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have improving the quality of teaching and learning as its ultimate goal (Westraad, 2011) . Hopkins (2001) also advocates that, given the different levels of performance of different schools, this may not be the first point of intervention in all schools and further that interventions need to be structured around improving the quality of teaching and learning as the end goal.
Westraad’s (2011) study also revealed that education in all its forms requires a high level of accountability and support that needs to be evident throughout the system.
She indicates that the experience of the Learning Schools initiative was that the pilot schools required support from an external agency to initiate the process of whole school development and that all of the schools responded well to the attention of an outside agency (Westraad, 2011). In essence it appeared that they needed someone non-threatening to look in from the outside, take an interest in what they were doing, provide guidance and expertise where required and praise them as deserved (Westraad, 2011).
2.8 Perceptions of school connectedness amongst South African high school
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researcher investigated factors that may protect adolescents from engaging in high risk behaviours.
The study also identified the school context and school connectedness as not only important for the development of academic pathways, but also to provide a protective environment for the social, psychological and physical well-being of learners (Bond et al., 2007; Patton et al., 2003). The study was conducted in two public co-educational high schools in the Durban metropolitan region of KZN, South Africa in April 2008.
A purposeful sample of 241 secondary school adolescents was taken from the two neighbouring schools (N=127 from school A; N=114 from school B). In investigating the association among four repeated high risk behaviours i.e. substance abuse, violence, sexual risk and suicide ideation and perceptions of school connectedness as a protective factor four different measures were used. The first risk behaviour to be measured was school connectedness, the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) was utilised. In measuring violence and violence related behaviours, the Violence index adapted from Reddy et al., 2003 was used. In measuring substance abuse, the Substance abuse index adapted from Reddy et al., 2003 was utilised and lastly in measuring suicidal ideation, the Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation (PANS) inventory was used. The study found that perceptions of school connectedness in the sample of learners correlated significantly (negatively) with violence (r=0.33,p˂.01), substance abuse (r= -0.15, p˂.05), and suicidal ideation (r= - 0.39, p ˂.01). Stronger perceptions of school connectedness were therefore associated with lower levels of exposure to health risk behaviours. Govender et al., (2013) thus indicated that attachment and belonging to the school environment is associated with reduced engagement in risk behaviours.
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The study also evidenced significant associations among 3 health related indices.
Suicide ideation was positively correlated with both violence and substance abuse (r=.36,p˂.01 and r=.35, p˂.01, respectively and violence and substance abuse were positively correlated (r=.52, p˂,01). Govender et al.,(2013) indicate that whereas these measures provide concurrent validity for this study, the findings also point to the clustering effect of risky behaviours partly due to similar underlying social determinants and the fact that risk behavios sometimes serve the same psychosocial functions for adolescents (DuRant, Smith, Kreiter & Krowchik, 1999). The study also supported the idea of other studies that indicate the clustering of health risk behaviours can be associated with particular adolescents who are in some ways predisposed or exposed to multiple risk factors (physiological, genetic, social or environmental, perceived behavioural) implying heightened vulnerability (DuRant et al. 1999 & Jessor, Donovan & Costa, 1991).
Although the findings from this study provide support for the growing literature emphasising the benefits of school connectedness as a protective factor against engagement in various adolescent health risk behaviours, Govender et al., (2013) indicate that one cannot underestimate the central importance of contextual factors that might influence mental health outcomes. Contextual factors cited included an education system which is in a process of transformation from apartheid education to a democratic and inclusive structure which has undermined networks of authoritarian power, but has not yet been fully replaced with systems of democratic management in schools (Harber, 1998). High academic stress (Mantzicopoulos, 1997), interracial tensions, crime and sexual violence (Smith, 2007), lack of positive role models and
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supportive relationships (Blum, 2005) and rigid and patriarchal school culture (Steyn, 2003) and poor prospects of job employment in the larger South African economy (Meel, 2009) can all be seen as contributing to the generation of marginalised and alienated school-going adolescents (Govender et al., 2013). This study thus indicated that health risk behaviours tend to have a clustering effect, and that they can be part of a complex set of sociocultural circumstances. The study indicated that a school based intervention that goes beyond simply reducing engagement in specific health risk behaviours and addresses the various agents of change in the school system (learners, teachers, school management, principal and parents) would be more effective and sustainable in impacting health promoting behaviours among learners. They contend that developing a positive school climate and a sense of belonging among learners by endorsing social inclusion practices should systematically underpin “the whole school” approach (Govender et al., 2013)