Locality and Context Class C

Already discussed in Chapter Four (Section 4.6), Class C is classified as a semi rural township school which is grouped within Quintiles 1-3. This school is classified as a no-fee school based on the socioeconomic circumstances of the surrounding community and based on infrastructural factors of the school. With this particular class, 26 out of the 31 (84%) students from this school reside in the immediately surrounding community. Five (16%) of the students travel to school from further afield on a daily basis, with the furtherest location being approximately 25km away. That this is a no-fee school which is located in a township indicates that a majority of learners attending this school emanate from lower socioeconomic families. Considering the links that have been established between ‘literacy’ development and socioeconomic circumstances (Duncan & Seymour 2000; Hartas 2011; Ghosh 2013) one can expect the low socioeconomic circumstances of the students’ home community to have an impact on students’ ‘literacy’ stimulation. Low socioeconomic circumstances are an important variable considered at a later stage within this section of the data description and analysis chapter. This school is an English medium school on the basis of the national language-in-education policy. Although the home language for a majority of the students is isiXhosa, the school’s language policy follows a national directive according to which English is the language of learning and teaching as from Grade 4. Students from this particular Grade 11 class therefore are English Additional Language (EAL) students who do not take English as a Home Language subject.

Class B

Class B is located at school site A which is classified as an ex-model C school which means that it was privileged in terms of state funding in the era before 1994. Based on the fact that in the new dispensation it is classified as a quintile 5 school, this school is afforded less financial resources by the Department of Basic Education than those in quintiles 1 to 4. The location of the school and the socioeconomic circumstances of a large majority of the

119 students that make up the school population determines the placement of the school into a particular quintile. The school’s quintile 5 status assures that a majority of the students do not come from the immediate community located within walking distance of the school only. This is a school widely renowned for giving good educational opportunities, so that families from outside the directly adjacent “feeding area” choose to enrol their children here. For example, 17 out of the 31 (55%) students from this particular class reside in the greater Winelands District, 7 (23%) students travel from approximately 50km out and 4 (13%) students travel from approximately 25km out. Further, this school is classified as a dual medium school which means that both English and Afrikaans are used as languages of learning and teaching. Both are offered as Home Language subjects. The students in this class that participated in the study were enrolled as Afrikaans Home Language students which meant they were in the English as an Additional Language class.

Class A

This particular class is located at the same school site as Class B above. Already noted is the fact that this school is an ex-model C school. Given its prestigious reputation, and similar to Class B, a large number of students travel from outside of the immediate community to attend this school. For example, 13 out of 31 (42%) students come from the greater Winelands community. Seven out of 31 (23%) students live approximately 50km away and 8 (26%) students live approximately 25km away. Given that classes for this cohort of students were held very early (first period), students that had to travel to school by bus were often late for class which did put a strain on teaching and learning. This also resulted in a high level of absenteeism amongst students, meaning a number of students constantly struggled to finish their written assignments in class. But this was an issue related to transport and not a ‘literacy’ barrier. Similar to Class B above, this is a dual medium school and this class was identified as an English Home Language class. In spite of this, a large number of students in this English Home Language class indicated that they were Afrikaans Home Language students.

120 5.2.2 Parental Education and Literacy Performance

Class C

With this particular class of Grade 11 students, 9 out of the 31 (29%) students indicated that their father has less than a national senior certificate36, 11 out of 31 (35%) students indicated that their mother has less than a national senior certificate, and 5 out of 31 (16%) students indicated that their legal guardian has less than a national senior certificate. Five (16%) students indicated that neither parent within their home has a national senior certificate. Five (16%) students indicated that their father holds a national senior certificate, 8 (26%) students indicated that their mother holds a national senior certificate and only 4 (13%) students indicated that their legal guardian holds a national senior certificate. Given that this school is located within a township area, the number of students living in homes where both parents hold less than a national senior certificate is relatively high as opposed to students living with both parents who have a tertiary qualification. When looking at students’ reports of their parents’ post school education, the numbers reported drop significantly. Only 4 out of 31 (13%) students indicated that their father holds a tertiary qualification, only 3 out of 31 (10%) mothers were reported to hold a tertiary qualification and only 4 (13%) legal guardians hold a tertiary qualification. Only 1 (3%) student indicated that both the father and mother hold a tertiary qualification.

Interestingly, of the students that indicated neither parent had completed a national senior certificate, the average for the pre-intervention academic essay score was 44%. For students whose parents were reported to hold a national senior certificate, pre-intervention academic essay scores averaged 45%. Contrastingly, the one student who indicated that both parents held a tertiary qualification, the student’s pre-intervention academic essay score was slightly higher (50%). This, however, is noted with caution as it is one student’s score as opposed to the average of a number of students clumped into the category of having both parents holding a national senior certificate or not. When segregating the data categories further, students who reportedly had a father only who had completed a tertiary qualification, the pre- intervention academic essay average was 42%. Further, students who indicated that just their mother held a tertiary qualification their pre-intervention academic essay average was 44%.

36 _{The national senior certificate is the Grade 12 exit level certificate. This is a pre-requisite for university}

121 When taking into account national senior certificate holders, the pre-intervention academic essay score average was the same (46%) for students who indicated that either the mother or father individually (not both) held a national senior certificate. Another interesting finding was that the pre-intervention academic essay average for students who indicated that their father holds less than a national senior certificate was the same as students whose father or mother holds a national senior certificate. The pre-intervention academic essay average for students whose mother holds less than a national senior certificate dropped off slightly and was 44%.

In considering the possible association between students’ pre-intervention academic essay average and formal education of parents, a tertiary qualification only appears to offer a significant positive effect when both parents hold a tertiary qualification. Where only one parent holds a tertiary qualification, students appear to have performed worse than students emanating from homes where both parents are in possession of a national senior certificate, and on a par with students whose parents do not possess a national senior certificate. There appears to be no additional benefit to students’ pre-intervention academic essay average should the parents hold a national senior certificate as opposed to students coming from homes where neither parent completed their national senior certificate. This leads one to conclude that in the case of this township school, educational status of the parents seems to have little impact on students’ pre-intervention ‘academic literacy’ skills. This could be due to socioeconomic circumstances meaning that due to parents’ low forms of education, students do not benefit from parental support in academic performance. Again, as mentioned in the introduction to this section, a general causal relationship is not being suggested. One may want to refer to a contextual causal relationship though. This is largely because there does exist studies which link low socioeconomic circumstances to students’ ‘literacy’ performance (Cross, 2002; Smith, 2011; Spaull, 2013).

Class B

With this particular Grade 11 class neither father, nor mother were reported to hold less than a national senior certificate37. Students indicated that 4 out of 31 (13%) fathers had completed the national senior certificate qualification and 8 (26%) students indicated that their mother

37 _{29 students did not fill in the questionnaire for a legal guardian and this category will thus not be mentioned}

122 holds a national senior certificate qualification. Further, only 4 (13%) students indicated that they come from a home where both their father and mother have no post school qualification – education beyond the national senior certificate. With regards to post school qualification, 20 (65%) of the students indicated that their father holds an undergraduate degree, and 19 (61%) students indicated that their mother holds an undergraduate degree. Seventeen (55%) students reported that both parents in the home have completed an undergraduate degree. A smaller number of students indicated that a parent had completed a postgraduate degree namely 2 (6%) fathers and 1 mother (3%).

When pairing parental education and students’ pre-intervention academic essay performance, the average score for students who indicated that their father has completed a national senior certificate was 67%. The average pre-intervention essay score was almost similar for students who reported that their mother holds a national senior certificate – 68%. For students who indicated that both parents hold a national senior certificate the average pre-intervention academic essay score was 67%. Interestingly, the average pre-intervention academic essay score for students with either a father, or mother in possession of an undergraduate degree was almost the same – 67% and 66%. Where both parents hold an undergraduate degree, the pre-intervention academic essay average for students was 66%. The average pre-intervention academic essay score decreases slightly to 64%% for the student whose father holds a postgraduate degree. An average pre-intervention academic essay score cannot be computed for both parents holding a postgraduate degree as one of the students was absent for the baseline essay test and the numbers are so low that expressing this number in percentage format does not make much sense.

From the above, one can observe then that there is a slight increase in students’ pre- intervention academic essay score where parents hold a national senior certificate. This is a similar pattern to the one found with Class C, although not as pronounced, where the students emanating from homes where parents are less qualified, slightly better pre-intervention academic essay score averages were recorded. Again, this leads one to conclude that the association between students’ academic essay performance and an increase in parental education is not necessarily positive with this particular class. But, what must be pointed out are the higher average pre-intervention essay performance scores for students from this class

123 in comparison to students from Class C. Given the higher socioeconomic status of these students, the average performance is almost 20% higher. Again, this highlights the link between school performance and socioeconomic context (Cross, 2002; Smith, 2011; Spaull, 2013).

Class A

With this particular Grade 11 class, 7 out of 31 (23%) students indicated that their father has completed the national senior certificate and 5 out of 31 (16%) students indicated that their mother has a national senior certificate. Only 4 students (13%) reported both father and mother within the same household in possession of a national senior certificate. With regards to post-school education, 9 (29%) students indicated that their father has attained an undergraduate certificate and 12 (39%) students indicated that their mother has an undergraduate certificate. When combining both father and mother’s level of education, only 8 (26%) students indicated that both their father and mother have an undergraduate degree. Only 5 out of 31 (16%) students reported that their father has a postgraduate degree and only 2 (6%) of the mothers reportedly hold a postgraduate certificate. Combined, only 1 (3%) student indicated that both his father and mother hold a postgraduate qualification.

When pairing students’ reports on the level of formal education of their parents and pre- intervention academic essay performance, for students who indicated that both parents in the home had acquired a national senior certificate, pre-intervention essay scores were calculated as 64% as opposed to homes where both parents had acquired an undergraduate degree (73%) or postgraduate degree (78%). From the above, it appears that for this particular Grade 11 class, parental education may have a positive influence (or positive correlation) on students’ performance with higher performances observed with students who come from homes where both parents possess a higher qualification.

With regards to students’ pre-intervention academic essay performance when paired with either father or mothers’ formal education, students average pre-intervention academic essay score where one of the parents hold a national senior certificate, is the same with an average of 66%. When paired with having a parent who has an undergraduate degree, students’ pre- intervention academic essay score average with a father who has an undergraduate degree is

124 73% as opposed to 70% for students who indicated that their mother has an undergraduate degree. Where a father has a postgraduate degree, students’ average pre-intervention academic essay performance is 79% as opposed to the 76% average where a mother has a postgraduate degree.

In summarising the above findings, unlike Class C and to some extent, Class B, parental education does appear to have an overall positive correlation on students’ pre-intervention ‘academic literacy’ performance. In other words, the higher the parental education, the higher the students’ academic performance. This could be attributed to two possible factors. Firstly, given higher levels of education, and the fact that students from Class B, and more so Class A, attend a wealthier school, socioeconomic circumstances again may have a positive impact on students’ academic performance. Secondly, given higher levels of education of parents, students’ from Class B and Class A may have been better primed for accessing the ‘Discourse’ of formal education given that parents’ from these two classes are well versed in the requirements of the Discourse of formal education. This highlights the positive impact parents’ education has on student performance when appropriate ‘literacy’ practices are being modelled at home (Kapp, 2006).

5.2.3 Medium of Instruction and Literacy Performance