A collaborative approach to facilitating learner support by teachers in a full-service school

Abstract

Education White Paper 6 sets out the establishment of full-service schools as pilot schools to roll out a policy for inclusive education in South Africa. Teachers in such schools are expected to have skills and knowledge to provide support to learners experiencing barriers to learning, but many are not adequately prepared for the task. This study explores how a collaborative participatory action research and action learning (PALAR) approach can facilitate learner support in a full-service school. The study focuses on a full-service school in the North-West Province. This qualitative study investigated how teachers pursued an action research and learning process of collaboration with each other to create innovative and effective ways for learner support in their school. Data were generated through action learning set meetings, observation, reflection and interviews, as participants navigated through the cycles of problem identification, action and reflection. The findings suggest that this collaborative PALAR process increased teacher motivation and ability to support learners who experience barriers to learning, as well as managerial and departmental involvement.