Establishing a reading culture in a rural secondary school : a literacy intervention with teachers

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Authors

Joubert, Ina
Ebersohn, L. (Liesel)
Ferreira, Ronel
Du Plessis, Loraine
Moen, Melanie Carmen

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

SAGE

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary school in South Africa before and after a literacy intervention. The systems theory with interpretivism as the epistemological paradigm was employed. A rural secondary school was selected as part of an on-going Flourishing Learning Youth and Supportive Teachers Assets and Resilience studies on resilience and rural schools. Language teachers (n = 6, male = 1, female = 5) were purposively selected to participate. The literacy intervention was developed with phonetic acquisition as the basis to develop reading skills. It became evident that implementing English (additional language) as teaching and learning language in the school may have contributed to barriers to learning. Limited resources and reading instruction training exacerbated the problems. However, once the teachers acquired new skills and the children received the needed support, the improvement in overall academic achievement was significant.

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Keywords

Reading culture, Literacy intervention, Rural secondary school

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Joubert, I, Ebersohn, L, Ferreira, R, Du Plessis, L & Moen, M 2014, 'Establishing a reading culture in a rural Secondary School : a literacy intervention with teachers', Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 399-412.