Learner focus group interviews

Learners were organised into four focus groups of ten participants per group. Each focus group

9 The participating principal is included when reference is made to educators.

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was coded as School A, School B, School C and School D. Each participant was allocated a number for identification when responding. For example, participants from School A were coded as A1 – A10, participants from School B were coded B11 – B20, participants from School C were coded C21 – 30 and participants from School D were coded D31 – 40. The interview schedule for learners is included in appendix E1.

5.3.1.1 Understanding the concept 'active citizenship'

The participants were asked to define active citizenship and what it entails in a democracy. The relevance of this question was to establish the level of knowledge about active citizenship amongst learners who have completed the Grade 11 LO curriculum during 2012.

The representation of learners was diverse in the sense that the schools were fairly representative of a range of economic contexts. Although the schools are situated in diverse economic contexts, this does not automatically imply that the learners represent the same socio-economic context as learners come from various areas across the Metro to the schools represented. However, with this in mind, the debates in the focus groups were very rich, regardless of the socio-economic backgrounds of the learners. The findings revealed similarity amongst the responses of the learners regarding active citizenship.

The participants had various responses when defining active citizenship and what it means to them. The participants understand active citizenship within the context of voting and active participation in community initiatives. There was one learner at School B who was able to provide a comprehensive definition of active citizenship whilst generally the other learners at the four schools had some difficulty to express their understanding of active citizenship.

School B (Learner 12 who was actively involved in local government initiatives): I think active citizenship is where you are as an individual, you are active in your community, active knowing the policies of your government, active knowing your local government, everything that has to do with the public sector and as to how you as a citizen can make a difference within your community and being active also means like voting or going through your sub-councils and help better your community (sic).

The learner referred to at School B was actively involved with local government through local  

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government democratic processes for young people. This explains the high level of knowledge and understanding of this learner about active citizenship in a democracy. The views that follow, as coded, illustrate how some of the other participants defined active citizenship:

School A (Learner 10): It’s almost like voting and having a voice of what the Parliament is actually saying. It’s like you active in the activism taking place (sic).

5.3.1.2 Human rights education, democracy education, citizenship education, and inclusive education and public participation

Participants were asked to define concepts relating to active citizenship, namely 'human rights', 'democracy', 'citizenship', 'inclusivity' and 'public participation'. In addition, participants were asked whether these concepts inform active citizenship. This question was in support of the previous question relating to understanding active citizenship, by eliciting learners‟

understanding of concepts relating to active citizenship. Since the previous question mainly dealt with active citizenship, the focus of this question was on human rights, democracy, inclusivity and public participation and responses will be presented according to each concept.

Participants were asked to describe their understanding of concepts including human rights, democracy, citizenship, inclusive education and public participation which was pivotal in relation to understanding active citizenship in a democracy. Learners were not completely confident when attempting to define these concepts. However, they have a general sense of what it means. The following illustrate learners‟ responses as it relates to these concepts:

School B (Learner 14): Human rights is when you have a number of rights which no one can uhm, like you have the right to do certain things and someone else can’t tell you that you can’t do this you can’t do that, it’s your right to do something, the right to express yourself, inequality, like no one can be inferior to someone else, it’s your right, no one can treat you the way you don’t want to be treated (sic).

School C (Learner 29): I think democracy is the right to have human rights and to live freely in a country (sic).

School D (Learner 38): I think citizenship is living, belonging to some kind of a  

146 community or society (sic).

School D (Learner 37): I think public participation is when the public or members of society are able to partake in the activities of a country (sic).

However, when learners were asked to describe the meaning of inclusive education, which was crucial in promoting active citizenship regarding inclusion of everyone, the responses were very interesting. Learners do not know what 'inclusive education' or 'inclusivity' means. The views of the participants are illustrated below:

School A (Learner 10): I think inclusive education is the things you learn in education should include everything from politics to landscaping, everything in education, that’s what I think (sic).

School B (Learners 11-20): I haven’t heard of it (sic).

5.3.1.3 Infusion of human rights, inclusivity, social justice and transformation in the LO curriculum

Participants were asked to indicate whether the LO curriculum infused concepts relating to active citizenship, namely 'human rights', 'inclusivity', 'social justice' and 'transformation'. In addition, participants had to give their opinion as to whether the inclusion of these concepts promotes active citizenship, and they were required to provide some examples of topics covered in the LO curriculum. This question was pivotal to the study as it provided in-depth information regarding the extent to which the LO curriculum infuses 'active citizenship' and relating concepts.

Learners gave varied responses to this question. However, the common response to this question suggested that there was a minimal amount of content and information relating to 'active citizenship' and relating concepts such as 'human rights', 'democracy', 'social justice', 'citizenship', 'transformation' and 'public participation'. The following sentiment was expressed:

School C (Learner 30): I think that we don’t learn enough because look at us now, we are in grade 12 but we still don’t know enough about our rights, we can’t explain democracy, we can’t really (sic).

147 5.3.1.4 Parliament and active citizenship

It was essential to establish whether learners had any knowledge and understanding about Parliament as one of the democratic structures. Participants were asked to describe the roles and functions of Parliament and how one can participate in the processes and activities of Parliament.

This was crucial in order to determine the extent to which learners have been exposed to democratic structures such as Parliament since the learners participating in the study are in the age range of 17 – 19 years. This implies that they are eligible to participate in democratic processes such as writing submissions to Parliament or to petition legislation.

The findings in this regard were cause for concern because at the time of the focus group interviews Grade 12 learners who have completed the Grade 11 LO curriculum during 2012 had very limited knowledge about Parliament and most of all did not know how to participate in the processes and activities of Parliament. This was evident in the responses of the participants.

School B (Learner 13): The only thing I know about Parliament is what I see on the news, with like Jacob Zuma and all (sic).

School D (Learner 38): I think the function of Parliament is to acknowledge people of what is going on in the country and try to make it better, like the housing, education, schooling system, water, all of these problems, to solve this problems for the community or the country (sic).

5.3.1.5 Recommendations by learners

This item on the interview schedule was intended to obtain learners' opinions about whether information is a prerequisite for active citizenship and whether anything could be done differently at school to promote active citizenship. The learners agreed that it is important to be informed about democratic processes in order to be able to actively participate as citizens.

School C (Learner 27): I think it will help us to be informed because, let’s say for example we didn’t know that the electricity bill is going up and we go complain because we didn’t know about it (sic).

School D (Learner 31): It all comes down to education, learning about these things so we can take it in, if we know things it will be much easy for us to

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make a choice and stand up as a young community (sic).

In summary, the views of the learners during the focus group interviews reiterates the findings from the questionnaires that Grade 12 learners had limited or no knowledge and understanding of active citizenship in a democracy. Their understanding was mainly in the context of voting and participation in community structures. However, they had a dire lack of knowledge, skills, values and understanding about concepts relating to active citizenship such as 'human rights', 'democracy', 'inclusivity' and 'public participation'.

Furthermore, the opinions of the learners indicated that they had limited exposure to content and information relating to active citizenship in a democracy through the LO curriculum, since they state that at Grade 12 level they still have difficulty defining concepts such as 'human rights' and 'democracy'.

Generally, the learners felt that it is important to be informed about active citizenship and learn more about the related concepts since it would empower and prepare them for active citizenship in a democracy.