Exploring educators' perceptions of the academic challenges affecting grade one learners' academic performance in two low socio-economic schools learner's occupational performance: in two low socio-economic schools.

Abstract

AbstractIntroduction: This research study has emerged due to the alarming failure rate of grade one learners' in the Western Cape. The researchers have explored some of the many challenges affecting grade one learners' occupational performance, as the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has a system in place whereby learners are only allowed to fail once in each educational phase before being promoted to the next phase.Methods: A qualitative phenomenological approach was applied (to explore educators' perspectives) and through purposeful sampling, five grade one educators, from two low-socioeconomic schools, consented for participation in two focus groups. The raw data was analysed into themes and categories after verbatim transcription, of the focus groups. Results and Conclusion: Three themes emerged from the data analysis: "Learners can't cope", "Socio-economic environment does play a role" and "The system is still a problem for the child". By using the Person Environment Occupation (PEO) model, to analyse the data, the findings revealed that the learners' environment has an immense impact on the performance of their daily occupations in the areas of Activities of Daily Living (ADL), school-work and Play.