Abstract:
The study explores the response of rural primary school children to road safety education programmes.
In this qualitative research project, we employed an interpretivist paradigm to investigate and understand
children’s responses to road safety education in one school in the Moloto Village, Mpumalanga Province,
South Africa. Drawing on various participatory activities done by the child participants, as well as nonparticipant
observation by the researchers through ‘photo voice’, the researchers posit their findings. The
key finding is that the children theoretically know what to do when using the road as pedestrians but that
they do not apply road safety rules as the community’s unsafe road use behaviour undermines all road safety
skills the children have learnt at school. The paradox between what the literature on road safety education
prescribes and what the national curriculum of South Africa promotes regarding road safety, and what the
children apply in their daily lives, is apparent and noteworthy.
