Teenage pregnancy and parenting at school in contemporary South African contexts: deconstructing school narratives and understanding policy implementation
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Date
2013-03
Authors
Bhana, Deevia
Morrell, Robert
Shefer, Tamara
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
South 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.
Description
Keywords
Teenage pregnancy, Parenting, Gender equality, Female sexuality school, Policy
Citation
Shefer, 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), 1-10.