Guidelines for improving African parents' involvement in psycho-emotional support for learners with emotional barriers to learning

Abstract

African parents often lack knowledge of the psycho-emotional support needed for learners with psycho-emotional barriers to learning. This calls for the need to equip African parents with strategies so that they are empowered with knowledge and skills to help develop their learners. Psycho-emotional barriers brought about by challenges such as divorce, abuse, and poverty are major concerns that require urgent attention, due to the number of learners affected by such barriers and the negative impact they have on teaching and learning in South African schools. In order to collaboratively improve the effects of the psycho-emotional barriers of learners, a participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) was used as the research methodology, employing a transformative research paradigm. This was viewed as suitable for this research study to answer the following research question: What guidelines can assist African parents to improve parental involvement in psycho-emotional support for learners with psychoemotional barriers to learning? In order to answer this, convenience sampling was employed, within Botshabelo, Free State. I worked collaboratively with six parents; three school-based support team members (SBST); and one district-based support team members (DBST) as coresearchers/participants to formulate guidelines for African parents to improve their involvement in psycho-emotional support for learners with psycho-emotional barriers to learning. Therefore, the co-researchers and l investigated and answered the research questions within three cycles. Data was generated by means of group discussions and collages. Data was analysed through thematic content analysis. The analysis revealed three interconnected themes relating to challenges faced by African parents in supporting learners with psycho-emotional barriers; strategies for African parents to support their learners; and assisting African parents in providing psycho-emotional support. The findings suggest the following recommended guidelines: awareness should be promoted through culturally relevant education; strengthening parent-child communication and emotional literacy; fostering collaborative engagement with schools; community and cultural assets should be utilised; and addressing socio-economic constraints through multi-stakeholder support.