VIEWS OF YOUTH IN LOTUS GARDENS ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES IN THEIR COMMUNITY

by

PARESH BABULAL DEVCHAND

RESEARCH ESSAY

submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree

MAGISTER EDUCATIONIS

in

COMMUNITY EDUCATION

in the

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND NURSING

at the

RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY

SUPERVISOR: DR D DANIELS

NOVEMBER 1998 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my supervisor Dr. D. Daniels I would like to say thank you for the encouragement, the patience, the sacrifice, the understanding, guidance and support you've given throughout this project.

To professor E. Henning a sincere thank you for the constant positive motivation and words of encouragement, positive feedback, reassurance, and faith you communicated to us. They were inspiring. •

To my wife, Anita ; and my mother-in-law, Champa, words cannot express the important role you have played in giving me the time to complete this essay. Thank you for the support, consideration, patience, thoughtfulness, understanding and sacrifices you had to make. I will make it up to you.

To my mother, Pushpa and father Babulal thank you for a strong educational foundation and affording us the luxury of a tertiary education under difficult circumstances. It hasn't gone unnoticed and will always be treasured.

To my friend Jayesh thank you for the constant inspiration, motivation and guidance. Also thank you for the running around that you did so unselfishly. Really a friend in deed. To my friend Anil despite being under tremendous personal stress thank you for finding the time to assist me.

To the participants, Peter, Fadiel, Rakesh, Dinesh, Sharad, Noel and Sam, thank you for the interviews. It made this study possible. ii ABSTRACT

his study was undertaken out of concern for the many youths in the community of Lotus Gardens who were involved in deviant and delinquent behaviour in and out of school. The findings of the essay describes possible factors that placed these youth at risk of dropping out of school and impacts on their social and emotional deVelopment. Their views regarding out-of-school programmes were investigated, as well as the different types of community programmes that could be introduced for the remediation and support of at risk youth. The research was carried out with seven at risk youth from the Lotus Gardens Secondary School who also resided in Lotus Gardens. The seven participants were interviewed in a focus group as well as individually. The data collected was analysed through open coding.

The analysis brought to the fore numerous insights. The first was, that various factors combined to place youth at risk of dropping out of school. These could be broadly related to the family, the school, the environment, and the influence of peers. The second important insight, was that the entire school system needed to change to effectively address the complex problems faced by at risk youth. This included a change in the attitude of teachers and an amendment to the curriculum. The school itself, in future, needs to become more community orientated and function as a community facility to eliminate some root causes which place youth at risk. Thirdly, the inquiry showed that there was overwhelming support for the idea of community education programmes, not only to support at risk youth, but to assist youth in general, and parents and the community as a whole. The study revealed that through these programmes, stronger family ties would develop, thereby laying the foundation for a sense of community. This would address some of the factors that place youth at risk and may even eliminate others.

In the light of the above analysis it is recommended that, from a community education perspective, the concept of a core-plus school, be given serious consideration. If considered, it could guide the community in addressing some of the social problems faced by the community, which would encompass the problem of at risk youth. Furthermore, in the long term, it would empower the community to address other social problems they might face in today's decadent world. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Abstract ii

Section 1: Research topic 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. Defining key concepts and phrases 1 1.3. Research interest and background to the study 5 1.4. Motivation for the research 6 1.5. Aims of the research 7 1.6. Research questions 7 1.7. Research design 8 1.8. Theoretical framework 9 1.9. Conclusion 10

Section 2: Conceptual framework 2.1. Introduction 11 2.2. Characteristics and symptoms of at risk youth 11 2.3. The lack of stable community and family support 16 2.4. The need for intervention 17 2.5. The role of the school 20 2.6. The school and community education 23 2.7. Conclusion 26 iv

Section 3: Research design 3.1. Introduction 27 3.2. Identification of the sample and participants 27 3.3. Methodology. 29 3.4. Structure of the interviews 31 3.5. Data analysis 31 3.6. Conclusion 43

Section 4: Discussion of findings 4.1. Introduction 45 4.2. Discussion of data 45 4.3. Implication of the findings 52 4.4. Recommendations for further research 53 4.5. Conclusion 54

Bibliography 56

Appendix A. Interview guide 59 1 SECTION ONE

RESEARCH TOPIC

1.1. INTRODUCTION his inquiry is conducted on 'at risk youth' of Lotus Gardens. With this T research the reasons why they are considered to be at risk, and the factors that cause them to be at risk would be investigated. This will then be applied to the youth of the community of Lotus Gardens. Their views on informal and non-formal activities and programmes will be explored, and various suggestions will be made as to how the youth of Lotus Gardens can be supported. Avenues which will be considered as possibilities in this regard, will be the conversion of the school into a core-plus school, and improving the relationship that exists and needs to exist between the school and the community.

1.2. DEFINING KEY CONCEPTS AND PHRASES At-risk youth ccording to Morris (1992: xiii) "youth at risk are those at risk of A dropping out of school before completing their high school education". Similar definitions are used by Beck (1992: 162) who states "youth at risk are those who are likely to emerge from school unprepared for further education and unprepared for the demands of a changing work place". Carter (1991: 68) says "youth at risk are those who dropped out of school or are potential dropouts from school". Morgan (1994:2) contends "children with learning, emotional and/or behavioural problems to the extent that they would no longer be eligible to attend school are at risk".

The term 'at risk youth' may be new, according to Barr and Parrett (1995), as it was only coined a decade ago, but the children and youth they refer to are not. Through the ages the very same children have been referred to as 'dumb', socially and culturally 'deprived', 'disadvantaged', 'disengaged' and 'disconnected'. Teachers know them, and have known them as disinterested, and disruptive. They are known as those who refuse to learn, and those not to be able to learn. It is a new shine on old shoes.

Drop-out efore continuing it is important to distinguish between youth at risk B and dropouts. In the article written by White (1985: 162) entitled The drop-out phenomenon of senior secondary pupils in black schools, various definitions are cited. According to, Astin, "A drop-out is one who fails to complete his initial study expectations". According to. Rosier, "a drop-out is one who has left school without completing the full high school course", and according to Brimer and Pauli, "a drop-out is a pupil who leaves school before the end of the final year of the educational stage in which he has enrolled."

A drop-out then is one who has already left school, while a youth at risk is still a scholar with the potential to become a drop-out.

Non Formal education on-formal education refers to education which is structured, N organised, planned and goal orientated. It takes place in an informal setting outside the framework of the formal system such as field trips and excursions. It provides selected types of learning to particular subgroups in the population, adults as well as children (Paulston & LeRoy: 223-337).

Core-plus he core-plus concept refers to a school and a curriculum that has two parts. The core part and the plus part. The core part would be the state mandated obligations of the school, but the plus part would be determined by the school community itself. 3 Community he concept community is as broad as it is complex. Without delving T into these complexities, for the purpose of this essay, the term community refers to a group of peCple residing within a given geographical area. More specifically the group of people of interest to this discussion is the community of Lotus Gardens.

Lotus Gardens is a small urban community with a population of about 10 000. It is situated 10 kilometres west of the city of Pretoria, near the township of Atteridgeville in Gauteng Province. Poor planning with regard to Laudium (a previously Indian community) resulted in both an acute housing shortage, as well as a shortage of more land. The House of Delegates, which was responsible for Indian Affairs in the Tricameral Parliament acquired Lotus Gardens as a solution to the problems experienced in Laudium. Presently after the completion of phases two and three of Lotus Gardens, no community facilities such as a sports field, library, clinic, police station, post office, community hall or shopping centre has been built. The community is disadvantaged because the necessary infrastructure is lacking.

Community versus school t this juncture it is important to localise these issues to describe the A community of Lotus Gardens. In Lotus Gardens most of the people are from the low socio-economic class. Many of the parents fall into one of three categories, viz.: single parents, divorced, or remarried. Many parents are not well educated, some are illiterate and many either retrenched or unemployed. The high cost of living together with low educational standards does not afford many families the luxury of having one parent stay home to provide care and guidance after school. This has resulted in many unsupervised school children also referred to as 'latchkey' children. The predicament many parents find themselves in, combined with the social, political and economic reforms South Africa is undergoing, is causing increasing mental and physical stress for many 4 adults. The fact that there is an increase in the number of structurally dysfunctional families, a rising divorce rate and a prominence of single parent households are examples of this. Further examples include children victimised by violence, abuse and incest. These factors, combined with peer pressure, school pressure, and the, overwhelming information and technological revolution of our society has a major impact on the youths' social and emotional development. This in turn affects their behaviour. These factors are after all the "essence of at riskness" (Morris, 1994: 3).

These factors are also the ones that place the youth of Lotus Gardens at risk. They are involved in drug and alcohol abuse, gangsterism, rape, crime, absconding from home, and sexual activity. These behaviour patterns can be attributed to reactions of the youth in their inability to cope with their domestic conditions. These circumstances have in turn also had a tremendous impact on the students' performance at school. This was discovered after students displayed symptoms such as truanting, chronic absenteeism, poor academic performance despite an average or above average IC), aggression, vulgarity and disrespect. This type of deviant behaviour is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception among the youth of Lotus Gardens.

From the above description, one glaring observation that needs to be made is the fact that the problems of the community, and the problems faced by the community, spill over into the school. The problem of the school impacts directly on the community. Thus they are inter-linked and cannot function in isolation. They need to forge a relationship of mutuality.

In summary, in many homes there is a complete disintergration of the family unit resulting in no mutual trust or respect between the youth and their parents. There is also a general moral decline amongst the youth. What makes the situation more tragic is that many of the youth involved in deviant behaviour are intelligent, gifted and talented. They have the ability to break out of the circle of 5 poverty, and succeed in any endeavour they choose. However, the influence of the environment and peer pressure is so overwhelming that they find it difficult to break the chains, and are thus placed at risk. The result is that their academic performance rapidly deteriorates as they enter adolescence. Ultimately, before anything concrete can be done, they become high-school dropouts.

1.3. RESEARCH INTEREST AND BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY he community of Lotus Gardens, with its lack of facilities and infrastructure, coupled with the low socio-economic status of most of the families, has had a great impact on the youth of Lotus Gardens. This is evident from the youth present at Lotus Gardens Secondary School where I teach. The youth display various learning difficulties and engage in different types of deviant behaviour. Parents who visit the school display feelings of helplessness, and show a lack of adequate parenting skills in dealing with their children.

Observing this state of affairs, and in an attempt to improve the situation it was decided to target the youth of Lotus Gardens. More specifically, the youth at risk. The future role of the youth in the community, and the time spent with them at school in formal and informal situations also influenced the decision to target at risk youth.

Since the first democratic election in South Africa in 1994, the government has introduced reform strategies such as rationalisation, redeployment, budget cuts, and increasing the teacher - pupil ratio as an attempt to redress the educational imbalances of the past. These reform strategies do not take the needs of the youth into consideration. Furthermore, formal education, for the most part, remains primarily academic, containing an irrelevant curriculum for some of the learners. It is also isolated from the community it serves. The school continues to serve the needs of the state, and teachers are still deeply entrenched in the 'chalk and talk' method of teaching and are racing to complete the syllabi with 6 little, or no real care or concern for the learner. These reform strategies as well as the existence of the status quo in many of the schools and classrooms can be seen as factors contributing to putting youth at risk.

Redressing the past, achieving equity and trying to establish a culture of learning and teaching are all occupying the time and energies of the department of education. This is evident from the reforms introduced in education, the work shops conducted by the education departments, emphasising the democratisation of schools, addressing the shortages of textbooks, stationery and other resources in previously disadvantaged schools, attending to the enrolment of schools to allocate the correct staff compliment and providing training for parents to be appropriately skilled to govern schools. This obviously implies that at risk youth are low on the department's list of priorities. Communities need to take the lead and be pro-active in attempting to intervene and provide for at risk youth.

1.4. MOTIVATION FOR THE RESEARCH e have often heard the adage that 'the youth are the leaders of tomorrow!. This can only be achieved if the youth, at the very least, complete their primary and secondary schooling. Youth who are already disadvantaged because of their domestic background, are at risk of dropping out of school at any time. Consequently, providing remedial, preventative or intervening programmes to keep at risk youth in school, can be considered an important measure in addressing the problem.

Novak (1992: 2) states that:

Teaching is by its very nature an act of hope. It involves committed people preparing those for whom they care with the knowledge, skills and values that will aid them in living a fulfilling life. 7 Ignoring this act of teaching, and thereby ignoring at risk youth, is a serious indictment on educators and community members. The community I serve is slowly deteriorating and disintegrating. The assumption is that intervention through the provision of out of school activities or extra-mural programmes will reduce the risk of youth dropping out of school.

1.5. AIM OF THE RESEARCH he main aim of the research is to obtain views of at risk youth in Lotus T Gardens on the implementation of non-formal educational programmes. The views will be a response to questions of whether such needs exist, and if so, what purpose such programmes should serve. The study hopes to explore the youth's views on the type of activities and programmes which they would welcome, and ascertain whether or not they would participate if such programmes were introduced.

The secondary aim of this essay is to use its results in order to forward a proposal to the principals, school governing bodies, civic leaders and leaders of community organisations in Lotus Gardens. This proposal will serve as evidence of the need for such programmes. Though not possible within the parameters of this study, the long term aims are to introduce, and to set up a working committee to investigate the feasibility of the implementation of such programmes. Associated with this is the formation of partnerships, and linking parents, teachers, the school, youth and the community to community building.

1.6. RESEARCH QUESTIONS he practical problem that exists in Lotus Gardens is that far too many T youths are idle and involved in deviant and delinquent behaviour. The inquiry will seek to answer the following research questions: What kind of family background does the at risk youth come from? How do the participants experience the formal curriculum? What expectations do they hold of the school community? 8 What are their perceptions of Lotus Gardens? What are the activities in a community education programme that they would want to participate in?

1.7. RESEARCH DESIGN ince the aim of the project is to gain, the views, opinions, feelings, S thoughts and ideas of at risk youth, the method for collecting the data will be qualitative. The most appropriate qualitative method is the in-depth interview.

A sample consisting of youths considered to be at risk will be identified from the population of youth at Lotus Gardens Secondary School. From the theoretical sample ten youths will be asked to participate in the research study. The participants will be divided into two groups of five. Three participants will be selected from each of the two groups with whom in-depth interviews are to be conducted. An interview guide will be drawn up as the interviewer's intention is to gain the same information from different interviewees. This framework consisting of general questions will guide the interviewer in obtaining the information required. There are neither fixed questions nor a fixed sequence. Again, due to the sensitive nature of some of the issues that may arise, this type of interview allows the interviewer to adapt, continue, backtrack, and prompt throughout the interview (Patton, 1987).

The in-depth interviews will be followed up with two focus group interviews. There will be five participants in each group. In a focus group interview questions involving one topic are posed to the group as a whole, after which the participants respond. The advantages of the focus group is that the participants may build on what others say and can compare their views with others. Other advantages include the fact that lots of information can be gained at one time. The group also provides some quality control, so that false and extreme views 9 can be weeded out. In addition it makes it easy to assess consistency and is highly enjoyable (Patton, 1987).

A tape recorder will be used as a research tool to allow the interviewer to be more attentive during the interviews, and to help facilitate analysis after the interviews. The interviews will be transcribed and analysed using open and axial coding (Patton, 1987; Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

1.8. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK he first step would be to confirm whether the youth identified as being at risk are in fact at risk, by comparing their behaviour and characteristics with that which the literature describes as youth at risk. The next part, which will be the main focus of the investigation, will attend to the views of the participants on out-of-school programmes and the type of programmes that could be introduced to address the problem of at risk youth.

Various successful programmes exist in America, Britain and South Africa to ensure that at risk youth don't become drop-outs. These programmes however are either efforts of concerned individuals, or programmes co-ordinated by the school with the help of the industry or business sectors. The argument that will be put forward is an attempt to proceed a little further and to argue that in order to address at risk youths and their related problems, the entire community needs to get involved. This claim rests on the grounds that the youth are products of their different environments, and that their development can be enhanced by changing the environments in which they interact. At risk youth are not people who are problems, but people who have problems.

One of the environments that needs to change is the school. Views on the new role envisaged from a community education perspective will be given in the form of a core-plus, or a 100/100 school. This type of school regards the entire community as their clients, and introduces programmes to cater for the needs of 10 the entire community. These programmes are aimed at involvement and empowerment. This in effect would mean that youth, parents, elderly, and unemployed people would all be provided for through various programmes. This would result in uplifting the entire community, assisting at risk youth and eliminating some of the factors that place youths at risk. Feedback and evaluation is a necessity and should be done on an on-going basis. This will ensure that the programmes continue to be effective and purposeful.

1.9. CONCLUSION he rest of this research essay will be divided into three sections T concentrating on the following aspects: Section two will be the presentation of a theoretical framework for the inquiry. The situation in Lotus Gardens will be considered and its impact on youth will be examined. The need for intervention will be discussed. The role of the school and community will be examined, and evidence will be put forward to show that the traditional views of the school need to change in order to involve the wider community, thereby helping at risk youth. Section three is a description of the method of research and the presentation of the data and section four is an analysis of the findings. Each criterion will be discussed and supported or rebutted by literature. The implications of the findings will be discussed, and recommendations will be made for the future. 11 SECTION TWO

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

2.1. INTRODUCTION his section of the essay provides the conceptual and theoretical T framework that will guide the study. Before the aspect of out of school programmes is argued, consideration will be given to the causes and behaviour patterns of at risk youth. This will be applied to the youth of Lotus Gardens by way of comparison. Using the systems approach, an argument which believes that there is a direct need to intervene and provide support for at risk youths will be put forward. The support will be in the form of out of school programmes which emphasise the role of the school to include not only the youth but the entire community. The core-plus school will be prescribed as a possible model to discuss the changing role of the school. The relationship between the school and the community will also be investigated.

2.2. FACTORS AND SYMPTOMS OF AT RISK YOUTH ithout posing an argument as to whether all youth are at risk or not, for the sake of the essay let us agree that there are a growing number of youths, who for reasons which will be discussed below, are more vulnerable, and at a higher risk of dropping out of school. These are the youths who were selected as the sample for the study. To gain a better understanding of the background of at risk youths so that appropriate remediation and prevention can be planned, it is important to discuss some of the factors of at risk youth.

To assist in the identification and intervention process later on, it will be beneficial to divide the factors into four major categories, namely family-related; school -related; student related; and community-related factors. 12 Family-related factors ithin the low socio-economic status of families there are various factors that place the youth at risk. These include low educational and occupational attainment levels of parents, frequent high-school non-completion of one or both parents, low family income, large families, single-parent families, and a lack of learning materials and opportunities within the home. Additional family related barriers to school tend to be, physical or emotional abuse and neglect, divorce or separation, parental apathy, family crisis, and poverty. A stressful home life, poor communication between the home and the school, frequent family moves, previous dropouts within the family or the continuous changing of schools, were also cited as possible causes (Wells, 1990).

Most of the crisis mentioned above are traumatic experiences for the child and the youth in general. It is their inability to cope with the various crisis facing them that places them at greater risk than other youth. This inability could possibly lead to learning, behavioural or emotional problems. These in turn could lead to school failure and dropping out.

School-related factors outh are also at risk of dropping out of school due to factors from within Y the school. These include: failing more than once, poor academic achievement, and continuous behaviour problems leading to disciplinary measures such as suspension being • exercised. Schools that are overcrowded, .lacking in resources, are culturally and linguistically inappropriate, provide no academic and social support also place youth at risk.

Some teachers further increase the risk to youth already at risk, by displaying insufficient knowledge and empathy when reaching out to these youth. This causes mutual alienation on the part of the teacher and youth, further increasing the risk of dropping out. 13 The curriculum in many public schools continue to focus on the needs of those who proceed to tertiary institutions. The curriculum is completely irrelevant to the needs of some students. The youth who cannot cope, after engaging in one or other form of deviant behaviour is at risk, and if nothing is done, will drop out of school (Wells, 1990; Kronick, 1997).

Student-related factors ccording to Rumberger (1990), at risk youth have a lower self-concept A and self-esteem, and less of a sense of overall control over their lives than other students do. They often underachieve academically, are frequently absent, often play truant, sometimes engage in prostitution, gangsterism, theft, substance abuse, and sometimes fall pregnant. They find it difficult to identify with other people, they lack motivation and social adjustment. The problem they face sometimes cause them to run away from home.

In the classroom or the school they may also display one or a combination of the following symptoms: fatigue, restlessness, listlessness, accompanied by aggression or withdrawal, inability to function in a group, increased anxiety, loneliness, isolation, anger, hostility, grief, shame, resentment, boredom, fear, depression, sadness, and eating disorders. Other problems these children suffer from, are phobias, sleeping problems, maturation too early or too late, regression of self control and self care, irritability and temper tantrums (Wells, 1990; Morris, 1994; Barr & Parrett, 1995).

Community-related factors C ommunity factors are as complex as the previous three factors which combine to place the youth at risk. A community that functions on a gesel/schaft (society) principle undoubtedly places their youth at risk. This means that the community becomes more secular, impersonal and separated. This implies a lack of responsive community support services, lack of links between the school and community and a lack of other preventative, health, rehabilitation or family programmes (Sergiovanni, 1994: 13). 14 In addition to the above factors, a factor peculiar to South Africa, which has contributed to the problem of at risk youth, was the ideology of 'liberation before education'. Apartheid ideology reflected by laws such as the Group Areas Act, the Homeland Policy, Influx control, the .migrant labour system and urbanisation on the South African population, also contributed to destabilising communities, and contributing to risk factors for youths.

Before examining the situation in Lotus Gardens it is important to point out that youth are placed at risk not merely because of one or another of the factors just discussed. The risk the youth are placed in, is the result of a combination of factors. They are so interlinked that it is difficult to discuss them as separate causes of placing youths at risk.

The Situation in Lotus Gardens f the many characteristics identified and discussed a great many similarities can be identified and applied to the community and youth of Lotus Gardens. Also many inferences can be made from the evidence presented by other researchers on at risk youth.

As stated in section one, Lotus Gardens is a community of a low socio-economic status without a basic infrastructure. This, in itself, as the evidence suggests, places the youth at risk. The community is further disadvantaged because there exists great division on the grounds of religion, race and social status. Tolerance, acceptance, understanding and peaceful co-existence is often shattered by domestic violence and ongoing feuds.

Parents are predominantly single, divorced or step parents. They themselves have had little education, or have dropped out of school at an early age. Many are unemployed and find it difficult to obtain employment because of little or no formal qualifications. They often deal with their frustration by abusing drugs and alcohol or by verbally or physically abusing their children. Those who are employed have low income jobs, work shifts and struggle to make ends meet. Children and therefore the 15 youth, miss out on family life, extended family life and neighbourliness. Parents appear not to care for or love their children. Many children consequently create their 'own families' and develop their own sub-cultures within the school (Sergiovanni, 1994).

The school, in terms of its curriculum and teachers, could be a possible factor which combine to place the youth at risk. The curriculum is mainly academic and those students who cannot cope are marginalised and sacrificed for the sake of those who can. Another limitation regarding the curriculum is the unfortunate situation where the school cannot simply introduce a new subject, even though it is more relevant to the student population. The school needs to consider the implications. It needs to ask whether the school has a qualified teacher for that specific subject, as the education department will not provide an additional teacher due to the process of rationalisation. Another consideration is the availability of resources. For example, the school cannot offer typing as a subject if it does not have sufficient typewriters. Also, non-academic subjects which have a stigma of unimportance are marginalised in favour of mathematics and science. This denies the child a holistic development, and as stated above this irrelevant curriculum places the youth at risk. This view of the curriculum is supported by Kronick (1997: 303) who says that "teachers who give the same curriculum based assignments, activities, tests, etc. are not dealing in an effective way with individual differences of the youth". Wells (1990), is of the opinion. that curriculum related programmes need to be introduced for at risk youth in the form of study skills, tutoring, student assistance, academic remediation and so forth. This implies that the curriculum could be a factor placing youth at risk.

The school has to attend to a multiplicity of problems. Over and above the traditional negative attitude towards schools, the school is still seen as belonging to the state and not the community. This is despite the fact that some religious and sporting organisations use the facilities of the school. The school is often vandalised and burgled. The relationship between the school and the community is neither close nor distant. Some parents do visit the school. However, most parents, especially parents of students who are experiencing problems never visit the school, not even on 16• Parents' Day or when invited to discuss a disciplinary issue. In some rare occasions this may not be the fault of the parent as students do not hand these notices to their parents. The small part the school does play in trying to teach students about morals and ethics, is unfortunately not reinforced by the environment and community the child spends their time in after school, and during weekends. This contradictory set of values only complicates the issue and confuses the child. This results in increasing the risk factor.

Another factor that must be added is the changing demographics of many of our public schools. Using schools in the previously "Indian" areas as a basis, we see that in areas like Lotus Gardens, Laudium, Actonville, Lenasia and Roshnee schools have transformed from having a predominantly 'Indian' population, to a 70 to 80 percent African population. These children are non-English speaking and culturally different, yet our teaching methodology and curriculum design remains unchanged. The consequence is that these students face a higher risk of failing, being alienated, disconnecting from society and eventually dropping out.

2.3. THE LACK OF A STABLE COMMUNITY AND FAMILY SUPPORT he home and the family life of most of the youth in Lotus Gardens is not T very stable. Many are latchkey children. Coupled with constant peer pressure causes many to start experimenting with drugs and alcohol. They play truant because nobody is there to supervise their activities after school. They have little to keep them occupied after school because the school provides little in the form of extra-curricular activities, and there are no community recreational facilities available. They are mostly exposed to negative influences. The little that is done at the school regarding ethics and morals is undone instead of being reinforced by the community. This happens because of the lifestyle and state of affairs within the community. There are very few role-models which the youth of Lotus Gardens can emulate. At present, the role models most of the youth relate to are drug dealers. The main reason for this is that the dealers have money and flashy cars which bring them power and respect. Being impressionable the youth identify with these dealers. 17 Although evidence suggests that youth are placed at risk because of a number of factors we must remember that identifying these youth as 'at risk', and grouping them together, does not mean that they are no longer a heterogeneous group. Furthermore, we should not assume that the same programme or activity will work for each of the youths. Each at risk youth is still an individual with an individual set of problems, and these need to be considered.

Not every youth whose circumstances have the potential to push him over the edge, becomes a delinquent. Evidence of this is found in recorded cases of youths, who would have been categorised as 'at risk' because of their circumstances and characteristics. Despite these circumstances, these children have shown that they have the ability to cope with their crisis, they appear to be well adjusted, remain focused, achieve academic success, show no behavioural, learning or emotional difficulties, and successfully complete their school career. These youth, however, are in the minority, the exceptions, rather than the rule (Morgan, 1994: 25).

2.4. THE NEED FOR INTERVENTION espite the overwhelming evidence existing in the literature on at risk D youth, and the urgent need to intervene, South Africa appears to be lagging behind in terms of including the plight of at risk youth on their agenda or list of priorities. This by no means implies that in South Africa nothing is been done to tackle the problem. There are isolated reports of Non-Governmental organisations, and some community based organisations attempting to provide support for at risk youth. Examples of such programmes are those provided by church groups, the work of Eric Hofmeyr in Hout Bay, the work of the Outward Bound Trust in George, the Hilbrow Educational Project, Youth Development 2000 a sport development programme in Dobsonville, Aerobics in Ivory Park and The Rainbow Youth Centre in Wltbank. But in the main, too little is being done to provide for the increasing number of at risk youth. This section discusses the social and economic implications of not attending to the problem of at risk youth, and the need to intervene. 18 Firstly, most researchers argue that intervention needs to take place at an early stage. This is based on the evidence that at risk youth display symptoms of being a potential dropout as early as at the primary school level. Romines (1992: 68) lays a strong foundation in this regard. He found that "low academic achievement and serious behaviour and truancy problems that were common among students who were at risk of dropping out began between the third and fifth grades". Supporting this is Spivak (1997: 290) who found that:

Adolescent conduct and behavioural problems could have been predicted in kindergarten or first grade when teachers observed acting out, over involvement in socially disturbing behaviours, impatience, impulsitivity, defiance and negativism.

Morris (1992: 15) himself argues that:

Since it is with the school's curriculum that the student will ultimately fail or succeed it is important that the school intervenes during the student's early years by identifying their specific needs so that learning deficiencies can be eliminated or minimised.

A study conducted by Barr and Parrett (1995: 35-36) further strengthens the argument on early intervention by explaining that:

Providing early, intensive prevention and intervention is the most cost-effective means of confronting the problems of at risk children and youth. The success of early intervention and prevention . .. will have an effect on reducing later costs of remedial reading programs, special education and school counselling.

Accepting that early intervention is not always possible we need to look at the results if identification and intervention is delayed. To view the problems of at risk youth and their characteristics in isolation would be not only naive, but detrimental 19 to our overall aim. At risk youth are products of an environment which impacts not only on the individual and the family, but also on the community and the society. Gordan and Yowell (1997: 5) express it in the following manner:

At risk status is a function of the inappropriateness of developmental environments to meet the needs of the person, and that a focus on these deficient environments may be more productive than a focus on the characteristics of the persons.

This not only confirms that at risk youth are the products of their environment but proceeds to add that it would be more beneficial to wage a battle against the root causes than to focus purely on the characteristics of at risk youth. Homelessness, poverty, and the lack of a healthy living and education are cited as examples. Furthermore, the problem is not simply that some youth are doing poorly at school. The broader picture relates to youth who are in danger of not just failing and dropping out of school, but entering adulthood illiterate, dependent on drugs and alcohol, unemployed, as teenage parents, dependent on welfare or as criminals. This places a tremendous strain on the community in which the youth settles, as well as on the economy of the country. Intervening and providing programmes to reduce the number of at risk youth will concomitantly reduce the future costs of dealing with problems relating to health, welfare, police and correctional services (Barr & Parrett, 1995). Further, we need to intervene to support at risk youth because: The country may be faced with insufficient qualified personnel to support those in retirement. At risk youth are potential dropouts and as stated in section one, they run the risk of being unemployed or underemployed. They also won't contribute much to the tax base as well as earning enough to keep them off welfare. To support those who neither succeeds nor takes responsibility for their own future, places a tremendous strain on the government budget (Kronick, 1997).

Rumberger (1997: 6) simply summarises it as, "in short dropouts are costly". To emphasise the point of how costly they really are, he cites the study of one year's 20 cohort of dropouts in Los Angeles city schools. He reports that it was estimated that dropouts cost the state more than 400 million dollars while 3.2 billion dollars were lost in earnings. "It would cost less to provide highly reliable and relevant schools for at risk youth than to pay for continued expansion of welfare, police and prisons programs" (Stringfield 1997: 6).

To conclude the need for intervention, let us consider the systems approach. The school and the environment of which the child and youth are products, are seen as human agents of the human service system. This implies that a change in one must bring about a change in the other otherwise they do not constitute a system. Thus, intervening in the activities of at risk youth is both humanistically and economically justifiable.

2.5. THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL o provide meaningful, constructive and effective remedial and T preventative programmes for at risk youth is no simple task. It is as complex as the problem of at risk youths themselves. The problem of at risk youth is school related, and as such the school can, and should play a pivotal role in this regard. This warrants that the traditional nature of the school needs to undergo restructuring. The attitudes of individuals towards the school also need to change. Before attending to the question of change, it is important to look at the role of the school as propagated by some of the researchers in the field.

Beck (1992: 162) outlines the role of the teacher and the school by saying:

Although the problems of at risk youth is not a school problem, teachers must be aware of organisations or services available for at risk youth. Furthermore, local schools have the responsibility to establish connections with families, other agencies and the community to ensure that each youth receives an appropriate and effective education. 21 Morgan concurs, and argues, using guilt as a form of coercion, that because at risk youth are usually poor or disadvantaged, few will ever get psychotherapy or other specialised help. Therefore teachers can, and should help. "So want it or not; their tragedies are the school's tragedies too, it becomes our responsibility to do something" (Morgan, 1994: 12). The role of the school is best stated by Kronick (1997: 7) who said:

It is critical that youth are educated and socialised in the future by a school system that believes in working with the total person as well as valuing the acquisition of knowledge. To focus only on the learning needs of the youth is not enough. The school needs to play a meaningful role in the holistic care of the youth it helps or refers for help.

The holistic approach mentioned by Kronick is supported by Morgan (1994), who also states that the task of the school remains that of educating the whole child. He goes on to say that a school and school system that is effective will not allow its students to drop out of school. This, he argues, cannot be achieved if at risk youth are identified and spoken about only within the confines of the teachers' staff-rooms. The school needs to take action, and prevent unnecessary repetitions, it will thus be keeping the door to an education open to all.

There is agreement that the school's role should extend to the involvement of other professionals, the family as well as the community, in dealing with at risk youth. Due to the complexities surrounding at risk youth, researchers contend that providing effective programmes for them has to be a joint venture. The problem demands a team effort, the pooling of resources, expertise and efforts towards the same goal. This goal is keeping at risk youth in school, and ensuring that they complete the four phases of schooling. It must however be pointed out that teams do not just fall together naturally. They need to be built around peoples' various fields of expertise. These could include the social worker, psychologist, counsellor, therapist and teacher. The school's role in this regard is seen as a resource to access volunteers, • 22 train experts, and provide resources to leaders and additional staff (Carter et at, 1991: 28).

To support the idea of partnerships and the involvement of others, Carter et a/ (1991: 29) state that, "support from leaders in the community is a key to the development, delivery and result of therapeutic recreation". Nolan and Van der Molan (1992: 29) state that "for a programme for at risk youth to achieve success it must have the support of the community, School Governing Body and District Officials". This view is also expressed by Morris (1994: xvi, 6) who states in his book Using What We Know About At Risk Youth, justifies the above by stating that, "the school programmes alone are not well equipped to address those non-school causes which places children at risk of school and life failure". Chalker (1992: 130) also agrees, saying, "a programme to assist at risk youth needs to combine the resources of the school, community and home in a general organisational scheme". Stinson and Stinson (1992: 67) adopt a sensitive stance and strongly argue for the affective by saying that, "parents and teachers need to listen more intently to the cries of the young people, not only with our ears but with our eyes and hearts".

Thus far, I have emphasised the role the school can and should play as well as the importance of the involvement of all the stakeholders in helping to deal with at risk youth. This implies a transformative change and restructuring of the school system. The traditional role of the school is best described by Carr's metaphor (1994: 118). He says:

Many schools are like little islands set apart from the mainland of life by a deep moat of convention and tradition. Across the moat there is a drawbridge, which is lowered at certain periods during the day in order that the part-time inhabitants may cross over to the island in the morning and go back to the mainland at night. Why do these young people go out to the island? They go there in order to learn how to live on the mainland. 23 Unfortunately this is the way most public schools in South Africa function. In South Africa we haven't as yet, begun to take at risk youth seriously and therefore haven't given it the attention it deserves. A possible reason is that it is overshadowed by larger, more urgent problems of political transformation. We are therefore guilty of Barr and Parrett's (1995) accusation that it is we who are failing at risk youth and not they who are failing school.

2.6. THE SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY EDUCATION critical analysis of what has been discussed thus far regarding the role of A the school and the involvement of all stakeholders in the implementation of programmes for at risk youth raises a few pertinent questions. Through the implementation of various programmes for at risk youth are we not dealing with a problem, and not the cause? By doing this are we not providing a short term solution to the problem? Will we continue to provide programmes for at risk youth with no end in sight?

I would like to argue that the answer to the restructuring mentioned earlier lies in Community Education. The proponents of Community Education, suggest the concept of a community school to change the hearts and minds of the entire school community, including parents, teachers, school boards, students and administrators. This change will serve a dual purpose. The first would be in dealing with the problem per se, namely at risk youth. The second would be changing the thinking and attitudes of the entire community served by that school. This second aspect falls outside the parameters of this essay. This conscientisation of the entire community would assist in the elimination of some root causes of deviancy amongst youth. Sergiovanni (1994), argues that children who miss out on family life, extended family life and neighbourliness, do so because of a loss of community and therefore create their 'own families' or sub-cultures. He further attributes this to what he calls gesellschaft (society), where there is a shift to a more secular, impersonal and contractual value world. Placed in context of at risk youth, by implication, we can argue that the characteristics typical of at risk youth such as substance abuse, truancy, aloofness, and defiance can be attributed to a loss of community. The 24 solution, according to Sergiovanni is to create a sense of community (gemeinschaft), in gesellschaft (society). This, as stated before, involves change.

Change generally evokes different responses in different people. Some accept change while others resist or reject change. The change suggested by community education is to move away from the concept of the school as a formal organisation and to think of it as a community organisation. This would lead to the empowerment of teachers, students and others. It would also focus more on the commitment, obligations and duties that people share. To become a community school, the present school system needs to undergo transformation. This includes showing the students that the teachers and the school cares, making teaching and learning relevant and teaching values, ethics and morals. Students should be viewed as family members not clients. The needs of the students should be considered, they should be consulted and not discriminating against on the basis of their academic performance (Sergiovanni, 1994).

An excellent model for restructuring the school into a community school in local communities like Lotus Gardens, is forwarded by Tony Townsend (1994) in his 'core-plus' concept. The 'core' component refers to the goals set by the Department of National and Provincial Education. The 'plus' component on the other hand, refers to the goals determined by a specific school and/or community to meet the specific needs of that school and/or community, regarding their members. Simply put this means that if Lotus Gardens identifies at risk youth as a problem of the community, the 'plus' part of Townsend's concept allows the community to introduce projects in order to lower the chances of students becoming delinquents in society.

To achieve this goal of a core-plus school we need to acknowledge that the core part cannot be changed and it is on the 'plus' part that attention must be given. The first task of the school is to understand that the school's members are not only the students but the entire community. "Educational programmes should satisfy the need to be realistic, relevant and responsive to defined community needs" (Townsend, 1994: 116). To meet these needs the school needs to become a 25 community facility, making itself available to the community after school, in the evenings, week-ends and holidays. This is confirmed by Weiner and Quaranta (1997: 7), when they state:

The building would be open for extended hours during the week, perhaps from seven a.m. to ten p.m., for activities such as family conferences, counselling, or alcohol and drug meetings. The building would also be available on weekends for participatory athletics, arts and crafts, dance, etc. The school would be a reflection of the community. With a stake in what is going on within the school, students, parents and teachers are more likely to take a positive role in the school's activities and, at the very least, not destroy what is going on in the community-based school system.

If what is suggested is achieved then school based learning will be appropriate and ongoing. The community shouldn't only participate in the programmes and activities of the school, but should be involved in the identification and development of these programmes and activities, as well as in their implementation and evaluation. Thus, both the school and the community work together in identifying the needs, problems and desires of the community, and together they decide on the best possible course of action. To make this possible the school however, needs to reconsider its design, orientation and staffing (Townsend, 1994).

Mention must be made that the transformation of some Australian schools into the core-plus schools to meet the demands of their changing society has been met with positive responses from local communities. In South Africa, due to the revolutionary changes taking place in the political, social and economic spheres, together with our competing in the international arena, we need to ensure now more than ever that our schools remain relevant, useful in the community and successful in teaching new knowledge, skills and attitudes.

In attempting to place core-plus school in perspective with regards to at risk youth, one can argue that not only the school, but peers and members of the community 26 should assist in the identification of potential dropouts. The causes should be identified and programmes planned accordingly. The intention is to help at risk students and at the same time deal with some of the causes of at risk students, so that the number of students placed at risk in the future is reduced. If schools are to become the centres to lead the way in dealing with the social ills created by society, they are going to need help. Therefore, businesses, industries and government agencies must work together with the school system regardless of whether or not it is a core-plus system.

2.7. CONCLUSION his section is an attempt to give some insight into the issues related to T teenage delinquency and the need to intervene as early as possible. In this section I suggest that at risk youth, would be better served if the problem was addressed at a local level through community education. The core-plus concept is cited as a very real and practical option in restructuring our schools. It is also seen as a possibility in helping to deal with at risk youth, with the long term goal of eliminating other social problems facing specific communities. 27 SECTION THREE

RESEARCH DESIGN

3.1. INTRODUCTION his section relates to the investigative process and the research method. It also explains how the sample and partidipants were identified. In addition the methodology employed to collect the relevant data is explained. This section also describes the coding procedure which was used to analyse the data, and the different categories and sub-categories which were identified and grouped together to establish patterns. Patton (1987: 144) describes analysis as the "process of bringing order to the data, organising what is there into patterns, categories and basic descriptive forms". Preliminary conclusions were made during this process.

3.2. THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE SAMPLE AND PARTICIPANTS he sample was chosen from the student population at the Lotus Gardens T Secondary School. The theoretical population numbered 963 students. Although the population came from other communities as well as Lotus Gardens, the sample was delimited to youth residing in Lotus Gardens. The reason being that the out of school programmes were intended for at risk youth of that specific community. The sample consists of students who displayed characteristics of at risk youth. Criteria that facilitated their selection were the students' low attendance records, their poor performance records and the frequency of their referrals to the principal's office and disciplinary committee.

Access to these records was not difficult due to my fortunate position of being acting Deputy Principal at the school. Among other duties at the school I am responsible for the attendance and truancy registers. The truancy register is a register that is signed by each subject teacher at the commencement of each period. The number of pupils present are counted and the teachers signature appended. Names of pupils not present for that period are recorded and immediately referred to me. I'm - 28 also a member of the disciplinary committee. I meet with parents of students who repeatedly transgress the school's code of conduct and refer and discuss serious cases with the social worker, who visits the school once a week.

Both registers are checked weekly and cases are investigated and followed up. As part of the disciplinary committee we come into contact with students who are frequently guilty of offences such as incomplete homework, smoking, disrupting class, leaving the class or the school without permission, late coming, incorrect uniform and disrespecting teachers. The procedure referred to as 'the due process" is followed. This involves three verbal warnings, after which a written warning is sent to the parents who are requested to visit the school. A student who repeats the offence is given a second written warning, and the third results in suspension. Serious offences such as the possession of dagga and being intoxicated in school results in immediate suspension.

From the thirty three students identified as being at risk, ten were selected to be the participants of the study. The participants were suspended at least once in the last two years and have been to the office on numerous occasions. Their parents were contacted either personally or telephonically. Some of their parents have visited the school concerning their child's discipline. The subjects of the study have also been referred to the social worker and have been receiving counselling inconsistently. Despite their frequent appearance before the disciplinary committee there has, to date, been little change in their behaviour and attitude towards school.

Interesting to mention is that after having identified the participants, I went to their various classes to set up the dates and times for the interviews. Seven of the ten were absent. Having explained my situation, one of the participants present asked if he could go check for them. I said it wasn't a problem and left it at that. Believe it or not, ten minutes later the remainder of the seven were in school at the office requesting for me. I was amazed at their network of communication, which reflects strongly on their "community" or "family". 29 3.3. METHODOLOGY he two broad methods of research are usually divided into qualitative and quantitative methods of research. Qualitative data, guided by grounded theory, is usually in the form of words and allows the researcher to "preserve chronological flow, see precisely which events led to which consequences and derive fruitfUl explanations" (Miles & Huberman, 1994: 1). It also permits the researcher to "study selected issues, cases, or events in depth and detail" (Patton, 1987: 9). Quantitative methods on the other hand, usually involve numbers and make use of "standardised measures that fit diverse various opinions and experiences into predetermined response categories" (Patton, 1987: 9).

The research questions which elicit the views of at risk youth in Lotus Gardens about the introduction of out-of-school programmes in their community, relate to human behaviour and functions. For any meaningful data to be gathered the research question warrants that consideration be given to the local environment and community. I will gain insight into the real situation by obtaining the views, ideas, feelings and thoughts of the participants, which would add richness and holism to the data. Also, to gain some understanding of the problem, I needed to delve deeper than the mere predetermined responses. These, according to Miles and Huberman (1994) are the strengths of qualitative methods. I therefore consider the application of qualitative methods for my research to be most effective.

The data was gathered by means of conducting in-depth interviews, using both the individual interview approach, and a focus group interview. The research design made provision for six in-depth interviews and two focus group interviews to gather the data for the inquiry. Unfortunately the date and time for one focus group interview was inconvenient, resulting in the interviews not being conducted. The original design was adapted to seven individual interviews and one focus group interview.

The interview guide approach was used because I needed to get the same information from each of the interviewees, while at the same time allowing them the 30 freedom to express their views, thoughts and feelings voluntarily (Patton, 1987). It also gave me the flexibility to explore other avenues as the need arose. In some instances the interviewees gave responses earlier or later than the time set out in the interview guide. This is the advantage of the interview guide approach, there is no fixed order. Other advantages of the interview, according to King et at (1987) are that, throughout the interview, more information can be gained, even from people who cannot read or write. Furthermore, interviews allow flexibility and allows the interviewer to pursue unanticipated lines of inquiry. Another reason for its use was that I needed to make sure that the interviewee understood the questions. This approach allows for the adaptation of wording as well as examples to clarify matters. The interview also allows the interviewer to probe beneath the surface, extracting detail in order to understand holistically the interviewees' perspective (Patton, 1987). Disadvantages of the interview approach is that the interviews are time consuming and that the interviewer, depending on his or her relationship with the interviewee, can unduly influence the responses of the interviewee (King et. aL 1987).

Although it was not the ideal place, as the school is seen in the traditional sense as an institution of domestication, the interviews were conducted at school. The reasons were that the participants did not want to be interviewed at their homes, and no other suitable venue was available in Lotus Gardens. Furthermore transportation to or from Lotus Gardens is infrequent. The venue, together with the position I hold, and the fact that • interviews were recorded, gave me the distinct feeling that most of the participants were apprehensive about being completely honest and free to express their feelings and opinions. They probably did not trust me sufficiently, and felt that I may betray their confidence. This assumption is derived from the fact that they ultimately agreed with me or my view, although theirs may have differed. They were afraid to look me in the eye during some of their responses and revealed more information when the tape recorder was switched off. The fact that some of the participants did not turn up for the scheduled interview, I attributed to this too. 31 3.4. STRUCTURE OF THE INTERVIEWS he interviews were structured so that certain information related to the T participants family background, their feelings about school and their environment as well as their views on out of school programmes would be obtained.

The first part was to confirm whether the participants were in fact 'at risk yopth' as identified by me and by the literature. This group of questions focused on their family backgrounds, how they perceived their behaviour in school, and their assessment of their academic performance. This was followed by an attempt to gain insight into the participants' view of the school, the teachers, the subjects, and to ascertain whether there was a link between the school and their 'at riskness'. Since I was dealing with the products of a social system, it was important to gain a view of the environment and to establish whether or not it contributed to the participants being at risk.

Having gained a fairly in-depth understanding of their perspective, questions related to out-of-school programmes were introduced. Here the intention was to gain their views on out-of-school programmes, the type of programmes they saw as possibilities, and how they perceived the role of the school, teachers, parents and the community as a whole.

The focus group dealt only with the idea of out-of-school programmes. It focused on issues of whether such programmes would provide a possible solution to the problems faced by the youth in the community and whether the long term aim of a sense of gemeinschaft could be accomplished.

3.5. DATAANALYSIS he second component of qualitative research is when use is made of T different procedures to arrive at findings or theories. Miles and Huberman (1994: 9) refer to it as data reduction. "It refers to the process of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting and transforming the data that appear in written-up field notes or transcriptions° (Miles & Huberman, 1994: 10). They go on to explain that 32 data reduction is a form of analysis that sharpens, sorts, focuses, discards and organises data in such a way that conclusions can be drawn and verified. This process is called coding. Coding, according to Strauss and Corbin (1990) is the process of analysing the raw data which is broken down, understood and put together in new ways. Strauss and Corbin (1990: 62) state that:

During open coding the data are broken down intodiscrete parts, closely examined, compared for similarities and differences and questions are asked about the phenomenon as reflected in the data.

After open coding use was made of axial coding. This involves making connections between categories to establish themes. "This is done by utilising a coding paradigm involving conditions, context, action/interaction strategies and consequences" (Strauss & Corbin, 1990: 96).

After the first interview I started transcribing and once the transcriptions were completed, I began coding. Use was made of open coding, which involves the naming and categorising of the phenomenon through close examination of the data.

The main categories and sub-categories that were identified are the following:

Characteristics of participants The school 2.1. the role of the school 2.2. view of teachers 2.3. view of the subjects Peers 3.1. the importance of peers 3.2. the influence of peers 3.3. need for peers - 33 The environment 4.1. view of the environment (Lotus Gardens) 4.2.. View of the people of Lotus Gardens 4.3. view of the youth of Lotus Gardens Out of school programmes 5.1. the need for out of school programmes 5.2. types of out of school programmes 5.3. views on out of school programmes 5.4. the role of the school, teachers, parents and youth in these programmes.

During the coding procedure only the five main categories were coded, namely:

Characteristics which related to the family, such as step parents, single parents, latchkey youth and poverty which applied to the participants and thereby placing them at higher risk were coded in black pen. School related characteristics like the curriculum, the attitude of teachers, and the behaviour and attitude of the participants towards school were coded in red. The influence peers had on the participants' behaviour and their expectations of peers were coded in blue pen. The environment as a category referred to the physical setting of Lotus Gardens itself, with its lack of facilities and infra-structure. This was coded in pencil. The views expressed by the participants on out of school programmes, including the type of programmes they envisaged were coded in a different shade of blue. 34 The following table represents the family backgrounds of the participants of the study.

Table 1: Family background of participants

participants step latchkey effects of financial single too poor parents youth separation parents many relations siblings with step parents Noel • * • Dinesh • Fadiel * • * Rakesh • • Peter * • Sam • • • • • • • Sharad •

The Youth's Personal and Academic School Behaviour To determine whether the participants displayed deviant behaviours related to school as stated by Wells (1990), Morris (1992), Morris (1994) and Barr and Parrett (1995), various questions were posed to the participants during the in-depth interviews. These questions were also posed to triangulate the data obtained from the observations made at school, the reports from their subject teachers and the records in the truancy control register.

The students were asked to describe their behaviour at school. All of them were aware that their behaviour was bad and could substantiate their assessment. They expressed how they felt and what they did that was against the accepted school norms. According to Noel: It's bad. Because we walk out of the class any time and come to school any time. But that's the only thing we do. We don't disrespect the teachers. Don't swear them. We only come late and dodge. We do it because it's boring sir, boring.

Dinesh had a similar comment as Noel's: 35 I dodge with my friends. My behaviour is terrible because I back chat the teachers, I don't listen to them.

Fadiel justified his behaviour as follows: , I don't like school. It's boring. Teachers pick on me. My behaviour at school is rotten. When teachers pick on me, I just wanna get out of school and I'll do anything to get out of school. I'm always out of the class to be with my friends. It's more fun.

Before answering the question, Rakesh first explained his situation and then responded: I stay out of school for weeks because it's like financial problems. I bunk to be with my friends. The way I see it my behaviour is bad. I disrespect teachers and sometimes get out of hand.

Peter felt that his behaviour was similar to most of the students at school and replied: I'm normal naughty, like most boys. I'm not rude or disrespectful and stuff like that. Sometimes I find school boring. Sometimes I get frustrated and leave school.

Sam had this to say about his behaviour: My behaviour is bad because I bunk and was caught smoking.

Sharad explained his absenteeism and used it to justify his behaviour: Sometimes I stay away to complete a job. Other times I just loose interest. I bunk because I'm late and always with someone else. My behaviour is OK. Just now and then I get into trouble. Smoking and going out of school.

When they were asked to rate their academic performance, there was agreement amongst them that they were faring below their potential and could do much better. The table below describes each participant's performance and the reasons for their poor performance. Table 2: Academic performance and reasons for bad performance 36 Participants Description of Don't Don't Not Bunk Absence performance listen understand interested Noel can do better • ' * Dinesh bad ' • • Fadiel rotten * • • Rakesh bad • •

Peter bad _ • Sam OK Sharad not too good "

The first column provides the participants' description of their academic performance, while columns 2 - 6 provides the reasons for this performance.

During adolescence peer influence and peer pressure plays a part in the process of growing up and making the transition into adulthood. The difference for at risk youth is that peers become their 'family', and they become a community of their own because of their similar needs and negative influences. Two categories were identified here, namely: expectation of friends and influence of friends.

Table 3: Expectations of friends PARTICIPANTS QUALITIES EXPECTED Noel person to talk to, mutual help Dinesh helpful, understanding, share Fadiel trust, sharing Rakesh honesty, trust, straight talk, confidant Peter helpful, sharing, confidant, trust Sam care for each other Sharad trust, reliance

Table 4: Influences of friends 37 PARTICIPANTS INFLUENCE OF PEERS Noel spends all leisure time with friends behave as my friends do. I do what I want Dinesh bunks because of friends, won't break a fliendship do 'wrong' things together, spend all their time together Fadiel bunks because of friends, stays out of school to be with friends leaves class to be with friends doesn't regard them as friends, doesn't trust any of them Rakesh spends all his leisure time with friends tempting to join them, afraid of their reaction Peter at this point friends not important Sam spends all free time with friends will not break friendship, friends not important - can survive alone Sharad in school influenced to bunk, puts friends before himself will not break a friendship

The Youths Expectations of Teachers According to Sergiovanni (1994: 18-19) the crises inside schools is directly related to human relationships, especially between teachers and youths. Teachers who care, listen, understand, respect others and are honest can contribute to the establishment of a positive school environment.

Table 5: Their expectation of their teachers PARTICIPANTS QUALITIES OF TEACHERS Noel ability to teach well, manners, method of teaching, treatment of students Dinesh show understanding. Listen and talk to the students Fadiel respect, wrongly accuse him, talk to him, mustn't shout Rakesh attitude, respect, treatment and honour confidentiality Peter talk to them, caring, respect, shouldn't pick on them or embarrass them Sam respect, kind, shouldn't wrongly accuse Sharad listen, talk to students, understanding, shouldn't embarrass them. 38 • One of the sub-categories identified in the school data was the participants' view on the curriculum presently offered at the school and whether the introduction of more practical subjects would encourage more frequent attendance.

Table 6: The participant's views on the curriculum

PARTICIPANTS VIEWS OF PRESENTS AMENDMENTS RESULT... CURRICULUM Noel It's nice subjects. social studies encourage attendance They're not too difficult religious studies Keep them occupied You have the maths and non- carpentry, woodwork, and focused. maths course motor mechanics Dinesh Only a few subjects I don't like. More practical subjects foundation for a trade Subjects are interesting. reduce truancy Fadiel It's all right I don't know I don't know Rakesh Subjects are OK. Just some I any subject that's encourage attendance can't cope interesting - practical subjects Peter I don't like it. We don't do needlework, woodwork encourage attendance anything with our hands. home economics • Irrelevant to the outside world Sam They're OK Physical Education school more experiments interesting Sharad Most of them are OK mechanics and stuff

Although they are not completely dissatisfied with the present curriculum, there is a clear pattern that emerged and that is that these youth want to do practical subjects. This was confirmed when they were provided with practical subjects such as woodwork, plumbing, bricklaying, and panel-beating as alternatives to the present subjects they are taking.

Another sub-category of the school was the views of the participants regarding the school as an organisation and what they would do to improve it. Their responses are tabulated on the following page. 39 Table 7: Their views on the school and their improvements to the school

PARTICIPANTS VIEW OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENTS Noel has no problem with school more sports equipment, computers, improve the soccer field Dinesh likes school more sports activities meets his friends drama and stuff Fadiel dislikes school make school fun, interesting, exciting school is boring incentive to come to school ''Rakesh school is not for me make school fun introduce activities - sports, go out, meet others incentive to come to school Peter school is OK greater awareness of students' sometimes boring activities Sam likes school excursions tuition Sharad likes everything about school nothing

The Environment as a contributory factors The environment was also examined as one of the factors that contributed to placing the youths at risk. According to Kronick (1997) the youth are the products of their environment, which implies that a positive, healthy, and relevant environment will reduce the risk of youth dropping out of school. The two categories identified here were the views of the participants regarding their suburb and their views on the effect such an environment had on the youth of Lotus Gardens. 40 Table 8: Their view of Lotus Gardens

PARTICIPANTS VIEW OF THE ENVIRONMENT LOTUS GARDENS Noel a corrupted place, more drugs in this place than anything else lacks recreational facilities Dinesh a bad place, children smoking drugs on corners there's hardly anything in this place Fadiel it's a dry, boring place, there's nothing to do, no excitement Rakesh it's a small place, not much to do, it's boring Peter it's boring, nothing to do Sam it's quite boring Shared it's an all right place, has its ups and downs but more downs than ups

It is clear that the participants found Lotus Gardens to be a place with nothing of value happening. The word that most participants used overwhelmingly was "boring". The reason as mentioned is the lack of facilities and infrastructure.

Table 9: Their views on the effect Lotus Gardens has on the youth PARTICIPANTS EFFECT ON THE YOUTH Noel sit and hang around corners Dinesh children have nothing to do, take drugs and do the wrong stuff Fadiel children feel there's nothing to do, start smoking and drinking, stealing, get up to mischief Rakesh failure, do a whole lot of funny things Peter guys smoke, drink and take drugs Sam smoking obviously, some do drugs Sharad drugs, stealing

Again there is a clear pattern concerning the views of participants on the impact the environment has on the youth of Lotus Gardens. The lack of facilities leave them idle and 41 the result is involvement in delinquent behaviour. All the participants also saw the introduction of out of school programmes as a solution or a possible solution.

Table 10 is a summary of the problems of the youth of Lotus Gardens through the eyes of the participants and the type of programmes they thought would assist the youth and the community at large in coping with the various problems. The strengthening of family ties and consequent building of a community, was also aimed at.

Table 10: Problems that the youth experience and suggested programmes PROBLEMS OF THE YOUTH OF LOTUS TYPES OF POSSIBLE PROGRAMMES GARDENS domestic problems a variety of sports programmes parents abusing drugs and alcohol field trips availability of drugs indoor games emotional and physical abuse by parents group sessions - family and youth school related problems sessions with social workers, psychologists idleness due to lack of facilities advice centre latchkey youth homework programme inability to cope with divorce or separation tuition bullying programmes for adults poverty awareness programmes suicide peer counselling guidance counsellor dance classes fun events speech and drama rehabilitation counselling sex education 42 The table below is a summary of the view of the participants on out-of-school programmes. The need for such programmes, the organisational responsibility, and the role of the school, parents and community.

Table 11: The need for community intervention NEED FOR OSP ORGANISATIONAL ROLE OF SCHOOL RESPONSIBILITY PARENTS AND COMMUNITY to provide them with the skills the school supported by the Teachers: identify the needs to cope with their problems parents, CBOs and community provide guidance, planning, leaders co-ordination, talk to youth to provide support to keep them off the street by consult with youth on the type Parents: physical and moral keeping them occupied of programmes needed support, encourage their children to attend, help raise funds

to make them aware to develop a sense of Community: raise funds, togetherness (community) support, use influence to prevent further drug abuse to improve job opportunities to empower the youth to help adults - parenting skills to provide family counselling . to occupy the aged

OSP = Out-of-school Programmes CB0 = Community based organisations 43 3.6. CONCLUSION From the outset it appears that the participants are at greater risk than other youth of dropping out of school. Their family background is one of the contributing reasons. Financial difficulties at home, having single parents and poor relations with step parents rate amongst the major factors placing the participants at risk...Also, despite being suspected of not being completely honest, the participants revealed great insight regarding their views of themselves, or reflected the views others held of them, that they are bad. Related to their bad behaviour, was the awareness that their academic performance was also below their expectations. The participants are underachieving and were well aware of it. It wasn't surprising that they were able to acknowledge and justify their poor academic performances.

When questioned on peer pressure, peer influence and peer expectations, the participants' view were similar. They expect friends to display qualities such as caring, honesty, trust, loyalty and confidence. These are qualities youth in general expect from friends. This and the fact that they are marginalised by teachers, fellow students and community members, strengthens the bond between at risk youth. The participants clearly indicated that they engaged in deviant behaviour to be with friends, and engaged in such behaviour together with friends because they fear peer reaction if they fail to follow suit. Surprisingly, many of the participants were unable to see the tremendous influence their peers had on their behaviour and vice versa, because they denied influencing their peers or being influenced by them. During the interviews they affirmed that they behaved in a manner as they pleased, believing that their actions were motivated solely by themselves.

The participants felt that the entire school system was irrelevant and not satisfying the needs of the community. They felt that the teachers needed to show more empathy, care, and respect for youth. The curriculum needed to be amended with the introduction of more practical subjects in order to encourage attendance, reduce truancy, and lay the foundation for a future trade. Although the participants had no objections to the school per se, they strongly felt that the school needed to play a more active role in introducing more co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. 44 The participants were also in agreement that Lotus Gardens as a suburb lacked stimulation and recreational facilities to keep youth occupied. They felt that this was the prime reason for youth being attracted to deviant behaviour. They further provided a detailed description of the various problems the youth of Lotus Gardens faced. To this end the participants have unanimously shown that they, as well as the youth of Lotus Gardens are in need of programmes to keep them meaningfully occupied. Although sceptical, as to whether the school could be the institution to introduce such programmes, they see the school as the centre for the introduction of such programmes. The school would need to be supported by the parents and the community. They have also revealed that they are willing to actively engage in such programmes.

Also important to note is that, although the aim of the essay was to target at risk youth, what emerged during the focus group was that programmes should not be limited to youth only. It should extend to the aged and the parents, as they are an integral part of the community and partly responsible for placing their youth at risk. In addition more than the school itself, the situation that exists in Lotus Gardens, if it persists, runs the risk of placing more youth at risk. From the data it appears that the participants see out-of-school programmes in Lotus Gardens as a necessity to aid at risk youth, youth in general, and the community at large. 45 SECTION FOUR

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

4.1. INTRODUCTION his section will present a discussion of the findings. The discussion T involves the description and interpretation of Major patterns, themes and linkages that have emerged from the analysis of the data. Interpretation, "involves attaching meaning and significance to the analysis, explaining descriptive patterns and looking for relationships and linkages among descriptive dimensions" (Patton, 1987: 144). After the categories have been discussed, theoretical evidence will be used to substantiate or refute the findings. The categories will be individually or intergratively discussed. The implications of the findings will also be noted and recommendations will be made.

In section three, various avenues were explored to determine whether the participants were in fad at risk. These were divided into the categories listed below. family background influence and expectations of peers the role of the school with the sub-categories of the curriculum and teachers. the role of the environment Once these categories were explored, possible solutions were sought. Out-of-school programmes or community education programmes were considered as possible solutions as remedial and preventative measures in reducing the participants' risk of dropping out of school. The role of the school, parents and community were also included in this category.

4.2. DISCUSSION OF DATA t risk_ youth is not a new phenomenon. They have been present in A communities for a long time. Dealing with at risk youth has evoked many different, and creative ideas from individuals in different communities, community 46 organisations, schools, businesses and industries. The literature reveals that many programmes are available to lend support to at risk youth such as family counseling, sporting and cultural activities, drama, music and dance and mentoring. Chalker (1996) has even suggested that as part of alternate education programmes, at risk youth can be provided for in a separate alternative school, a school within a school, or a continuation school. This discussion will attempt to build upon this concept and argue that since at risk youth are the products of various factors within a community, it is the responsibility of the community to, not only provide for them, but to introduce changes that would eliminate some of the factors that repeatedly place the youth at risk. The long term benefits of this kind of approach is a healthier, closer and more integrated community. This is part of the aim that supporters of community education wish to achieve.

Family background rom the analysis of the data in section three a few patterns emerge. Firstly, one thing that is certain is that there are various factors which contribute to placing youth at risk of dropping out of school. The foundation of these factors appear to be the home where the youth are faced with various crisis, such as divorce and separation, step parents, financial difficulties, single parents and latchkey youth as indicated in Table 1. Youth, in such domestic situations are already disadvantaged and cognisance should be taken of such circumstances when they are assessed or programmes are introduced for them.

Deviant behaviour and the influence of peers D eviant behaviour within the school includes truanting, under achieving, high absenteeism, disrespect towards fellow students and teachers, lack of attention and transgressing other school rules. Outside of the school, deviant behaviour includes substance abuse, theft, or simply spending all their time together. This is confirmed by the participants when they responded to questions concerning their behaviour and performance in school. It is further supported when we refer to Table 4, which reveals the influence of friends. Most of the participants responded that they engage in deviant behaviour because they either want to be 47 with friends, or simply out of boredom. From this it could be argued that at risk youth are a community of their own. They are a group of people who have something in common, engage in similar forms of behaviour, have their own language and symbols. These could include their ,family background, their marginalisation, their behaviour, or their unnoticed cries for help. To be socially accepted in their own community, they have to adopt that culture which they refuse to do. They then form their own community. At risk youth, share the same culture and symbols which lead to them forming a community of their own. Consequently, they are regarded as different by the larger more accepted community in which they live. This is because the symbols and meaning are not shared in the same way by the two communities (Cohen 1985).

To this end it can be argued that the broader community with all its structures, including the school, has allowed at risk youth to develop their own community. This has been done by not acknowledging or providing for their special needs so that they could become part of the broader, more accepted community. According to Sergiovanni (1994) when youth experience a loss of community they create substitutes for this loss. When families fail, youth create their own "families" by turning to each other for support. This appears to be the case when it comes to at risk youth. A second point that can be argued is that during adolescence, peer influence and a student sub-culture is present as students engage in various forms of innocent rituals. The problem arises when the youths' sub-culture engages in activities contrary to the beliefs, norms and values of the community. In this way they continue to distance themselves from the main-stream norms of the school and community.

The next question that arises is, whose responsibility are these at risk youths? The answer is simple: but the process of achieving that goal is not only a struggle but very difficult to attain. However, this should not stop us from striving to get there. What then is the answer? Sergiovanni (1994) suggests community building and refers to it as gemeinschaft. Townsend (1994) is of the view that the needs of at risk youth will continue to grow until they are addressed by the community as a whole. 48 He suggests a core-plus education. The theorists of community education appear to be in agreement that the answer lies in the community, and more particularly in community education.

The core without the plus o tackle the question of community the role of the school will be discussed T as the key to the transformation of the entire community. The discussion will go beyond at risk youth and argue that by changing the hearts and minds of community members about the traditional view of school, we will address the problem of at risk youth, reduce some of the factors that repeatedly place the youth at risk as well as provide for the community at large.

From the analysis we can assume that the school does not provide for at risk youth. Six participants felt that the school needs to introduce more sporting activities, tuition programmes, drama, excursions and other activities to make school more 'fun', 'interesting' and 'exciting'. Regarding the curriculum, although five participants found nothing wrong with the subjects at school, when they were given alternate ideas, and prompted to think of other subjects, the pattern that emerged was clearly that they wanted more practical subjects to be added to the curriculum. Regarding the relationships between the teachers and the youth, I refer to the report of the Institute for Education and Transformation which appears in Sergiovanni (1994). The report suggests that students strongly felt that teachers need to be individuals who care, listen, understand, respect others and are honest, open and sensitive. The expectations of the participants as tabulated in table 4 show startling similarities.

What is obvious is that the school needs to change. We need to move away from the traditional view of the school which saw the students as the depositories, the teacher as the depositor and education as the act of depositing. A change from a domesticating education to a liberating one is needed. The role of education, according to Freire (1993: 28) is to help students liberate and empower themselves by engaging in critical thought about their subjects, their community and their . 49 society. Furthermore, the school needs to be seen as a community organisation which attends to their needs at a local level. Because the school is the only community institution that sees every child every day, the school must accept the responsibility for helping to mobilise community resources. The community also needs to reflect on itself. The community members must understand and realise that their values, beliefs and norms have an impact on their youth. A community that lacks responsive community services, provides no link between school and community services, does not provide family counselling and does not support the school increase the risk of youth dropping out of school. Undoubtedly the support of the school, parents and community is required to address the problem of at risk youth.

Teachers, as Table 4 indicates also need to change. They need to make a paradigm shift from the traditional teacher who lectures the students into sleepy silence and who asserts his authority to maintain the passivity of students in the classroom, to a teacher who, through dialogue and problem posing, empowers the youth to deal with the social issues faced by their community. Teachers also need to become more democratic in their approach, encourage students to be active and curious, and prepare them for a life of political acceptance in their community and society Shor (1993). This warrants that teachers display personality traits that youth clearly interpret as love, respect, caring and understanding. If this happens the implication is that at risk youth would not site teachers as a possible factor for them dropping out of school.

According to Townsend (1994) the school must become a community facility, a community school, a learning centre for the whole community. This will help it to address the problem of the family, the school, including the curriculum and teachers, and create a positive environment. This will also encourage the use of peer influences positively, provide support for the specific needs of the youth, and thereby reduce the risk of youth dropping out of school. The starting point for this change is the consultation of parents, students and other stakeholders in education regarding the curriculum. The needs of the community should be determined, and 50 the plus curriculum of the core-plus curriculum (Townsend, 1994) should be introduced. At risk youth would then see the relevance of their curriculum in relation to their community, feel less alienated by the curriculum, and find it easier to cope.

Impact of the environment and counter measures he findings from the analysis also showed that the participants viewed the T lack of facilities and infrastructure as having a negative influence on the youth in Lotus Gardens as Tables 8 and 9 demonstrated. They felt it was the lack of facilities that resulted in youth been idle, abusing drugs and alcohol, stealing, getting up to 'mischief, and doing the 'wrong stuff. In addition the participants gave a fairly concise list of the numerous problems faced by the youth with regards to their community as indicated in Table 10. These included: domestic problems, abuse of drugs, physical and emotional abuse, poverty, suicide and school related problems. Confronted with these problems the participants were, during the focus group extremely methodical and supportive of their input in listing possible programmes that could assist them and other youth cope with such problems. Displaying great cognition, they also realised that parents and the aged were an integral part of the problem and programmes thus needed to be directed to them as well. This list of possible programmes is offered in Table 11. They were also unanimous in their views concerning the important role of the school in the organising, planning, supervision and implementation of these programmes. They also agreed that the school needed the support of parents, community leaders, community based organisations, and other youth to achieve success.

The uncomplicated road to achieve this, is to introduce programmes catering for the individual needs of at risk youth such as programmes for underachievers; for poor attendance and truancy prevention; family support programmes; study programmes; youth assistance programmes, alternative programmes; curriculum related programmes; and business and community related programmes (Wells, 1990). There is nothing wrong with such programmes except that they are only addressing the end product of a social system (at risk youth) without making attempts to prevent 51 such problems from recurring. In other words they are not addressing the root causes, nor attempting to eliminate some of the factors that place youth at risk.

Building community in schools (Sergiovanni, 1994) and the core-plus school (Townsend, 1994) as ideas of community education suggest a completely different route. The intention is to transform the school into a community. We need to view the school as a community rather than an organisation. The social nature and structure of the school need to bond people into unity and bind them to share values and ideas. "Building community requires the development of mind represented in shared values, conceptions and ideas about schooling and human nature" (Sergiovanni, 1994: 31-32.) In the core-plus school, the core activity would be the education of children as determined by the state, and the plus part would be determined by the community itself. As both the state and the local community are involved in determining the programmes of the school, it would be relevant to both the state and the community. If the school is going to serve the needs of the local community, then there is a responsibility for the school to become proactive, to expand its role to include meaningful activities for others in the community, to ensure that empowerment of the community, through the various programmes, takes place at the school site. This implies that the school needs to become a learning centre for the whole community, open at convenient times for the whole community. The school should become a community facility sometimes used for the education of children.

In the core-plus school, the school, parents, teachers, youth, business, industry and government agencies need to work together. The needs of the community must be assessed and programmes must be implemented accordingly. These programmes need to be evaluated regularly and the needs of the community need to be reassessed in order to amend old programmes and to develop new ones. Schools can work with the individual youth, older youth who might want to return to school but don't know how, or parents who may want help with parenting skills. Schools can provide an array of other services that would meet the needs of the people within the family and within the community. The implementation of the core-plus school 52 requires adequate funding, trained professionals in the form of reskilled teachers or people from other service agencies and the redesigning of school facilities for such programmes to take place. This is by no means an easy task as the development of the core-plus school will take time and consideration. If this happens then the school remains relevant and useful within the community in that the programmes help to eliminate social problems later on.

It would be unjust not to mention that the National Education Department of South Africa is moving in this direction. The function of school management teams in public schools is changing from a mere link between the Education Departments and the community to that of managing the schools, hand in hand with the School Governing Bodies within the community. The school now serves the local and broader community, and the school community accepts ownership and responsibility for the school. They actually contribute to the improvement and development of the status, character and name of the school (Oosthuizen et al 1994). The ultimate aim is the self managing of schools.

4.3. IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS rom the analysis there were many patterns that emerged that gave clear F direction as to what should be done to provide support for at risk youth in Lotus Gardens. The first and most important finding is that these youths are in need of help, guidance and support because of the numerous problems they face in their homes, environment and the school.

The participants were in agreement that the introduction of out-of school programmes for youth, parents and other community members will help the youth. They also felt that these programmes should be organised by the school and supported by parents and the community. Our task appears to be mapped out for us. We need to start with the ground work to implement out-of-school programmes. This involves a great many changes. These changes mainly affect the school as the participants saw the school as the centre of the entire process. The changes include the following: 53 Changing the school system, including the curriculum and attitude of teachers.

The school needs to take stock of where it is and where it intends to go. Its mission needs to be clearly outlined and understood by all stakeholders.

The school must reassess its role, re-evaluate its services and become more of a community facility, designing creative and multi-disciplinary initiatives to help youth with serious multiple needs reach their academic potential.

To compensate for the lack of facilities in the community, the school, after conducting a needs assessment, should take the lead in providing meaningful programmes to keep youth occupied.

The school must forge closer and create more meaningful relations with the parents and other community organisations. Their involvement holds incalculable benefits for the child and his education.

The participants needed help and saw the school as the agent to help them develop the positive self concept and esteem that results from positive academic skills and useful coping skills. They needed an in-school support group and an atmosphere characterised by considerable challenge and minimal threat.

4.4. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH longer time needs to be spent in the field to make conclusive A recommendations which can be nationally applied. There also needs to be more research done from the community education perspective.

Additional research can be done obtaining views of parents, teachers and community organisations on out-of-school programmes and ideas on how to transform the school into a community facility. The views of the youth who are not at risk can be the focus of another research initiative. The principals, chairpersons of School Governing Bodies and District co-ordinators can be interviewed to ascertain their views on the transformation of the school into a community facility.

4.5. CONCLUSION rom my investigation, although many participants were not completely F honest, it is clear that no single factor places youth at risk. Instead it is a combination of various factors that place youth at risk. These include: the situation at home, regarding single parents, divorced parents, step parents, financial status, and relationships that prevail with family members in the home. Other factors complicating the matter includes the youth's inability to cope with school, the influence of peers, and the social environment in which the youth resides. The youth's personality and character also play a role. To ascertain exactly which factors combine to place the specific youths at risk requires a longitudinal investigation.

Regarding out-of-school programmes it was obvious that the participants and I thought that they would make a difference in addressing at risk youth in Lotus Gardens. This is an assumption that still needs further study. Some of the questions which need to be addressed include: will such programmes help at risk youth complete school?; will parents and teachers be prepared to assist and support such programmes?; will those in authority permit the school to be used as a possible venue?; will there be adequate funding for the programmes?; and will other government agencies co-operate? Furthermore the sample wasn't representative enough of a broader South African society and delimited to Lotus Gardens youths. This affected the general reliability of the findings. Also, the introduction of programmes cannot guarantee that youth will no longer be potential school drop- outs. The concept of the core-plus school and its role in helping at risk youth and how the community deals with other social problems they face needs to be put to the test through a practical experiment from which conclusions can be drawn. At present we can only assume that the Australian model has applicability in the South African context. 55 The fact that so many questions remain unanswered, so many other aspects still need to be studied, and no valid conclusions can be stated, affirms that the route of the investigation had to be an open one. In sections one, two and three great detail has been given regarding the motivation for the research, the research design, the background to the problem, the conceptual framework of the essay and the method of data collection. Describing how the coding and analysis was done is an indication of a trail I left behind to allow other researchers to follow if they wish to investigate similar research issues.

The research aimed to obtain the views of at risk youth on out-of-school programmes and whether a need for such programmes exist. The study also aimed to explore the ideas of youth on possible programmes needed and the expected participation they envisaged. The investigation dealt with all the aspects stated in the aim but the limitation was that they were not explored in greater detail, so that substantial evidence could be accumulated in order to make reliable conclusions. Despite the constraints and the surface investigation into the complex problem of at risk youth, valuable data was collected on who at risk youth are, the problems they face and the important role of the school in dealing with them and the community as a whole. 56 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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WHITE DR 1985. The drop-out phenomenon of senior secondary pupils in black school. South African Journal of Education, 5:162-166. 59 APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW GUIDE

FAMILY BACKGROUND 1.1. Age 1.1. How many are you in the family ? 1.2. Parents ? Step parents 1.3. How long are you living in Lotus ? 1.4. Are both your parents working ?

PERCEPTIONS OF SCHOOL, TEACHERS AND CURRICULUM 2.1. Do you like to come to school everyday ? Why ? 2.2 What are the qualities you would like to see in a teacher ? Why would you say these are important ? 2.3 What quality of teachers are you unhappy with ? 2.4. What do you think about the subjects taught at the school ? Do you think the subjects taught are interesting, relevant, or important to you? 2.5 What subjects do you think we should offer at school ? Would this encourage you to attend school more regularly ? 2.6. How do you think we can improve the school ?

VIEW OF LOTUS. GARDENS and RECREATION FACILITIES 3.1 How would you describe Lotus to anybody who asks you ? Why would that be your description ? What impact does this have on the youth ? 3.2. What do most youth do after school, and during their leisure time ? 3.3. What do you think can be done to help youth ? 3.4. How do you think we can do this ? 3.5. Who do you think should plan these activities ? 3.7. What activities would you include as part of the programme ? 3.8. If these activities were introduced what do you think will be the result ? 60 BEHAVIOUR IN SCHOOL 4.1. What do you think of your behaviour in school ? 4.2. Can you think of reasons as to why you behave in that manner ? 4.3. Why do you bunk so often, or stay absent so frequently ? 4.4. Are youth influenced into 'wrong' behaviour ?

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE 5.1. What do you think about your academic performance at school ? 5.2. Do you think you can do better in school ? Why do you think so ? 5.3. Why are you then not doing so well ? 5.4. What kind of help do you need so that your results can improve ?

PEER ASSOCIATIONS 6.1. Do you have many friends ? 6.2. What would you say is the reason for your friendship ? [what binds your group together ?] 6.3. Why are friends important to you ? 6.4. What do you expect from your friends ? 6.5. Can anyone become part of your group ? 6.6. When will you break-up with a friend ? 6.7. Do you always have to do what the group wants ? Why and what would happen if you don't ?

PERSONAL OPINIONS 7.1. What do you think about teenagers smoking, drinking and abusing drugs ? 7.2. Do you have any ideas about why teenagers smoke, drink or take drugs ? 7.3. In your opinion do you think many youth in Lotus take drugs ? 7.4. Do you think anything can be done about the problem ? • 7.5. What are some of the other problems that children of Lotus experience ? 7.6. What do you think about out-of-school programmes ? 7.7. Who do you think should organise these programmes ?