While many girls who become mothers before completing schooling consider
academic qualifications to be very important, they may not be able to succeed
academically if the support they need to complete their studies is insufficient.
Usually, instead of getting support, the teen mothers endure misunderstandings
and pressure. The teen mothers may feel disempowered because they are
‘othered’ and consequently, they develop forms of resistance which in most
cases may foster their failure as learners. Our aim was to find out how much
support was offered to these girls to facilitate their schooling, thus making it
possible for them to complete their education and become self-reliant. A qualitative
research approach was employed to gather information for the study.
Teen mothers, their educators, and parents were interviewed to gather information
about the girls’ schooling situation. The results showed that many teen
mothers failed to succeed with schooling because they lacked support to avoid
the numerous disruptions to school attendance.
Keywords: challenges; othered; schooling; South Africa; support; teenage