The Campaign from Start to Finish

Executive Summary

The Centre for Early Childhood Development (CECD) is a non-profit organization founded in August of 1994 to improve early childhood development (ECD) through education and create access for families in need. In partnership with the CECD, the research team created a social media campaign to raise awareness for ECD in South Africa. The campaign’s focus was to help bridge the gap between the ECD sector and the general public through educational posts and short videos across multiple social media platforms. To achieve this goal, the research team developed the three following objectives:

1. Develop and administer surveys to collect data regarding early childhood development and experiences through the CECD database to the general public. 
2. Conduct interviews with four parents from broad socioeconomic and geographical backgrounds through the CECD database of what ECD is and how it is incorporated into their lives.
3. Interview five pre-primary teachers working in differing school districts from the CECD database about what ECD is and how it is incorporated into the workplace.

Survey

With the assistance of the CECD, the research team created an online survey to gauge how much the general public knew concerning ECD within South Africa. The survey included a demographics section, primary survey questions, parent-specific questions, and an open-ended response section based on participant understandings of ECD. This survey was posted to the CECD’s Facebook page and sent to select people on their email chain, which collected 78 responses in a week.

Parent Interviews

The research team designed and conducted interviews with four mothers of varying ECD backgrounds. The questions asked the parents about their most significant challenges when providing quality ECD. The one-on-one semi-structured interviews were held with parents to understand how they incorporated ECD into their everyday lives and navigated parental ECD challenges. Parents in Cape Town, surrounding townships, and smaller communities were recruited for interviews through the CECD’s family outreach program.

Teacher Interviews

The research team interviewed five grade R educators from different school districts throughout the Western Cape. These contacts were recruited through the CECD database and interviewed on what ECD is and how it is incorporated into their schools. Interview responses and recorded observations provided insight into how teachers worked alongside parents to educate their children and what strategies worked best for them in the classroom. The five educators were recruited from school districts varying in income level, location, and primary demographics to understand how varying factors affected ECD in early education. These one-on-one interviews were semi-structured with questions explicitly prepared for educators regarding ECD’s influence inside and outside the classroom. 

Findings & Analysis

During the data collection process, the research team sent out a survey through the CECD database and conducted nine interviews with parents and teachers. Data from each method was thematically analyzed to explore early childhood development perspectives in South Africa. The survey analyzed the understanding of public ECD perceptions and demonstrated differences based on demographics. Parent interviews highlighted challenges in fostering development, focusing on education, advocacy, and emotional aspects. Teacher interviews emphasized themes like emotional influence, teaching logistics, physical learning environments, and external developmental factors, demonstrating their importance in ECD.

 

Survey

Upon the closing of response collection on the survey, the research team used qualitative analysis to create five different categories upon which the analysis drew from when comparing experiences with ECD.

Demographics

Participant demographics covered a large area of the South African population. The average age of the participant varied, but was mainly around parental age. A large majority of participants were women. Most participants also had a high level of education. These demographics created some bias in participant responses.

Participant Education

Participants’ education and involvement in ECD programs significantly shaped their views. Notable gaps in awareness and community perceptions remain, highlighting the need for broader engagement and education.

Geographical Analysis

Regional disparities in ECD perceptions in South Africa are evident. While many viewed local environments and ECD centers positively, national support and resources were seen as lackluster, with more than half of participants dissatisfied with government aid. These findings highlight the need for improved national campaigns and resource distribution.

Poverty and Educational Access Analysis

Poverty has a significant impact on ECD in South Africa, affecting educational access and reliability. While most participants reported access to resources, disparities come with community and socioeconomic inequalities influencing ECD support and outcomes.

Parent Feedback

The survey revealed that many parents choose not to enroll their children in early childhood development (ECD) programs despite understanding their children’s needs. Priorities for parents varied based on their understanding of ECD.

 

Parent Interviews

Upon completion of the parent interviews, the team used thematic analysis to organize the interview data into three primary themes.

Parent Education

Parent education included both understanding a parent’s responsibility and accessibility to educational resources. Participants showed a desire to learn more how to support their child, but this was not always easy to do because of lack of program accessibility for certain communities.

Parent Advocacy

Refers to the parents taking on the responsibility of advocating for their child’s wants and needs as children are unable to do this themselves for the first few years of life. Themes related to advocacy included: the child’s safety, education, and a want for future change. Each participant discussed these themes in-depth, emphasizing the parents advocating for their child needs.

The Emotional Aspects of Parenting

Participants displayed a range of emotions throughout the interviews. Negative emotions, particularly frustration and anger, were linked to difficult circumstances many parents face, but they also demonstrated remarkable resilience. Positive emotions, such as pride in their children’s progress, highlighted the deep emotional investment parents have in their children’s development.

 

Teacher Interviews

Upon completion of the teacher interviews, the team used thematic analysis to organize the interview data into four primary themes.

Emotional Investment

There is much a teacher is willing to do outside of what is outlined for them, providing for the children out of their own time and passion. This includes passion for teaching, willingness to provide for students, and ability to create a supportive environment for these children to grow.

Logistical Approach to Teaching

A teacher’s logistical approach to teaching involves the organization and planning behind their classroom. This may include daily programs, classroom structure, and the differentiation of teaching between students. The student research team observed several overlapping themes throughout the data collection process. These themes included a teacher’s responsibility to their classroom, preparedness to teach, differentiation in teaching, and continuing their professional education.

Physical Teaching Environment

A teacher’s physical learning environment refers to what resources are available to the teacher, how they use them, and how they improvise with a lack thereof. The study’s participants frequently addressed accessibility to learning resources and the effect of a community’s socioeconomic background when discussing the physical teaching environment.

Outside-of-the-classroom Contributors

The research team defined outside-of-the-classroom contributors as factors that lead to a child’s development and occur outside of the classroom. The team identified three common themes from the interviews: discipline and family involvement, the parent-teacher relationship, and overall outside-of-classroom investment.

 

Limitations

While collecting data, limitations were identified that prevented an ideal data collection process. First, the survey was sent through the CECD database. This meant the participant pool was connected to the CECD, suggesting a bias towards survey results because they could have prior knowledge of the organization and their work. However, the survey demographic was broad enough to encapsulate proper results. Another limitation was the language barrier, as English is one of several primary languages in South Africa, including Afrikaans and Xhosa. Lastly, the interview participant pool was also considered a limitation as it only consisted of mothers, not covering the male perspective of the topic. Despite these limitations, the research and CECD teams believed the data collected adequately represented the general public. Participants provided sufficient insight into uncovering the gap in public knowledge that was addressed. 

Conclusion 

Overall, the study was able to shed light on the situation of early childhood development within South Africa. The research team discovered several discrepancies that existed not only within society but the schooling system as well. Engaging with various communities allowed the students to encounter struggles that varied from community to community. Nonetheless, the team also discovered that there is an entire sector dedicated to working to advocate for early childhood development. The prior thesis stood true, claiming the communicational disconnect between needy families and organizations/workers in the ECD sector existed. In response to the research findings, the team was able to design a social media campaign that highlighted these individual discrepancies to raise awareness for the issue, with hopes that it’d bring more support to the cause, alongside bridging the gap and making these services more accessible to those in need. This included 23 media posts, 19 Canva templates and five short-videos, a four-month timeline outlining when and where to post content, and three how-to guides on developing content on Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly known as Twitter). These three deliverables were passed onto the CECD.

 

Recommendations

As a result of the team’s research study and data findings the following recommendations will help to further support the continuation and development of projects with the CECD.

1. Expand the Participant Pool 

The research study participants were recruited through the CECD database, which had a limited outreach. To gauge a true understanding of the general public, it would be best to recruit a diverse pool of participants through different databases and contacts that are not currently in the ECD sector.

2. Father Engagement in Early Childhood Development

In any future projects, interviewing single fathers and/or fathers from married households could provide more insight into how having a male presence or lack of a female presence in the household can affect the quality of a child’s early development. Assisting the CECD to establish a father outreach program could be valuable to help involve fathers more as well as dismantle the stereotype that fathers are uninvolved or disengaged from their children’s lives. 

3. Researching Household Structure and its Implications on Early Childhood Development 

According to a research study by Katherine Hall and Zitha Mokomane (2018) there are multiple household structures in South Africa including: nuclear, lone-parent, extended, and composite. A potential future project could focus on researching household structures and how to best engage and support them in early childhood development. 

4. Sustainability of the Social Media Campaign

Following the implementation of the team’s social media advocacy campaign, it will be important for the CECD to analyze the effectiveness of the campaign. It would be beneficial for the CECD to collaborate with a higher education institution to recruit a student intern to continue the consistent and on-going messaging of the team’s social media campaign.