4.4 Informal conversations with selected school friends to help me in recalling my
4.4.1 An informal conversation with my primary school friends
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can trust them, and that their teachers will do their best to prevent their learners from being exposed to harm and see that they are protected (National School Climate Council, 2015).
Moreover, I learnt that for success in schools, learners must also take the initiative and be there for each other, so that all feel part of the classroom or school family, and not like outsiders.
4.4 Informal conversations with selected school friends to help me in recalling my
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After explaining my research focus and purpose to them and what was expected from all of us as participants, we started with our conversation, which is transcribed below.
Sipho: [Pointing to Figure 4.5 memory drawing] Ahhh! This is one memory that will never fade away. This reminds me of how we used to recite the vowels “a, e, i, o, u” after Mrs Motsoeneng. You could hear her far, far away, even if you were not part of her class.
[Everybody laughs]
Thabo: Yes, that’s true. I remember how she supported us and many other learners who were struggling in our class. We used to gather around her table so that she was going to assist us closer and attend to our individual cases.
Luthando: That is absolutely correct, my brothers. She was everything. She made sure that she always went out of her way to support everyone in our class.
Thabo: That’s true, my brother … but I don’t think I will have to agree with you on that one part where you say she supported everyone in our class.
Luthando: Carry on, my friend, we are listening. Feel free to voice out whatever needs to be voiced out pertaining to this conversation.
Thabo: I argue that although she supported us and many other learners in our class most of the time, there were also unsupportive relationships directed at us as her learners that we experienced from her. At the receiving end were especially those who were called “slow learners”.
Do you guys remember how she would throw your exercise book if you were writing at her table, and you could not understand what she said? She would get so frustrated that you were not getting her – while forgetting that we were not the same in our capabilities.
Sipho: Mhmmm, I remember Thabo; those were indeed very hard days. I can still picture all those unpleasant moments in my head.
Thabo: To be specific, do you guys remember how she threw Nokuthula’s (pseudonym) exercise book, to the point that it even got damaged? Do you guys remember how she cried and was chased out of the classroom? All because Mrs Motsoeneng was frustrated that she could not understand her.
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Yes, I agree with you, she supported us most of the time, but some learners did experience some unsupportive relationships from her. I am sure they still remember those episodes as they are, wherever they are.
Sipho: I think Mrs Motsoeneng could have approached and dealt with Nokuthula in our absence, to enquire about her state. On what is it that was troubling her so that she could not to understand or grasp what was said to her.
Thabo: For me, I think Mrs Motsoeneng should have taken Nokuthula to Mrs Blose’s class, since Mrs Motsoeneng was not the only Grade 1 teacher, and they worked well collaboratively with her at times. I think that would allow Mrs Motsoeneng to trace how Nokuthula worked in the other class. That was going to allow her to trace whether there was any change or some improvements in her schoolwork. Therefore, in that way, she was going to deal well with her case.
Luthando: Thank you for bringing those insights, Thabo and Sipho. Yes, that’s absolutely correct, and I remember all those incidents and they were really uncalled for, and it escalated to other learners and made them feel uncomfortable.
I also remember how teachers sometimes referred us to other teachers for help. I also remember how some teachers, at times, would even call parents to come to school to discuss their learner’s progress, and to give them an opportunity to make suggestions on how they wanted their learners to be helped where they seem to be struggling.
Sipho: Yes, without supportive teacher-learner-parent relationships, for me, education becomes meaningless and irrelevant. I think it is important that they are always kept alive in schools.
[After about a minute being silent, we decided to end our informal conversation.]
4.4.1.1 Lessons learnt from the informal conversation with my primary school friends As reminded by one of my friends, I learnt from this informal conversation that learners do not easily forget their school teachers who supported them beyond the normal. They always recall the memories of teachers making them feel loved, supported, and appreciated during their schooling years. This is evident in us, collaboratively, as we appreciated and relived the
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memories of how our teacher Mrs Motsoeneng used to support us and many other learners in our class during our primary school days.
However, I have also discovered that learners do not easily forget teachers who made them feel uncomfortable and initiated brutal and uncalled for treatments during their school days. They do not easily forget the unsupportive relationships directed at them by their school teachers.
This is evident in our conversation, where Thabo reminds us of the unpleasant memory involving Nokuthula, one learner in our Grade 1 class, where her exercise book was thrown to the point where it was damaged, and how that incident made her cry. This affected Nokuthula and many other learners in our class, as they became scared due to the frustration they had seen our teacher show, which was uncommon. Therefore, teachers in schools must support all of their learners, irrespective of the differences they bring with them. For it is these practices and behaviours that they show that these learners will remember in the future when they think about them.
Moreover, as discussed elsewhere in this chapter, I was also reminded that teachers in schools can work collaboratively in supporting their learners to reach their potential. This means that if individual teachers cannot help their learners with their particular struggles, they may refer them to other teachers or other relevant personnel in schools, such as social workers, to help them. Such an initiative can play a significant role in supporting different learners with different capabilities and challenges. Furthermore, Thabo affirms this in our informal conversation as he argues that Mrs Motsoeneng could have referred Nokuthula to Mrs Blose, since there were two Grade 1 classes in our school. He further contends that perhaps taking Nokuthula to Mrs Blose would enable her to grasp the concepts she struggled with and improve her work. This made me consider how supportive teacher-teacher relationships can benefit both teachers and learners (Paravato Taylor et al., 2020).