Joyce Mathwasa

By Joyce Mathwasa and Lwazi Sibanda

As students enter high school, they face a myriad risk of adverse outcomes such as pressure to perform or drop out; peer influence to conform or be an outcast; drug and substance abuse; delinquency, poverty and possibly abuse and neglect. It is also at this stage where most teenage students experience identity crisis. As a result, students’ self-efficacy is then impaired, and their resilience diminished with every stress and trauma they experience. Thus far, there has been scanty research in utilising classroom guidance in understanding what factors impact or not, and how school counsellors choose to engage in classroom guidance. While much guidance and counselling in schools has focused on career choices, sexual and physical harassment, and perhaps, bereavement, abuse and neglect, very little is known on how detrimental lack of self-efficacy and resilience is to the high school student. Even though educators aim to cover the academic syllabus, it is also essential that operative guidance and counselling should also pay equal attention to the social syllabus. This chapter aims to explore the factors that are detrimental to students’ self-efficacy, resilience and coping mechanism; how classroom guidance and counselling can reduce the risk of the adverse outcomes in the society.

Part of the book: Counseling and Therapy

By Joyce Mathwasa and Lwazi Sibanda

The absent male educators in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes have created a gap in the momentum of success gained through fathers’ involvement in the early life of children. Worldwide, the gender imbalance trends in early childhood education and lower primary classes have been immemorial female skewed with men becoming extinct in the arena. Hitherto, copious studies testify of men’s involvement as fathers in young children’s early life as crucial for their social, emotional, and cognitive development. This chapter focuses on the importance of having male educators in the foundation phase of children’s care and learning, barriers to male involvement as educators in early care and learning centres, and how learning institutions can recruit and train male educators specific for the ECD. Male educators in the ECD have been confronted by stigmatisation, ridiculed, hit glass ceilings, and are viewed with hostility and suspicion. A preliminary exploration of literature from renowned published work that focuses extensively on various countries across continents will be covered in this review. This chapter envisaged strategies that could be employed in the recruitment, retention, and active participation of male educators in the ECD settings that will inform policy and teacher education.

Part of the book: Teacher Education

By Joyce Mathwasa and Lwazi Sibanda

Inclusive education within the Early Childhood Development settings has been identified as the most equitable practice for children with disabilities and is based on acknowledging it as a fundamental human right and a foundation for life-long learning for all children. Based on the concept of human rights, inclusion has been viewed as an ambiguous and imaginable consequence of excessive promise, which does not refer to early childhood; hence, practitioners have challenges in its applicability. This chapter aims to unravel the mysteries behind inclusion in early childhood, exploring the realities of what works and what does not work to inform policy making mechanism. Literature from renowned published work that focuses extensively on various countries across continents is reviewed. Local recently published and unpublished studies that scrutinise the association between practitioner qualification and quality of the ECD centres; those that have explored the success and challenges of inclusion in ECD will be examined. It is envisaged that this chapter would come up with best practices in the implementation and assessment of inclusive education in the ECD settings that will benefit children with disabilities, their parents or caregivers, and stakeholders.

Part of the book: Education in Childhood