Educators? views of alcohol use at a selected high school in the Limpopo Province of South Africa
Author(s): Chueng MJ*, Lebese RT, Maputle SM and Makhado L
Abstract
Alcohol use among school learners in South Africa is documented as a seri- ous health problem. Learners who use alcohol display antisocial behaviour such as hostility, attacking, fighting and hurting others with dangerous objects. Life orientation teachers face the challenge of assisting learners to change this behaviour. This study aimed to explore and describe the educa- tors’ views about learners’ alcohol use at selected schools in the Capricorn District of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The study was conduct- ed at two secondary schools in rural areas of the Capricorn District in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. A qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was utilised. Purposive sampling was used to select the schools based on the percentage of learners who abused alco- hol. Twenty three learners participated in two focus group discussions aid- ed by a voice recorder and field notes until data until saturation had been reached. Data were analysed through open coding as proposed by Tesch. The teachers indicated that learners experienced health and psycho social consequences as well as poor academic performance because of their con- tinued use of alcohol. Schools should train educator’s motivational inter- viewing skills, to facilitate, support, guide and maintain behaviour change among learners. The Motivational Interviewing skills should include the following stages: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance.