The exploration of the role of nurturing care in rural students’ transitioning from early childhood to higher education

Abstract

The transition from secondary to higher education presents significant challenges, particularly for students from rural backgrounds. This study explores the role of nurturing care in enabling rural students in South Africa to successfully navigate this transition. Using the Nurturing Care Framework (NCF) and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as guiding frameworks, the study examines how key nurturing care components, good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, opportunities for early learning, security and safety shaped students’ development from early childhood to higher education. A qualitative approach was used, involving semi-structured interviews with six first-year university students from rural areas and their caregivers, recruited through snowball sampling. Thematic analysis was applied to interpret the data. A key finding is that while rural caregiving practices align with NCF principles, they are offered in culturally specific ways that are often overlooked in global frameworks. The study identifies contradictions between NCF assumptions and rural realities, particularly regarding formal healthcare access, structured food security programmes, and nuclear-family-based caregiving models. Additionally, it underscores the interconnected nature of nurturing care components, where early learning, responsive caregiving, and community collaboration collectively support children’s academic success. The findings contribute to the existing knowledge by demonstrating the importance of culturally informed policies that acknowledge indigenous caregiving practices, communal child-rearing approaches, and alternative educational support systems. Therefore, the study recommends policy reforms that enhance healthcare accessibility, school nutrition programmes, early childhood education, and rural caregiver support initiatives. Future studies should further explore this work by examining nurturing care dynamics across diverse rural contexts to develop more inclusive and contextually relevant interventions for supporting rural students’ educational transitions.