Grade 8 learners’ perspectives on inclusion and exclusion: Affordances and drawbacks of participating in sports

Abstract

The progress towards the right to inclusive education is through “a learning environment that promotes the full personal academic and professional development for all learners irrespective of race, class, gender, disability, religion, culture, sexual preference, learning styles and language” (Du Plessis, 2013, p.78). Schools are not a place for learning academically only but also socialisation and the importance of inclusion in sports for all. Inequalities in the education system in South Africa caused by colonisation and apartheid have caused discrepancies not only in academic performance, but also in participation in sport. Current debates on the topic have raised the issue that school sport is intrinsically exclusive. The significance of this research is therefore that it brings to the surface underlying dynamics to do with schools and learner participation in sport. The challenges that learners experience are epistemological, ontological and axiological, as they encompass socio-economic barriers, discriminatory and negative attitudes, and language and communication difficulties. Drawing from Frisby and Ponic (2013) and others, this research report discusses how sport is understood and implemented in independent schools, and how the sports system, composed of multiple symbolic interactions with learners, includes or excludes large numbers of individuals. The study focusses not only on the physical and racial aspects of inclusion, but on the meaning of sport in an independent all-boys school, the ways in which sport is used for marketing purposes, and how this prioritising of public image can and does affect learner participation. Certain sports are prioritised over others, perpetuating the erroneous and sexist notion that some sports are “weak” and for “soft” boys. The major interest of the study is what learners themselves think of the topic, and what may be learned from their experiences with regard to the affordances and drawbacks of participation in sport at an independent boy’s school. The purpose of the study is to investigate how inclusion and exclusion is perceived by the learners, and which inclusive strategies or cultures are enabling and disabling to learners. Two theoretical frameworks were used as a basis of understanding: ubuntu, which establishes foundational principles for understanding inclusivity in school sport and provides a foundation on which to assess sports-related school practices, and the theory of marginalisation, which provides an ideal frame for understanding the experiences of learners with regard to school sport. Click here to enter text. v The methodology used is qualitative, since the project sought to understand the phenomena of inclusion and exclusion from the perspective of the participants. The sample size was 12, all Grade 8 learners at a single independent boys school in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, purposively sampled on the basis of their ability to answer the research questions. Open ended questionnaires and individual interviews were the research instruments adopted. Twelve participants completed the questionnaire, and six were interviewed. Their responses in both the open-ended questionnaires and interviews reflect current debates on the issue of inclusion and exclusion in sport. The findings show that learners have a diverse understanding of what inclusion in sport is; definitions included being accepted by others, working together, equal opportunities, and a holistic approach to education. The main affordance of participating in sport was identified as the values, friendships, break from academic work, professional opportunities, physical and mental health benefits that may be developed through sport; the drawbacks were the difficulties of balancing academics and sport, the pressures associated with playing for the A team (or striving to get in to the A team), injuries, being left out, and bias and discrimination. The main finding is that exclusion is being practised in subtle ways, and that there is a need for diversity in sport. There are also a number of symbolic interactions that occur in school sport that are unrelated to systematic processes, and which undermine and exclude some learners from participation in sport.