The management of teaching and learning of street children in Gauteng schools

Abstract

All over the world, children are perceived to be the next generation and have a certain economic, social and moral standing in the society they live in. However, there is a tendency to overlook the education and training of the marginalised groups of children, in particular the street children. This study sought to understand the management of teaching and learning of street children in Gauteng Province by analysing the teaching strategies and methods used by School Management Teams and teachers in such schools. Three schools that have street children in Gauteng Province were involved in this study. The uniqueness and the distinctiveness of each of the three schools are used to add vigor and credibility to the findings of this study. The research design was case study involving multiple data collection sites. Henry Fayol�s Management Theory was used in analyzing how teachers and SMTs manage the teaching and learning of street children in their schools. A total of fifteen participants were purposively selected to participate in this study. The participants included six teachers, four heads of departments (HoDs), three deputy principals responsible for curriculum management in each school and two principals. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis. Through semi-structured interviews, the researcher elicited responses from the participants based on their experiences of managing the needs of the street children, the methods used by teachers in teaching and managing teaching and learning of street children, and an analysis of the academic performance of street children in comparison with their peers in mainstream schools. The interview data was compared with the classroom observation and document analysis to triangulate the data. The factors used by the teachers to identify street children were established as well as the needs of such learners. The current curriculum structure was found to be not effective in accommodating the needs of the street children and a recommendation was made for special intervention curriculum tailor made for learners who are street children due to their unique challenges. The findings of the study are also presented in the proposed model for managing the teaching and learning of street children.