This chapter examines educational tensions and social constraints existing in the South African urban township environment that make it difficult for learners in these contexts to receive quality education. In the learners’ perceptions and experiences reported in this chapter, I identify the specific daily challenges that learners experience in both township life and the township school. Here, I argue that these challenges make youth in the township settings more vulnerable to HIV infection, different forms of violence, substance and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, suicide, child abuse, and so on. Based on the analysis of stories, drawings and poems that were written by learners from a secondary school at Umlazi Township, near Durban in South Africa, I further discuss the negative effects of the township context on learners.
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Buthelezi, T. (2007). Dimensions of Diversity: Educating Urban Township Learners, a Case of Umlazi Township School in Durban, South Africa. In: Pink, W.T., Noblit, G.W. (eds) International Handbook of Urban Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5199-9_8
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