Teenage pregnancy and parenting at school in contemporary South African contexts: deconstructing school narratives and understanding policy implementation

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dc.contributor.authorShefer, Tamara
dc.contributor.authorBhana, Deevia
dc.contributor.authorMorrell, Robert
dc.date.accessioned17/10/2014 15:14
dc.date.available17/10/2014 15:14
dc.date.issued2013
dc.description.abstractSouth African national education policy is committed to promoting gender equality at school and to facilitating the successful completion of all young people�s schooling, including those who may become pregnant and parent while at school. However, the experience of being pregnant and parenting while being a learner is shaped by broader social and school-based responses to teenage pregnancy, parenting and female sexuality in general. Drawing on qualitative research with a group of teachers and principals at 11 schools (over 80 interviewees) and 26 learners who are parents at school, in Cape Town and Durban, the article argues that dominant moralistic discourses on adolescence, normative gender roles and female sexuality, perpetuating the representation of teenage pregnancy as social decay and degeneration, underpin negative responses to learners. In addition, the school is constructed as a space where pregnancy and parenting are unintelligible. These discourses are shown to be experienced as exclusionary practices by some learners. The article foregrounds the imperative of addressing the larger ideological terrain that impacts on the successful implementation of the policy, recommending support for teachers in the challenges of providing meaningful guidance, constructive support and appropriate interventions in the nurturance of pregnant and parenting learners.en_US
dc.description.accreditationInternational Bibliography of Social Sciencesen_US
dc.identifier.citationShefer, T., Bhana, D. & Morrell, R. (2013). Teenage pregnancy and parenting at school in contemporary South African contexts: deconstructing school narratives and understanding policy implementation. Perspectives in Education, 31(1): 1-10en_US
dc.identifier.issn02582236
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/1264
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.privacy.showsubmitterFALSE
dc.publisherUniversity of the Free Stateen_US
dc.rightsCopyright Faculty of Education, University of the Free State. Permission granted for reproduction of the article. Please cite original publishing source. A link to this source may be provided.
dc.status.ispeerreviewedTRUE
dc.subjectTeenage pregnancyen_US
dc.subjectParentingen_US
dc.subjectGender equalityen_US
dc.subjectFemale sexuality schoolen_US
dc.titleTeenage pregnancy and parenting at school in contemporary South African contexts: deconstructing school narratives and understanding policy implementationen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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