Academic resilience attributes of Tembisa Township post-school youth of Gauteng Province in South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate academic resilience attributes and identify aspects in the context of post-school youth participants' lived experiences that have contributed to sustaining these youth, leading to academic success. The objective was to draw from the experiences of the youth in Tembisa and highlight the resilience attributes and resources to decisively utilise data to contribute to the nurturing of school and community-academic resilience programmes and interventions. The study used a qualitative approach to collect data from eight participants on one-on-one interviews and two focus groups of seven participants each from Ekurhuleni TVET College: Tembisa campus. The study was framed by the resilience and ecological perspective, which proposes that individual and collective processes are directly related and that youth's responses to real life environmental stresses reflect the presence of positive academic resilience attributes. The analysis of data generated from the interviews suggests that resilience is both intrinsic and extrinsic. Data also suggest that academic resilience requires the presence of modifications to the environment to support schools and learners to succeed. The analysis revealed that protective and supportive buffers for youth ensured that academic resilience became sustained. Findings revealed the importance of protective factors to instil, nurture and promote academic resilience. Post-school youth remain exposed to pressing challenges perpetuated by the existence of the circle of poverty among challenges in Tembisa Township. Despite the reality of poverty, findings further revealed that there are strengths and coping strategies in Tembisa that need attention and support for academic resilience to be realised. The study recommends the strengthening of school resources and the establishment of community-wide academic support programmes. The programmes ought to aim at reaching out to the youth and learners whose resilience trajectory is influenced by extrinsic factors.