Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of a reading culture in a rural secondary
school in South Africa before and after a literacy intervention. The systems theory with interpretivism as
the epistemological paradigm was employed. A rural secondary school was selected as part of an on-going
Flourishing Learning Youth and Supportive Teachers Assets and Resilience studies on resilience and rural
schools. Language teachers (n = 6, male = 1, female = 5) were purposively selected to participate. The
literacy intervention was developed with phonetic acquisition as the basis to develop reading skills. It became
evident that implementing English (additional language) as teaching and learning language in the school may
have contributed to barriers to learning. Limited resources and reading instruction training exacerbated the
problems. However, once the teachers acquired new skills and the children received the needed support,
the improvement in overall academic achievement was significant.
