The psycho-educational experiences of blind learners in a rural school

Abstract: It is estimated that worldwide, up to 1.4 million children below the age of 16 are blind. South Africa has a high prevalence of children with blindness, and the majority of children with blindness subsist in rural areas where health care facilities lack. Researchers and mental health care professionals do not know yet what the psycho-educational experiences of blind learners in rural schools in South Africa are. The twofold aim of this study was to explore and describe the psycho-educational experiences of blind learners in a rural school and to provide psycho-educational guidelines for supporting blind learners in rural schools. This was a phenomenological, qualitative study located within Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological theoretical framework. The paradigm of this study was the social constructivist research paradigm, since the researcher intended to explore how the participants constructed their experiences and meaning within their social contexts. The researcher used semi-structured individual interviews, a focus group interview, as well as document analysis as data collection methods. The unit of analysis comprised four boys who participated in individual interviews and six boys who took part in the focus group interviews. The boys had been sampled purposely. Inductive content analysis was used to process the data. In this regard, the researcher applied open coding, axial coding and developed themes after classifying the emerging codes. The findings from this study were two-pronged, namely, psychological experiences as well as educational experiences. In the psychological domain, the findings show that the participants were subjected to social stigma and had positive self-concepts and hopes for the future. In the educational domain, the findings show that there were academic challenges and pressing needs for academic support. The implications of the findings are that much needs to be done to support the blind learners in rural schools so as to enhance their psychological well-being and academic performance.M.Ed. (Educational Psychology