Foundation phase teachers’ views of the involvement of male caregivers in young children’s education

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Foundation phase teachers’ views of the involvement of male caregivers in young children’s education
 
Creator Mncanca, Mzoli Ramsaroop, Sarita Petersen, Nadine
 
Subject — foundation phase; male caregivers; father involvement; parental involvement; early childhood education and development
Description Background: Studies in South Africa show a high prevalence of male caregiver absence in the lives of children under the age of 9 years. In this respect, foundation phase teachers are well positioned to provide input and shed light on how schools can contribute towards improving male caregiver involvement in their children’s early education.Aim: This study aimed to explore foundation phase teachers’ views of the involvement of male caregivers in the education and development of young children.Setting: The paper reports on the qualitative phase of a mixed methods study conducted in three township schools near Johannesburg.Methods: Focus group interviews involving a sample of 17 foundation phase teachers were conducted in three schools. An iterative coding process within a generic qualitative data analysis approach was carried out to articulate overarching ideas and themes.Results: The results highlight how teachers’ taken-for-granted gendered assumptions about the roles of females and males in the education and development of foundation phase children and about the children’s care arrangements influence how they communicate with parents, unconsciously alienating male caregivers.Conclusion: Although teachers had not considered the role of male caregivers in the early years of children’s education, they acknowledged that such an undertaking would be beneficial to the learners and the school. Therefore, the authors argue for training aimed at capacitating foundation phase teachers with the essential competencies necessary to galvanise and increase meaningful involvement of male caregivers in the education of learners in pre-service and in-service teacher professional development.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor University of South Africa
Date 2021-11-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Semi structured interview
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v11i1.1050
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 11, No 1 (2021); 9 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1050/1980 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1050/1981 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1050/1982 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1050/1983
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Mzoli Mncanca, Sarita Ramsaroop, Nadine Petersen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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