The HERStory Series: “We can’t share things with our teachers”: narratives of mistrust and disconnect between South African female learners and their teachers
Summary
- Teacher connectedness – the level of connectedness between students and their teachers – can have a strong impact on the learning experience, and the health of students
- The support that teachers can provide is not only academic, but can also be psychosocial or emotional support, with positive effects on students’ self-confidence and self-esteem, educational attainment, mental health and wellbeing.
- Student-teacher relationships and connectedness can also impact the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in South Africa.
- Support from teachers can reduce learners’ engagement in high-risk health behaviours, thereby decreasing negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes such as teenage pregnancy.
- Although teachers are in a position to provide critical psychosocial and emotional support, there is a disconnect between South African AGYW and their teachers, which negatively impacts the mental health, SRH and school performance of AGYW
- South African adolescent girls and young women want and need better support from teachers, both academic and psycho-social. More trusting and supportive relationships between AGYW and teachers would improve the potential of AGYW for educational attainment, have positive impacts on their mental health and general wellbeing, and help to decrease rates of teenage pregnancy.
View the complete Research Brief: “We can’t share things with our teachers”: narratives of mistrust and disconnect between South African female learners and their teachers
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The South African Medical Research Council’s strategic plan includes the generation of new knowledge and its translation into policy and practice. In the Health Systems Research Unit, our research aims to inform and support decision-making in health and social policy to strengthen health systems, and therefore improve the health of South Africans. We evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of care delivery models in communities, schools, and health facilities. To ensure relevance of our research, we apply implementation science principles and approaches, and engage and partner with Departments of Health at all levels of government, as well as with communities and other stakeholders. As a unit, we are developing research briefs based on manuscripts that have been published. Our intention is to disseminate key research findings to a broad audience, sharing the research briefs on multiple platforms to ensure wide reach, and work towards bridging the divide between academic research and the development of policy and practice. We aim to use these research briefs as a tool to summarise the key findings of recent studies, outline the implications for policy and practice in the South African context, and provide empirically based, practical, actionable information for policy makers, programme designers and implementers, practitioners, citizens and communities. |