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Despite the clarity of the South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996 on the need to craft and implement a learners’ Code of Conduct by school governing bodies (SGBs), there seems to be a gap between the espoused learner disciplinary policies and practice at schools. Using the case study research design, the knowledge scope on education policies by the school disciplinary committees (SDCs) was examined at two secondary schools in a predominantly rural South African district. The study employed a qualitative approach to gather data from purposefully selected informants using focus group and face-to-face interviews. The study sample was composed of 35 participants who were school disciplinary policy duty bearers, comprising 10 SGBs, 10 school management teams (SMTs) and 10 SDC members, as well as five class teachers. The main findings from the thematically analysed narrative data pointed to inadequate knowledge of policies by most SDC committee members. In addition, although the two schools had learners’ codes of conduct that were aligned to SASA, the SDCs were loosely adhering to the provisions of the disciplinary policies in their operations. The gap between the espoused policy and policy in action was found to be due to the policy duty bearers’ inadequate knowledge of the national policy that governs school discipline. This calls for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to offer policy enhancement workshops for SDCs and to employ a policy monitoring instrument on the functioning of SCDs. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.4.17

This study was premised on the increased demand for enrolment of pregnant and parenting learners (PPLs) at ordinary or conventional schools in South Africa due to the democratisation of access to education after the 1994 democratic dispensation. The study investigated how pregnant and parenting schoolgirls were resilient to continue with their educational aspirations at formal schools despite the social challenges that they faced in the school, family and community environments. A qualitative case study design was employed, and for confidentiality of the study participants, a face to face key-participant individual interview was the main data gathering instrument. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to select a total of 8 PPLs, 4 learners from each of the two schools who were either pregnant or had given birth at the time of data gathering to express their coping strategies within a formal school setting. Study results revealed that setting new goals after pregnancy, desire to achieve self-efficacy, strategies against hate language and support from their significant others were key contributors to the resilience for the continued pursuit of the PPLs’ educational aspirations. The main recommendation from the study is for school management teams to help build a safe, child friendly and inclusive social environment among the school-based education duty bearers. Received: 4 March 2021 / Accepted: 6 May 2021 / Published: 8 July 2021

The South Africans Schools Act mandates institutional policy duty bearers such as the school governing bodies (SGBs) and school disciplinary committees (SDCs) through which education stakeholders such as school principals, teachers, parents and learners to democratically formulate and implement school policies. The effectiveness of these bodies in carrying out their responsibilities in most cases is left to speculation. Based on a case study of high schools in a rural district setting in South Africa, this paper reports on the extent to which SDCs are democratically constituted and function in conducting their responsibilities. A qualitative approach was employed to gather data from a purposeful sample of 53 participants at two secondary schools that comprised 10 SGB members, 10 school management team (SMT) members, 9 SDC members, 10 Representative Council of Learners (RCL), 4 class teachers and 10 previously disciplined learners (PDLs). Focus group and individual interviews were the primary data gathering instruments but were complemented by document analysis to cross-check participants’ narratives where necessary. Results indicated that the discharge of the SDC responsibilities was largely undemocratic in both composition and functioning, and therefore unjust in disciplining learners who acted outside school rules. On the basis of our findings, we recommend that the policy duty bearers in school institutional management structures such as the SMT, SGB, RCL and SDC should first be inducted on school policies, roles and responsibilities on assumption of duty. Received: 28 June 2020 / Accepted: 18 November 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021