CHAPTER ONE: ORIENTATION AND OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
5.4 Exploring factors as reported by students that has led them to be identified as ‘at risk’
5.4.1 FACTORS BEYOND THE IMMEDIATE EDUCATION THAT PARTICIPANTS RECEIVE WHICH ULTIMATELY COMPROMISE THE PERFORMANCE OF
5.4.1.2 The impact of the family before higher education
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To summarize, students shift the blame regarding their underperformance to external factors such as spoon-feeding from teachers, student-teacher dependency and punishment used as a tool to encourage them to study. This shift confirms Attribution Theory. When students receive results which show underperformance, they start to perceive the causes of the negative outcome and they tend to attribute their failure to environmental factors for negative outcome (Schunk, 2008; Weiner, 1985, 2000). Learners often respond positively to negative extrinsic motivation such as punishment at school. In this study, participants perceived teacher dependency as support in secondary school, the discontinuation of this support at higher education made it difficult for them to adjust to academic challenges at the university. They shifted the blame to the school environment and teachers who did not prepare them to adapt easily to university life. These experiences show that students first attribute their failure to higher learning institutions that they perceive to be unsupportive and uncaring then the blame shifts from higher learning institutions to lack of preparedness at secondary school level.
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with assertions by Howard and Johnson (2000) who suggest that children are located in the centre of their nested structures and are therefore endlessly affected in one way or another by changes and challenges that occur in the environment that surrounds them, such as family.
Parental encouragement plays an important role in students’ achievements and behaviours under certain environmental conditions and challenges. Some of the students who experienced lack of parental support indicated it this way:
“I was the first girl to attend school from my house because my father believed that educating a woman is a waste of time because girls will finish school and go and get married so my father did not support me at all. My mother who worked as a domestic worker was the one who encouraged me but it was really tough.” Nozizwe
“There was no one at home to support with my homework because no one is educated at home, even if I had homework no one will help me or support me. I lived very far from school; it was difficult for me to stay after school and work there because I had to walk a long distance back home.” Khethiwe
“My schooling life was not o.k, because I kept changing schools which was daunting for me because of family business. My grandmother gave us a business to run but things didn’t go well that is why we had to move around a lot. Academic-wise I have never been a shining student from high school. I finished matric and started working in the family business. I got used to earning money then when I became a student it was then a huge issue not having any income. I don’t think my parents realised how unsettling it was to change schools all the time.” Nevan
In this set of data three important factors contributed to students’ low performance within higher education. The first relates to the context of parents and their beliefs in gender roles and believing educating a girl is a waste rather than empowerment. Some parents still believe that since women leave home after getting married it means that they are wasting their money in educating them, because they will eventually not receive benefits and they see education as an investment for themselves rather than supporting the future of their daughters. This lack of motivation and financial support from parents affected student’s performance. The second one
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relates to the absence of academic support from family. Some of these students mentioned that they had to travel long distances to school and they struggled with homework as no one was able to assist them at home. This lack of academic support compromised their studies. The third one refers to the context of instability within the family which had an impact on school adaptation, and affected continuity and stability, especially as the participant mentioned that he was not one of the more successful students. As much as the family relocating was business-related and intended to benefit the family, it nonetheless impacted on the students’ performance. This finding is in line with Ecological System Theory as it suggests that parental and family support from the system that is closest to the child and changes in one part of the system, such as family instability, both affect the rest of the system and result in family instability (Brofenbrenner, 1995). The participant stated that the change of residence resulted in change of school which affected his schooling programme. The student therefore was attributing failure to his parents who contributed to the daunting and unsettling experience of changing schools. He perceived himself as not being a good student; this might have resulted in his lack of adaptability to new areas as the participant changed schools consequently which negatively impacted on his learning.
Changing schools may well have contributed to his thinking he was not a good student.
One student attributed failure to environmental issues such as walking a long distance to and from the school which prevented her from staying and doing homework at school since she was not getting help at home as no one is educated. Drawing on Ecological Systems Theory, this study argues that schools enrolling learners who come from diverse remote areas form part of the physical environment for such students. Rural students are also affected by distance and lack of transport. In this way the learner, school and home are interdependent and important role players in the development of the learner. If there is an imbalance in one part it means that other parts become affected. Lack of family support was experienced by students who live in both rural and urban contexts, but in different ways. The urban participant is affected by parents who kept on moving to new places because of family business which then negatively affected the student.
Some rural students are affected by unsupportive parents who see education as a waste of time for women and some experience lack of homework support from home because parents are illiterate.
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5.4.2 CONTRIBUTING FACTORS IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS WHICH