Children’s rights in South Africa: Perceptions of urban high school teachers in Johannesburg

Abstract

This article explores South African teachers’ perceptions of children’s rights in South Africa and points out several implications for teaching. Data were collected from 40 high school teachers from the Johannesburg South Education District. An open-ended, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Thematic data analysis using manual coding to group data into categories and themes was used since the findings were qualitative in nature. The findings of this study show both positive and negative perceptions among teachers. While 45 per cent of the teachers perceived that it was important to teach children about their rights, about 47.5 percent believed that teaching children about their rights was causing problems. The themes that emerged from the findings are discussed using Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory, which states that the development of human beings is influenced by different environmental systems. These are the microsystem, mesosystem, exosytem, macrosysytem and the chronosystem. Several recommendations are made in line with the findings.