CONCLUDING A STUDY OF GENDER AND VULNERABILITY IN ESWATINI SCHOOLS
10.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY FINDINGS
The overall significance of the study is that it contributes insightful knowledge to the complexit ie s and intricacies of inclusive education by adding vulnerable children in the equation as one of the social groups to be considered in efforts towards the enhancement of inclusive and equitable school spaces. The findings have revealed the divide between vulnerable children and those not affected by vulnerability, hence having the potential to inspire educational stakeholders to work towards creating an educational society that not only appreciates diversity but also encourages equality. By so doing more educational and life opportunities for the vulnerable children of Eswatini will be created in ways that would also benefit the country.
Significantly each of the eight chapters (publications) has made a unique contribution towards the objectives of this study, as briefly discussed below.
10.2.1 Chapter 2- Researcher Identity and Childhood Memories in a Study of Vulnerable Children in Swaziland
This chapter contributes to scientific research by illuminating how researchers’ reflexivity and positionality could act as important variables in knowledge production. It shows how my childhood experiences and memories formed a basis for, acted as a point of reference and provided a deeper insight in understanding the gendered and schooling lives of vulnerable children in the contexts of this study. Understanding the underpinnings of knowledge acquirement is imperative not only for researchers but also for teachers, to help them formulate pedagogic practices that appreciate and are responsive of the challenges and burdens that learners carry into the schools, hence forming a basis for their learning (Motsa, 2017). Consequently, teachers in the school contexts can be better equipped to attend to the diversity of their learners in ways that would encourage inclusivity and equitable school spaces, as one of the ways to improve the educational lives of the vulnerab le children and their retention rate especially in the rural primary schools of Swaziland and in similar contexts.
10.2.2 Chapter 3- Vulnerability and Children’s Real-Life Schooling Experiences in Swaziland
By privileging the voices of the vulnerable children as the voices of experience, this chapte r contextualised the vulnerable boys’ and girls’ realities. By so doing, the chapter added a critica l component in the equation, where the children’s lives are viewed and understood from their point of view away from the conventional belief that construes children as immature and too young to understand issues around them (Kay, Tisdall & Punch, 2012). The chapter accentuated the real- life schooling experiences of these children, as one of the means to create the potential to identify intervention strategies that would ensure that they get effective and appropriate education (Motsa
& Morojele, 2016). These findings have the potential to attract the attention of all educationa l stakeholders and be of great benefit in their quest to create inclusive and quality educational spaces for children classified as vulnerable. The other significance of this chapter is that, it has conveyed to the forefront new and related data on the vulnerable children’s real life schooling experiences.
This is in ways that would enable policy makers have an idea on how to fill the critical gap between policy and practice prevailing in the educational context of the country hence, meeting the real needs of the children affected by vulnerability.
10.2.3 Chapter 3- Vulnerable Children Speak Out: Voices from One Rural School in Swaziland
By foregrounding the vulnerable children’s voices, the findings highlighted the broader constructs that influence their experience of school. Using social constructionism has been significant in illuminating how the intersection of the vulnerable children’s society, family and school values play out in complex ways and further presents them (the vulnerable boys and girls) with conflict i ng ambiences and attitudes towards school in ways that lead to negative schooling experiences (Motsa
& Morojele, 2017a). The findings expand the discourse we use to understand the vulnerable boys’
and girls’ real- life schooling experiences and influence of the social relationships to their wellbeing. Hence revealing the need to deconstruct broader societal discourses of education and educational success especially in these rural contexts where there is usually little value for education as one of the key entry points for efforts aimed at improving these children’s educationa l welfare.
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10.2.4 Chapter 4- Vulnerable Masculinities: Implications of Gender Socialisation in Three Rural Swazi Primary Schools
This chapter contributed to gender studies by highlighting the complex processes of patriarcha l gender socialisation that not only emasculates vulnerable boys but also subserviently positions them in the hierarchal masculine order in the schools. The findings accentuated how poverty and vulnerability form structural contexts for the vulnerable boys’ masculine performances, hence predisposing them to humiliation and ridicule in the school contexts (Motsa & Morojele, 2019).
Such knowledge disputes the common discourse that construes all boys as possessing dominant masculine qualities hence less vulnerable than the girls. For example, these qualities include being strong, ferocious and inborn providers. This finding indorses gender equality and equity as an idealised reality for both vulnerable boys and girls. The findings do not only seek to deconstruct the discourse that prioritises girls over boys but also alerts educational stakeholders to be more vigilant and look deeper into problems faced by the vulnerable boys in the school contexts the same way girls’ challenges are given attention, as one of the ways to improve the vulnerable boys’
schooling experiences.
10.2.5 Chapter 5- Vulnerable Femininities: Implications for Rural Girls’ Schooling Experiences in Swaziland
By encouraging the girls to talk about their gendered experiences, this chapter refuted the present discourse that construes children as being too young to talk about or even listen to any talk about gender and sexuality (Nxumalo, Okeke & Mammen, 2014). This discourse has been used not only to silence children but also to ignore and reaffirm stereotypical perceptions about girls’ realit ies within the Swazi societies. Unfortunately, this has been in ways that encourage these problems to continue unabated. The findings highlight the imperativeness of not only deconstructing such a discourse but also illuminating the need to encourage vulnerable children to talk about their life experiences as one of the ways to improve their gendered schooling experiences. For example, the girls in the study invented alternative femininities as means to navigate their life situations (Motsa, 2018a). However, these femininities militated against them and further predisposed them to poverty and gender inequalities. The findings reveal the need to give support to these girls in ways that would rather than compromising their schooling and dignity help them use their invent i ve
minds to create positive femininities that would work to their best interest and the interest of their education.
10.2.6 Chapter 6- Masculinities and Femininities through Teachers’ Voices: Implications on Gender Equitable Schooling for Vulnerable Children from Three Primary Schools in
Swaziland
The key contribution to knowledge made by this chapter is the illumination of the broad constructs that teachers in the three schools used to construct gender and further used as basis for the vulnerable boys’ and girls’ gender socialisation. Social constructionism places teachers as the primary socialisers of the vulnerable children hence their (teachers’) way of constructing reality has a huge implication on the children’s own ways of engaging with the world (Gergen, 2009).
The teachers’ constructions of gender were not only found to be stereotypical and reaffirmed gendered inequalities but also negatively affected the vulnerable boys’ and girls’ experiences of school in more devastating ways (Motsa, 2018b). Eradiating the societal discourses within which the teachers’ orthodox constructions were based and governed, provide understandings and strategies that could be used to help teachers deconstruct their own understandings of gender for the benefit of the vulnerable children they teach. At the same time this would initiate an egalitar ia n and a non-conformist way of thinking that would create gender equitable school spaces and improving the vulnerable boys’ and girls’ quality of schooling.
10.2.7 Chapter 7- Narratives of Resilience among Learners in a Rural Primary School in Swaziland
The chapter accentuated the prominence of societal discourses and social relationships in developing resilient abilities for the vulnerable boys and girls. This illuminated the need to have positive social relationships and social capital from the wider communities as one of the ways by which the vulnerable boys’ and girls’ resilient abilities could be inculca ted (Motsa & Morojele, 2017b). The vulnerable boys’ and girls’ narrations highlighted that the poverty and destitut io n prevailing in their communities formed structural contexts for their educational experiences and success, hence intervention strategies would also have to consider ways to improve the prevailing economic situation in these rural contexts as one of the ways to improve the vulnerable boys’ and
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girls’ school experiences. This reveals the need for the Government of the country to have an immediate and systematic plan of action to improve the individual lives of its communities and by extension its people. Another area of significance is the use of the new sociology in ways that illumined the children’s agency and inventiveness to change their life situations. It was interesting to note how the vulnerable children used their valiant prowess to navigate their challengi ng schooling experiences, though in ways that revealed the inefficiency of their individual agency to do so. Hence, this invites their society at large and all educational stakeholders to provide support that would harness the children’s agency and efficiency as a starting point towards social transformation and the creation of positive schooling experiences for the vulnerable childre n.
10.2.8 Chapter 8- High Aspirations amidst Challenging Situations: Narratives of Six Vulnerable Primary School Children in Swaziland
The chapter highlighted the broader social discourses and socio-ecological systems underlying the vulnerable boys’ and girls’ fears and anxieties about their educational future. Understanding these, points exactly to the aspects that can be significant in nurturing the vulnerable boys’ and girls’
self-efficacy and at the same time harnesses their resilience towards their aspirations and more positive educational experiences. The findings also accentuated the value of children’s participation in formulating effective strategies intended at nurturing inclusive education and improving their experiences of school. The need to lessen the gap between vulnerable childre n and those not affected by vulnerability by attending to the needs of the vulnerable boys and girls beyond free education needs to be highlighted. The valuable information provided by the vulnerable boys and girls highlights the need to modify educational discourses that obscures children’s views and at the same time nurturing positive social relationships that would be more inclusive of the vulnerable boys’ and girls’ social and educational needs. This will foster the vulnerable children’s social development, resilience and self-efficacy, qualities they need in order navigate their fears towards their educational life aspirations (Motsa & Morojele, 2018).