Hermeneutic Perspective on the Performance of Pupils in Social Studies at Junior Secondary School in Masaiti district.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue II, February 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Hermeneutic Perspective on the Performance of Pupils in Social Studies at Junior Secondary School in Masaiti district.

Setwin Mutau Mufalo¹, Gistered Muleya², Francis Simui^3
1Mishikishi Secondary School, Masaiti, Zambia
^2,3Institute of Distance Education, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia

ABSTRACT
Purpose: Hermeneutic perspective on the performance of pupils in Social Studies at junior secondary school in Masaiti District, Zambia.
Methodology: The study was qualitative in nature where hermeneutic phenomenological approach was applied in the study. The participants for the entire study were 12 who were chosen through homogenous selective sampling. The production of data was through semi structured interviews, semi structured questionnaires, observation schedules and document analysis. Consequently, the produced data was thematically analysed.
Findings: The study revealed that there was poor academic performance of pupils in Social Studies at junior secondary school in Masaiti district. The experienced poor performance was attributed to a number of challenges which emerged as themes such as integration of the subject, paucity of instructional time, lack of qualified teachers specifically trained in Social Studies, a dearth of teaching/learning materials, bulkiness of the content, laziness of learners, inadequate parental encouragement as well as inadequate parental supervision.
Keywords: Academic Performance, Junior Secondary School, Social Studies, Masaiti

1. INTRODUCTION

In 2013, Social Studies was introduced at Junior Secondary School across the country. It was for this reason that the current study was conducted in order to explore the performance of pupils in Social Studies at junior secondary school in Masaiti district on the Copperbelt province of Zambia.

2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

There are many factors which contribute to good or poor performance of learners in a subject. Hollstein (2018) carried out a study in South Korea where it was found that Social Studies was poorly funded as compared to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. It meant that some important programmes which required funding to support study tours could not take off. Further, the study revealed that Social Studies at junior secondary school was taught by teachers who were specialised in other study areas such as History, Geography or general Social Studies. Therefore, these revelations indicate that social studies as a subject faced challenges which could have affected smooth delivery of the subject to the learners.
A study that was carried out by Al-Maamari, Al-Nofli and Al-Gharibi (2014) to investigate the state of Social Studies in Basic Education in Oman revealed that there was inadequate instructional time given to the subject (three to four class periods per week). This was a challenge to teachers because of less time allocated compared to huge subject content due to combination of a variety of disciplines. Additionally, most teachers who taught the subject were not specifically trained in Social Studies but in various fields such as geography, history, general Social Studies and other specialisations.
Mensah (2019) conducted a study to examine students’ attitude towards learning of Social Studies and their performance in Accra Metropolitan Assembly in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The students performed on average in Social Studies despite having positive attitudes towards the subject. The factors which contributed to average performance were “teachers not showing interest in teaching, controversial issues, teachers’ inability to give needed assistance to students, teachers’ inability to use different teaching methods in Social Studies classes, inadequate teaching and learning materials and inability of Social Studies teachers to employ resource persons in times of difficulty” (Mensah, 2020: 73; Mensah, 2019: iii). Therefore, it was recommended that Ghana Education Service should recruit professional teachers to teach Social Studies in schools. In addition, it was recommended that Colleges of Education should recruit competent lecturers with in-depth knowledge on the subject and make the subject as practical as possible. The study also recommended that during Social Studies lessons, teachers should create lessons that were interesting and motivating to the learners. Furthermore, it was recommended that teachers of Social Studies needed to employ different teaching methods among many other approaches.

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