Inclusive education forms the ethos of the education system in South Africa and resonates with the Constitution of the country, which recognises diversity and resists exclusivity. Inclusive education is also reflected in education policies such as the Education White Paper 6: Special Education-Building an Inclusive Education and Training System and the Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) document. Pivotal to inclusive education is the provision of support for all learners and teachers. The focus of this paper is on the functionality of all the formal support structures that are in place for teachers and learners from the teachers' viewpoints. These support structures include District-Based Support Teams (DBSTs), Institutional-Level Support Teams (ILSTs), Full-Service Schools (FSS), Special Schools as Resource Centres (SSRC), Learning Support Educators (LSEs) and the community. An interpretive research paradigm was chosen, using convenience sampling and data was collected by means of focus group interviews. Constant comparative data analysis was employed. Peer review and member checks were used to ensure trustworthiness. The themes that emerged were support provided by teachers, the role of official support structures and special schools and community collaboration. It was evident, from the teachers' point of view, that the formal support structures are not as effective as proposed by policy and educational authorities and that the policy needs serious reconsideration .

No abstract

In this article we offer an account of a research-and-intervention project -called The 500 Schools Project: Making Schools Better -in which we were involved in various capacities. We focus on the design of this project in terms of its links with what Mertens in various publications calls the 'transformative paradigm'. Further, we discuss the way in which Tlale tried to carry out the transformative remit in a particular case by his encouraging participants in a school -the case discussed as our exemplar -to recognise that learners' experienced challenges can often be considered to be socially systemic (and not rooted in individual deficits). We report Downloaded by [Dalhousie University] at 15:03 05 June 2016Nurturing research relationships Romm and Tlale on the catalytic effect of Tlale's engagement with the various participants, by our co-reflecting on some of their accounts as expressed during the 'intervention visit' and in follow-up telephonic interviews. We consider how indeed researchers can nurture research relationships towards inspiring the participants with whom they become involved, and what this might amount to. Nurturing research relationshipsTlale: How did you experience the whole process of our intervention? Principal: Your intervention was very good. Tlale: Regarding the orphans whom you mentioned during our visit are often staying alone, did you maybe try to call the guardians or do some follow up? Principal: Since your visit we have a project called CSLT for learner support. Tlale: What does CSLT mean? Principal: It means care and support for teachers and learners. It is a programme by the Department of Education: not all schools are involved but we are -an agent comes to the school to try to assess problems that learners are facing and it is helping us very much.Tlale asked what had led to this agent becoming involved in their school and the principal explained that it was due to help that had been sought by the SGB. (See the conversation with the SGB chairperson below.) Tlale proceeded to ask the principal:Tlale: Remember we spoke during my visit about the formation of an SBST and we also spoke about the toilets: has anything happened since then? Principal: With respect to the SBST we have established a committee -with the chairperson of the SGB taking the lead in this ... We are very happy that you came here and we are not relaxed on our side: we are trying to make things work.

The use of substance interferes with adolescents' ability to focus on their future, to delay fulfillment and to be goal directed. It is important to understand why some adolescents, who are at the same developmental stage and are affected by the same psychosocial factors, such as impoverished urban environments, tend to avoid negative outcomes, whereas others are at an increased risk from a number of psychosocial outcomes, including psychological distress, substance abuse, delinquency, teenage pregnancy and failure to complete high school. To achieve this understanding one has to consider the circular causal factors that impact on the adolescents' future oriented behaviour. The crucial question is what could be holding the youngsters back from goal oriented behaviour? What stops them from planning for a positive future? In trying to break into this web, the researcher decided to assume an ecosystemic perspective. In this paper, the ecosystemic perspective acts as an explanatory framework that refers to personal as well as social life in general. The values, understanding and actions of individual person are hard to understand if they are separated from the social context in which they occur (Engelbrecht, Green, Naicker and Engelbrecht, 1994:4).

No abstract