a sense of consciousness that even in many age-
old wisdoms still exist in many of the South African communities. Diversity
and sharing of ideas could be used and maximised to create a more effective
community. Within a diverse classroom, we can add as many examples as
possible so that the perspective of positive psychology becomes diverse, visible
and localised.

The influence of positive psychology on diversity

The typical classroom in South Africa is often overcrowded with learners
whose futures lie in the hands of the teachers. Positive psychology reminds
us that every learner that we see in our classroom has a dream, potential and/
or untapped potential that could change his/her family status and the whole
community. These potentials (existing and/or hidden) need to be nurtured both
as individuals and as a collective. The teacher might be the only newcomer (in
a learner’s life) to an already established group of friends, peers, classmates or
even religious mates.

Ways of enhancing positive diversity in the classroom

Combining a positive psychology perspective (identifying strengths, building
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the best things and nurturing talents) with diversity (differentiated identities) is
not impossible. However, it requires thorough planning and precise classroom
organisation which are seldom performed in isolation.

Being aware of the strengths

Learning to listen, listen to learn. (Khanare and Marina)
It is often easy for teachers to be the first one to talk in class, defining and
explaining issues or topics. Some psychologists believe that the ability to listen

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to another person, empathise with them, and understand their point of view
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is one of the highest forms of intelligent behaviour. Being able to listen to

learners’ diverse ideas, detecting indicators of their potential as they speak about
issues of diversity, problems and alternative viewpoints, are all indicators of
unique strengths.
Under any circumstances, children or learners could provide a repertoire
of alternative ideas of strategies for problem solving. The following proverbial
expression explains the importance of children’s voices when a child is calling
for a repair of a bad situation which might hamper his/her well-being—the
expression is: Ngoana sa lleng o shoela tharing (child who does not cry, will die
on his mother’s back—children must speak about their demands). As children
speak, we could say that the teacher becomes aware of their strengths, while
at the same time, attending to their needs and demands. Diversity increases
opportunity of listening to many unique voices, and may contribute towards
the teacher becoming aware of each learner’s individual strengths and similar
or collective strengths and challenges. These strengths could be a vehicle of
building and strengthening indigenous oral traditions that may arguably be
overlooked in academic discussions of educational psychology.

Building diverse classrooms

Use in the service of something larger than you. (Seligman, 2004)
In a classroom, an initial description of stories of learners’ ideas or experiences
provide material for further exploration of alternative or possible solutions
during problem solving. After allowing the learners to speak or explicate
their individual ideas, it could be applied to different situations and embody
the distilled and collective experience of the whole class. These are didactic
moments which can suggest a course of action to be taken.
The Sesotho proverb, Hlaahlela le lla ka le leng (a lamp shines another lamp)
concur with this idea to communicate how differing practical life experiences
may also contribute towards the richness of life. The young people already
perceive an increased understanding of the importance of a diversity of voices
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in the school. The following excerpt taken from a study of rural school children’s
constructions of care and diversity is illustrative:
… we are saying let’s talk important things in our school. We need people to
talk to, like Heads of Departments, principals, and teachers because among
teachers there are counsellors. We need to know more about the people
around because you can be surprised how teachers and learners know and
have different skills. Open communication is needed in the school about
what good things people do not only too much gossiping which kills us, said,
Teddy Bear, girl aged 19. (Khanare, 2015)
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From Teddy Bear’s excerpt presented learners have gained prominence as

‘builders’ of positive schools by identifying skills to amplify them and not just
being passive in the school context. But what is interesting is the identification
of the conditions that inhibit a positive school environment. In a context of
diversity learners from previously marginalised backgrounds and communities
are not only ‘accommodated’, but rather fully included. Positive psychology
scholars remind us that we (teachers) should ‘recraft work’ (Seligman, 2004).
As indicated in the previous excerpt, the unhealthy school which seems to be
full of gossiping could be turned into a supportive environment where school
members (learners, teachers and school leadership and management) could
live full, rich lives (Linley & Joseph, 2004; Wehmeyer, 2017). This may include
making conscious efforts to be open and widely accessible to others, sharing
signature strengths and talking positively about one another.

Nurturing diversity to heal divisions

A positive psychology perspective points out that we should be ‘as concerned
with making the lives of normal people fulfilling and with nurturing high talent
as with healing pathology’ (Linley & Joseph, 2004; Seligman, 2004). Seligman
reminds us that people require a sense of nurturing and healing if they are to live
a fulfilling life. There are many proverbial expressions which invoke nurturing
and healing, such as, Leihlo le fahloa le shebile (open eyes also fail to dodge dirt).
This proverb tries to explain that there is no person, solution or situation which
is perfect. We would like to see our teachers provide a nurturing environment
when learners are confronted with problems and dilemmas. Diversity, therefore,
requires an individual teacher or teachers as a collective to reflect on, evaluate,
modify, recraft and carry forth to future applications what they have learned.
Some teachers in South Africa have been familiar with the challenges and
dilemmas learners face for a number of years, but it is only recently that those
challenges created a mind shift for teachers. They no longer need to find the
challenges daunting. They can be thinking like a positive psychologist, identifying
alternative pathways to problem solving, thinking about every person as an
asset, and as a problem solver, not just a problem to be solved. Certain schools
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have also adopted a whole-school approach. So it is no surprise that teachers

demonstrate through their expressions presented below that they are open to
diversity and continuous learning in order to improve the knowledge, skills and
well-being of their learners. Below is an example of how teachers, though not
trained in positive psychology, apply this approach in an attempt to improve.
[A]s teachers, in fact the whole school, need a refresher course about how
we can learn from each other instead of always looking for the mistake one
person has done. We have to learn from each no matter how small one

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person brings. We can learn even from the learners…you will be surprised
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how much knowledge they have. They are the ones who know all the corners
in this school unlike us…all we do is sit in the staffroom … (Teacher Lungi)
(Khanare, 2009)

The benefits and challenges of positive psychology in

a diverse society: Thinking forward
Positive psychology perspectives are multiple and have huge potential for
improving lives and repairing challenging contexts that inhibit people from
living a full, rich live. Diversity is a nebulous concept which is open to many
interpretations and entails various diversities such as intelligence, culture,
religion, class, sex, beliefs, physical appearance, race, disabilities and so on. The
topic (from the most recent South African policies) is Embrace Diversity and
Increase Unity (Department of Basic Education, 2014; Department of Social
Development, 2016). That view, is however, short-sighted if we do not advance
inclusion at the same time.
When choosing a diversity topic, you may find some tensions in the
classroom, but the richness that can emerge from the facilitated discussions
can enhance inclusive learning environments for all. Positive psychology within
the emergence of strengths-based approaches to teaching and learning is a
purposeful and healing approach to employ in a diverse classroom or school.

Conclusion
The potential for teaching and learning in diverse classroom contexts is
significant. Teachers routinely come to learn new things as they struggle to make
sense of the unfamiliar diverse ideas and practices that they may encounter. This
chapter has highlighted the use of positive psychology in teaching diversity and
utility in diverse classrooms. This notion of connecting diversity with positive
psychology via the vehicle of Sesotho proverbs challenges the hegemonic
accounts where diversity is constructed as a mere form of addressing divisions
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brought by the apartheid schooling system in South Africa prior to 1994.

Diversity provides an opportunity to identify and craft more alternatives in
order to make people’s lives fulfilling and rich. As such, diversity promotes the
use of hidden or untapped resources such as proverbs (as shown in this chapter),
particularly with regard to improving lives. This chapter, therefore, invites the
employment of positive psychology as a form that makes diversity open and
widely accessible with multiple opportunities to learn and thrive. Our country,
like many others, has made great improvements in increasing diversity. But

235

when diversity advanced without inclusion when we do not craft environments

where learners, in particular, those from marginalised backgrounds feel like

they fully belong and thrive, then, we miss the benefits of diversity. A key issue
to consider is a habit in the context of conscious positive learning ... Are we all
ready to contribute to our well-being? Then I will begin…
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27 School-based
championship of
resilience

Linda Theron

Children’s resilience is intertwined with teacher actions and attitudes.

(Linda Theron)

Introduction
This chapter focuses on the process of resilience, or why and how some children
adjust well to harmful circumstances and/or events that would usually predict
negative life outcomes. In particular, I want you to grasp that educational
psychologists, teachers and other school staff, school-based service providers,
and school systems can, and should, champion resilience processes. With the
ever-increasing numbers of vulnerable children in South Africa (and elsewhere)
it is non-negotiable for adults who serve children (eg, educational psychologists
or teachers) to understand resilience and know how to be resilience champions.
To this end, I end this chapter with examples from South African resilience
studies to guide how you might facilitate and sustain the resilience processes of
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the children you work with.

Please remember that resilience processes only come into play when children
are challenged by circumstances and/or events that are significantly negative,
and when these circumstances and events do not result in outcomes that would
be defined as dysfunctional, or negative, by the child’s community (Masten,
2014a). For example, at this point in history, most South African communities
would consider criminal behaviour, or disengagement from school, or suicide, or
substance abuse as evidence that a child is not doing well in life. In other words,

we cannot talk about resilience when children experience very little adversity, or
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levels of stress that are quite common to everyday life (such as exam pressure,
or being stuck in traffic, or having an occasional argument with a friend). We
can talk about resilience when children are well-adjusted (however that might
be defined by a child’s community at a given point in time) even though they are
chronically and seriously ill or disabled, or live in poor or dysfunctional families
or disadvantaged communities, or have mentally ill, chronically or terminally
ill, and/or substance-abusing parents, or experience violent crime or war or
terrorism, or are picked on by bullies (also cyber-bullies), or abused, or experience
the death of significant loved ones or friends, and so on. If you look closely at
the examples just mentioned to illustrate significantly negative circumstances
or events, you will notice that the risks that threaten the well-being of children
are mostly outside of the child, or socially constructed. Children are often at
risk for negative life outcomes because their social ecologies (their relational,
social, organisational, and cultural environment) are harmful. Educational
psychologists, teachers and other school staff, school-based service providers,
and school systems should therefore not just facilitate resilience processes, but
should also purposefully advocate for South African societies that advantage
children.

Beating the odds versus changing the odds

A major debate in the resilience field is whether it is helpful enough to understand
how children overcome adversity (ie, how they beat the odds). There is a sense
that if we promote resilience, then governments and societies can get away with
not facilitating constructive social change and putting an end to the conditions
(such as violence against children or structural disadvantage) that force
children to demonstrate resilience. In the light of this argument, some resilience
researchers are calling for the focus to shift from what facilitates children to beat
the odds to a focus on how societies can change the odds that make children
vulnerable (Seccombe, 2002; Hart, et al, 2016). I encourage you to avoid arguing
for either position. In post-colonial, resource-constrained contexts like South
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Africa where the pace of social change is slow, we need both foci. It is really
important for adults who serve children (including educational psychologists)
to better understand how some children have beaten the odds and use this
evidence base to champion resilience in greater numbers of children. At the
same time, it is also really important for adults who serve children (including
educational psychologists) to advocate for social change that will result in fewer
children needing to beat the odds.

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Which matters more: Children’s contributions to the

resilience process or those of the social ecology?

Another debate in the resilience field relates to whether resilience is defined as a
static characteristic of an individual child or as a systemic process that supports
individual children to be functional, even though they are challenged by life
events or circumstances that predict dysfunctional outcomes. In response to the
question, ‘Is there a trait of resilience?’ Ann Masten (2014b:14), a leading global
resilience scholar, responded ‘The answer is no.’ Believing that resilience is not a
child-centered construct is very important because it means that societies cannot
blame children if they ‘fail’ to be resilient. In fact, understanding that resilience
is a process that draws on constructive, contextually-meaningful resources that
children and their relational, social, organisational, and cultural environments
bring (see, for example, Masten, 2001, 2014a, 2016; Lerner, 2006; Rutter, 2013;
Ungar, 2011, 2012; Werner & Smith, 1992) means that we can no longer talk
about a ‘resilient’ child. Instead we need to talk about resilience processes
that support children to do OK even when they are challenged by adverse life
circumstances or events. And, it means that as adults who serve children we
have a huge responsibility to facilitate these processes. In fact, Ungar, et al (2015)
have suggested that at higher levels of risk, what adults who serve children do
to facilitate resilience (eg, providing access to resources or services) is probably
even more important than how children contribute to the resilience process
(eg, being hopeful or not giving up).
There are multiple ways that social ecologies and children can partner to
facilitate functional outcomes in the presence of risk. There is not space in this
chapter to refer to them all. Instead, be aware of what Ann Masten and Margaret
Wright call the ‘short list’ (2010:222). This list refers to the most commonly
occurring ways in which social ecologies (including education departments,
teachers and other school staff, school psychologists, and other school-based
service providers) can support young people who are vulnerable to do well in
life. This list is similar to what Ungar, et al (2007:295) call the ‘seven tensions’.
These seven mechanisms were the commonly occurring ways that social
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ecologies across 11 very diverse countries (Canada, United States, China, India,
Israel, Palestine, Russia, Gambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Colombia) supported
young people to do well in life. Figure 27.1 summarises the ‘short list’ and the
‘seven tensions’ and shows where they seem to overlap.
The processes summarised in Figure 27.1 are complex and draw on protective
resources. Protective resources can be found in children (eg, a sense of humour,
determination, social skill), families (eg, supportive grandparents, educated,
caring parents, family traditions), communities (eg, health-promoting schools,

239

safe neighbourhoods, a pro-social network of peers) and broader systems (eg,

effective health care systems, pro-poor government policies, meaningful cultural

rituals). Although the resilience literature provides detailed lists of protective
resources (eg, Kumpfer, 1999; Werner, 2013), we do not include these protective
resources for you for two reasons. First, the presence of protective resources does
not predict resilience (Rutter, 1989); if children and social ecologies do not draw
on resources to support resilience processes, then they are meaningless. Second,
not all resources will be equally meaningful to all children. The usefulness of
resources depends on the child’s developmental stage and sociocultural context
(Ungar, 2011; Masten, 2014a). However, if you are interested in the protective
resources that are most typically reported in South African studies of resilience,
read Theron and Theron (2010) or Van Breda (2017). As you read these,
consider how applicable they are to the young people you work with and how
this summary needs to be updated.

The short list The seven tensions

(Masten & Wright, 2010) (Ungar et al, 2007)
Attachment, or constructive Constructive relationships.
connections.
Meaning-making, or re- Sense of cohesion, or a sense of belonging
interpreting hardship in positive/ and/or that life has meaning.
hopeful ways.
Agency and mastery, or taking A powerful identify, or a sense of purpose
action and experiencing success. and of personal competence, and others’
acknowledgement thereof.
Social justice, or experiences of fair treatment.
Culture and religion, which Cultural adherence, or identification with
support belonging, pro-social group’s beliefs/norms.
behaviour, and identity.
Problem-solving. Access to material resources, or support to
obtain sufficient food, clothing, education,
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employment, etc.
Experiences of power and control, or being
able to affect positive change.
Self-regulation, or adjusting
behaviour and emotion to fit
pro-social expectations.
A foundation of protective resources

Figure 27.1 Commonly occurring resilience processes

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To help you understand all of the above better, let’s consider a case study. Careful
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reading should show you that developing positively in the midst of hardship:
• Is more than a personal quality;
• Fluctuates over time and is complex; and
• Draws on multiple systemic resources that are relevant to the context of the
child, as well as a child’s personal resources (Masten, 2016; Ungar, 2011).

Case study
The case of Tulani
Tulani is a Sesotho-speaking boy. He is in Grade 12 at a Quintile 1 school in QwaQwa.
He lives with his elderly grandmother who has raised him since his mother died when
he was six years old. He does not know his father, or even if his father is still alive,
because his father left the family to work on the mines in Johannesburg when Tulani
was a couple of months old. He sent a little money home in the beginning, but stopped
after a while. His family never heard from him again and there were rumours that he
had been killed in a hostel fight, but his body was never found.
Tulani’s grandmother receives a small government pension. She uses this to support
Tulani and four other younger grandchildren whom she parents. To help them survive,
she grows spinach and sells her produce by going from door-to-door in Puthaditjaba.
On weekends, Tulani helps her hawk the spinach.
Tulani does not help sell spinach during the week because he spends every available
minute in the afternoons and evenings to study. He is a dedicated student and
determined to matriculate so well that he will qualify for a bursary that will support
him to study engineering at a university. His grandmother encourages him to be
committed to his schoolwork. She always tells him that a good education will be the
answer to their financial problems because with a good education Tulani should be
able to get a well-paying job.
His teachers also encourage him. They praise him for working hard, and they tell
him he has become a role model to local children. He was not always devoted to his
studies. Around the middle of primary school, he became disillusioned. He was angry
that nobody could answer his questions about his father. He hated that some nights
there was so little food in the house that they all slept hungry. He wanted to play
soccer on weekends instead of hawking spinach with his grandmother. Sometimes
he bunked school and he never learned for school tests. His grandmother asked the
pastor of their church to talk to Tulani and to help him accept that a good education
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would turn his life around. Over the next couple of months, the pastor spent many
hours with Tulani and also introduced Tulani to a slightly older boy who headed his
household, but who was optimistic and committed to schooling, despite the many
challenges in his life. The two boys connected and in time Tulani’s attitude and
behaviour became more positive.
His English teacher, in particular, is very supportive of Tulani. She sometimes brings
him food to eat, because she is aware that Tulani has little food, other than the daily
meal his school provides as part of the National School Nutrition Programme.

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She also allows Tulani to work in her classroom after school. This is helpful because it
gives him a quiet place with good lighting to do his homework and to study. At home,
they mostly use candles for lighting and his cousins are noisy.
Walking home in the early evening is a bit risky for Tulani, because he must walk
almost two kilometres along a poorly lit path. On one occasion some unemployed
young men who were quite drunk tried to beat him up, but he managed to run away
from them. To avoid this happening again, Tulani makes sure that he walks home
before the sun begins to set. He also follows the advice of his Life Orientation teacher,
who knows that it can be dangerous for pupils walking to and from school, and so
encourages pupils to walk in groups—if there are other pupils leaving school at that
time, he makes sure to walk with them.
Tulani is excited about university, but also a little nervous. He wonders how he will
cope and he does not really know what to expect. Nobody in his family has ever
been to university or college. None of his neighbours have either. What comforts him
a little is that he knows his ancestors and God (whom he believes in strongly) will
protect him and support him to do well in his new life. His Mathematics teacher is
very approachable and so Tulani asks him to tell him what university is like and give
him some tips on how to succeed there. The teacher spends his break time talking
about this with Tulani. In the past, this same teacher invited local entrepreneurs to
come and talk to pupils about the importance of entrepreneurial skills to survive the
harsh realities of high levels of youth unemployment and economic disadvantage.
In response to Tulani’s question, this teacher invites some of the school’s ex-pupils
to come and talk to the Grade 12s about life at college and university and to share
some strategies for success. Tulani is hugely encouraged when he realises that youths
from his own community, who have similar backgrounds to him, are coping well at
university.

Championing resilience in relevant ways in the South

African classroom
Tulani’s example alerts us to the possibility that resilience should never be
understood as static or fixed for all time. For example, what might happen
to how well Tulani copes with adversity if he does not get a bursary to go to
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university? Or, if he succeeds at university, but struggles to find employment

once he graduates? Or, if his grandmother should die while he is at university and
he has to shoulder the responsibility for his younger cousins? The uncertainty of
resilience means that as adults who serve children we need to constantly search
for ways to facilitate and/or sustain resilience processes.
To this end, let’s take a look at what South African resilience studies teach
us about how teachers and other school staff, educational psychologists, school-
based service providers, and school systems have supported South African young
people, who were placed at risk for negative life outcomes, to do well in life. This

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knowledge (summarised in Table 27.1) will provide you with a starting point
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of what you can do to facilitate resilience in the young people you work with. I
exclude international studies, given the understanding that resilience processes
are relative to culture and context (Ungar, 2011) and so it would be dangerous
to generalise the findings of non-local studies. At the same time, however, what
we currently know is incomplete and so I encourage you to consider additional
ways that teachers and other school staff, educational psychologists, and school-
based service providers could support children’s resilience.
You will notice that Table 27.1 makes no mention of educational
psychologists or school-based service providers (eg, school nurses, speech
therapists, school-based support teams). This does not mean that these people
cannot facilitate resilience processes, but it does raise questions about why
they are absent from studies of resilience (particularly as the studies cited in
Table 27.1 were not limited to understanding how teachers support resilience).
Might it mean that educational psychologists or school-based service providers
are typically inaccessible to children who are at risk? Might it mean that
educational psychologists or school-based service providers are so involved in
other activities (eg, screening for learning difficulties) that they have no time to
support resilience? Whatever the reason, Table 27.1 highlights that educational
psychologists or school-based service providers need to become more involved
in children’s resilience processes and that we need to acknowledge the important
role that many teachers play in children adjusting well to adversity (Theron,
2016b). Enacting the resilience processes summarised in Table 27.1 and adding
other relevant ways of facilitating resilience should spare South African children
from experiencing teachers (and other school-related staff) as unhelpful of
children’s resilience as reported, sadly, in a handful of South African studies
(eg, Johnson & Lazarus, 2008; Krüger & Prinsloo, 2008; Pillay & Nesengani,
2006; Theron & Theron, 2014).
Perhaps the most important lesson from Table 27.1 is that teachers and
school systems support children’s resilience using ‘ordinary magic’ (Masten,
2001:227). Put differently, teacher facilitation of resilience requires some very
ordinary things (eg, initiating referrals, or celebrating academic achievement). It
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also requires actions that go beyond the call of everyday duty (eg, hiding children
from rapists, or feeding and clothing children using personal resources). In
other words, facilitating resilience in school contexts is very doable, but will
sometimes demand selfless, case-specific responses (Theron & Theron, 2014).

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Table 27.1 Differentially valued resilience resources

Resilience Examples from South African studies

Process
Pragmatic Teachers make food and clothing available
support For example, an orphaned boy reported that his teachers were
(including aware of his troubles and therefore helped him fulfil basic needs,
access to by providing food and clothing (Theron, et al, 2011), as well as for
material AIDS-orphans (Pienaar, Swanepoel, Van Rensburg & Heunis, 2011),
resources street children (Malindi & Machenjedze, 2012), and children from
and problem- poor or uncaring homes (Theron & Engelbrecht, 2012). In many of
solving) these instances, this meant that teachers fed and clothed children
out of their own pockets, even when they did not have much
themselves. In resource-poor communities, teachers developed
school gardens and use the produce to help local families to
supplement their food supplies (Ebersöhn & Ferreira, 2011; Ebersöhn
& Loots, 2017).
Trustworthy teachers give advice
For example, girls who had been sexually abused explained that
they experienced resilience-supporting teachers as adults whom
they could trust to listen to their problems and to provide advice
(Van Rensburg & Barnard, 2005). Similarly, children from poor
homes (Theron, 2016a; Theron & Engelbrecht, 2012; Theron,
Liebenberg & Malindi, 2014) and those living on the street (Malindi
& Machenjedze, 2012) reported that teachers supported their
adjustment to daily hardship when they treated them respectfully,
and listened sympathetically, before offering meaningful advice.
Children challenged by intellectual disability reported that their
teachers were trustworthy and helped them solve social and other
problems (Hall & Theron, 2016).
Teachers use systems of identification and referral to get help for
children
For example, in HIV-challenged, resource-poor communities,
teachers assisted children and their families to access health and
social development services (Ebersöhn & Ferreira, 2011). Teachers
found practical ways of supporting such access, including involving
health-care providers in school-based support groups or asking
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school nurses to visit learners’ homes (Ebersöhn & Loots, 2017).

Social justice Teachers keep children safe from prejudice and harm
For example, resilient street children described how their teachers
took active steps to prevent other school children from excluding
them and so ensured their physical access to local schools (Theron
& Malindi, 2010) and their safety at school (Malindi & Machenjedze,
2012).
➠

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Resilience Examples from South African studies

Process
Social justice One sexually abused girl recounted that some of her teachers hid
(continued) her when local boys who had raped her came to her school to taunt
her, and how their keeping her physically safe had nurtured her
resilience (Phasha, 2010).
School systems are fair to children
In contexts of adversity, children’s schooling is often interrupted
and/or children come late to school. Some school systems
understand this and make exceptions to support these children
to progress/complete their education, despite the challenges that
keep them away from school. For example, resilient young people
have reported that their schools allowed them to skip grades
(when they returned to school and were much older than their
cohort), provided they had demonstrated academic competence,
or adapted curriculum choices, or were lenient about late-coming
(Theron & Theron, 2014). Others drew attention to the value of
schools accepting refugee children and to teachers supporting older
learners to access bursaries (Hlatshwayo & Vally, 2014).
Constructive Positive teacher−child connections
relationships For example, in Johnson and Lazarus’s (2008) study of children
who had been placed at risk for poor developmental outcomes by
their communities, children reported that friendly, approachable
teachers were supportive of their resilience. The AIDS-orphans who
participated in Pienaar, et al’s 2011 study provided details of how
supportive teachers treated them in ways that encouraged them to
feel valued. Other at-risk children (eg, those from divorced homes,
or marginalised communities, or visibly scarred burn victims, or
living on the street) also reported that teacher encouragement
and unconditional support of them, buffered the difficulties they
faced (Dass-Brailsford, 2005; Lau & Van Niekerk, 2011; Malindi &
Machenjedze, 2012; Mampane & Huddle, 2017; Theron & Dunn,
2010; Theron & Engelbrecht, 2012; Theron & Theron, 2014).
Agency and Teachers model resilience
mastery and For example, children living on the street, and those from
the beginnings impoverished, marginalised communities reported that their
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of a powerful teachers inspired them to develop powerful identities and to do

identity well in life (Dass-Brailsford, 2005; Malindi & Machenjedze, 2012;
Theron, 2016a; Theron & Engelbrecht, 2012). What encouraged
them most was the fact that their teachers came from similar
backgrounds, but had turned their lives around and become
educated, respected members of society. Likewise, when teachers
disclosed that they had faced similar hardships to those confronting
children, then children were motivated, by their teachers’ examples,
to resile (Theron & Engelbrecht, 2012).
➠

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Resilience Examples from South African studies

Process
Agency and Teachers encourage dreams about a better future
mastery and For example, resilient university students from disadvantaged
the beginnings backgrounds reflected that their teachers had actively drawn their
of a powerful attention to their academic potential, celebrated children doing
identity well in tests/trying hard, and encouraged them to go to university
(continued) (and in some instances, even helped them pay for registration or
informed them about bursaries) (Ebersöhn, 2007; Theron & Theron,
2014).
Cultural and/ Teachers instil relevant values
or religious When asked to comment on what they believed buffered rural
adherence in children from communities challenged by poverty, HIV and AIDS,
support of self- and violence, a group of local adults noted that when teachers
regulation purposefully taught children to value traditional and spiritual
principles, then they were promoting children’s resilience (Theron,
Theron & Malindi, 2012). Similarly, when children reflected on their
resilience they noted that teachers who encouraged them to pursue
education as a pathway to a better future, and concomitantly urged
diligence and excellence, had been instrumental to their beating
the odds (Dass-Brailsford, 2005; Malindi & Machenjedze, 2012;
Theron & Malindi, 2010).

Conclusion
In summary, for you (as teachers, educational psychologists, other school-based
staff) to facilitate good developmental outcomes in the children you interact
with, you need to understand that resilience processes need systemic (social
ecological) support because resilience is about more than a child’s strengths.
This entails active partnerships with children in which children’s strengths are
acknowledged and drawn on, but which also provide children with protective
resources that are relevant to South African contexts/cultures. Ultimately,
to champion resilience requires acceptance and enactment of communities’
(also school communities’) duty to support children to engage in constructive
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resilience processes and to change the odds that threaten children.

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28 The role of self-talk

in self-regulation

Rienie Venter

The struggle young people face these days is being lost; most of us don’t know
where we come from and we don’t know where we are going. We have no
direction … Even our elders have given up on us; they understand that we
are a lost cause (Anonymous young South African, interviewed by Kwazi
Dlamini for Vox Newsletter, March, 2016)

Introduction
Reflect for a moment on the remarkable phenomenon of self-consciousness
and on humans’ ability to reflect on their own thoughts. This self-directed
communication—the 'I' who is talking to, and is able to think about 'me'—takes
place by means of silent self-speak or out loud, sometimes aided by the use
of language (Feigenbaum, 2009:105). While reflecting on our own self-talk, it
may become clear that our self-talk often has an evaluative aspect. Are we not
constantly evaluating ourselves in terms of work, studies and relationships, in
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terms of the merit of our decisions? The construct which is described here is
self-regulation, our ability to monitor and manage our own thoughts, behaviour
and feelings (Schwarz, 2012:290). An important part of self-regulation is self-
evaluation. What is the measure that we use when we evaluate ourselves and
how does it influence our self-esteem?
What is described here is at the heart of educational psychology, namely
the continuous awareness of self while surveying and processing messages from
the environment, relating it to existing knowledge, past experience, a personal

belief system and social rules, and allowing it to influence self-talk, self-esteem,
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behaviour and relationships.

Why is it necessary to take note of self-talk in

educational psychology?
Self-talk plays a crucial role in identity formation and has enormous
consequences for quality of life and happiness. The quality and content of one’s
self-talk influences self-esteem and in its turn self-esteem informs identity. How
is this relevant for South Africans today? In the political past of our country the
idea of one absolute truth, the promotion of scientific knowledge at the cost
of subjective knowledge and the assumption that reality as a construct can be
accessed, were imposed on all South Africans. This led to considering other ways
of seeing the world, such as subjective experience, as ‘non-reasoned’ (Farganis,
1996:9). Considering alternative narratives as deviating from the required norm
has resulted in socially and politically marginalised groups being subjected to
doubt their way of existence and in dissociating children from their natural and
social environment (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, 1992). When we peruse printed and
social media reporting on calls for decolonisation in various areas of society,
including education, it may therefore be agreed that identity is at the heart of
current discourses in South Africa today.
In school, learners are still developing towards identity clarity. They may
take incoming information containing social values and hidden narratives as the
truth and may use this information in their self-talk to evaluate themselves and
others in an unrealistic way (Anderman, 2014). The role of the teacher and the
educational psychologist who seek to discourage destructive self-criticism and
promote quality of mental, emotional and physical life by facilitating positive
and realistic self-talk can therefore not be overestimated.
The quality of self-talk in self-regulation is an important element in private
and social identity development and necessitates a discussion of the related
theoretical constructs that underpin self-talk. To gain understanding of the self
as conceptual structure, the development of self-awareness and the social and
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private self are considered in this chapter. Self-knowledge, self-concept and self-
esteem as three important constructs in self-regulation are defined and briefly
compared. A few variables which play a role in the quality of self-talk during
self-regulation are discussed. These variables are linked to the human tendency
to evaluate the self and others, the belief system, self-descriptive statements and
perspective-taking. Ways of controlling and managing clarity of self-knowledge
to enhance a complex and differentiated self-structure which may enable people
to develop a realistic positive self-esteem are discussed in the next sections,

248

followed by thoughts on the relevance and necessity of enhancing the quality of

self-talk in South African schools and classrooms.

Clarification of self-talk and related constructs

Humans have many ways of adding to their self-knowledge. They receive
information from the environment, which usually contains ecological and social
rules. New information is processed by relating it to existing knowledge and
self-knowledge. Additional processes and constructs such as self-evaluation
and social judgement, the belief system, self-descriptive statements and
perspective-taking also play a role in self-talk. In this process, which is known
as self-regulation, self-talk functions as a conscious, often verbal, mediating
cognitive task. As a conscious cognitive activity, it may involve metacognitive
thinking—thinking about our thoughts—to understand our behaviour or our
ways of approaching a problem (Clarebout, Elen, Juarez Collazo, Lust & Jiang,
2013:187). Metacognitive thinking may then facilitate self-regulation as it helps
us to peruse our own cognitive problem-solving strategies. But let us first focus
briefly on the development of the self as a conceptual structure.
Around the first year after birth, following first perception, conceptual
thought begins where children learn concepts from a parent or caregiver
(Neisser, 1997). During shared attention, the object of joint interest may be the
child him-/herself (Feigenbaum, 2009). When the parent speaks to the child about
the child, the child now takes him/herself as an object of his/her subjective thought.
Children begin to think of themselves as having traits, attributes, worth and value.
Authors have identified various aspects of self, of which the most notable are the
private and the social self. These aspects of self or are not alien people inside us,
taking control over us, but ways of positioning ourselves to react and respond to
different situations and people in our lives and to integrate information from those
situations with our already existing knowledge and self-knowledge.
As children grow up, they start to distinguish between the various aspects
of self. When they evaluate themselves with regard to their role in their family
and school, they will be evaluating their social identity or social self. When they
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reflect on their private conception of self, for example their unique features, they
will be reflecting on their private self. These are not loose-standing constructs.
When a new event is experienced consciously, the social self, as embedded in its
environment, intersects with the private experience part of the self (Kihlstrom
& Klein, 1997). These ongoing representations of the self, derived from ongoing
conscious experience of events in our lifeworld, are linked to the existing way
in which we represent ourselves in our own minds. Bandura’s (1991) suggestion
of three processes, which are encompassed by self-regulation, is helpful here. He

249

said that self-regulation consists of self-monitoring, self-judgement and affective

self-reaction. In so doing, he linked environment, behaviour and cognition. Self-

regulation is therefore the conscious awareness, analysis and regulation of one’s own
thoughts, behaviour and feelings. It manages the functional and dynamic interaction
between the self and the environment and is facilitated through self-talk.
Having various representations of self—or at least a private and a social self as
explained above—means that each person has to possess a store of existing factual
knowledge, whether social or private. Still, our existing factual knowledge is not
always altogether factual, but can be highly subjective, limited and even biased
(Alicke, Dunning & Krueger, 2005). This means that situations and incidents
are often interpreted not as they actually happened; our ‘biased self-reference
processes’ (Bandura, 1991:253) often result in our processing information in
a subjective way so that we may end up with fiction rather than fact or with
‘perceived constructs’ (Anderman, 2014:57). Bandura (1991) is not of the
opinion that we are predetermined always to process information subjectively,
but he argues that behaviour is highly resistant to change and therefore more
than self-monitoring is necessary for behavioural change to occur. This means
that if we learn to be overly critical in our self-evaluation in childhood, we may
tend to keep on doing it. In distinguishing between self-concept and self-esteem
(what I know about myself and what I think about myself) some authors divide
the processing of incoming information into at least two phases.
Both self-concept and self-esteem are often used to refer to the perception
of self (Van Dijk, Branje, Keijsers, Hawk, Hale & Meeus, 2014) and include self-
perception and self-evaluation. In his famous definition, Rogers (1951:2) defined
the self-concept as ‘the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about
oneself ’. Although this definition describes the self-concept as the dynamic
view according to which one perceives oneself, some recent distinctions make a
cognitive-affective division in the processing of information. Recently the self-
concept is regarded as being more informative, namely the objective knowledge
which a person has about him-/herself, while self-esteem is described as more
evaluative, or the subjective perception of a person about him-/herself (Pilarska,
2016). According to this line of argumentation self-esteem is the affective
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evaluation of the information in the self-concept, a general attitude about the

self (Anderman, 2014). This definition draws the meaning of self-knowledge
and the self-concept closer together, although for the purposes of this chapter
this difference will not be further investigated. I now draw on ‘organised’ and
‘consistent’ in Rogers’s (1959) definition and briefly consider the impact that
clarity of self-knowledge has on self-esteem.
Clarity of self-knowledge implies that different aspects of self are complex,
organised and distinguishable (Gore & Cross, 2014). Clarity of self-knowledge

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may make self-esteem more stable (Pilarska, 2016). In the case of a failure in one
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area in the life of a person with high self-complexity, the person may accept the
failure in this one area, but will not allow it to affect other areas of self and will
therefore retain his/her sense of self-esteem. Bandura (1991) says that a firm
sense of identity and strong orientation toward fulfilling personal standards
display a high level of self-directedness in people. The opposite is also true. When
self-complexity is low and self-aspects are highly interrelated, enmeshed and
dependent, a failure in one area may be perceived by the person as incompetence
in all areas (Kunda, 1999). Therefore, although subject to change, the pursuit of
consistency is an essential manifestation of self and a significant indicator of
effective adaptation and mental health (Rogers, 1959, as cited in Pilarska, 2016).
The complexity and clarity of our self-knowledge also has relevance for how we
see other people, in other words, for our social judgement. This will be further
explained as one of the variables that may influence information processing.
Let us take a closer look at variables that may play a role when we interpret new
information.

Variables that may play a role when we interpret new

information
I shall briefly explain how our tendency to self-evaluate and to evaluate others,
our existing belief system, our self-descriptive statements, our existing self-
esteem and our cognitive ability of perspective-taking may influence our self-talk.

Our tendency to self-evaluate and to evaluate others

Humans have an inborn tendency to evaluate the self and others. From the moment
that the child can conceive rules and goal messages from his/her environment,
in other words, as soon as the child gets an idea of what is appropriate, self-
talk starts to be evaluative with regard to others, but also with regard to the
self (Lewis, 1997). It has been recognised for many years how perceptions of
others influence perceptions of self, and vice versa. While Freud (1924/1956)
explained it as projection, Horney (as cited in Alicke, Dunning & Krueger,
2005:5) understood it as a ‘naïve belief ’ that others think and feel the same way as
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we do. Later, Rogers (1951) assumed that people’s social experiences are
organised into a structure of self. In the same way, people also make predictions
about others according to their own self-understanding (Alicke, Dunning &
Krueger, 2005).

Our existing belief system

Our existing knowledge further includes our belief system. The belief system
constitutes the values one acquires through acculturation and is extremely

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important in evaluative self-talk. According to Bandura (1991:254), such

standards are not adopted automatically, but ‘are constructed through reflective
processing of multiple sources of direct and vicarious influence’. Children
normally start out by adopting their parents’ belief system and values but as
they go through transitions, they are exposed to new information, form new
relationships and are faced with differing backgrounds and beliefs. This has a
great impact on self-talk as the belief system constitutes the norm against which
people measure their thoughts and actions, and ultimately their identity. For
each role we assume in life, for example as student, parent, friend, spiritual
person, cultural member, we have a value against which we compare how we
fare. When I evaluate myself as a religious person, I will take lessons which I
learnt from my religious teachings as my measure. When I think of myself as an
employee, I will compare my work to the expectations of my employer and the
ethics of my workplace. When I think about myself as a friend, I will compare
my friendships against identification figures from whom I learnt lessons in
integrity and friendship. Although values are generally lasting, they may change
throughout the lifespan.

Our existing self-esteem and self-descriptive statements

In addition to our existing knowledge and self-knowledge, and our belief system,
we have an existing self-esteem which, as explained above, is mostly affectively
constituted and may change depending on analysis of new information. This
perceived self-image leads to the establishment of another influencing variable
in self-talk, namely self-descriptive statements. Self-descriptive statements are
core beliefs about the self which are used to endorse new incidents (Kunda,
1999). They function almost like a stereotype or default attitude about ourselves
and usually play a role when we interpret new information. To say for example ‘I
always say the wrong thing’ or ‘I always find a way to get through difficult times’
not only refers to what people know and believe about themselves but to how
they may react in the face of new circumstances.

Our perspective-taking as a cognitive skill

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Perspective-taking is a cognitive skill which may further impact self-talk. It is

described as the ability to view a situation (or the self) from another’s point
of view (Gerace, Day, Casey & Mohr, 2015), but it is more than empathy. As
explained earlier, the ability for joint attentional behaviour later leads to a shift
from focusing joint attention on objects, to focusing joint attention on the
child herself. The child not only learns to focus on herself as the object of her
attention, but moreover, to adopt the perspective of the parent when she focuses
on herself. By learning the cognitive tasks of reciprocal imitation and role

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reversal (Feigenbaum, 2009), children are enabled to see themselves as authority

figures see them. In other words, the authority figure’s perspective becomes
the child’s own self-perspective (Gore & Cross, 2014). In agreement with the
authority figure, the self then becomes an additional authority figure. During
perspective-taking children also internalise their parents’ corrective attitudes as
a part of their new self-perspectives. If these attitudes are severely punitive or
rejecting, they may also be internalised and children may begin to inflict similar
punishments on themselves when they fall short of their internalised ideals
(Benadé, 2013). According to Benner (1993), such punitive and self-rejecting
self-talk forms the core of neurotic guilt feelings.
Notwithstanding the influencing variables in self-talk, people are not
necessarily completely subject to these influences. This is because they possess
self-reflective, self-reactive, metacognitive and meta-affective capabilities that
enable them to exercise some control over their thoughts, feeling, motivation
and actions. Bandura (1991:249) refers to this as ‘standards of behavior’ that
people employ in the exercise of self-directedness. Self-reflection includes meta-
affect, or ‘how we think about the feelings we experience’ (D’Mello, Strain, Olney
& Graesser, 2013:675). According to Schwarz (2012), feelings are also a source
of information. A learner may for example experience frustration while facing a
cognitive challenge, and think (self-talk): ‘This isn’t working.’ This may motivate
the learner to find a new strategy that may work. Meta-affect, or monitoring
our feelings, may therefore add to the quality of our self-talk and help us to
consider new behavioural options. Just as metacognition, it may help us to
monitor and manage our problem solving strategies and our behaviour. The
quality of our self-talk therefore influences the choices we make, the effort we
put into goals and how long we persevere. This reminds us of the high premium
Bandura (1991) placed on people’s belief in their capabilities and its importance
for self-regulation.

Educational implications of the quality of self-talk in

schools in South Africa
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While various self-structures and cognitive tasks intersect during self-regulation,

self-talk concerns the evaluative components of the self-structure (Van Dijk,
et al, 2014). This means that what we say to ourselves has major personal and
social implications: the quality of our self-talk influences self-esteem, which has
an impact on our self-efficacy.
Still, attitudes, which are usually based on the belief system, do not change
that easily, nor does behaviour. Rogers (1959) argued that even if the self-concept
may be unrealistic and self-defeating, people may reject incoming information

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which contradicts the self-concept. Furthermore, people do not always accurately

identify the source of their feelings, thereby limiting its informational values
(Schwarz, 2012). Negative self-talk is extremely incapacitating in the sense that
it keeps the status quo in place. Resulting in continued negative self-concept and
low self-esteem, it may lead to disqualifying behaviour which may, for example at
school, discourage learners to venture and initiate new learning. Fear to venture
and initiate new learning may contribute to academic performance anxiety and
poor personal functioning (Anderman, 2014). Negative feedback from others,
for example from teachers, may further be interpreted as confirming original
negative self-appraisals (Kunda, 1999).
On a wider scale in South Africa, South Africa’s population, and South
Africa’s youth in particular, are faced with various complicated societal
challenges which may have an impact on their self-esteem. In addition to the
heritage of South Africa’s political past and the current political unrest, South
Africa’s youth struggle with unemployment and socio-economic problems such
as poverty and poor education. Western narratives which continue to be part
and parcel of society and education create questions about identity. Imposed
values in the past required all South Africans to adapt and adjust to one way of
thinking and one way of being. Any alternative way of looking at the world and
at personhood was considered as deviating. This resulted in ‘dissociation of self
from the own cultural identity’ (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, 1992:16).
The negative and self-defeating self-talk that we often hear, confirms that
fundamentally there is a search for identity in South Africa. It is a good time for
teachers and educational psychologists to promote identity formation through
reflexive teaching. This may inform a new, more positive realistic kind of self-
talk. In this respect Brandtstadter (as cited in Bell, Wieling & Watson, 2004)
found a correlation between increased self-reflection and self-regulation.

Conclusion
The quality of self-talk was argued in this chapter as essential for identity
development and therefore central to the development of self. In addition to its
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influence on the private identity, self-talk influences social interaction, social

relationships and social identity. The fact that we sometimes evaluate others and
see them as we see ourselves, teaches us that the key to understanding others, is
often understanding ourselves first. Our youth need to learn a self-criticism style
which is beneficial and constructive and through which they can create useful
problem formulations, not only for themselves, but for the way in which they
look at others. To undergo a change in self-concept—admittedly a profound and
long-term process—a good place to start would be to become aware of how self-
talk plays a role in self-regulation.

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7
Inclusion
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29 Inclusive education:
The global movement

Mirna Nel

Inclusion is a right, not a privilege for a select few. (Judge Geary, Oberti vs
Board of Education (D.N.J., 1992))

Introduction
We live in a world where human rights abuses are rife and prejudices against
diversity are commonplace. So if asked to think about the following statements,
what would your response be? Excluding (and discriminating against) someone
simply because he/she looks, thinks and believes differently is regular practice.
In most societies people who have a different religion, skin colour and/or sexual
orientation, live in a different socio-economic area, wear different clothes,
have a disability and/or illness generally creates a sense of discomfort and
inharmoniousness. Alternatively, being with someone who is more or less the
same as you generates more comfort and familiarity.
In an attempt to end discriminatory and exclusionary practices against
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difference, the principle of inclusion, and more specifically social inclusion,

has been increasingly embraced by societies all over the world. These societies
regard education as the critical tool through which:
• Inclusionary values can be identified and learned to be respected; and
• Diversity can be regarded as something to learn from and enrich one’s own
way of thinking and believing.
As Nelson Mandela said: ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which
you can use to change the world.’ Consequently, inclusive education became

the fundamental educational approach and philosophy accepted by many

governments to counter exclusion and discrimination.

Understanding inclusive education in a global context

Defining inclusive education is quite complex. Currently, it seems that there
are two leading viewpoints globally: one that primarily focuses on the inclusion
of learners with different kinds of disabilities (also called special needs) in
mainstream education, and the broader view that inclusion is a societal issue
(ie, social inclusion) where inclusivity deals with diversity with regard to race,
religion, social class, socio-economic disadvantages, ethnicity, gender and
academic achievement, as well as disabilities (Ainscow, 2014; Topping, 2012).
Within the broader view, the emphasis is therefore on education for all (EFA)
(see also the section on historical global conventions further on in this chapter).
Both these perspectives are based on the belief that education is a basic human
right for all learners, and a quality inclusive education system will foster a more
just society.

First viewpoint: Including children with disabilities

According to the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD)
people with disabilities can be identified as those:
... who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments
which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective
participation in society on an equal basis with others. (United Nations,
2006:4)
This CRPD was adopted in 2006 to protect the rights of people with disabilities
internationally (United Nations, 2006). The purpose of the CRPD is:
... to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to
promote respect for their inherent dignity. (United Nations, 2006:2)
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However, despite the CRPD and several other interventions, children with
disabilities remain some of the most vulnerable populations excluded from
society and from fully enjoying their basic human rights. This is therefore the
reason why many inclusion activists, as well as research and governmental
policies, still primarily focus on this viewpoint.
Children with disabilities continue to have poor access to education, health
services and future employment (Iriarte, McConkey & Gilligan, 2016). In
addition, these children experience social, cultural and attitudinal obstacles and
are particularly vulnerable to victimisation, violence, abuse and exploitation

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(Philpott & McLaren, 2011; Gilligan, 2016). In many societies, there is a belief
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that these children are some sort of ‘punishment’ or ‘bewitchment’. They are
consequently rejected by some parents and communities and are hidden away.
People with disabilities assert that prejudicial attitudes of people towards
them are one of the hardest things that they regularly encounter (Gilligan, 2016;
Philpott & McLaren, 2011). They feel that people tend to only see them as a
disability and ignore the person behind the disability. As a result, the label of
disability disregards who they are as a person (Donald, Lazarus & Lolwana,
2010:283). The whole child is then seen as ‘abnormal’, and as a rule, abnormal
behaviour is expected of the child.
Generally, it is also mindlessly assumed that any disability results in
intellectual impairments. Consequently, it is believed that it is better for this
child to be separated from the mainstream and placed in special education
settings, where specially qualified teachers can work with them. Contrariwise,
even when children with disabilities are mainstreamed or integrated, they are
still required to fit into the classroom, because they are the ‘abnormal ones’ that
must adapt to ‘normalness’.
In mainstreaming or integration, the school society and system do not
always purposefully adapt to fully include these learners in all activities (Swart
& Pettipher, 2016; Sapon-Shevin, 2007). One must therefore be careful to think
of this as inclusion. In an inclusive education setting children with disabilities,
like any other person, are seen as unique human beings with their own personal
attributes (such as background, ethnicity, gender, religion, political beliefs,
values and principles), and are provided equal opportunities to participate in all
formal and informal learning activities.

Second viewpoint: Social inclusion

Without disregarding the disability emphasis, it is important to understand that
inclusion needs to be addressed as a societal and systemic issue as well. In this
viewpoint, ‘inclusion’ is not seen as referring to one group (those with disabilities)
only, while ‘social inclusion’ refers to a different group, since ‘all inclusion and
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exclusion are socially created’ (Booth, 2011:307). Social inclusion recognises that
intrinsic (special needs/disabilities) and societal and systemic (extrinsic) factors
interact in creating barriers to learning. Children can experience learning
difficulties and consequent exclusion as a result of various societal and systemic
factors, such as poverty, abuse, racial discrimination, limited proficiency in
the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT), poor quality of teaching,
ineffective support systems, insufficient infrastructure, inadequate policies,
and more recently immigrant status. One must therefore take care not to seek
deficits only within a single child and consequently label and categorise such a

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child according to these within-child-deficits. Even if academic challenges are

experienced because of a disability, there are always multiple contextual societal

and systemic factors that contribute to these academic challenges (such as living
in poverty, parents’ poor education levels, inadequately qualified teachers,
inefficient support, etc).
After gaining an understanding of how inclusive education is viewed
globally, the following sections will present several important international
conventions over the last two centuries, which attempted to change education
to become more inclusive. You will most probably recognise that the broader
second viewpoint has more emphasis in these developments.

Historical global conventions

As can be concluded from the above discussion, access to basic education is
internationally regarded as a basic human right. It is therefore important to
note the following conventions, which played a pivotal role in the initiation of
the movement to inclusive education. This includes the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 after World War II (United Nations, 1948),
the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) aged 0 to 18 years in 1989
(United Nations, 1989), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the
Child in 1999 (UNICEF, 1999), and the Convention on the Rights of People
with Disabilities (CRPD) (United Nations, 2006), which was adopted in 2006
and ratified by South Africa in 2007. All of these aforementioned conventions
emphasise the principle that inherent dignity of all people, as well as their equal
and inalienable rights, should be recognised as the foundation to freedom,
justice and peace (United Nations, 1948).
However, the specific focus on inclusive education started in 1990 at a World
Education Forum conference in Jomtien, Thailand, where a World Declaration
on Education for All and the Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning
Needs were adopted by 155 countries at the conference (UNESCO, 2000). This
framework emphasised that basic education of quality should be provided to all
children, youth and illiterate adults to reduce disparities. The following groups
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were specifically mentioned:

• Girls and women;
• The poor;
• Street and working children;
• Rural and remote populations;
• Nomads and migrant workers;
• Indigenous peoples;
• Ethnic, racial, and linguistic minorities;

259

• Refugees;
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• Those displaced by war; and

• People under occupation.
Children with disabilities were also expressly identified and it was asserted
that equal access to education to every category of disabled persons should be
provided. In this document, attention was also brought to the more than 100
million school-going age children without access to a formal education setting
at the primary phase of schooling, as well as those dropping out and then not
being able to re-access the schooling system (UNESCO, 2000).
After the Jomtien conference, the World Conference on Special Needs
Education in Salamanca, Spain took place in 1994. This conference made
significant strides to endorse inclusive education with the adoption of the
Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education
(SSFASNE) and was signed by 92 countries (including South Africa) (UNESCO,
1994). It was emphasised in this framework that: ‘Every child has a fundamental
right to education, and must be given the opportunity to achieve and maintain
an acceptable level of learning’ (UNESCO, 1994:viii), and that ‘schools should
accommodate all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social,
emotional, linguistic or other conditions’ (UNESCO, 2000:6). This includes
disabled and gifted children, street and working children, children from remote
or nomadic populations, from linguistic, ethnic or cultural minorities and from
other disadvantaged or marginalised areas or groups (UNESCO, 2000:6).
The uniqueness of children is also acknowledged, which requires that
education must consider their diverse needs and characteristics:
Inclusive schools must recognise and respond to the diverse needs of
their students, accommodating both different styles and rates of learning
and ensuring quality education to all through appropriate curricula,
organisational arrangements, teaching strategies, resource use and
partnerships with their communities. (UNESCO, 1994:11−12)
In addition, the SSFASNE explicitly puts emphasis on granting children with
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special educational needs access to mainstream schools where all children can
learn together and at the same time, and where their individual differences
and learning needs are catered for through the provision of additional support
(Swart & Pettipher, 2016). The most significant impact of the SSFASNE is that
it provided the foundational narrative of how inclusive education should be
understood globally.
In 2000, a World Education Forum conference was held in Dakar, Senegal.
During this conference, 164 countries adopted the Dakar Framework for
Action, ‘Education for All: meeting our collective commitments’. The vision of

260

the Jomtien World Declaration on Education for All (Jomtien, 1990) as well as
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the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of
the Child were reaffirmed at this conference. The thread of equal and equitable
access as well as quality education for all children was supported in the goals
of this framework. Particular areas of concern that were identified included
HIV and AIDS, early childhood education, school health, education of girls
and women, adult literacy, and education in situations of crisis and emergency
(UNESCO, 2000:3). It was asserted that high quality educational opportunities
must neither exclude nor discriminate.
Acknowledgement was given to the fact that the pace, style, language and
circumstances of learning will never be uniform for all, and therefore room
should be provided for diverse formal or less formal approaches. Additionally,
free, compulsory and good quality primary education was a key emphasis of
this framework. The Dakar framework also illuminated that despite the 1990
Jomtien EFA framework, little progress was made from 1990 until the year 2000
with regard to the following:
• More than 113 million children still had no access to primary education;
• 880 million adults were illiterate;
• Gender discrimination was evident in education systems; and
• The quality of learning as well as the acquisition of human values and skills
did not meet the needs of individuals and societies.
It was emphasised that, if these concerns were not addressed, poverty reduction
and sustainable development would not be achieved and inequality among
countries and within societies would remain (UNESCO, 2000). In this frame-
work, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia were prioritised for the advancement
of the EFA goal.
Another World Education Forum in Incheon, Republic of Korea was
held in 2015. This conference was organised by UNESCO, together with the
United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, the
United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), UN Women, and the United Nations High Commissioner
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for Refugees (UNHCR), and over 1 600 participants from 160 countries
attended. The Incheon Declaration for Education (IDE) 2030 was agreed upon
with a 15-year vision to transform lives through education. It was acknowledged
that a renewed agenda focusing on leaving no one behind was necessary. The
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 of UNESCO, namely, ‘Ensure inclusive
and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities
for all’ (UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, UNFPA, UNDP, UN Women and
UNHCR, 2015:iii) was used as the foundational principle for this declaration.

261

The following values are also immersed in the IDE 2030:

• Human rights and dignity;

• Social justice;
• Inclusion;
• Protection;
• Cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity; and
• Shared responsibility and accountability.
It is acknowledged by IDE 2030 that education is the only strategy to achieve
full employment and the eradication of poverty. This includes access, equity
and inclusion, as well as quality learning outcomes, within a lifelong learning
approach (UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, UNFPA, UNDP, UN Women and
UNHCR, 2015).

Conclusion
It is evident from the above discussions that inclusive education is taken seriously
by most countries, but the implementation thereof seems to remain challenging.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) is the central global organisation that works with governments and
partners to ensure that the implementation of inclusive education progresses to
address exclusion from and inequality in educational opportunities (see http://
www.unesco.org/new/en/inclusive-education/). Every year UNESCO publishes
an Education for All global monitoring report to give an account on the progress
of the EFA movement. The 2015 report accounted that great improvement was
made internationally to implement more inclusive education systems and provide
education for all. Apparently 34 million more children are attending schools
than in 2000 (UNESCO, 2015a). However, in this and another 2015 report
by UNESCO named ‘Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All’ it was
claimed that the progress to provide all children with access to basic education
has stalled since 2007 (UNESCO, 2015b). The causes of this are reported as
increasing poverty, war and conflict in countries, gender discrimination, child
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labour, language challenges, as well as social, institutional and environmental

barriers linked to disability. Apparently, there are also still 58 million children,
more or less between the ages of six and 11, out of school globally. An estimate of
30 million of these children is in sub-Sahara Africa. A large number of children
with disabilities continue to have no access to education and a stigma that keeps
them hidden away in many communities still persists. It is obvious therefore
that many vulnerable children continue to be marginalised worldwide, despite
efforts to achieve education for all and promote inclusion.

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30 Inclusive education
in the South African
context

Mirna Nel

Inclusive, good quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable

societies. (Desmond Tutu)

Introduction
Although inclusive education is a global approach, it remains a contextual issue.
Every continent and country has its own sociocultural, political, historical and
economic contexts and challenges. Inclusion within an African perspective has a
specific meaning. There is a saying in Sepedi: A person is a person because that
person exists among others, not in isolation (Mahlo, 2017). Or alternatively, you
have heard the adage: It takes a village to raise a child. With regard to inclusive
education, this means that the whole school community, including parents,
elders, wider families and cultural custodians must ensure that all children
receive quality and equal education. This constitutes a togetherness, sharing
and reciprocity as well as an acknowledgement of every child’s identity, history,
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cultures and experiences that they bring to school (Phasha, Mahlo & Dei, 2017;
Mahlo, 2017). The given in South Africa is that classrooms are diverse with
regard to race, ethnicity, culture, religion, language and abilities. This in itself
represents inclusivity. The focus of inclusive education in South African can
therefore not only be disability-centred, but should have a broader purpose of
social inclusion and addressing diverse learning needs.

Background to inclusive education in South Africa

Since South Africa participated in and undersigned all the international

conventions (as discussed in the previous chapter), it contributed largely to
South Africa’s move to inclusive education in the last few decades. However,
the predominant motive for implementing an inclusive education system was
driven by South Africa’s poor human rights history. In the previous political
dispensation, discriminatory policies and practices segregated learners based on
race and disability. Different races were in different schools and learners with
disabilities (also called special needs) were placed in special classes and schools.
These special schools mostly accommodated white learners and were well-
resourced. Only a few under-resourced special schools for black learners with
disabilities were nationally available. As a consequence, many black learners, who
had special needs were included by default into mainstream education. Access
to special schools was also rigidly controlled. After a battery of tests by different
health professionals (eg, doctors, psychologists, speech- and/or occupational
therapists or social workers) only learners with organic or medical disabilities
and severe behaviour problems were allowed to attend special schools. There
were also a large number of learners with disabilities not in schools at all. In
2001, it was determined that nearly 240 000 learners with disabilities were out
of school (Department of Education, 2001). After the political transformation,
impelled by the Constitution (Republic of South Africa, 1996b) and more
specifically the Bill of Rights, several education policies affirmed that there
should be equal rights and social justice for all learners by accommodating them
into one integrated education system.
The South African Schools Act No. 84 of 1996 (Republic of South Africa,
1996c) was the first legal educational document that affirmed the obligation
to redress past injustices in education and uphold the rights of all learners by
eradicating unfair discrimination and intolerance. However, the most important
policy that is fundamental to all educational decisions and practices in South
Africa is Education White Paper 6 (EWP6) on special needs education,
building an inclusive education and training system (Department of Education,
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

2001). This policy was developed and accepted in 2001 after an investigation
into all aspects related to special needs and support services by the National
Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training (NCSNET) and the
National Committee on Education Support Services (NCESS). The findings of
this investigation affirmed that there were two distinct categories of learners—
the majority with ordinary needs, and then a minority of learners with special
needs, who were taught and received remedial intervention in special schools.
These learners were deemed by the education departments and society as not
being able to fit into mainstream education. In response to this report, EWP6

264

emphasised the principles that should be given prominence to in an inclusive

education system, namely:

• Human rights and social justice for all learners;
• Participation and social integration;
• Equal access to a single, inclusive education system;
• Access to one curriculum;
• Equity and redress; and
• Community responsiveness (Department of Education, 1997, 2001).
EWP6 acknowledges that diverse learning needs can arise as a result of intrinsic
barriers to learning including:
... physical, mental, sensory, neurological and developmental impairments,
psycho-social disturbances, differences in intellectual ability, particular life
experiences or socio-economic deprivation,
but also emphasises that the following extrinsic (societal and systemic) barriers
to learning can result in learning difficulties:
• Negative attitudes to and stereotyping of difference;
• An inflexible curriculum;
• Inappropriate languages or language of learning and teaching;
• Inappropriate communication;
• Inaccessible and unsafe built environments;
• Inappropriate and inadequate support services;
• Inadequate policies and legislation;
• The non-recognition and non-involvement of parents; and
• Inadequately and inappropriately trained education managers and
educators. (Department of Education, 2001:7)
An important fact that you need to take cognisance of is that EWP6 puts
emphasis on the fact that barriers to learning do not only reside within the
learner, but can also be a result of barriers that the education system, as well as
socio-environmental issues, cause.
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Defining inclusive education within a South African

context
Although there are different interpretations by researchers and practitioners
of what inclusive education entails, the following definition as given in EWP6
should be used as the foundation (Department of Education, 2001:6).

265

Inclusive education:
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• Is about acknowledging that all children and youth can learn and that
all children and youth need support;
• Is accepting and respecting the fact that all learners are different in some
way and have different learning needs which are equally valued and an
ordinary part of our human experience;
• Is about enabling education structures, systems and learning
methodologies to meet the needs of all learners;
• Acknowledges and respects difference in children, whether due to age,
gender, ethnicity, language, class, disability, HIV status, etc;
• Is broader than formal schooling, and acknowledges that learning
occurs in the home, the community, and within formal and informal
modes and structures;
• Is about changing attitudes, behaviours, methodologies, curricula and
environments to meet the needs of all children; and
• Is about maximising the participation of all learners in the culture
and the curriculum of educational institutions and uncovering and
minimising barriers to learning.

The use of appropriate terminology within the South

African context
Since South Africa has a history of discriminatory and exclusionary practices
the use of words/terminology can have a significant impact. It can either
harm, label and stereotype or carry over a message of inclusion and belonging.
Terminology such as special educational needs (SEN), disabilities and
impairments are generally used to label and categorise learners. As soon as the
label ‘learner with special educational needs’ (LSEN) is awarded to a learner, he/
she is categorised according to the disability/impairment the child has and then
separated from mainstream education and placed in special education settings.
Alas, the so-called ‘normal’ community then believes that these learners will not
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be able to achieve success in a mainstream academic and working world since

these disabilities are judged as arising from within the learner (Department of
Education, 1997; Nel, 2013; Swart & Pettipher, 2016). Because of these negative
connotations to the term ‘learner with special educational needs’ or ‘special
educational needs’, it was replaced by EWP6 with ‘learners experiencing barriers
to learning and development’ as an official term (Department of Education,
2001). A barrier to learning can be defined as ‘anything that stands in the way
of a child being able to learn’. These barriers can be experienced as a result of
intrinsic or extrinsic factors.

266

Extrinsic barriers to learning and development

Extrinsic barriers to learning and development are circumstances outside of

the learner that result in learning difficulties. These extrinsic barriers can be
caused by the societies in which learners live or by the school system itself. This
includes socio-economic barriers, for example:
• Poverty;
• A dysfunctional family;
• Abuse, crime, gangs, and violence in the neighbourhood and/or at home;
• A lack of basic amenities such as water, electricity, proper housing, and
ablution facilities; gender issues in cultural groups and in society as a whole;
and
• A home language that differs from the language of learning and teaching.
Within the school system, extrinsic barriers to learning can refer to a lack of
basic and appropriate learning support materials, inadequate facilities at schools,
overcrowded classrooms, and a dysfunctional management system. Learners
can also experience barriers to learning as a consequence of poor teaching and/
or teachers that are not properly trained, insufficient support from teachers,
inappropriate and unfair assessment practices, an inflexible curriculum (eg, not
relevant to learners’ pace, prior knowledge, learning styles), teachers not being
able to deal with a diversity of learning needs, and poor classroom management
(Nel, Nel & Hugo, 2016).

Intrinsic barriers to learning and development

Intrinsic barriers to learning and development correspond to conditions within
the learner. This refers to medical conditions and disabilities. These barriers
can be genetic, neurological, occur as a consequence of pregnancy or birth
complications, or they could be the result of accidents or illnesses. These intrinsic
barriers to learning and development include cognitive disabilities, sensory
impairments such as visual and hearing impairments, physical impairments (eg
cerebral palsy), and neurological conditions (eg, epilepsy or dyslexia) (Nel, Nel
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& Hugo, 2016).

EWP6 (Department of Education, 2001) recognises that the terms ‘special
educational needs’, ‘disability’ and ‘impairments’ are still internationally used,
and for that reason, these terms are retained when referring specifically to those
learners whose barriers to learning and development are rooted in intrinsic
organic/medical causes. It also needs to be mentioned that SEN and LSEN
continues to be used in colloquial educational conversations about learners
who experience barriers to learning. Learners who are being referred and
placed in special education also seem to still be classified as LSEN (Nel, Nel &

267

Hugo, 2014) although this is not acknowledged by policy (Department of Basic

Education, 2014).

The possible abuse of scientific terminology to exclude or label learners has been
n
o mentioned above. However, in many instances unacceptable idiomatic labels are
t attached by educationist (including teachers and specialist professionals such as
e psychologists and therapists) as well as society to learners who struggle. This could be:
• ‘The lazy child’;
• ‘The problem child’;
• ‘The child will never achieve anything in life’;
• ‘The special child’;
• ‘The slow child’;
• ‘The retarded child’;
• ‘The mad child’; and
• ‘Our inclusive kids’.

Challenges in implementing inclusive education

successfully
Although South African policies outline specific guidelines, requirements and
procedures to affect an inclusive education system, numerous research studies
and reports have found that schools find it very difficult to enact inclusive
education. This is specifically applicable to learners who have a disability
or multiple disabilities. Including these learners in a mainstream classroom
are seen by many people in the South African society as still challenging and
only an ideology. Bornman and Rose (2010:7) assert that ‘[a] general lack of
support and resources, as well as the prevailing negative attitudes toward
disability, all contribute to the general bewilderment in South African schools
towards inclusion’.
Besides the continuous exclusion of learners with disabilities, the most
significant challenges that have been reported within the South African
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context include the following (Engelbrecht, Nel, Smit & Van Deventer, 2016;
Makhalemele & Nel, 2016; Nel, Nel & Hugo, 2016; Sayed & Ahmed, 2015;
Walton, 2015; Nel, Tlale, Engelbrecht & Nel, 2016; Berger, 2013; Bornman &
Donohue, 2013; Chataika, McKenzie, Swart & Lyner-Cleophas, 2012; Oswald &
Swart, 2011; Wildeman & Nomdo, 2007):
• Negative attitudes of society (including teachers);
• Large class sizes;
• Learning needs that are too diverse in one class (eg, different abilities,
disabilities, languages, cultures, religions, socio-economic circumstances, etc);

268

• Poor language proficiency in the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT)

as a consequence of learners not learning in their mother tongue;

• Poor socio-economic circumstances of learners, resulting in social problems
and inadequate resources;
• Too many problematic home circumstances as a result of poverty, social
problems, illnesses (such as HIV and AIDS and tuberculosis) and other
reasons;
• Poor parental support;
• Inappropriate and/or insufficient resources and learning materials, especially
for learners with disabilities (such as Braille material for the visually impaired,
hearing aids for learners with hearing impairments and mobility support for
the physically disabled);
• Inadequate training of teachers who need to deal with diverse learning needs
and barriers to learning;
• Restricted financial resources;
• Limited and poor functioning support structures;
• Continuous curriculum changes;
• Too many administrative duties for teachers; and
• Discipline and behaviour problems in classes.
In a report on the Implementation of Education, White Paper 6 on Inclusive
Education (Department of Basic Education, 2015) it is stated that although there
has been a large increase of learners with disabilities enrolling in schools it is
estimated that there are still more than 500 000 children with disabilities between
five and 18 years old out of school, which is more than double the number
that was initially identified in 2001. The reasons for this seem to be limited
resources with regard to personnel provisioning (support staff and teachers) and
finance, inadequate access to specialist support services, insufficient processes
and procedures to identify children with disabilities early and a large number
of drop-outs before these learners complete schooling (Department of Basic
Education, 2015; Muthukrishna, Morojele, Naidoo & D’Amant, 2016).
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Conclusion
There are obvious practical challenges to the implementation of inclusive
education in South Africa. However, based on a human rights belief integrating
and applying inclusive values to ensure equal education opportunities for
all learners should be an integral principle and practice in all classrooms.
This includes equality, social justice, respect for and acceptance of diversity,
participation, as well as compassion and care (Booth, 2011). Treating everyone

269

as of equal value and worth implies acceptance and respect, without stereo-
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typing and/or labelling someone simply because he/she looks, thinks and
believes differently (Nel, 2013).
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31 Learning support in
South Africa

Mirna Nel

Every student (learner) can learn, just not on the same day or in the same
way. (George Evans)

Introduction
Learning support is an embedded feature of an inclusive education approach.
Being a good teacher infers being able to provide appropriate support, whether
it is to learners, who struggle with some aspects of a subject, or who experience
more serious barriers to learning. All learners can experience some learning
difficulties at a time in their school careers, which does not necessarily mean
that they have a learning disability. These difficulties can be, for example, as
a result of poorly constructed explanations and instructions, not learning in
one’s mother tongue or simply not being interested in a subject. Usually when
teachers reflect on their teaching and choose alternative teaching methods
and/or allow for flexibility in assessment and give some additional support
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the learner progresses well. This implies learning support in a broader sense
where supporting all learners during teaching and learning in general ensures
effective learning. However, in the context of this chapter, the focus will be more
on supporting learners, who struggle continuously with learning as a result of
intrinsic and/or extrinsic barriers to learning.

Understanding learning support

There are two predominant models that are important to understand with
regard to the support of learners who experience barriers to learning. They are
the medical-deficit model and the socioecological model.

Medical-deficit model
Before the transformation to a more inclusive education system in South Africa,
a medical model was used as framework when learners with disabilities (ie,
intrinsic barriers to learning) were identified. In a medical model, the primary
focus of intervention is to diagnose and remediate the ‘deficit-within-the-child’.
Education support staff, who were mainly health professionals (eg, psychologists,
speech- and occupational therapists, and social workers), employed by the
government, applied a battery of psychometric tests and made the final
decisions regarding placements and suggested interventions. These learners
were then categorised, given a Learner with Special Education Needs (LSEN)
number, as well as a weighting based on their medical/biological conditions and/
or cognitive disability and subsequently placed in an applicable, but separate
special education environment. For example, a learner who was placed in a class/
school for the learning disabled counted for two learners, or a learner placed in
a school for learners with a severe cognitive disability counted for five learners.
They were consequently excluded from what was seen by society as ‘mainstream
normal’ and also followed a different curriculum (Swart & Pettipher, 2016). In
this model, health professionals (employed by government or in private practice)
were inclined to believe that their services were indispensable and that they are
the predominant experts on their distinctive fields (Engelbrecht, 2009). Parents,
teachers and learners, therefore, could not really influence this decision. This
was therefore a very individualistic, remedial intervention approach and mostly
ignored systemic and socio-environmental influences.
From a human rights discourse, the medical model perspective results in
discriminatory practices. This is based on the following reasons:
• Unique human beings cannot be classified into simple medical-disability
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diagnoses;
• Learners may have different medical disabilities, but similar educational
needs; and
• Diagnoses are often a way of social control (and not necessarily as effective
as it purports to be) (Naicker, 1999:48).
However, it is important to note that the medical data gained from this practice
adds valuable information in the assessment and learning support process of
learners experiencing barriers.

272

Socio-ecological model
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In an inclusive education system, a more socio-ecological collaborative

approach to learning support is emphasised. This perspective acknowledges that
a diversity of learning needs exist that result from individual, as well as societal
and systemic factors. Therefore, in this approach, the intricacy of influences,
interactions, and interrelationships between the individual (learner) and several
other systems are acknowledged (Nel, Nel & Hugo, 2016; Swart & Pettipher,
2016). These systems can be in direct (eg, parents, teachers and peers) or indirect
(eg, community, socio-economic circumstances, parent’s work circumstances,
education policies) interaction with the learner. Consequently, besides medical
concerns, contextual factors and influences are also investigated and taken into
consideration during the assessment and learning support process by different
role players (such as health professionals, teachers, parents, learners, school and
district based support teams) working together in collaborative partnerships.
Moreover, in this model, it is also essential that stumbling blocks within society
and the system (such as those referred to in the previous chapters) should be
removed (Florian in Swart & Pettipher, 2016). Within a human rights and social
justice perspective the socio-ecological model is thus the more appropriate
model.

The term learning support is endorsed by policy in South Africa, emphasising a socio-
n
o ecological approach. However, it is important to note that in the colloquial mouth, as
t well as internationally, terms such as remediation and remedial intervention are also
e still used, although this ratifies a more medical model approach.

Support structures envisioned by EWP6 to promote a more inclusive education

system include special schools as resource centres (SSRC), full-service schools
(FSS), district-based support teams (DBST), school-based support teams (SBST)
and a Policy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS).
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Support structures
Special schools as resource centres (SSRC)
Special schools as resource centres (SSRCs) must be fully equipped to provide
access to and accommodate learners who need high-intensity educational
support programmes and services. This can include learners with severe
cognitive and/or physical disabilities, visual and hearing impairments, as well
as behavioural difficulties such as autism spectrum disorders. Staff and support
personnel attached to these schools should also offer support services to

273

neighbouring mainstream and full-service schools. Placement in these schools

must be a last resort and should not be seen as permanent. If a learner’s support
needs can be accommodated in an ordinary/mainstream or FSS near to his/
her home, this learner may not be admitted to a SSRC (Department of Basic
Education, 2014).

Full-service school (FSS)

The objective of a FSS is to increase participation and diminish exclusion by
admitting all learners from a particular area, regardless of their disabilities, in an
ordinary/mainstream school. These schools should become flagship inclusive
schools, as well as provide a range of appropriate support services (Department
of Basic Education, 2014, 2015). All learners are therefore welcomed in terms of
their cultures, policies and practices. The knowledge and expertise with regard
to teaching, learning, assessment and support activities of staff attached to these
schools should also be made available to neighbouring mainstream schools.
Mainstream schools are increasingly being converted into FSSs: from 30 in 2007
to 787 in 2014 (Department of Basic Education, 2015).

District-based support teams (DBST)

The DBST, situated at district offices, is responsible to coordinate and promote
inclusive education by providing training, support curriculum delivery,
coordinate the distribution of resources and infrastructure development, as
well as handling the identification, assessment and addressing of barriers
to learning. Ultimately the DBST must support schools to ensure that they
function as inclusive centres of learning, care and support (Department of Basic
Education, 2014).
Personnel attached to these DBSTs includes psychologists, therapists,
remedial/learning support teachers, special needs specialists (relating to
specific disabilities), and other health and welfare professionals (Department
of Basic Education, 2014). Recently learning support teachers (LSTs) have been
appointed at district offices as members of the DBST. They are assigned to a
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few schools where they provide assistance with regard to the identification and
support of learners experiencing barriers to learning (Nel, Tlale, Engelbrecht &
Nel, 2016).

School-based support teams (SBST)

These teams are situated at schools as a school-level support mechanism
and mainly comprises of the management and teachers at the school. Their
primary function is to put coordinated school, learner and teacher support in
place. However, community members and health professionals may also be

274

incorporated. Although appointed in the district office, the learning support

teacher (LST) is also part of the SBST (Department of Basic Education, 2014).

Functions of the school-based support teams

The teacher is usually the first person to identify a learner in need of additional
support. This is after various measures have been attempted to ensure the learner’s
progress in the classroom. These measures include using a variety of teaching,
learning and assessment strategies, investigating the learner’s background,
talking to the parents as well as all teachers, who were and are involved with
the learner. When all of these measures still do not provide the desired learning
outcomes, the learner is referred to the SBST, who then assesses what kind of
support is needed and develop a programme for the teacher and parents (see
Chapter 35). This programme must be continuously monitored and evaluated
(Department of Basic Education, 2014).
In addition to individual support, these teams must also support the teaching
and learning process of the school. This includes coordinating all learner, teacher,
curriculum and school development support in the school, identifying school
needs and, in particular, barriers to learning at learner, teacher, curriculum
and school levels, developing strategies to address these needs and barriers to
learning, drawing in the resources needed, from within and outside the school,
to address these challenges, and monitoring and evaluating the work of the team
within an ‘action-reflection’ framework. Although the DBST can provide support
and advice throughout, they usually only become involved when all resources
and efforts have been exhausted in providing these support programmes and
progress has not been made (Department of Basic Education, 2014).

Policy on screening, identification, assessment and support

(SIAS)
This policy was introduced in 2014 by the Department of Basic Education. The
purpose is to standardise procedures to identify, assess and provide support
programmes for all learners, who require additional support to ensure their
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

participation and inclusion in education (Department of Basic Education,

2014:1). Although medical model practices are incorporated in the SIAS policy,
the socioecological perspective is applied as fundamental operating principle.
Health professionals (such as psychologists, audiologists, speech-, occupational-
and physiotherapists) play a significant role in the SIAS process and are used to
conduct more formal assessments. Consequently, standardised scholastic and
psychometric tests (such as intelligent quotient (IQ) tests) are allowed as part of
a range of assessment strategies, and may not be used to classify and categorise.
These tests must be culturally fair and only inform the teaching and learning

275

process in respect of the nature and level of educational support the learner
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needs (Department of Basic Education, 2014). It is emphasised in this policy

that the assessment of a learner who experiences barriers to learning also has
to take socio-environmental factors into consideration. Thus, barriers that are
experienced by the individual need to be assessed, but also barriers impacting
on the learner located within the curriculum, school, family, community and
social context levels. Different forms of assessment (including curriculum-
based assessments) from a variety of perspectives should therefore be employed.
The teacher is primarily responsible to apply the SIAS process and should
assume the role of case manager to drive the support process. Yet, the knowledge
and wishes of the parents/caregivers must carry the ultimate weight in any
decision-making process (Department of Basic Education, 2014).
Keeping in mind the emphasis on a socio-ecological model and supporting
the learner holistically, the SIAS also integrated several other governmental
strategies. This includes the Integrated School Health Policy (ISHP), Care and
Support for Teaching and Learning (CSTL) Framework, School Nutrition Policy,
the National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS), and the
HIV and AIDS in Education Policy (Department of Basic Education, 2014). The
ISHP affirms that schools provide an ideal opportunity for health education and
interventions (Departments of Health and Basic Education, 2012). This could
address health and socio-economic factors impacting on learners’ learning.
The CSTL Framework envisions to uphold the educational rights of vulnerable
children in South Africa through schools becoming inclusive centres of learning,
care and support (Department of Basic Education & MIET Africa, 2010). For
this to realise, the framework will coordinate all existing services, including
other government departments, community services, private professionals, non-
government organisations (NGOs), disabled people organisations (DPOs), early
intervention providers and community-based rehabilitation services. Factors
that could have a negative impact on the enrolment, retention, performance and
progression of vulnerable learners in schools will be prevented and mitigated
through the CSTL programme. Nine priority areas have been identified to
address the afore-mentioned. This includes:
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

1. Nutritional support.
2. Health promotion.
3. Infrastructure for water and sanitation.
4. Safety and protection.
5. Social welfare services.
6. Psychosocial support.
7. Material support.

276

9. Co-curricular support.

The role of the teacher within learning support

A central feature of the teacher within a learning support process should be that
of authentic caring. Authentically caring about learners implies not labelling
learners, but motivating all of them to succeed in learning, as well as allowing
them to experience a sense of belonging and well-being. This requires that they
do not make assumptions and judgements based on observable behaviour and
achievement in the classroom. Teachers need to be thorough in making time to
understand their learners’ learning barriers, but also learn about their contexts
(ie, backgrounds, home situations, communities, cultures, etc). It is thus critical
that teachers have an in-depth conceptual understanding of inclusion and the
diverse needs of learners, as well as about barriers to learning. This is important
since the SIAS policy (Department of Basic Education, 2014) emphasises that
the uncovering of barriers to learning must be based on sound information.
This requires:
• Observation of the learner during all teaching, learning and assessment
activities. This includes formative actions. Decisions and assumptions about
learning difficulties should not be made on formal assessments (such as tests
and exams) only. Keeping record of these observations is essential.
• Interviews and consultation with various role players (eg, parents, other
relevant teachers, even the learner and maybe health professionals).
• Reflection on appropriate teaching, learning and assessment strategies, ie,
was the learner’s unique needs addressed?
• Looking at previous records (consult the learner profile).
Supporting the learner entails the ability to differentiate and adjust content,
learning material as well as teaching, learning and assessment strategies.
Knowledge and skills to implement a flexible curriculum is therefore vital for
the teacher. Being able to apply the necessary accommodations in assessment
and examinations is also necessary.
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Conclusion
As reported in the previous chapter, the implementation of inclusive education
still has many challenges, including a sound functioning support system.
Challenges such as large classroom numbers and too wide a diversity of
learning needs contribute to teachers not being able to apply good learning
support practices. However, a crucial factor is that most teachers have not been

277

adequately trained in supporting learners who experience barriers to learning,

and they consequently believe in general that they don’t have the capacity
(Engelbrecht, Nel, Smit & Van Deventer, 2016; Makhalemele & Nel, 2016; Nel,
Tlale, Engelbrecht & Nel 2016; Nel, Engelbrecht, Nel & Tlale, 2014). As a result,
when looking at current learning support praxis in South Africa, the medical
model still prevails (Swart & Pettipher, 2016; Nel, Engelbrecht, Nel & Tlale,
2014).
Including learners, who experience barriers to learning in their classroom,
especially intrinsic barriers give rise to higher stress levels for teachers
(Engelbrecht, Oswald, Swart & Eloff, 2003). They would therefore rather refer
these learners to health professionals, who they believe are better equipped to
provide support, and have them placed in special education (Nel, Engelbrecht,
Nel & Tlale, 2014.). Since support systems are not fully functional to ensure high
quality support (Department of Basic Education, 2015) it is very difficult for
mainstream or Full-service schools to include learners who have more severe
disabilities. Consequently, according to the Department of Basic Education
(2015), there is an increase of special schools built, from 295 in 2002 to 453
in 2014. The number of learners who gained access to these schools have
also escalated from 64 000 in 2002 to 117 477 in 2014, and there are still long
waiting lists of learners who have requested access to these schools. Full-service
schools are also not effectively functioning as fully inclusive schools mainly
due to teachers not feeling adequately trained and experiencing a sense of self-
inefficiency to implement inclusive education (Engelbrecht, Nel, Smit & Van
Deventer, 2016; Payne-van Staden, 2015; Walton, Nel, Muller & Lebeloane,
2014). The Department of Basic Education also recognises that the majority of
children with severe to profound disabilities, who function at the lowest level
of development, have not had access to public funded education and support,
leaving them vulnerable and excluded from the network of available support
services. This is currently being addressed with the introduction of a draft
policy where a specially designed learning programme will be made available
for these learners, special needs teachers and caregivers will be trained to
teach and support these learners, and health professionals will be giving more
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individualised support (Department of Basic Education, 2016).

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32 Teacher collaboration
and working with school-
based support teams

Jean Fourie

A single bracelet does not jingle. (Congolese proverb)

Introduction
Collaboration in schools is one of the key strategies in developing an inclusive
education system. The African saying—‘a single bangle does not jingle’—
captures the essence of people working together to achieve a greater goal than
an individual working alone. The South African movement towards an inclusive
education system is set against the international background call of ‘Education
for All’, where schools accommodate all learners regardless of their race,
gender, physical, intellectual, social, emotional or linguistic differences (see also
Chapter 29). Modern classrooms are increasingly diverse in their cultures,
languages and developmental abilities thus demanding the implementation of
collaborative school practices (Florian, 2012).
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

School-based support teams

Education White Paper 6 (Department of Education, 2001) outlined the
framework for developing an integrated education system where special needs
are infused throughout the system and support services are available to all
learners with the establishment of school-based support teams (SBST). The
school principal is mandated to establish the team and ensure its functionality.
The SBST is a group of core teachers who are tasked to institute well-coordinated
learner and educator support services. Where appropriate the learner, parents

and caregivers would be part of the discussions. Proceedings can be augmented

by expertise from the local community, professional support personnel (school

counsellor, psychologist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, learning
support educators, school nurse, physiotherapist, dietician) and district-
based support teams to assist with particular challenges (Department of Basic
Education, 2014).
School-based support teams are the collective mechanism that teachers
use in identifying learners who experience barriers to effective learning and
implementing appropriate interventions. These teams can be highly effective
when the members’ roles are clearly defined and when teachers are well
informed and motivated to help learners. The SBST works collaboratively with
all teachers to improve the whole school. The team should be led by a dedicated
teacher who coordinates the activities of the team. Collaborative teamwork
and joint planning are essential as these teams assist with differentiating the
curriculum, adapting teaching methods, modifying learning environments and
incorporating assistive devices and e-learning into schools.

The importance of collaborative teacher teams

The segregated, marginalising discourse of special needs education has
moved towards conversations focusing on systemic, contextual, individualised
education. This conceptual shift places most of the special needs debate outside
of the special school sector implying that many more learners are actually part
of the inclusion debate than in the previous deficit conceptualisation (Porteus,
2008). Learners need support for a plethora of extrinsic socio-economic issues,
language challenges, and intrinsic psychological and health conditions.
With specific regard to disability in Africa, it has been estimated that only
10% of such children attend school (United Nations, 2006). In South Africa,
it is estimated that up to 70% of school-age children with disabilities are not
in school (Department of Education, 2001) even though school is compulsory
between the ages of seven and 15 years. Thus, many children are potentially
eligible for supportive education and this lends impetus to the need for basing
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support services directly within the school itself, and so the requirement for a
well-functioning school-based support team arises.
These conceptual changes have impacted greatly on schools that have taken
up the challenge to reorganise and become more supportive of diversity. Whereas
mainstream schools traditionally referred learners to specialist education
support personnel, these schools now coordinate internal support services. In
order for these teams to perform their supportive role adequately, they need to
establish strong links with various agents in the school community.

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The goal of educator collaboration is broadly to provide pedagogical support

for optimising learners’ participation and academic performance. Educators
collaborate to support all learners and specifically those identified as having
additional or special support needs. SBSTs need a clear common, shared goal when
working with learners as opposed to fragmented and disjointed programmes that
leave learners with inappropriate educational plans (Giangreco, Carter, Doyle &
Suter, 2010). This focus on providing cohesive, individualised programmes for
diverse learning needs can be fostered by effective teacher teamwork.
Support in education may take many forms and can be thought of as the
scaffolding around a building. The scaffold provides a firm structure and pillars
of strength while the walls are being built. In educational terms—the developing
child is scaffolded by caring educators while the child is growing and maturing.
Support may involve modifying the physical school environment to ensure
that buildings are accessible for learners with physical impairments. Support
may relate to individualising the curriculum content and pace for learners
with cognitive difficulties. Support may require concessions in the ways that
learners are assessed and graded. Support may include specialised technology
and assistive devices for learners with sensory impairments. Support could be
individualised and tailored to suit the specific needs and requirements of the
learner at that particular time. For instance, a learner who is visually impaired
may need intense support initially in order to learn to read in Braille. As the
learner’s competence improves, less support is needed until the learner is fully
independent as a Braille reader and writer. Educators thus work together in
providing this individualised and dynamic support.

Benefits of collaboration
When educators work together, there are multiple benefits. Educators working
together actualise school policies, protocols, and processes in building caring,
sensitive schools. When educators work closely together, they build mutual
trust which enhances both teacher commitment and retention. The exchange
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of expertise between educators enhances professional development and the

reliance on outside experts is minimised. Joint decision making is crucial
for individualised support planning. Collaboration allows educators to take
ownership of creatively solving problems as educators support one another
with particular difficulties. With peer support confidentiality must be
respected as educators share ideas to solve problems on equal terms. No one
is seen as the expert with all the answers. Educators interacting professionally
and sharing their knowledge enhances learners’ academic outcomes. The

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coordination and management of educational resources is more efficient

and sustainable with high levels of collaboration. Support personnel are used
more effectively as staff negotiates the boundaries of their professional roles.
Schools with well-functioning support teams have less referrals to specialised
psychology services and report fewer problem behaviours and improved
parent involvement.

Difficulties in collaboration
Although various types of educator teams are common in schools, they are fraught
with difficulties regarding implementation, maintenance and leadership. These
multiple obstacles to collaboration can be classified as conceptual, pragmatic,
attitudinal and professional. Conceptual barriers prevent role expansion
or modification with team members exhibiting rigid ideas of appropriate
responsibilities and tasks for individuals which greatly limit their collective
action. Support personnel might operate in isolation from the broader teaching
staff as different professional cultures create barriers and active resistance to
meaningful engagement. Parallel working and compartmentalisation may
evolve. Teachers often prefer to learn from each other, which may reinforce
existing habits and isolate them from new ways of thinking.
Pragmatic barriers deal with resources such as funding, time, space, and
materials, which make team action difficult. Challenges of collaboration
between educators may arise around basic constraints such as scheduling of
meetings. Donahue and Bornman (2014) note the most significant constraints
to implementation of inclusive education lie in ambiguity and lack of clarity
regarding procedures and unaccountable authorities who do not assume
responsibility and control the implementation process. In a study in Gauteng,
Nel, Muller and Rheeder (2011) reported that learners with special needs and
disabilities, ‘never’ or ‘seldom’ received specialised support. School management
teams and teachers often struggle with what constitutes an effective teacher
support team, and how to support learners who are experiencing barriers to
learning (Nel, Engelbrecht, Nel & Tlale, 2013). Furthermore, in reviewing
inclusive education in developing countries, Srivastava, De Boer and Pijl (2015)
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found there is often a serious gap in policy vision and implementation practices.
Attitudinal barriers refer to beliefs and expectations of team members. For
instance, beliefs that certain learners should not be included in mainstream
schools or that change should happen immediately and be relatively effortless.
Such beliefs may limit team members’ investment in and support of the
team’s collective efforts. However, if educators have actively experienced the
implementation of inclusive programmes they have more positive attitudes
towards learner diversity.

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Professional barriers relate to difficulties arising due to lack of training,

skills and knowledge. Teachers who have difficulty working together could
compromise the quality of school projects and the collaborative process in
supporting learning. Educators should develop sophisticated skills and strategies
in the collaborative processes to enhance school-based reforms.

Educator collaboration internationally

Educators working collaboratively to support the needs of all learners in schools
are an international occurrence. In America, the purpose of the support team
is to promote individual learner success in the ‘regular classroom’ using specific
assessment and intervention techniques to address barriers to learning. In these
teams there is a dedicated support teacher who helps coordinate, assess, train, and
assist the staff in meeting the specific instructional needs of struggling learners.
These support teachers conduct curriculum-based assessments, consulting with
teachers and facilitate intervention techniques (United States Department of
Education, 2017). Teacher support teams meet the special educational needs of
learners in the United Kingdom. These teams support teachers with concerns
relating broadly to special educational needs and follow comprehensive
functioning guidelines (Creese, Daniels & Norwich, 2012). The teams play a
crucial role in enhancing service efficiency and provide opportunities for
teachers’ professional development. The teams plan programmes for individual
cases, check for accountability, and provide teacher training. The teams attend
to both individual students’ psychosocial needs and school systemic issues
(Phillippo & Stone, 2006).

A collaborative theoretical framework

The SBST in South Africa and the teacher support teams in other countries
are similar support structures, whose primary purpose is to increase learning
success. Since these teams perform a vital role in addressing barriers to learning,
their functioning and effectiveness is vital in the transformation towards
inclusive schools.
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Social network theory (SNT) provides a useful theoretical framework for

understanding the effective functioning of teacher collaboration in supporting
diverse learners in inclusive schools. A social network is a virtual structure
consisting of nodes or agents, which may be individuals or organisations that
are tied by one or more types of relationships or interdependencies (Kadushin,
2012). SNT attempts to explain complex social relationships in terms of
networks formed by individuals or organisations, which are characterised by
the type of content that is exchanged between the agents (Scott & Carrington,
2011). Networks explain information exchange and knowledge transfer in

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formal, workplace organisations. Ties between agents imply an exchange of

some nature between the nodes. The agents within social networks are tied by
cohesive forces or interdependencies that may take varying forms of shared
values, visions, friendship or exchange. Network structures enhance resource
flow if the necessary relationships are in place, but resource flow may also be
impeded with insufficient connectivity between agents (Moody & White, 2003).
In this framework, the people within a school community are considered
actors or agents who interact with one another in various relationships. SBSTs
function as sociocentric networks, which have a distinct, well-defined boundary
of belonging as there is a clear core of team members. The members of the
SBST are agents who are tied with other agents such as teachers, therapists and
parents by various relationships where there is an exchange of ideas and services
between the agents. SBSTs network with the express purpose of supporting
diverse learning needs. Intra-school ties are formed between teachers within the
same school. Inter-organisational ties are formed between the school and other
outside agencies such as specialist professional personnel and the knowledge
networks of district teams, which support the entire educational system
(Daly, 2012).
Agents within social networks build social capital in the network. Social
capital refers to the person’s ability to draw on resources, knowledge and power
in order to resolve a problem or meet the goals of the team. A person’s position
in the network influences his/her social capital and agents with multiple ties
have more social capital (Smylie & Evans, 2006). Generally, small and tight,
closed networks with weak, loose or redundant connections are less useful
as closed groups are prone towards similar opinions, common ideas, and
continually sharing similar resources and knowledge. More open, intricately
woven networks with many connections, even if they are weak, are more likely
to offer new opportunities and ideas to their members (Koch & Lockwood,
2010). Since an average person may only be able to establish a few strong ties due
to physical constraints such as time and energy, the establishment of numerous
weak ties are more effective in providing the group with insights, innovation
and information —‘the strength of weak ties’.
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Complex, open networks are more likely to be useful in addressing the diverse
needs of the school community. Team members with many connections to outside
agents have more access to broader resources and ranges of information. Such
networks support children’s well-being and development which is powerfully
shaped by the social capital inherent in the people with whom they interact.
Furthermore, schools are often the driving forces in building social capital for
inclusive and respectful societies (Munn, 2000).

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Open networks show dynamic fluidity as the network changes with regards
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to variable factors such as time, personnel, and the nature of their work (Daly,
2012). SBSTs are open in establishing ties with many other agencies and the
nature of their work is dependent on the unique context, situation and setting of
the school. Generally schools with complex, open, dynamic networks between
educators, multi-disciplinary teams and outside agencies are better at supporting
learners’ diverse needs, than schools with closed, limited networks (Fourie,
2017). The power of the collaborative network seems to lie in the complexity
of the relationship ties, rather than in the personal attributes of the individual
agents. More connections, even if relatively weak, increase the social capital of
the network. Open networks with many connections offer more opportunities
and resources for the teacher team in supporting diverse learning needs.

Conclusion
Support teams network internally with educators in identifying learning
barriers, designing support plans, implementing inclusive pedagogical practices,
and differentiating the curriculum. Teams network externally when guiding
parents and involving specialist support personnel. Teams network with other
government sectors such as social workers, welfare, feeding schemes, and safe
houses. Effective teams network with support groups, for example in South
Africa, FamiliesSA, Autism SA, SA Association for Learning and Educational
Differences, Read for Africa, and the SA Depression and Anxiety Group.
Social network theory provides a useful frame for understanding teacher
collaboration as it focuses on how the structure of the ties affects agents’
behaviour and the network’s functioning. The power of a social network lies in
the strength of the ties, connections and relationships. Unlike traditional social
scientific studies with the focus on individuals and the assumptions that people’s
attributes, such as personality and intellect, are influential in actions, social
network theory provides an alternative view. Within this theory, the attributes of
agents or individuals are less important than their relationships and the ties with
other agents within the network. Individual agency alone is viewed as limiting,
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whereas social capital is empowering. The power of the support team lies within
the complex structure of the network, rather than in the personal attributes,
skills or knowledge of any one individual team member (see also Chapters 25
and 27).

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33 Disability and inclusive

employment through
the lens of educational
psychology

Maximus Monaheng Sefotho

Inclusive employment for the disabled can enhance the well-being of all in
society. (Monaheng Sefotho)

Introduction
The field of educational psychology is important in understanding behaviour
in relation to teaching and learning. Educational psychology is a branch of
psychology that is concerned with behaviour in relation to teaching and
learning. It therefore is ‘a foundation’ in teacher education (Peterson, Clark &
Dickson, 1990:3).
Educational psychology as a field of study generally concentrates on the
teaching of children, referred to as pedagogy, but under the scope of lifelong
learning. Educational psychology also considers adult learning, technically
referred to as andragogy. Learning takes place throughout life, but there is a
distinction between children’s learning and adult learning. The Greek etymology
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of pedagogy: παιδαγωγία (paidagōgia), from παιδαγωγός (paidagōgos), means

‘to lead a child’. Andragogy is a sub-branch within educational psychology that
is concerned with adult learning. It comes from the Greek word anere, which
means ‘adult’, and agogus, which means ‘the art and science of helping students
to learn’ (Knowles, 1970; Knowles, 1984). In educational psychology, teaching
and learning cover a whole continuum, from infancy to old age, envisioning
all who participate in education. Educational psychology also studies families,
peers and communities as they are part of children’s life–world.

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Disability and inclusive employment through the lens of educational psychology 33

Since the commencement of the Education for All (EFA) movement in the
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early 2000s, several attempts were made to attain access to education for all
children by 2015. However, Galguera (2016:328) notes that the Education for all
2000–2015: Achievements and Challenges. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2015
shows that only a third of countries reached all the EFA goals with measurable
targets. Specifically, after many decades, education still does not include many
learners with disabilities. These learners have been identified as being not in
education, employment or training (NEET). Educational psychological services
thus become more and more critical to address socio-emotional and economic
issues related to non-participation in education of people considered as NEET,
as well as those in education, but who are negatively affected by a lack of
pro-poor, pro-disability services such as career guidance and counselling for
inclusive employment.
Disability unemployment continues to be problematic, even after efforts to
include persons with disabilities started in earnest after the take-off of EFA in
2000. Disability employment is confronted with ‘… a complex system of hostile
environments and disabling barriers referred to as institutional discrimination’
(Barnes, 1992:55). Education, as a social institution, and educational psychology
should be geared towards addressing disability and inclusive employment issues.
An inclusive labour market has the propensity to grow if persons with disabilities
are included in employment to contribute to the building of society (Naidoo,
Maja, Mann, Sing & Steyn, 2011). Educational psychology, as a mental health
profession, is predisposed to address the ‘unseen challenges, unheard voices
and unspoken desires’ (Khoo, Tiun & Lee, 2013:37) of learners with disabilities
during this time of ‘inclusive and diverse educational environments’ (Florian,
Young & Rouse, 2010) and inclusive employment (Chia & Kee, 2013).
Some of the major debates within the field of disability and inclusive
employment relate to the social construction of disability, Article 27 of the
United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD)
(Harpur, 2012), and also the right to inclusive employment and intersectional
visibility (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008). These are discussed in the sections
that follow by examining them through the lens of educational psychology.
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Social construction of disability

The ‘kaleidoscope’ metaphor of disability used by Crossley (1999) points to the
diverse nature of the social constructions of this concept. Disability, as a social
construct, has its roots in the social ‘… contexts, relationships, institutions or
situations that define and shape the meaning of disability’ (Jones, 1996:349).
The social constructions are claimed to be made by people without disabilities,
sometimes describing disability through ‘the sociology of the body’ as ‘wounded/

287

monstrous/abject’ (Hughes, 2009:399). These types of social constructions are

negative and can lead to unfortunate legislations such as ‘ugly laws’ (Schweik,
2009). These laws ‘…barred disabled individuals from appearing on the streets
and other public spaces in the 19th and early 20th centuries’ (Hirschmann,
2013:142). During the latter part of the 20th century, ‘a call for critical reflexivity’
(Phelan, 2011:164) to change negative attitudes ‘towards a radical body positive’
(Sastre, 2014:929) appeared globally. This call led to disability being regarded
as a human rights issue that covered all aspects of life, including education and
employment (Lord, Suozzi & Taylor, 2010). Thus, the protection afforded people
with disabilities began to slowly change in some contexts.

Article 27 of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with

Disability and the right of inclusive employment
The CRPD, adopted on 13 December 2006, has become a beacon of hope and a
critical advocacy instrument to safeguard and promote the rights of persons with
disabilities (Lord, Suozzi & Taylor, 2010). Article 27 of the CRPD is about work
and employment, and Article 27(e) is specific to the promotion of employment
opportunities and career advancement for persons with disabilities in the labour
market, as well as assistance in finding, obtaining, maintaining and returning to
employment (Ferraina, 2012).
Through the psychology of working, Blustein (2006:275) advocates for an
‘… inclusive psychological practice that effectively embraces work-related issues’.
Within the field of educational psychology, work- and employment-related
issues are generally addressed under career psychology (Watson & Stead, 2002),
specifically career guidance and counselling or career development, depending
on the context. In South Africa, there seems to be a drive towards career
development, although it needs more articulation for South African society.
Given the historical background of South Africa, it makes more sense to
promote inclusive employment to address high rates of unemployment among
youth, especially those who were traditionally disadvantaged (Maree & Beck,
2004). Inclusive employment takes a broad perspective within the South African
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context and should not only be confined to disability. Employment inclusion

emerges as a condition without which the South African labour market
cannot be sustainable, based on the intersectional nature of its population
(Whitehead, 2013).

Intersectionality
Intersectionality emerged as a political feminist theory coined by Crenshaw
(1989), with a central focus on promoting the interaction of human differences
and diversity through addressing relationships of inequality (Whitehead, 2013).

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Although the concept has been used and widely acknowledged as a feminist
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paradigm (Hancock, 2007); McCall (2005) regards it as complex. Nonetheless,

intersectionality is helpful in understanding ‘… systems of oppression which
construct our multiple identities’ (Carastathis, 2014:304). In this case, it helps to
understand disability as constructed difference (Williams & Mavin, 2012).
Educational psychology is positioned to play a critical role in understanding
the differences and their implications to teaching and learning, and the
transition to the world of work. In order to change the status quo, it is important
that society embraces disability for inclusion in education and employment.
Intersectionality operates on the basis of ‘… categories of identity, difference
and disadvantage’ (Cole, 2009:170). Persons with disabilities mostly struggle
with identity issues as they are often stigmatised and labelled, based on their
disability. Disability renders them different, and the majority are disadvantaged.
Educational psychology has made some inroads in explaining these categories,
but less so as they relate to disability.

The relevance of inclusive employment for South

African schools and classrooms
Youth unemployment keeps rising in South Africa, and youth with disabilities
are no exception. The post-independence South African school should be a
school that is poised to inculcate innovation, self-employment and employment
creation early on in the education system, especially for persons with disabilities.
The Universal Design for Learning is critical in the era of inclusive schools,
and South African schools can play a critical role in addressing the diverse
needs of learners.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a relatively new model for designing
all aspects of the learning environment to address the wide-ranging variation
of students’ needs that exist in an inclusive educational system. (Dalton,
McKenzie & Kahonde, 2012:3)
All learners should feel accommodated in South African schools, and all learners
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must embrace hope for their future world of work. The responsibility for
understanding inclusion rests on a number of factors, including the ‘conceptual
and contextual considerations … choices to be made in teacher education for
inclusive education … inclusion as an issue of students and their diversity …
inclusion as an issue of teachers and their competence … inclusion as an issue
of schools and society’ (Walton & Rusznyak, 2017:232). Thus, within the school,
students would have opportunities to learn about diversity, teachers will hone
their skills for inclusive teaching, and schools will sharpen their implementation
skills for inclusion.

289

The intensification of curriculum differentiation in order to address diverse

learning needs in view of the transition to inclusive employment is important for

classroom practice in South Africa. One of the most critical areas of classroom
practice is to cater for students who may not be academically inclined and help
them to nurture their entrepreneurial aptitude. Differentiating the curriculum
towards entrepreneurship addresses self-employment issues at early stages of
learning and instils in the learners a sense of independence. The real challenge
is to include ‘… everybody, everywhere and all the time’ (Ferguson, 2008:109).
‘“Differentiated instruction” is a philosophy of teaching, purporting that
students learn best when their teachers effectively address variance in students’
readiness levels, interests and learning profile preferences’ (Tomlinson,
2005:263). Generally, once content is differentiated, the teacher has to consider
that he/she is working within the frame of ‘the needs-based “differentiation”
paradigm’ (Dai & Chen, 2013:154) with a focus on ‘methods of presentation,
methods of practice and performance, and methods of assessment’ (UNESCO,
2004:15).

Teaching about the psychosocial aspects of disability

Disability is inherently a complex phenomenon and a subsection of diversity.
Human beings often assume that they know and understand disability. However,
continuously learning about disability in all its complexities and diversities may
go a long way in assisting learners in school to accept and support one another.
The classroom may be a safe space where learners can engage in understanding
different disabilities and how to support one another. The place of educational
psychology in society is ideal for creating an environment of care, support,
advocacy and encouragement ‘to improve the educational, psychological
and social well-being’ (Ebersöhn, 2017:1) (see also the section on health and
well-being). Teaching may start with the psychology of disability, proceed to
psychosocial caring, and then psychosocial adaptation.

Psychology of disability
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Psychology is historically known for its emphasis on preventing psychopathology

(Valle, Huebner & Suldo, 2006). Psychology generally approached disability
from a deficit medical perspective, to ‘… rely heavily on grief and bereavement
theories’ (Watermeyer, 2014:101). Current discourses of acceptance and
acknowledgement in positive psychology (Ebersöhn, 2017) and inclusive
education emphasise the importance of the human person over disability. The
psychology of disability entails ‘… the study of how human organisms respond
to a set of stimulus conditions associated with disability’ (Vash & Crewe,

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2004:xi). Teaching disability in educational psychology could focus on human

responses to disability in order to enhance understanding and care and putting

the person first.

Psychosocial caring
Psychosocial caring support ‘involves the culturally sensitive provision of
psychological, social and spiritual care’ (Legg, 2011:62). Educational psychology
is helping humanity to understand ecologies of care, and these have to form part
of indigenous knowledge systems that inform teaching and learning. African
cultures have indigenous systems of care from which educational psychology
can benchmark teaching about psychosocial care and support for adaptation.
Psychosocial caring in contexts of educational psychology can provide for hope
and psychological well-being for all learners, but perhaps mostly for learners
with disabilities (Nabi, Ahmad & Khan, 2016).

Psychosocial adaptation
Central to psychosocial adaptation is hope that leads to resilience. Valle,
Huebner and Suldo (2006) perceive hope as a psychological strength that fosters
healthy development. Teaching about hope in educational psychology could
strengthen the willpower and promote the resilience of learners with disabilities.
Psychosocial adaptation ‘… has been described generally as psychological well-
being in living with a condition’ (Truitt, Biesecker, Capone, Bailey & Erby,
2012:233). In the context of disability, psychosocial adaptation can be perceived
to equally lead to psychological well-being.

Conclusion
This chapter reviewed disability and inclusive employment within the field of
educational psychology. Social construction of disability was highlighted, and
Article 27 of the CRPD and the intersectionality that is at play within this field
was foregrounded. The chapter reviewed teaching about psychosocial aspects of
disability from the psychology of disability, and discussed psychosocial caring
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and adaptation. From these discussions, it is evident that inclusive employment

is complex and intricate, and closely linked to the creation of inclusive learning
environments throughout an education system.

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Understanding learning support

272

In an inclusive education system, a more socio-ecological collaborative

Support structures envisioned by EWP6 to promote a more inclusive education

273

neighbouring mainstream and full-service schools. Placement in these schools

Full-service school (FSS)

District-based support teams (DBST)

few schools where they provide assistance with regard to the identification and
support of learners experiencing barriers to learning (Nel, Tlale, Engelbrecht &
Nel, 2016).

School-based support teams (SBST)

274

incorporated. Although appointed in the district office, the learning support

teacher (LST) is also part of the SBST (Department of Basic Education, 2014).

Functions of the school-based support teams

Policy on screening, identification, assessment and support

participation and inclusion in education (Department of Basic Education,

275

needs (Department of Basic Education, 2014). It is emphasised in this policy

1. Nutritional support.
2. Health promotion.
3. Infrastructure for water and sanitation.
4. Safety and protection.
5. Social welfare services.
6. Psychosocial support.
7. Material support.

276

9. Co-curricular support.

The role of the teacher within learning support

277

adequately trained in supporting learners who experience barriers to learning,

individualised support (Department of Basic Education, 2016).

278

32 Teacher collaboration
and working with school-
based support teams

Jean Fourie

A single bracelet does not jingle. (Congolese proverb)

School-based support teams

and caregivers would be part of the discussions. Proceedings can be augmented

by expertise from the local community, professional support personnel (school

The importance of collaborative teacher teams

280

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Teacher collaboration and working with school-based support teams 32

The goal of educator collaboration is broadly to provide pedagogical support

of expertise between educators enhances professional development and the

281

coordination and management of educational resources is more efficient

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Teacher collaboration and working with school-based support teams 32

Professional barriers relate to difficulties arising due to lack of training,

Educator collaboration internationally

A collaborative theoretical framework

Social network theory (SNT) provides a useful theoretical framework for

283

formal, workplace organisations. Ties between agents imply an exchange of

284

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Teacher collaboration and working with school-based support teams 32

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Copyright © 2017. Juta and Company [Pty] Ltd. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted

33 Disability and inclusive

employment through
the lens of educational
psychology

Maximus Monaheng Sefotho

Inclusive employment for the disabled can enhance the well-being of all in
society. (Monaheng Sefotho)

of pedagogy: παιδαγωγία (paidagōgia), from παιδαγωγός (paidagōgos), means

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Disability and inclusive employment through the lens of educational psychology 33

Social construction of disability

287

monstrous/abject’ (Hughes, 2009:399). These types of social constructions are

Article 27 of the Convention for the Rights of Persons with

context and should not only be confined to disability. Employment inclusion

emerges as a condition without which the South African labour market
cannot be sustainable, based on the intersectional nature of its population
(Whitehead, 2013).

288

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Disability and inclusive employment through the lens of educational psychology 33

paradigm (Hancock, 2007); McCall (2005) regards it as complex. Nonetheless,

The relevance of inclusive employment for South

289

The intensification of curriculum differentiation in order to address diverse

learning needs in view of the transition to inclusive employment is important for

Teaching about the psychosocial aspects of disability

Psychology of disability
under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Psychology is historically known for its emphasis on preventing psychopathology

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Disability and inclusive employment through the lens of educational psychology 33

2004:xi). Teaching disability in educational psychology could focus on human

responses to disability in order to enhance understanding and care and putting

the person first.

and adaptation. From these discussions, it is evident that inclusive employment

is complex and intricate, and closely linked to the creation of inclusive learning
environments throughout an education system.

291

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