South African Historical Journal

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Bodibeng High School: Black Consciousness

Philosophy and Students Demonstration,
1940s–1976

Tshepo Moloi

To cite this article: Tshepo Moloi (2011) Bodibeng High School: Black Consciousness Philosophy
and Students Demonstration, 1940s–1976, South African Historical Journal, 63:1, 102-126, DOI:
10.1080/02582473.2011.549376

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2011.549376

Published online: 22 Mar 2011.

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South African Historical Journal
Vol. 63, No. 1, March 2011, 102
126

Bodibeng High School: Black Consciousness Philosophy and Students

Demonstration, 1940s 1976
TSHEPO MOLOI*


University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Abstract
This paper examines the factor(s) that caused students to demonstrate in 1976
through a case study of Bodibeng High School in Maokeng, Kroonstad, in the
northern Free State. It shows the role of the teachers influenced by the Black
Consciousness philosophy. The latter caused the behavioural change of some of
the students at Bodibeng High School, from submissive to assertive, and
political. Bodibeng High School, dating back to the 1940s, was one of the
major centres of education for African students in the then Orange Free State
(now Free State Province). It was one of the two day schools to offer matric as
early as 1940, and the only one to have its matriculants writing the Joint
Matriculation Board Examination in the mid 1960s, instead of the Bantu
Education’s senior certificate examinations. The school attracted an influx of
students from all over the country, and some of the best teachers. There were
three phases in the history of the school; each phase can be characterised in
terms of the degree of its engagement in the political affairs of the day. The first,
from the 1940s to 1950s, was one where teachers engaged both education and
politics actively. The second, from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s was a
period of apparent quiescence. The third, from the early 1970s, was
characterised, once again, by active engagement of students and teachers with
politics. In the latter period, the Black Consciousness philosophy was the major
influence. This paper will show that the influence of the Black Consciousness
philosophy and the role of the younger and politically conscious teachers
played an important part in influencing some of the students at Bodibeng to
demonstrate in 1976.
Key words: black consciousness; joint matriculation board; free state; students
demonstration; Bodibeng High; Maokeng Students Arts Club; Bantu
education; South African students organisation; National Party; syllabus

*Email: [email protected]

ISSN: Print 0258-2473/Online 1726-1686

# 2011 Southern African Historical Society
DOI: 10.1080/02582473.2011.549376
http://www.informaworld.com
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 103

Introduction

Immediately after 21:00 on the night of 24 August 1976 a group of students1 from
Bodibeng High School in Maokeng Township, Kroonstad, took to the streets in
solidarity with students in Soweto. They moved around the township pelting government
buildings with stones and breaking down some. However, before the dawn of the new day
the demonstration had been put to an end and all the student leaders had been rounded
up and arrested. Many more arrests followed in subsequent days and weeks. This was the
first display of open defiance of its kind by students at Bodibeng High since the 1940s.2
What influenced these students? Who were the students who led the demonstration? And
why did the demonstration take place in August
two months after the eruption of the
16 June Soweto students’ uprising?3 These are some of the questions that this paper will
examine.
In attempting to explain the factor(s) that caused students at Bodibeng High School to
demonstrate, this paper will show that from the early 1970s the behaviour of some of
the students at Bodibeng, particularly those in Forms One and Two, changed and became
assertive and political. This change, the paper will contend, was precipitated by the
students’ embrace of the Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy as espoused by the South
African Student Organisation (SASO) and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) in
general.
Not long after the 1976 student uprisings, which erupted in Soweto, various authors
such as Alan Brooks and Jeremy Brickhill, Baruch Hirson, and John Kane-Berman
produced work trying to explain the factors that caused the uprisings. In their explanations
they placed emphasis on different factors. Brooks and Brickhill highlighted changes in the
educational system;4 Hirson stressed the role played by the African working class and the
then banned African National Congress (ANC) as the main catalysts for the uprisings;5
moreover, Judge Cillie, chairman of the Cillie Commission,6 placed the immediate causes
of the uprisings on official inefficiency (that is, officials’ failure to read students’

1. The words ‘student’ and ‘pupil’ are used interchangeably to denote school-going youth. In 1942 Form One
students at Bantu High (in 1967 the name was changed to Bodibeng High) petitioned the school’s
authorities demanding to be taught Mathematics and not Arithmetic. Interview with Nana, Mahomo by
Tshepo Moloi for the ‘Local Histories and Present Realities’ Programme, Kempton Park, 10 April 2008.
(interviews, all with the author and for the ‘Local Histories and Present Realities’ Programme unless
otherwise stated on first reference).
2. The word ‘uprising’ (or in plural, uprisings) is used here to denote a more organized and sustained
students’ rebellion against the unjust system. And demonstration, on the other hand, is used to indicate an
unorganized and less sustained protest against an unjust system.
3. A. Brooks and J. Brickhill Whirlwind Before the Storm: The Origins and Development of the Uprising in
Soweto and the Rest of South Africa from June to December 1976 (London: International Defence and Aid
Fund for Southern Africa, 1980).
4. B. Hirson Year of Fire, Year of Ash: The Soweto Revolt: Roots of a Revolution? (London: Zed Press, 1979).
5. This was a government appointed commission of inquiry into the events of the Soweto (and elsewhere)
demonstrations. See H. Pohlandt-McCormick ‘‘‘I saw a nightmare . . .’’ Doing Violence to Memory: The
Soweto Uprising, June 16, 1976’ (University of Minnesota: PhD Thesis, 1999), 24.
6. Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Riots at Soweto and Elsewhere from the 16th of June 1976 to
the 28th of February 1977, Vol. 1 (Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Government
Publications, 1980).
104 TSHEPO MOLOI

dissatisfactory mood over the Afrikaans issue), deficiency in police township intelligence,
and the role played by the agitators;7 and yet Kane-Berman singled out the influence of the
BC (philosophy) as the most important factor in explaining the volatility of the townships.8
Recently, some scholars such as Sifiso Ndlovu, Peter Lekgoathi, and Philip Bonner and
Noor Nieftagodien have developed new analyses to explain the student uprisings. Their
emphasis falls on the active agency of students. Moreover, they question the role of the BC.
For Ndlovu, who in 1976 was a Form Two student in Soweto, students in junior standards
(Standard Five to Form Two)9 were the major force in the cause of the uprisings, because
they were directly affected by the Department of Bantu Education’s (DBE) directive for
the compulsory use of Afrikaans in half of the subjects.10 Drawing from personal
experience, he notes that his former school Phefeni Junior Secondary was the first to
boycott classes (in May) and was later followed by other students from other higher
primary and junior secondary schools in Soweto.11 He argues, ‘I do not remember any
liberation movement, such as the BCM or the South African Student Movement (SASM)
contributing to our daily meetings and discussions.’12 Moreover, in a chapter in the second
volume of The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Ndlovu observes that SASM took a
decision at its conference in Roodepoort (West of Johannesburg) to support schools
affected by the Afrikaans directive well after his school had been on a go-slow before the
official class boycott on 17 May 1976.13
Lekgoathi’s study, on the other hand, focusing on rural areas in the former northern
Transvaal (now Limpopo Province), emphasises the role of the urban students who were
studying in schools in Lebowa as the driving force behind the uprisings in that area.14
According to him ‘. . . the most pivotal role in the disturbances at Matladi Secondary
School in Zebediela was played by urban students
mostly boarders, particularly those
from the townships around Pretoria.’15 Bonner and Nieftagodien, in Alexandra: A History,
stress the combination of the government’s imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of
instruction and the deteriorating conditions in township schools, including massive

7. J. Kane-Berman, Soweto: Black Revolt, White Reaction (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1978); also see
C. Glaser, ‘We Must Infiltrate the Tsotsis: School Politics and Youth Gangs in Soweto, 1968
1976’,
Journal of Southern African Studies, 24, 2 (1998).
8. In today’s terminology Standard Five is Grade Seven and Form Two is Grade Nine.
9. When the DBE introduced Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in black schools it intended to
implement it in phases, starting from the lower level up to matric level. Thus it was first implemented from
Standard Five up to Form Two. These were Higher Primary and Junior Secondary levels, respectively.
Students at Senior secondary (that is, Form Three) and High school (that is, Forms Four and Five) were
not affected by the Afrikaans directive.
10. S. Ndlovu The Soweto Uprisings: Counter-memories of June 1976 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1998), 3
7.
11. Ibid., 7.
12. S.M. Ndlovu. ‘The Soweto Uprising’, in The Road to Democracy in South Africa: Vol. 2 (1970
1980)
(Pretoria: UNISA Press for the South African Democracy Education Trust, 2006), 339.
13. S.P. Lekgoathi, ‘Reconstructing the History of Educational Transformation in a Rural Transvaal
Chiefdom: The Radicalization of Teachers in Zebediela from the Early 1950s to the early 1990s (MA
Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg, 1995), Chapter 4; also, see J.S.N. Mathabatha The
Struggle Over Education in the Northern Transvaal: The Case of Catholic Mission Schools, 1948
1994
(Amsterdam: Rozenburg Publishers, SAVUSA/NiZA, 2005).
14. Lekgoathi, ‘Reconstructing’, 167.
15. P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien, Alexandra: A History (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2001), 201.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 105

overcrowding, lack of facilities and poor standards of teaching.16 Finally, Bonner in the
chapter ‘The Soweto Uprising of June 1976’ singles out structural changes. He writes that
‘to understand the rebellion we need to trace the big social and economic changes that had
been taking place in Johannesburg and Soweto over the previous ten years’.17 But this is
not enough to explain the cause of the uprising. As Bonner admits ‘however, the structural
changes do not automatically lead to new social and political consequences’.18
In spite of the invaluable contribution these authors (and the Commission of Inquiry)
have made in the studies of the 1976 student uprisings in the country, there is room for
further research. Significantly, these studies downplay the role of teachers, particular the
BC-influenced teachers, in the uprisings. The exception is Clive Glaser’s work.19 From the
oral testimonies collected, mainly from former students and teachers at Bodibeng High
during the period under review, there is a strong suggestion that the BC philosophy,
communicated to the students by the BC-aligned teachers, played a pivotal role in
politicising some of the students at Bodibeng.
The argument advanced in this paper is that the appointment of the younger and BC-
aligned teachers to the teaching staff of Bodibeng High School in the early 1970s
challenged the ‘old ways’ of teaching and the older teachers’ authoritarian behaviour.
These newly appointed teachers had either graduated from the so-called ‘Bush’ Colleges,20
or had been expelled from the same colleges for political reasons. Furthermore, the
admission to the school of highly politicised students from other schools outside
Kroonstad also contributed to this challenge. These factors helped politicise some of
the students at Bodibeg. Finally, this paper will suggest that the behavioural change of
some of the students at Bodibeng also had negative consequences. It caused tensions
between the teachers and students and, perhaps, most importantly, seriously affected the
long-established impressive educational standards associated with the school.

Bodibeng21 High School: Fusing Politics and Education, 1940s 1950s

Like many other township schools in the country, Bodibeng High began as a church
school. In 1928 all the church schools, except for the Catholic Church, in the township
came together and formed the Bantu United School.22 Three years later the school started
experimenting in secondary education.23 In 1940, the school (then called Bantu High)
introduced a matriculation class,24 thus making it one of the two day high schools in the

16. P. Bonner ,‘The Soweto Uprising of June 1976’, in Turning Points in History: People, Places and Apartheid.
Book 5 (Johannesburg: STE Publishers, 2004), 31.
17. Ibid., 38.
18. Clive Glaser alludes to the role of teachers like Onkgopotse Tiro. See Glaser, ‘We Must Infiltrate the
Tsotsis’, 304
305.
19. ‘Bush’ Colleges were African segregated universities established in the Bantustans.
20. Bodibeng is a name given to the school from the Sesotho name for the site where Kroonstad is ‘Bodibeng
ba Dikubu (The pool of hippopotami).
21. J.S.M. Setiloane The History of Black Education in Maokeng, Kroonstad (Pretoria: HSRC, 1997), 9
13.
22. Ibid., 50.
23. Ibid., 53.
24. P. Ntantala A Life’s Mosaic: The Autobiography of Phyllis Ntantala, UWC Mayibuye History Series No. 6
(Cape Town: Mayibuye Centre, David Philip, 1992), 84.
106 TSHEPO MOLOI

whole of the OFS to offer education to African students at the most senior level. The other
school was in Bloemfontein, also in the OFS.25 Other day schools in different parts of the
OFS only went up to the level of Junior Certificate (today Grade 10).26 Furthermore,
Bantu High was the first African school to have an African principal, Reginald Cingo.
Cingo became the principal in 1932. During this period other schools were under white
principals. In 1932, Healdtown High, for example, was under the principalship of Mr Ball,
a Welshman.27 This had a huge impact on the confidence of African communities. In 1966
the school registered with the Joint Matriculation Board (JMB).28 This meant that matric
students at Bodibeng took the University of South Africa (UNISA)-prepared examination
and not the Bantu Education Department’s Senior Certificate.
For these reasons, and later, the National Party (NP) government’s policy of
opposing the building of new secondary and high schools29 in urban areas, dictating
that all new provision for post-primary education should be directed almost exclusively
towards the homelands’,30 Bodibeng High attracted many students, especially those
from the surrounding farms and other townships in the OFS such as Edenville,
Heilbron, Bethlehem, Bothaville, Vredefort, but also from the neighbouring countries
such as Botswana and Lesotho.31 Nana Mahomo is an example of students who left
their hometowns and went to Bantu High because of the dearth of high schools.
Mahomo was born in 1930 in Vereeniging, south of Johannesburg, but grew up in
Edenville, a small farming town about 30 kilometers from Kroonstad. In 1942, after
completing his higher primary schooling, he enrolled at Bantu High to start his Form
1. Because of financial constraints at home, he had to leave school in 1945 after
obtaining his JC.32 This trend continued well into the 1970s. Inevitably, the student
body increased. Phyllis Ntantala in her autobiography estimates that when she arrived
at Bantu High in 1937, about a thousand students studied there, and the school then
started from Sub A to JC.33
Just as Bantu (and later Bodibeng High) attracted students from areas outside
Kroonstad, it was also a prized status for many a teacher to teach at Bantu High. It
was for this reason that the school was always staffed by teachers from different areas,
alongside locals. Dating back to the 1940s the school’s committee, under Cingo, identified
and employed some of the best qualified teachers in the country. Among the most notable
teachers employed at Bantu High during this period was Cingo, whose principalship at the

25. A difference should be noted between day schools and missionary schools. Day schools were not run my
missionaries and did not offer boarding facilities.
26. Ibid., 65; also see the interview with Peter Molotsi by Brown Maaba for the SADET Oral History Project,
Kroonstad, 7 January 2001. I am indebted to Dr Greg Houston, SADET’s executive director, for allowing
me to use this interview.
27. Ibid., 160.
28. Secondary school comprised of Forms One to Three, and High school started from Forms One to Five.
29. See, P. Bonner and L. Segal, Soweto: A History (Cape Town: Longman Maskew Miller, 1998), 78;
Setiloane, The History, 66.
30. See interview with Peter Molotsi. Molotsi became a key figure in the Pan Africanist Congress from the
1960s.
31. Interview with Nana, Mahomo.
32. Ntantala, A Life’s Mosaic, 84; also, see Setiloane, The History, 93.
33. Setiloane, The History, 51.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 107

school spanned a period of more than 23 years.34 He was educated at the Clarkebury
Institute, in the Eastern Cape. Dorrington Matsepe joined the school after qualifying as a
teacher at Healdtown Training College in the Cape Province; likewise Archibald Campbell
Jordan and his wife, Phyllis Ntantala, who both held degrees from Fort Hare.35 According
to Ntantala, when she left Bantu High [in 1946] the school had a staff of 12, only three of
whom lacked college degrees but who were still qualified to teach at high school level.36 In
the 1950s, during Ishmael Mothibatsela’s tenure as the principal, there were 13 teachers
with university degrees out of the staff of 22 members.37
In 1948 the NP government came to power. It advocated for political, social, and
economic segregation. Because of this, it became inevitable that politics would filter down
into the school environment. It was during this period that some of the teachers at Bantu
High began to engage their students in political discussions about the situation in the
country. Peter Molotsi, who later became one of the founding members of the Pan
Africanist Congress (PAC), a breakaway organisation from the ANC, remembers that

the idea that this was our country was always instilled in almost every lesson. . . . The members
of the staff were people with a clear purpose . . . prepared to teach us and liberate us . . .
[Molotsi, continues:]
They delivered two messages, the syllabus and its need and [our] purpose in life . . . Our
teachers were so devoted that they actually taught beyond the syllabus: they taught our minds
to satisfy the needs of the syllabus but they then also prepared us as future citizens of a South
Africa that would be free. They delivered the massage of liberation.38

In addition to the political discussions, students at Bantu High were also encouraged to
engage the teachers without fear of reprisal. Mahomo, also a leading figure in the PAC in
the 1960s, recalls an incident at school when he argued against being punished. In his
words:
Well, the thing that I remember I didn’t like to be punished. So, I came up with this thing
that, you know, for medical reasons I cannot take physical punishment and I will go and do
manual work in the garden. Then he (principal Cingo) said ‘Can I produce evidence? I said
‘Well, it has to come from a doctor and the doctor will ask me why do I need it? Who’s
beating me?’ So, he found that it was difficult for me to accede to that request . . . I just said
‘Look, I’m a school child and I make mistakes . . . and I will take the consequences for
whatever I have done.39

34. Ibid., 83
96; also see interview with Molotsio. It is not surprising that a significant number of educators at
Bantu High during this period were from the Eastern Cape, or had studied there. R.L. Peteni claims that
during the early 19th century the Ciskei and the Transkei, which were in the Eastern Cape, produced more
educated Africans than any other part of South Africa, R.L. Peteni, Towards Tomorrow: The History of the
African Teachers’ Association of South Africa (United States of America: The World Confederation of
Organisations of the Teaching Profession, 1979), 18.
35. Ntantala, A Life’s Mosaic, 85.
36. Ibid., 112.
37. Interview with Molotsi.
38. Interview with Mahomo.
39. Interview with Mahomo and Molotsi.
108 TSHEPO MOLOI

The confidence gained by the students as a result of the political discussions and relative
liberty to express themselves, encouraged them to form a student organisation, the OFS
African Student Association (OFSASA). Molotsi was a member of the association. He
recounts that the OFSASA and the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) were the
main centres of conscientisation to students and they could not help but discuss about
the cost of living for their parents . . .40
To explain the political view evinced by some of the teachers at Bantu High, it is
important to understand their political involvement. Some of the politically minded
teachers such as Jordan, D. Ngqeleni, Cingo and Joe Kokozela were actively involved in
political and trade union formations. Cingo and Kokozela were involved in the township’s
branches of the All-African Convention (AAC) and the Industrial and Commercial
Workers Union (ICU), respectively. Jordan and Nqeleni, on the other hand, were
instrumental in the formation of the Society of Young Africa (SOYA). Parkies Setiloane,
a former member of SOYA recalls:

I was recruited in the 50s by Nqeleni to the AAC. I was a teacher then. And then we had a
youth organisation called SOYA, Society of Young Africa. You see, at the time the ANC was
using boycotts, resistance, and all that to fight oppression. But SOYA was saying educate the
masses first, so that the masses must know their importance in society. Yes, educate the
people first politically; it’s then that you can take action. I can still remember, eh, AC Jordan
came up and lectured us about the AAC. . . . We held meetings in Reverend [Z.R.]Maha-
bane’s study room at the Methodist Manse and discussed about oppression at the time.
Sometimes we would attend conferences.41

Some of the teachers at Bantu also participated in the formation of the OFS Teacher’s
Association (OFSATA). OFSATA was a provincial teacher organisation affiliated to the
African Teachers Association of South Africa (ATASA). In 1943 Jordan was the president-
elect of the association. According to Ntantala, a former member of the association,
OFSATA was formed to challenge the authorities’ position on the teaching profession: ‘the
teacher was not treated as a professional’, but also to ‘start looking critically at their
contracts and the conditions of service’.42 In his presidential address in Bloemfontein in
1944, Jordan focused on the neglected promise for democracy and equality after the
Second World War.43
The teaching method used by some of the teachers at Bantu of fusing the syllabus and
politics came to an end in the 1950s. This was probably because of the NP government’s
decision to tighten the belt on African political resistance during this period. Ntantala,
however, strongly believes it was because the OFSATA was then controlled by

40. Interview with Parkies Setiloane Parkies conducted by Tshepo Moloi, SAHA/Sunday Times Heritage
Project, Kroonstad, 7 December 2006; for a brief discussion about the role of SOYA, see Ntantala, A Life’s
Mosaic, 149
150.
41. Ibid., 120.
42. Peteni, Towards Tomorrow, 72.
43. Ibid., 120. In 1943, A.C. Jordan, while teaching at Bantu High, was the president of OFSATA. By 1945
OFSATA and the Transvaal African Teacher’s Association liaised and coordinated, and they became the
most militant bodies in the whole country.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 109

collaborators, who welcomed Bantu Education.44 Mothibatsela, the principal of Bantu

High from 1955 to 1961, was the Vice-President of OFSATA in the 1950s.45 Concurring
with Ntantala, Jonathan Hyslop observes that the reason the teachers became apolitical
was because they ‘felt strongly that they had something to lose by engaging in militancy’.46
According to him ‘. . . ATASA’s ideology proceeded to assert that teachers should abjure
any form of political activity and that political and educational concerns were absolutely
separate’.47 The reluctance, or even avoidance, to discuss politics with the students by the
majority of the ‘older’ teachers at Bantu High, and later at Bodibeng High, should not,
however, be construed to mean that none of the teachers made attempts to engage the
students politically (more about this below). But these teachers were few and very cautious
in their approach. John Taje, who matriculated in 1962, remembers that principal Setiloane
would ‘occasionally talk about these things (that is, Sharpeville Massacre) during the
parade (assembly). He’d just make us aware of what was happening in the country and
would leave it there’.48
One of the reasons often emphasised by my interviewees when trying to explain the
teachers’ reluctance to discuss politics with the students, particularly in the 1970s, is that
Bodibeng High was bursting with informers, both teachers and students, especially
students whose parents were members of the Special Branch (SB) of the South African
Police (SAP). In his book, Setiloane points out that ‘Those who harboured feelings of the
oppression of the African people, kept such feelings to themselves for fear of incarceration.
There were informers everywhere: in the community and in the schools . . .’49 The SB made
concerted efforts to recruit members of the community to spy for them. Ditsietsi Mmei,
who was born in Maokeng but attended school at Katlehong High, recalls that in 1977
after fleeing from Katlehong for political reasons the Mokatsanyane twins, who were
members of the SB in Kroonstad, attempted to recruit him.50
Tom Lodge comments that

during the 1960s the police were granted unlimited powers of arrest and detention as well as
increasingly lavish budgets. The police recruited an army of informers, whose activities
promoted a climate of fear and distrust, effectively paralyzing any political initiative
amongst Africans.51

In the 1960s Bodibeng High School’s character had changed from that of the 1940s. The
fusion of politics and education had ended. The teachers and students were expected to
solely focus on the syllabus. This paper will now turn to the quiescent period in the history
of Bodibeng High School.

44. Setiloane, The History, 109
114; 166.

45. J. Hyslop ‘Social Conflicts over African Education in South Africa from the 1940s to 1976’ (PhD Thesis,
University of the Witwatersrand, 1990), 181.
46. Ibid., 354.
47. Interview with John Taje, Bloemfontein, 21 May 2009.
48. Setiloane, The History, 140.
49. Interview with Ditsietsi Mmei, Naledi, Soweto, 18 September 2009.
50. T. Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1983), 321.
51. P. Bonner and N. Nieftagodien, Kathorus: A History (Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman), 63.
110 TSHEPO MOLOI

Bodibeng High’s Quiescent Era, 1960s to the Beginning of the 1970s

In the 1960s the NP government experienced two equally important developments. First, it
was successful, albeit temporarily, effectively to break the back of black political resistance
inside the country. Second, it also enjoyed economic boom. Foreign investment was
directed into the country and many people found employment. Living conditions
improved. For example, Bonner and Nieftagodien note that ‘huge amounts of foreign
investment flooded into the country propelling an annual growth of 9.3%’.52 Hyslop adds,
‘the 1960s saw phenomenal increases in employment. In manufacturing, the number of
employees of all races soared from 653,000 in 1960 to 1,069,000 in 1970.’53 Kroonstad also
benefited from this economic boom. ‘In Kroonstad’, Setiloane writes that ‘in the 1960s
there were more shops, garages, restaurants, hotels and suburbs. Factories which were non-
existent in the 1930s and 1940s had now sprung up. Job opportunities were numerous’.54 A
significant number of people living in Maokeng, especially those who did not possess
professional qualifications which would easily maximise their employment opportunities,
found employment in the rapidly expanding economy of Kroonstad.55 It was against this
background that the political quiescence prevailing at Bodibeng during this period should
be understood.
Notwithstanding the changes, students from all over the country continued to enroll at
Bodibeng in their large numbers. Steel Setiloane, who became the principal of the school in
1962, notes that classes were big, some numbering up to more than 50 students per class.56
He estimates that, in 1962, the school had a roll of 400 to 500 students, and in 1972 it had
increased to 1,602, comprising of 831 boys and 771 girls, with a few dropouts in between.
In 1974 it further increased to 1,664: 866 (boys) and 798 (girls).57 In similar vein, Setiloane
continued the trend of recruiting some of the best-qualified teachers. For example, John
Taje, who held a Bachelor of Arts degree and a University Education Diploma from the
University of the North (also known as Turfloop), was employed as an assistant teacher at
Bodibeng in 1968. What this suggests is the school’s unyielding quest to provide the best
education to African students by recruiting among the best-qualified teachers in the
country.
Total dedication and commitment to studies were expected from both teachers and
students. In his first meeting with his staff, Setiloane discussed the policies and procedures
to be followed in the administration of the school. Among the issues emphasised in the
meeting were daily preparations, research, and daily lesson plans. In short, teachers were
expected to teach and nothing more. Taje recalls that they were subjected to rote learning.
Jacob Ramotsoela, a student at Bodibeng in the 1960s concurs: ‘. . . With us teaching was
rote learning: you do Mathematics, you move out. Another teacher comes in. He does

52. J. Hyslop, ‘Social Conflicts over African Education in South Africa from the Late 1940s to 1976’ (PhD
thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1990).
53. Setiloane, The History, 138.
54. A sizeable number of the former students at Bodibeng in the 1970s interviewed recalled that their parents
worked in town as manual labourers or were employed in the suburbs as domestic workers.
55. Ibid., 131.
56. Ibid., 159.
57. Interview with Jacob Ramotsoela, Kroonstad, 16 April 2008.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 111

Woodwork with you and then out. That type of thing. They could not say a single word
about [Dr Hendrik] Verwoerd or Bantu Education.’58
Students, as already mentioned above, were also expected to maintain a high
standard of education at school. To achieve this, Setiloane made it compulsory for
them to attend extra classes. Girls attended morning classes, an hour before the school
starts. Afternoon classes began at 15:00 to 17:00 and these were attended by both girls
and boys. In the evening boys only were expected to return to school to attend night
study, from 19:00 to 21:00. Girls were excluded from night studies for security reasons.
These extra classes were held from Monday to Thursday.59 Setiloane argues that
the ‘extension of this study opportunity to the students was very necessary when one
considered the lack of facilities at their homes or in the township’.60 Extra classes were
taken very seriously and were monitored by teachers and prefects, and failure to attend
meant punishment. Tsiu Oupa Matsepe, who matriculated in 1969, remembers that
there was a time when the whole school was punished for missing the afternoon study.61
In 1975 it was entered in the school’s logbook that Sipho Caluza, Jonas Ramotsoela,
and Solomon Mphatsoe were each given six cuts for being absent from evening
classes.62
In addition, Setiloane made it compulsory for students to speak English and Afrikaans
at school. These operated on a weekly basis, with English alternating with Afrikaans.63
Failure to adhere to this regulation resulted in punishment. Corporal punishment to
enforce discipline became the order of the day. Students at Bodibeng accepted punishment
without question or resistance. This was unlike in the 1980s when one of the students’ main
demands was the abolishing of corporal punishment. Matsepe recalls that before he
matriculated in 1969 corporal punishment was meted out even to the matriculants and
there was nothing untoward about that. In his words

These were the years at high school from Form 1 to Form 5 where, for example, we were
punished even at matric level. It was unheard of even in our time. When we met other
students from other colleges, they just didn’t understand how you could still be punished.
When we went out of matric, we were still simply children and we behaved like children . . .
And we found it to be normal, because that’s how we were brought up. There was nothing
wrong.64

This estranged the relationship between the students and teachers. Unlike in the 1940s
students were not encouraged to engage their teachers. There was always fear of reprisal.
Ramotsoela remembers that during his school days their principal, Mr Setiloane, was
unapproachable. According to him ‘. . . You wouldn’t come near the principal. He would

58. On Wednesday there were no afternoon classes because of sporting activities. But boys were expected to
attend night studies.
59. Setiloane, The History, 133.
60. Interview with Tsui Oupa Matsepe, Welkom, 15 April 2008
61. Logbook, Bodibeng High School, 18 September 1975.
62. See Setiloane, The History, 132
133.
63. Interview with Matsepe, 28 March 2007; 15 April 2008.
64. Interview with Ramotsoale.
112 TSHEPO MOLOI

tell you ‘‘you were a child’’. It was not nice. Even to see him, it was not nice.’65 Similarly,
David Lebethe, a Form 2 student at Bodibeng in 1972, adds
Our principal was not only strict to us, but was feared and respected by both the educated
and uneducated. Every time he would appear, even if he was a distance away, you’d make
sure that you don’t cross his path. That’s how he was.66

Due to this authoritarian behaviour, students at Bodibeng did not dare question their
teachers about anything beyond the syllabus. Equally, the teachers did not feel obliged to
discuss or engage students about any subject not related to the syllabus. Similarly, this
authoritarian behaviour was also practised by parents at home. Parents discouraged their
children from becoming involved in politics. Matsepe remembers that his parents, who were
teachers, tried to dissuade him from participating in political activities by constantly
reminding him that he would be arrested just like [Nelson] Mandela.67 Taje, on the other
hand, recalls that his parents, especially his father did not entertain political discussion in
his house. He observes ‘At home we never talked politics. My father was a bit conservative.
There was no room for politics at home.’68
However, in spite of the repressive nature of the government, authoritarian behaviour of
the teachers and parents, and the absolute desire to provide the best education for the
students at Bodibeng, there were a few teachers who went against the grain and,
cautiously, engaged in political discussions with their students. Setiloane, the principal, is
an example of such a teacher. Setiloane, in addition to being the principal, also taught
English. Tom Mokuane, a Form Three student at Bodibeng in 1971, remembers that it was
Setiloane who conscientised them by telling them about the guerillas. He recalls that he
used to narrate to them that the guerrillas were ‘still in training, but they are coming back’.
Because of this, Mokuane and his classmates began to have an interest in politics. They
started asking themselves questions like ‘Why can’t we mix (that is, associate) with white
people at school, in soccer games or debat[ing] sessions?’69
However, Mokuane remembers that, even though Setiloane used to do this, he was
equally quick to discourage them from joining liberation movements. Mokuane remembers:

There was this guy Seroto [Matikwane], he was bold . . . and he would ask lots of questions.
I remember one day when Mr Setiloane was busy talking about these guerillas he asked:
‘How can one join them?’Mr Setiloane said ‘No, no, you can’t join them because there is no
place you can go to and say you want to register.70

In as much as he tried, Setiloane was unable to discourage and dissuade all the students.
Some, like Seroto, after passing his JC, left Kroonstad for Johannesburg, and finally fled
the country into exile to join Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s military wing.

65. Interview with David Lebethe, J23 April 2008, Johannesburg.

66. Interview with Matsepe.
67. Interview with Taje.
68. Interview with Tom Mokuane, 18 April 2008, Kroonstad.
69. Ibid.
70. http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/lives-of-courage/pages/wall/deaths-exile.htm [accessed 25 August
2008]; interview with Mokouane.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 113

Unfortunately, he was one of the casualties during the raid by the South African Defence
Force (SADF) in Lesotho in1982.71
In spite of the willingness, at great risk, by some of the teachers such as Setiloane and
Mr Matlabe,72 a Geography teacher, to discuss issues beyond the syllabus (or to link the
syllabus with what was happening in the country), with their students, there still remained
clearly defined boundaries between themselves and the students. Ramotsoela remembers
that even after he had been employed as an assistant teacher at Bodibeng (in 1972) he was
still treated as a student. He recalls that the ‘older’ teachers would always instruct him and
Matsepe, who was also employed as an assistant teacher, to leave the staffroom when ‘they
were discussing important matters’.73
Evidently, although some of the ‘older’ teachers were prepared to engage in political
discussions with the students, they still retained their authoritarian tendencies. However,
this did not stop students from finding information about the political situation in the
country. Ironically, this was, again, encouraged indirectly by the teachers. At Bodibeng
High students were encouraged to read daily newspapers. It was in the daily newspapers
like The World and The Post that the students read about the daily events and political
commentaries. Glaser notes that ‘the newspapers even ran some penetrative local news and
commentary which slipped through the censorship net’.74 Privately, then, some of the
students discussed these issues. This was evident in Joseph Litabe’s interview. According to
him, before they attended night study ‘someone would bring a newspaper and we would
hang around on the verandas of shops close by and we would be reading the newspaper
and discussing the news’.75 Unanticipated by the students at Bodibeng, newspapers would
prove to be a useful source of information for them, leading to the August demonstration.
The early 1970s saw a fundamental shift in the relationship between some of the
teachers, especially those who were younger and had been to universities, and the students
at Bodibeng. This signalled the end of the old ways of doing things and the beginning of a
new period in the history of Bodibeng High School. Although Bodibeng High generally
strived to employ qualified teachers, but like many other urban schools, they also
experienced a shortage of teachers. ‘The shortage of teachers’, Hyslop argues, ‘was partly
created by the government’s application of influx control to qualified people who would
otherwise have accepted posts [in urban areas]’.76 To overcome this problem, the principal
and the school’s committee of Bodibeng High employed some of its former students. In
fact, Taje, a former student at Bodibeng and in 1971 was employed as a teacher at his alma
mater, asserts that this had always been the school’s policy under Setiloane. According to
him, Setiloane sought bursaries for some of his matriculants to study at universities, on

71. Mr Matlabe challenged the official Geography textbook, arguing that it did not reflect the true border of
Lesotho. According to him the border of Lesotho went as far as the Vaal River. Interview with Mokuane.
72. Interview with Ramotsoela.
73. Glaser, ‘We must infiltrate’, 304.
74. Interview with Joseph Nchaga Litabe conducted by Tshepo Moloi, SAHA/Sunday Times Heritage Project,
24 January 2007, Kroonstad.
75. J. Hyslop. ‘State Education Policy and the Social Reproduction of the Urban African Working Class: The
Case of the Southern Transvaal 1955
1976’, Journal of South African Studies, 14, 3 (1988), 548
589.
76. Interview with John Taje, 21 May 2009, Bloemfontein.
114 TSHEPO MOLOI

condition that they would return to teach at Bodibeng.77 Students who had not completed
their university studies were employed as assistant teachers and those who had obtained
university degrees were employed on a permanent basis. This was a new calibre of teachers:
young and highly politicised. For some of the students at Bodibeng this was a turning
point.

Teachers and the Role of Black Consciousness Philosophy, Early 1970s 1976
78


In 1970, a year after the launch of SASO, a number of students who had passed matric at
Bodibeng were admitted in different universities to further their studies. Among these,
many went to Turfloop University. It was at Turfloop that many joined SASO and began to
engage in serious political discussions. They became adherents of the BC philosophy.
Matsepe remembers

Then 1969 I matriculated and decided to go to university . . . The wind of black power [was]
emerging in America and then the concept of Black Consciousness arises. At university if
you talk ANC, you know there was going to be trouble. It spelled trouble for you to belong
to the PAC. The one thing any informer could not do is to say you’re being political if you
are talking about blackness. That is not a political concept; it is a cultural concept that says I
am living out my blackness to its fullness. And we would debate issues of black
consciousness. And then life became exciting to me79

Ramotsoela was another student from Bodibeng who studied at Turfloop during this
period. He recalls that his political awareness developed when he started attending the
SASO meetings at university. He explains: ‘these meetings politicized us. They used to
discuss very important political issues like this thing of whites ruling [that is, administering]
the university’.80 Matsepe, on the other hand, claims that through the BC philosophy he
became psychologically liberated and thus began to take pride in being black. In the
process, he began to challenge everything that denigrated his blackness.81 Saleem Badat
writes ‘The positive doctrine that SASO proclaimed itself to uphold was the concept of
Black Consciousness, which was defined as an ‘attitude of mind, a way of life’’.82 Steve
Biko, the first president of SASO, in a paper produced for SASO leadership course,
probably in December 1971, explained the BC philosophy as follows: ‘. . . Black

77. Giving evidence in the Black Peoples Convention (BPC)-SASO Trial in 1976, Steve Biko described SASO
as follows: ‘Is a black student organization working for the liberation of the black man, first, from
psychological oppression by themselves through inferior complex and, secondly, from the physical one
accruing out of living in a white racist society’. I Write What I Like: Steve Biko
A Selection of His
Writings (Johannesburg: Picador Africa, 2004), 110.
78. Interview with Matsepe, 28 March 2008.
79. Interview with Ramotsoela.
80. Interview with Matsepe, 28 March 2008; Steve Biko, president of SASO, giving evidence in the SASO Trial
in 1976 argued that the term black in South Africa is normally in association with negative aspects. See
Biko: I Write What I Like, 114.
81. B. Saleem Black Student Politics: Higher Education and Apartheid, From SASO to SANCO 1968
1990
(Pretoria: HSRC, 1999), 89
82. Biko: I Write What I Like, 52
57; also see D. Woods, Biko (New York, Penguin Books), 175.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 115

Consciousness in essence . . . seeks to demonstrate the lie that black is an aberration from
the ‘normal’ which is white.’83 In short, what the BC philosophy strived to achieve was to
instil pride in black people. It was for this reason that SASO developed the slogan ‘I’m
black and I’m proud’.
In 1972, Turfloop University was closed, following a strike by students after the
expulsion of Onkgopotse Abram Tiro because of his politically loaded speech at a
graduation ceremony at the university.84 In the speech, inter alia, he questioned the
different and unequal education systems used in South Africa for whites, blacks, Coloureds
and Indians. In conclusion, he demanded a system of education common to all like in
America.85 Matsepe was among the 1,14686 students who were expelled. Ramotsoela was
also suspended. They both returned to Kroonstad, and before long were both appointed as
assistant teachers at Bodibeng High. Matsepe taught General Science and Ramotsoela
Mathematics.87
Unknown to the authorities at the time, the expulsion of students like Tiro and others,
helped spread the BC philosophy throughout the country. For instance, these students, just
Matsepe and Ramotsoela, found employment at different schools across the country. Tiro,
for example, was employed as an assistant teacher at Morris Isaacson High School in
Soweto. While there he had a profound influence on Tsietsi Mashinini, whom he taught
History. Long after Tiro had left (and assassinated in Botswana), Mashinini was to lead the
students on 16 June 1976, demanding the abolishing of using Afrikaans as the medium of
instruction in schools.88
It was not long before the new staff members made their presence felt. They broke the
long-observed boundaries between the teachers and students. They not only encouraged
students to express themselves in the classroom, but also overtly introduced them to
political issues. Mpopetsi Dhlamini, former member of staff at Bodibeng, working as a
teacher-clerk, remembers the impact the new staff members
mostly from Turfloop
had
on the learning environment at Bodibeng. He explains:

Let me just call [name] them. It was, eh, Sam Chabedi, Charles Kgotlagomang, eh, Taje
from Turfloop. And then Mokete Rankwe, Sipho Koekoe, Rebecca Tlhagane . . . Then

83. A2176 HP, SASO Collection, Onkgopotsi Tiro’s speech.

84. A2176 SASO Collection, ‘Speech by Tiro’, University of the Witwatersrand Historical and Literary
Papers.
85. M. Vizikhungo Mzamane, B. Maaba, and N. Biko ‘The Black Consciousness Movement’, in The Road to
Democracy in South Africa: Vol. 2 (1970
1980) (Pretoria: UNISA Press for the South Africa Democracy
Education Trust), 143.
86. The employment of university dropouts did not only take place at Bodibeng, but in many other townships
as well. For example, Tiro taught for a while at Morris Isaacson High. See L. Shuster, A Burning Hunger:
One Family Struggle Against Apartheid (London: Jonathan Cape, 2004), 54.
87. Schuster A Burning Hunger, 54; Mandla Seleoane was also expelled from Turfloop University in 1972. He
found employment at Sozama Secondary School in Mhluzi, Middelburg, in the then eastern Transvaal
(today Mpumalanga Province). While at Sozama he influenced students to the extend that they formed the
Mhluzi Student Organisation and in 1976 organised the uprising against being taught in Afrikaans.
Interview with Ben Mokoena, Middelburg, 17 February 2010. Personal interview. See also, P. Holden and
S. Mathabatha ‘The Politics of Resistance: 1948
1990’, in, P. Delius, ed., Mpumalanga: History and
Heritage (Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007), 410
414
88. Interview with Dhlamini, Kroonstad, 16 January 2009.
116 TSHEPO MOLOI

Tshidi Mabote. And then Oudag
Ramotsoela. Well, there was a guy called Philip
Hlatswayo, but he was from Fort Hare; and then there was Oupa Matsepe. Remember some
of them came after the time of Onkgopotse Tiro and these guys were political when they
came around, even their approach to us. Because, as I said, before Bodibeng was strict. No,
not strict but it was disciplined. But these guys came with relaxed attitudes compared to the
older teachers, who emphasized more on discipline (i.e. corporal punishment). Now these
guys would emphasize [that] children must just be relaxed. I mean by way of discussions. But
discipline still be there, you see.89

David Lebethe, a Form 2 student at Bodibeng in 1972, concurs that there was something
different about the new teachers. In his words

My Form 2 in 1972 . . . it was around the same time that there was a national strike by black
universities in the country. Your Turfloop, Ngoye or Zululand University. Now most of the
students from those universities came to teach in black schools, and there were some who
came to Bodibeng. One of which was Oupa Matsepe. Who else came to teach? Eh . . . Sipho
Koekoe, who is now late . . . Over and above the task that they were there to perform, there
was something striking about them, which is that they would wear . . . (pauses) wigs. Not the
artificial wig, but, I mean, they wore your afro hair . . . They were easy going themselves.
And, you know, unlike the sterk (hardened) teachers, who would find it difficult to even
correct [you], but with them it was always easier. And they would sacrifice a lot. They would
not be working your strict office hours: from 07h00 to 14h00. They would be there until very
late. Even come to night studies at times, Saturday studies at times; to come and assist some
of us who were struggling with our subjects . . . Now that was something very striking about
them.90

The newly appointed teachers challenged everything their former teachers believed in. They
avoided punishing students by means of caning them. They believed in talking to the
students. This had a huge impact on the students. The latter adored and respected their
new teachers. The teacher
student relationship changed. For the first time, after a while,
students felt they could approach their teachers for advice, even on matters beyond the
syllabus. Lebethe remembers that in his ‘one-on-one meetings with Matsepe he came to
know more about the BC’.91 However, it was not all the new staff members, younger and
highly political, who did not believe in corporal punishment. Matsepe remembers that
some of his colleagues like ‘Scara Kgotlagomang and Taje used the stick’.92
Matsepe, more than his colleagues, tried from the onset to make it his mission, with
every little chance he got, to introduce students to the BC philosophy. Mokhele Petrose
Theletsane, a Form One student at Bodibeng in 1975, remembers vividly how Matsepe
introduced him to the ideas of BC. He remarks,

I did my Form One at Bodibeng in 1975. That’s where I first met Mr Matsepe. Well, at that
time he was still not qualified but taught us Science. And that’s where I became politically
conscious, because he used a simple thing like when we wrote our names on the [cover page]

89. Interview with Lebethe, 23 April 2008.

90. Ibid.
91. Interview with Matsepe, 15 April 2008.
92. Interview with Theletsane, 16 April 2008; also, see interview with Nhlapo.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 117

of the book like Mokhele Petrose Theletsane. He would call you and say Hey,
mmampharoane hake o eme ba hobone bobejane (Hey, fool stand up so that everyone can
see you’re a baboon). Then he would ask you what was the meaning of this, referring to your
English name? First time we didn’t understand what was going on until he asked us where
did we get our English names and their origins. Do we know the history behind those
names? He started teaching us our own history. He explained to us what we must do. I don’t
think even the principal would have been happy to hear about that. You see . . . he would
instruct us to remove our English names from our books. He would say Hlakola nonsense eo
mampharoane (Remove that nonsense, fool). From Form One onwards all my books were
written Mokhele Theletsane. That’s why even today you see that I only use Mokhele
Theletsane.93

In similar vein, Tsepo Oliphant remembers,

Oupa Matsepe. He was the teacher. Oupa would remind us around March during the parade
to say ‘Hey, people lost their lives because of the passes’. Yes, during the parade. He would
say it. We would cry during the parade all of us. And after his [Matsepe’s] parade you’d feel
like if you could meet a white man, you know.94

Realising the ideological impact he was making on the students through his teachings of
the BC philosophy, Matsepe, with the help of Mokuane, felt it was time to turn the BC
teachings into practice. He established the Maokeng Students Art Club (MASAC), where
students could meet to do art work, but the main objective of the club was to politicise as
many students as possible. Mokuane recalls
from the beginning our aim with Oupa [Matsepe] was to give them [students] latitude to
express themselves . . . And then this freedom of expression we emphasized that they should
not be afraid to express their views. Now that is where issues came up like social inequality:
‘But why do we live like this? And [Oupa] would come up with his own views and opinions.95

Some of the members of MASAC were Tsepo Oliphant, Mkhulu Nhlapo, Lephephelo
Mosala, and Chabeli Chabalala.96 One of the highlights of the art club was Chabalala’s
painting. Oliphant remembers that the latter drew a painting of a black hand strangling
then Prime Minister of South Africa, John Vorster. This, he claims, was admired by all the
students at school.97
Inevitably, the political influence infused on the students by teachers such as Matsepe
and others prompted the students to begin to question the national political status quo
and, later, to challenge the school’s authorities. Oliphant recalls that they started
questioning the blatant racial discrimination prevailing in Kroonstad. They questioned
why their parents were forced to stand outside the shop owned by whites when buying (or

93. Interview with Tsepo, Oliphant, 14 November 2007, Kroonstad; Matsepe was referring to the Sharpeville
massacre of 21 March 1960
94. Interview with Mokuane.
95. Nhlapo and Lephephelo were the leaders of the revolt and were detained for their role.
96. Interview with Oliphant.
97. The local municipality had declared a curfew started from 9 o’clock at night. No black person was
supposed to be in the streets except for those who had Special Permits.
118 TSHEPO MOLOI

told to use a separate entrance)? Why their parents were beaten when returning home from
work at 9 o’clock (at night)?98 And why the discriminatory laws did not affect everybody
(that is, whites).99
It was against this background that some of the students at Bodibeng gradually became
defiant and assertive. As was the case in many black townships around the country in the
early 1970s, some of the students at Bodibeng formed the branch of SASM in 1973. Its
members were Lebethe, Papi Mogoje, Bulara Liphotho, Neo Sello, Prince Mahloane,
Lesole Morobe, and Lee Noge. SASM came into existence in 1968 but was, initially, known
as the African Students’ Movement until it changed its name in 1972 and became SASM.
Its objective was to meet the needs of the urban-based school-going youth.100 From the
beginning, the branch of SASM at Bodibeng was besieged by a myriad of problems. For
instance, it failed to mobilise the mass of students at school. David Lebethe, the branch’s
first and only chairman, recalls that their branch had fewer than 20 members. In addition,
members lacked commitment. The leadership was constantly harrassed by the security
personnel. As time went on, the problems compounded and were no longer bearable,
especially police harassment. Some of the key figures lost interest and the branch ceased to
exist.
However, before it collapsed the Bodibeng branch of SASM embarked on perhaps one
of its most important campaigns. True to its tradition of adherence to the BC, the SASM
organised a boycott against the visit to Kroonstad of Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi in
1973.101 Buthelezi was seen by many in the BC as a sellout, because of his pro-Bantustan
position. In the June 1971 issue of the SASO Newsletter, Steve Biko turned to the problem
of black leaders who operated within the framework of apartheid. In his article,
‘Fragmentation of Black Resistance’, he . . . singled out Chief Buthelezi, once ‘regarded
as the bastion of resistance to the institution of a territorial authority in Zululand, and
accused him of having swayed many people’s minds in favour of accepting Bantustans
and the ethnic politics it represented’.102 Although the visit proceeded, and the students
and teachers from Bodibeng packed the stadium to welcome Buthelezi, Lebethe and his
branch members, and Matsepe, boycotted the event.
In spite of the demise of the Bodibeng SASM branch, the seeds of defiance had been
sown at Bodibeng High. Some of the students began openly to defy their teachers. In 1975
a group of students in matric refused to be punished because they felt that the teachers
were not following the schools’ rules of using corporal punishment. Lewele Modisenyane, a
matric student in 1975, explains ‘. . . they were supposed to record your offences and the
method of punishment should be appropriate’.103 Then the students boycotted lessons.
This resulted in their suspension.104 Not long after the boycott, students protested against

98. Interview with Oliphant.

99. N. Diseko ‘The Origins and Development of the South African Students’ Movement (SASM): 1968
1976’,
Journal of Southern African Studies, 18, 1 (1991), 41
57.
100. Interview with Lebethe; also see Bodibeng High School Logbook, 22 October 1973. I have a copy of this
logbook in my possession.
101. Mzamane et al., ‘The Black Consciousness’, 128.
102. Interview with Lewele Modisenyane, Kroonstad, 9 July 2008.
103. Ibid.; also see Bodibeng High School Logbook, 22 September 1975. I have a copy of this logbook in my
possession.
104. Interview with Modisenyane.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 119

the school’s policy on subjects. Bodibeng had always emphasised the teaching of History.
Students, irrespective of the stream they chose, had to do History. Feeling aggrieved by this
policy, students opposed it and signed a petition in protest.105
Inspired by their seniors, and influenced by the BC philosophy, some of the students in
the lower standards at Bodibeng organised a solidarity demonstration with the students in
Soweto. In the second half of 1976 they took to the streets. The timing of the
demonstration suggests that students at Bodibeng did not demonstrate against the
compulsory use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. In fact, from the oral testimonies
collected from former students at Bodibeng in the 1970s there is evidence to suggest that
Afrikaans was not an issue at Bodibeng. As already shown elsewhere in the paper,
Setiloane made it compulsory for students to speak English and Afrikaans at school.
Because of this, students at Bodibeng developed the capacity to communicate in Afrikaans.
But Taje also points out that Bodibeng took advantage of the department’s exemption
regulation that a school could apply to the DBE to be exempted from teaching in
Afrikaans only if it did not have teachers who could teach other subjects in Afrikaans.106
Taje this was for the school some form of resistance against the department’s policy on
Afrikaans, because the school had teachers who were qualified to teach in Afrikaans.
Theletsane, who was in Form 2 in 1976, concurs:

They were very good . . . particularly those who taught us Accountancy. It was Mr. Jackie
Phalatse . . . Sometimes when he was absent it would be Mr Philip Hlatshwayo. Hlatshwayo
was so good in Afrikaans. He even had an honors [degree] in Afrikaans. At some stage he
was an interpreter at Court, and then here it was only Afrikaans.107

Just like the students in Soweto, students at Bodibeng needed a spark to cause the
explosion.
This was provided by Mekodi Arcilia Morailane, a Science teacher. Morailane
completed her matric at Bantu High School. Thereafter, she enrolled in a number of
universities, a subject she felt not particularly important to discuss in the interview. One
of the universities she attended was the University of Natal in the mid 1960s, at its
Wentworth Campus. She remembers ‘. . . at Wentworth that’s where there were lots of
activities
political activities
in our campus. That’s where I became aware of politics.
We were together with Steve Biko.108 In 1974 Morailane enrolled at Ngoye University
(also known as University of Zululand) after a short stint at Turfloop. ‘When I arrived it
was during that time when that person was killed by a letter bomb’ (that is, Onkgopotse
Tiro).109 Morailane joined the staff of Bodibeng High at the beginning of 1976.110
Although she was not active in politics, she was politically aware. She brought that
political awareness with her to Bodibeng. As a result, she could not stand idle when she
felt the need to conscientise the students.

105. Interview with Taje.

106. Interview with Theletsane.
107. Interview with Arcilia Mekodi Morailane, Balfour, Mpumalanga Province, 16 July 2008.
108. Ibid.
109. Ibid.; Bodibeng High School Logbook, 27. 1. 1976. I have a copy of this logbook in my possession
110. Interview with Nhlapo.
120 TSHEPO MOLOI

The demonstration in August, according to my interviewees, was instigated by what

Morailane had said in class to the students. Nhlapo, one of the student leaders, explains,

In 1976 [Ms] Morailane was teaching me. She had a hidden influence; it was not open. But I
can’t blame her because you could be arrested and you would be taken away. Listen to what
she said ‘You are failing my tests, but you attend everyday. What about Soweto students who
are unable to attend? I think they only attend two days and they pass tests.’ You could hear
that this person is taking you somewhere, but she is not direct. She wanted to be on the safe
side, you see. In Soweto it had already started. After . . . our class, me and Makhema
he is
late now
I said to him ‘Did you hear what Ms. Morailane said?’ ‘Yes, she is right. But she
did not really mean that’, Makhema said. I said ‘Yes, I know she did not mean that’111

In an interview with Joseph ‘Fifi’ Nkomo, a Form Two student at Bodibeng, also concurs
that Morailane indirectly urged them to demonstrate.112 In similar vein, Khotso Sesele, a
Form Two student in 1976, remembers

it was after June the 16th when she [Morailane] one day came into the class and shouted ‘Le
dutse kamona, thaka tsa lona di a lwana kwana ka ntle’ (You are sitting here in the classroom,
doing nothing when other students are fighting out there).113

However, Morailane remembers this incident differently. She recalls that, after overhearing
some of the students from her school complaining that they had read in the newspaper that
students from Soweto had threatened to come to Kroonstad to beat them because they had
failed to support them, she felt obliged to ‘educate’ her Form Two students about
solidarity. She explains,
I decided that let me teach these children about solidarity, because that’s what they could
express to the kids in Soweto. Otherwise there was no way that they could assist them. I told
these children that ‘You must know there is something called solidarity. Solidarity is like
when you sympathize.

She moved from class to class delivering the same message. Sometimes she went beyond her
advice about solidarity. In her words:

I remember I spoke in the Form Two (G) class but I can’t remember exactly what I said to
them. Oh, I said ‘I mean, you could run around. . .’ But you [must] remember that I’m a
teacher, so I couldn’t say to them they must break down beerhalls and so on. I was just
letting them know that it was possible for them to do something, but must be careful that
they are not arrested. Yes, I said that! But I said it a little.114

111. Interview with Nkomo, 14 April 2008, Kroonstad.

112. Interview with Khotso Sesele, 13 April 2008, Kroonstad.
113. Interview with Morailane.
114. Interview with Nhlapo. This song is one of the old Sesotho folk songs. It is about a woman who complains
that her husband always asks her where she has been. Finally, the woman says ntho ena ke masaoana,
meaning this is nonsense. Also see interview with Litabe and Nkomo.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 121

Probably, feeling ashamed following Morailane’s demeaning comment in class, but also
encouraged by the political lessons they had been receiving from some of the radical
teachers at school, some of the students hastily decided to take action. However, lack of
experience is evident in the planning (or lack thereof) and the execution of the
demonstration. The demonstration was not properly communicated to all the students
at Bodibeng. Only a few male students were privy to the information about the planned
demonstration (this is because the demonstration was discussed during night study); and
students in senior classes, Forms Four and Five were not involved in the plans; and the
leaders had no idea what they wanted to achieve, except to express solidarity with the
students in Soweto.
On 24 August, after night study, students at Bodibeng converged in the school yard,
outside their classrooms, and started singing Ntho ena ke masaoana (This thing is
nonsense), and marched in the direction of the police station and the community hall. On
their way some began hurling stones at the police station and the community hall, and
other government buildings.115 In the hall Gibson Kente’s play Mahlomola was in full
swing. Having heard and read about the student uprisings in Soweto and elsewhere,
security personnel in Kroonstad were in no mood to tolerate any student disturbances.
They rounded up all the leaders and mildly crushed the demonstration. Nkomo remembers
that he was arrested on the very same night of the revolt at his home. He recalls that the
police came and asked: Wie loop die skool daar by Bodibeng? (Who attends school at
Bodibeng?). And that is how he was arrested. Some of the students were arrested days after
the night of the revolt. Khotso Sesele was one of those students. According to him

After those people were arrested there was a moment where people were picked up one by
one for interrogation. When I heard that I was being hunted by the police and I wanted to
save myself the embarrassment of being collected from school . . . so I decided to rather . . .
not attend some studies so that they can fetch me from home. And they definitely arrived on
that day.116

The police were not convinced that the students had organised the demonstration on their
own; rather they strongly believed that there were agitators who used the students. Nkomo
remembers that during interrogation the police would ask: ‘Truly speaking, who influenced
you to do this thing and why?’ It was not long before some of the students broke down
during interrogation and mentioned Morailane’s name. Morailane was picked up from
school and detained under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act of 1967. She was charged with
sabotage and her case was transferred to the Bloemfontein High Court. The police forcibly
turned the students into state witnesses. But this strategy backfired. In court, the students
informed Judge T.M. Steyn that the police had forced them into falsifying or distorting the
truth in their affidavits.117 This weakened the state’s case and Morailane was acquitted. She
returned to school on 1 December 1976; but because of continued police surveillance,

115. Interview with Sesele.

116. University of the Witwatersrand GP: Report of the Commission, 187; also see Weekend World, 28
November 1976.
117. Interview with Morailane; Bodibeng High School Logbook, 1 December 1976. I have a copy of this
logbook in my possession.
122 TSHEPO MOLOI

she finally heeded the advice from some of her colleagues that she must leave Kroonstad.
She finally left Bodibeng High to teach at Tseki High in Qwaqwa.118

Bodibeng High Post-1976

On 19 October 1977 the NP government banned all the BCM-aligned oganisations and
some of the newspapers. This, however, did not have the intended effect to cow some of the
students at Bodibeng High. They were now aware of the liberation struggle and their role
in it. Although, there was no formal organisational structure established at Bodibeng at
this time, some of the students continued to defy and challenge all that they perceived as
either belittling blacks or discriminating against them. In 1978 Mongezi Radebe, a Form
Five student and an active member of the Young Christian Workers (YCW), led a boycott
against the continued use of the Afrikaans textbook titled Man van blydskap by A.A.
Odendaal. Fanela Nkambula, a former student at Bodibeng, remembers that Radebe
addressed them, ‘instigating us that we should not accept this book because of the ideas
which were written in that book were showing that a black person [was] very inferior’.119
Radebe had moved to Bodibeng from Phiritona Secondary School in Heilbron, where
he was active in the Young African Christian Association (YACA)
a youth league of the
Young Women Christian Association. In Maokeng he joined the YCW, which aimed to
bring hope to the young people of the working class; that life is worth living after all, that
things can change, and that the Church of Christ is with them in their struggle to get jobs
and proper wages, and proper housing, and decent level of education.120 Peace Modikoe,
the only female member of the YCW and also a student at Bodibeng, recalls that they
educated young workers about their rights at work.121 Among the campaigns the YCW
engaged in were to erect shelters at bus stops for commuters and to visit elderly people who
had no one to look after them.122 For his involvement in the YCW, Radebe was detained
twice while doing Form Five and was severely tortured.123 Modikoe was also detained in
1978.124
The late 1970s also saw a fundamental shift in the involvement of teachers in politics.
Some of the teachers at Bodibeng began to participate actively in politics. This was evident
when some of them were detained for being in possession of undesirable literature. These
were Japie Ramoji, Benjamin Zothwane, and M. Sesele. The latter was released from
detention after a month.125

118. Interview with Fanela Nkambule, 28 October 2008, Kroonstad; also see interview with Theletsane.
119. University of the Witwatersrand HP, A2675 (Folder 978) ‘EcuNews Bulletin 21/1978’ Karis-Gehart
Collection, Political documents; the YCW was established in 1923 in Belgium by Cardinal Cardijn.
120. Interview with Peace Modikoe, Dagbreek, Welkom, 25 October 2009.
121. Interview with Mongezi Radebe by Julie Frederikse (no date), see AL2460 (Box A31) Julie Frederikse
Collection, South African History Archives (hereafter SAHA).
122. Interview with Radebe; interview with Nkambule and Ramotsoela; Bodibeng High School Logbook, 2
June 1978. I have a copy of this logbook in my possession.
123. University of the Witwatersrand HP, A2675 9Folder 978) Karis-Gerhart Collection, Political documents.
124. Bodibeng High School Logbook, 2 June 1978 and 26 June 1978. I have a copy of this logbook in my
possession. Zothwane, after spending some years incarcerated on Robben Island, returned to Kroonstad to
take over as principal of Bodibeng in the 1980s and he became active in politics during this period.
125. Setiloane, The History, 173.
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 123

However, students’ defiance and political activism were not the only results bequeathed
by the BC teachings; tensions also developed between the teachers and the students, and
this affected discipline at school and the school’s impressive educational standards.
Setiloane in his book laments the gradual deterioration of ‘the high tone of discipline
instituted over the years at Bodibeng’. He strongly believes that the students’ unbecoming
behaviour was as a result of the teachers. He cites ill discipline among the teachers ‘who
would come late to school and others come smelling of liquor’.126 The school’s logbooks
(from 1977) have entries of complaints both about teachers and students. On 13 September
1977 Mr Jumbe, a teacher, was warned for coming to school drunk; on 31 October 1977,
Mr Thekisho, also a teacher, was warned that his work was unsatisfactory; and on 4 August
1977 students in Form Three refused to be punished for having failed to buy a Sesotho
reader. On the 5 July 1978, Mr Makhanya and Mr Matube, teachers, were requested to
assist in disciplining (that is, punishing) students who had arrived late, they refused. On 19
March 1979 a number of boys were suspended for belonging to a group that stole books
from school and sold them to outsiders.127
As a result of this unbecoming behaviour by teachers and students, the school’s matric
results gradually declined from 1977. Setiloane writes that in 1977 there was a 78.9 per cent
pass in matric and in 1978, 66.7 per cent passed.128 Over the years the pass rate at
Bodibeng declined. The results worsened after the 1985 student revolts. In 2008, Bodibeng
managed to obtain 39.7 per cent pass.129

Conclusion

This paper has demonstrated the role played by the teachers and the BC philosophy in
influencing some of the students at Bodibeng High School to demonstrate in 1976. Second,
it has shown that Bodibeng High (before 1967 it was called Bantu United School)
experienced political radicalism by teachers in different phases. From the 1940s to the early
1950s teachers engaged openly in political discussions with the students, but from the mid
1950s to the beginning of the 1970s, it was a period of quiescence. In the early 1970s, there
was the revival of active engagement in politics by some of the teachers and students.
Finally, the paper has illustrated that the change in the behaviour of the students from
submissive and apolitical to defiant and political, first, radicalised some of the students;
they began seriously to question the status quo in the school and in their town, at times
challenged it; but this behavioural change also had negative impact on the excellent
educational standards instituted over the years at Bodibeng. It encouraged lack of
discipline and affected the school’s pass rate.

126. Logbooks 1977
1979.

127. Setiloane, The History, 177.
128. Kroonnuus, 13 January 2009. This is a local newspaper. I have a copy in my possession.
124 TSHEPO MOLOI

Acknowledgements

The support of the Ford Foundation, with whose assistance the research for this study was
carried out, is gratefully acknowledged. I would also like to acknowledge the valuable
comments made on this paper by Professors Philip Bonner and Linda Chisholm, and Dr
Sifiso Ndlovu.

References
Archival

Bodibeng High School, 18 September 1975 Logbook.

Bodibeng High School, 22 September 1975 Logbook.
Bodibeng High School, 27 January 1976 Logbook.
Bodibeng High School, 1 December 1976 Logbook.
Bodibeng High School, 2 June 1978 Logbook.
Bodibeng High School, 2 June 1978 Logbook.
University of the Witwatersrand Historical Papers (hereafter HP), A2675 (Folder 978) ‘EcuNews
Bulletin 21/1978’ Karis-Gehart Collection, Political documents.
University of the Witwatersrand HP, A2675 (Folder 978) Karis-Gerhart Collection, Political
documents.
AL2460 (Box A31) Julie Frederikse Collection, South African History Archives (hereafter SAHA).
Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Riots at Soweto and Elsewhere from the 16th of June
1976 to the 28th of February 1977, Vol. 1(Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand
Government Publications, 1980).

Unpublished dissertations and theses

Hyslop, J., ‘Social Conflicts over African Education in South Africa from the 1940s to 1976’ (PhD
Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1990).
Lekgoathi, P., ‘Reconstructing the History of Educational Transformation in a Rural Transvaal
Chiefdom: The Radicalization of Teachers in Zebediela from the early 1950s to the Early 1990s
(MA Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1995).
Pohlandt-McComick, H., ‘I Saw a Nightmare . . .’ Doing Violence to Memory: The Soweto Uprising,
June 16, 1976 (PhD Thesis, University of Minnesota, 1999).

Newspaper articles

Weekend World, 28 November 1976.

Kroonnuus, 13 January 2009.

Secondary sources

Biko, S., I write what I like: Steve Biko
A Selection of his Writings (Johannesburg: Picador Africa,
2004).
Bonner, P., ‘The Soweto Uprising of June 1976’, in Turning Points in History: People, Places and
Apartheid. Book 5 (Johannesburg: STE Publishers, 2004).
Bonner, P. and Nieftagodien, N., Alexandra: A History (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2001).
Bonner, P. and Nieftagodien, N., Kathorus: A History (Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman).
 BODIBENG HIGH SCHOOL 125

Bonner, P. and Segal, L., Soweto: A History (Cape Town: Longman Maskew Miller, 1998).
Brooks, A. and Brickhill, J., Whirlwind Before the Storm: The Origins and Development of the
Uprising in Soweto and the Rest of South Africa from June to December 1976 (London:
International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1980).
Delius, P., ed., Mpumalanga: History and Heritage (Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press,
2007).
Diseko, N., ‘The Origins and Development of the South African Students’ Movement (SASM).:
1968
1976’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 18, 1 (1991).
Glaser, C., ‘We must Infiltrate the Tsotsis: School Politics and Youth Gangs in Soweto, 1968
1976’,
Journal of Southern African Studies, 24, 2 (1998).
Hirson, H., Year of Fire, Year of Ash: The Soweto Revolt: Roots of a revolution? (London: Zed Press,
1979).
Holden, P. and Mathabatha, S., ‘The Politics of Resistance: 1948
1990’, in P. Delius, ed.,
Mpumalanga: History and Heritage (Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2007).
Hyslop, J., ‘State Education Policy and the Social Reproduction of the Urban African Working
Class: The Case of the Southern Transvaal 1955
1976’, Journal of South African Studies, 14, 3,
(1988).
Kane-Berman, J., Soweto: Black Revolt, White Reaction (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1978).;
Lodge, T., Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1983).
Mathabatha, J.S.N., The Struggle over Education in the Northern Transvaal: The Case of Catholic
Mission Schools, 1948
1994 (Amsterdam: Rozenburg Publishers, SAVUSA/NiZA, 2005).
Mzamane, M.V., Maaba, B. and Biko, N., ‘The Black Consciousness Movement’, in The Road to
Democracy in South Africa: Vol. 2 (1970
1980) (Pretoria: UNISA Press for the South Africa
Democracy Education Trust).
Ndlovu, S., The Soweto Uprisings: Counter-memories of June 1976 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press,
1998).
Ndlovu, S., ‘The Soweto Uprising’, in The Road to Democracy in South Africa: Vol. 2 (1970
1980)
(Pretoria: UNISA Press for the South African Democracy Education Trust, 2006).
Ntantala, P., A Life’s Mosaic: The Autobiography of Phyllis Ntantala, UWC Mayibuye History Series
No. 6 (Cape Town: Mayibuye Centre, David Philip, 1992).
Peteni, R.L., Towards Tomorrow: The History of the African Teachers’ Association of South Africa
(United States of America: The World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching
Profession, 1979).
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1990 (Pretoria: HSRC, 1999).
Setiloane, J.S.M., The History of Black Education in Maokeng, Kroonstad (Pretoria: HSRC, 1997).
Shuster, L., A Burning Hunger: One Family Struggle Against Apartheid (London: Jonathan Cape,
2004).
Woods, D., Biko (New York: Penguin Books).

Interviews

Dhlamini, Mpopesi, Kroonstad, 16 January 2009.

Lebethe, David, Johannesburg, 23 April 2008.
Litabe, Joseph Nchaga, conducted by Tshepo Moloi, SAHA/Sunday Times Heritage Project,
Kroonstad, 24 January 2007.
Mahomo, Nana, Kempton Park, 10 April 2008.
Matsepe, Tsiu Oupa, Welkom, 28 March 2007 and 15 April 2008.
Modikoe, Peace, Welkom, 25 October 2009.
126 TSHEPO MOLOI

Modisenyane, Lewele, Kroonstad, 9 July 2008.

Mokuane, Tom, Kroonstad, 18 April 2008.
Molotsi, Peter by Brown, Maaba for the SADET Oral History Project, Kroonstad, 7 January 2001.
Morailane, Arcilia Mekodi, Siyathemba, Balfour, 16 July 2008.
Mmei, Ditsietsi, Naledi, Soweto, 18 September 2009.
Nkambule, Fanela, Kroonstad, 28 October 2008.
Nkomo, Joseph, Kroonstad,14 April 2008.
Radebe, Mongezi (no date) AL2460 (Box A31) Julie Frederikse Collection, SAHA.
Ramotsoela, Jacob, Kroonstad, 16 April 2008.
Setiloane, Parkies conducted by Tshepo Moloi, SAHA/Sunday Times Heritage Project, Kroonstad, 7
December 2006.
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http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/lives-of-courage/pages/wall/deaths-exile.htm [accessed 25
August 2009].
Different rules for different teachers:
teachers’ views of professionalism and
accountability in a bifurcated education
system1

Nimi Hoffman, Yusuf Sayed and Azeem

Badroodien

Abstract

This paper reports the initial results from a representative survey of teachers in the Western
Cape regarding their views of professionalism and accountability. This is the first survey of
its kind in South Africa. Preliminary analysis of the data from 115 public schools suggests
that teachers at no-fee schools, who are predominantly black women, report facing the
greatest institutional burdens and the greatest need for institutional support, particularly
from the state. Related to this, they tend to stress pastoral care-work as central to being a
professional, while those at fee-paying schools stress their claims to pedagogical knowledge
and job prestige. This indicates that teachers at different schools are subject to different and
unequal institutions (or rules), where the kind of school that teachers work at often reflects
their race and gender positioning. It also implies that the concept of a bifurcated education
system, characterised by different production functions and outcomes for learners, should
be expanded to include teachers and deepened to include institutions.2

1
The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) for the South African
Research Chair in Teacher Education towards this research is hereby acknowledged.
Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not
necessarily to be attributed to the NRF or its partners.
2
The authors would like to thank the Western Cape Education Department, the Department of
Basic Education, the South African Council for Educators, the South African Democratic
Teachers’ Union, and the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa, as
well as other stakeholders for their invaluable support for the project. The authors would also
like to thank all members of the Centre for International Teacher Education for providing a
consistently supportive and intellectually rich environment to conduct the research. The
special contribution of all the fieldworkers, especially Xolisa Mdleleni, is hereby
acknowledged.
124 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

Introduction
This paper reports the initial results from a representative survey of teachers’
understandings of their work in the Western Cape, the first of its kind in
South Africa. The survey is ongoing; however, a descriptive analysis of the
current data from 115 schools is instructive. In this paper, we consider
teachers’ understandings of professionalism and accountability. We ask: how
do race, gender and class shape teachers’ understandings of their work, and
what does this reveal about how their schools function?

The paper proceeds as follows. We first sketch debates on professionalism

and accountability, and link these debates to literature on the bifurcated
education system and the role of institutions in reproducing inequality. We
then set out the research problem and design. In the descriptive analysis, we
consider the types of educational inequalities surveyed teachers face. We then
consider the interplay between teachers’ institutional positioning and their
perceptions of what professionalism consists of, whom they feel they should
be accountable to, and the obstacles they face in being professionals.

We find that teachers at no-fee schools, who are predominantly black women,
report facing the greatest institutional burdens and the greatest need for
institutional support, from both state and non-state actors. Related to this, they
tend to stress pastoral care-work as being central to their conceptualisation of
what it is to be a professional teacher, while those at fee-paying schools stress
their claims to pedagogical knowledge and job prestige.

These results add to the literature characterising South Africa’s education

system as a tale of two schooling systems, one for a multi-racial elite, and the
other for an impoverished black majority. The findings suggest that the
concept of a bifurcated education system should be expanded beyond learners
to include teachers, and that it should be deepened to include institutions that
are differentiated by race, class and gender. We argue that doing so lays the
groundwork for a causal analysis of how the bifurcated education system
reproduces itself. This is in turn useful for identifying counter-measures for a
more equitable system.
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 125

Literature overview

The professional status of teachers is a contested one. Do teachers occupy the

position of the classical professions, such as doctors and lawyers, or are they
closer to other kinds of groups, such as nurses or social workers? At the heart
of this scholarly debate lie differing views of teachers’ claims to autonomy,
knowledge and service (Locke, 2004; Sexton, 2007; Gamble, 2010). The
strength of teachers’ claims to autonomy and knowledge is arguably related to
how they are perceived and governed by the state and the public in general.
The weaker the claim, the less their perceived status and esteem. The stronger
the claim, the more they are seen as members of a legitimate profession.

The debate over teachers’ professional status is not only scholarly but also
political. A number of scholars interpret the debate as an ideological contest
over different forms of educational governance (Sachs, 2001; Stevenson,
Carter and Passy, 2007; Hilferty, 2008). This debate is sometimes interpreted
in terms of a contest between ‘democratic’ and ‘managerialist’ views of
educational governance (Sachs, 2001; Whitty, 2006; Gamble, 2010;
Hargreaves and Fullan, 2013; Silova and Brehm, 2013). More ‘democratic’
views of educational governance are viewed as according greater value to
teachers’ agency and autonomy; they are understood to conceptualise
educational excellence as a form of horizontal collaboration between teachers
and various constituencies, including learners, parents, unions and the state,
where such collaboration enables teachers’ creative autonomy. In contrast,
more ‘managerialist’ views of educational governance are viewed as placing
less emphasis on the value of teachers’ autonomy; instead they are understood
to conceptualise educational excellence through vertical accountability to
state and/or corporate actors, so that education is standardised and efficient.

Insofar as teachers’ claims to professionalism are shaped by situational and

institutional factors, their professional standing is fluid and may change over
time (Day, Kington, Stobart and Sammons, 2006). In this regard, Hargreaves
(2000) argues that there have been discrete historical phases of
professionalism: the pre-professional age, the age of the autonomous
professional, the age of the collegial professional, and the post-professional
age. For Hargreaves (2000), teachers’ claims to professionalism were at its
height in the age of the autonomous professional, but have since been eroded.
He argues that in the post-professional period particularly, the state has
subjected schools to market principles such that they are governed under
126 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

precepts of economic efficiency and competition for students and resources.

Teachers and their professional organisations are seen as obstacles to the
marketisation of education. They are therefore restricted in the scope of their
decision-making, coaxed into more temporary contracts and subject to
“discourses of derision” that hold them responsible for the alleged ills of
public or state education. The effect of all this is to return teaching to a low-
status, amateur, almost pre-modern craft, where teachers have to deal with
centralised curricula and testing regimes and cope with ever-increasing
bureaucratic demands that erode their classroom autonomy and judgement
(Hargreaves, 2000, 167–169). However, such analyses are based
predominantly in Anglo-American experiences. As de Clercq (2013) argues,
post-colonial societies that are riven by inequalities in teacher education and
working conditions may experience all four periods simultaneously.

In post-colonial contexts, teachers’ claims to professionalism do not only rest

on issues of knowledge, autonomy and service, but also centrally involve
issues of unequal access to resources and conflicts over the exercise of
political rights. In a number of African countries, teachers' claims to
professionalism and their relationship with the state have been characterised
by prolonged struggle and contestation. In the wake of the legacy of European
colonialism, African teachers have had little say in determining their
conditions of service and status as professionals or workers. Thus, although
teacher unions in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia were
key actors in struggles for independence in the 1960s (Govender, 2009), they
have had limited success in determining conditions of service and impacting
broader policy matters in subsequent decades (Kalusopa, Otoo and
Shindondola-Mote, 2013). Some have argued that this lack of influence was
due to constraints resulting from the emergence of autocratic governments
linked to the imposition of Structural Adjustment Programmes by the IMF
and the World Bank following balance of payment crises during the 1980s
(Carnoy, 1995; Chisholm, 1999 and Kalusopa et al., 2013). Recently, a
number of states have experimented with several market-based interventions.
These include introducing low-cost private schools that use untrained
community members to teach scripted curricula via tablets, casualising
teacher employment and linking their pay to performance, as well as
outsourcing the administration of public schools to for-profit companies
(Hoffmann, 2016). A number of these experiments have gained significant
traction by virtue of their financial and political backing by powerful actors,
such as Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook), the Gates Foundation,
the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, and the
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 127

United States Agency for International Development. However, they have

also been intensely contested by teacher unions and parents' associations
(Bold Kimenyi, Mwabu, Ng’ang’a and Sandefur, 2013), as well as by the
United Nations' Special Rapporteur for the right to education (Singh, 2016).

In South Africa, these struggles with the state over educational inequalities
are brought into profound relief. Teachers’ professional status and levels of
accountability remain strongly shaped by race and class, reflecting colonial
and apartheid histories of education (Vilardo, 1996; Kallaway, 2002; Ndlovu,
2002). For example, the apartheid education system was designed to produce
compliant subjects across the entire population, using race as the primary
mediator in the reproduction of social and economic inequalities (Turner,
1972; Cross, 1986; Adhikari, 1993; Vilardo, 1996; Ndlovu, 2002). In this, the
state vested black teachers with substantially poorer quality training, less
autonomy, lower wages, and less educational resources, relative to white
teachers. These differences found expression in political contestations over
teachers’ proximity to the state, and by extension, debates about whom
teachers should be accountable to and whether teachers should identify as
professionals or as members of an oppressed black working class (Vilardo,
1996; Kihn, 2002; Govender, 2004).

In the post-1994 dispensation, the schooling system continues to reproduce

inequalities along racial and class lines, despite a raft of policies introduced
by the state to equalise schooling, including the rationalisation of government
funding (Sayed and Kanjee, 2013).3 This is most evident in schools not being
fundamentally desegregated; with previous white schools becoming home to a
deracialised economic elite, and black schools continuing to mainly educate
poor black learners (Chisholm, 2004; Motala, 2009; Spaull, 2013; Taylor and
Taylor, 2013). This segregation is accompanied by substantial inequality:
learners at black schools have literacy and numeracy scores far below the
scores of learners at historically white schools in South Africa, or even at
schools in other (poorer) African countries (Hungi. Makuwa, Ross, Saito,
Dolata and Van Capelle, 2011). This context has given rise to strong scholarly
and political debates about how teachers can be held accountable and whether
unions subvert or enable professionalism and accountability in education
(Kanjee and Sayed, 2013; Govender, 2015; Spaull, 2015).

3
However, this does not take into account school fees. When these are added to the funding
mix, then historically white schools receive the highest per capita expenditure (Motala, 2006;
2009)
128 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

Moreover, the history of teacher professionalism in South Africa is not only

raced and classed, but is also gendered. The interplay between these
categories in a South African context complicates historical narratives of the
rise of professions in western Europe, where a number of authors argue that
professionalisation was essentially a patriarchal process in two senses: first,
occupations dominated by men tend to have a more 'fully professional' social
standing; and second, the process of professionalisation plays a role in the
maintenance and development of patriarchal social relations (Hearn, 1982;
Witz, 2013; Suddaby and Muzio, 2015). Since the majority of teachers are
women, the status of teaching as a profession is inherently open to question
and doubt. In a pioneering study, however, Clark (1998) argues that in South
Africa narratives of gender are deeply interwoven with race and the
establishment of a settler regime. Clark (1998) argues that only white women
were at first allowed to become teachers, with their entry into teaching guided
by notions of what counted as appropriate spheres for women to work and
move in, ideas of sexual hygiene and comportment, and beliefs about what
constituted suitable knowledge for a female teacher (knowledge of cooking,
for instance. rather than mathematics or physics). Later on, however, black
women were allowed to enter the teaching profession, with their entry into the
profession regarded as an explicit attempt to reconstitute normative ideas of
African femininity, by domesticating and racing black women in particular
ways. Moreover, in line with their institutional positioning as legal minors,
black women were subject to much stricter vertical accountability regimes
than white women, their access to knowledge was far more tightly
circumscribed and their remuneration was substantially lower. In this context,
the relationship between gender, race and class plays a strong analytical role
in understanding both normative ideals about teachers and how teachers
conceptualise and experience their work.

The relationship between teachers’ positionality and their beliefs is arguably

central to an institutional analysis of the causal mechanisms underlying
persistent education inequalities. The point of departure here is the concept of
a “bifurcated”” education system (Sayed and Soudien, 2005; Sayed 2016), in
which poor black schools are systematically unable to convert resource inputs
into learner outcomes relative to historically white schools in South Africa, or
schools in other (poorer) African countries.

One way of understanding the different processes underlying two education

sub-systems is to highlight the role of institutions, which provide the formal
and informal rules that are understood and used by different communities and
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 129

that establish the ‘working do’s and dont’s’ for community members (Hess
and Ostrom, 2007).4 In this, institutions can have formal policies such as the
Amended National Norms and Standards for School Funding that have
different financing mechanisms for poor and rich schools (DBE, 2006).
Institutions can also have informal, tacit rules that guide the behaviour of
education actors. For instance, the rules governing acceptable teacher
absenteeism might differ across schools resulting in different absentee rates.
These formal and informal aspects of institutions can combine to enable and
constrain teachers’ behaviour in ways that create and embed social
hierarchies.

Teachers’ beliefs are very likely a key mechanism by which institutions

reproduce inequality. While this paper is interested in inequality between
teachers, rather than inequality between individual learners, there are a
number of experimental studies which demonstrate the general principle that
teachers’ beliefs can help reproduce inequality, in the sense that their beliefs
about unequal social status can lead to substantial achievement gaps amongst
their learners (Steele and Aronson, 1995; Steele, 1997; Hoff and Pandey,
2004; Einav and Yariv, 2006). These studies trace the way in which such
beliefs reflect institutions, or rules, that establish unequal treatment for
different groups, and are invested with particular social meanings through
narratives that attempt to legitimise them (Hoff and Stiglitz, 2010). In light of
this, the relationship between teachers' views and institutions matters in two
ways. First, teachers’ views can indicate the ways in which institutions
(particularly informal aspects) reflect social hierarchies; this is the first step in
telling a causal story about how the bifurcated education system reproduces
itself. Second, understanding how institutions create and reproduce inequality
can be useful for identifying counter-measures for a more equitable education
system.

Research problem

There is limited empirical evidence in South Africa, or internationally, of how

teachers understand their role as professionals in the classroom and how they

4
The focus on institutions is broadly located within new institutionalism, where the importance
of culture and symbolism is given much greater emphasis in institutional analysis than that found
in ‘old institutional’ analyses of organisations and behaviours, which focus only on political and
economic factors (Ostrom, 2010).
130 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

perceive this professional role in relation to their accountability to different

educational actors, including the state, school management, other teachers and
learners (De Clercq, 2013; Govender, Sayed and Hoffman, 2016).
Quantitative studies of schools in South Africa focus largely on learners’
performance and socio-economic status, where data on teachers is collected
and the focus is on their content knowledge and beliefs about their
competencies (Khosa, 2010; Hungi et al., 2011). Consequently, there is a
need to gather systematic research on how teachers understand their role as
professionals, and how race, class and gender shape their understandings and
experiences of what it is to be a professional teacher.

The data analysed in this paper comes from a survey of teachers at public
schools in the Western Cape. The survey was designed to elicit teachers’
views on their role as professionals and how they perceive this role in relation
to their accountability to different social actors, including the state, school
management and learners. A guiding hypothesis was that race, class and
gender are important mediators of teachers’ experiences and perceptions. A
second hypothesis was that institutions matter to the views and experiences of
teachers, and that these institutions reflect race, class and gender inequalities.

Research design

Before undertaking the survey, we conducted a literature review, encompassing

theoretical and empirical research in Anglo-American and African scholarship
(including South African scholarship), with a special emphasis on debates
concerning colonisation, apartheid and the role of unions in education (Govender
et al., 2016). Based on the literature review, we developed a questionnaire that
an external panel of experts then examined. We piloted the questionnaire at three
public schools and then revised it, primarily shortening the questionnaire and
modifying ambiguous or confusing questions.

The survey was designed to be representative of public schools with regard to

two important categories: their location in rural and urban districts, and their
status as fee-paying or no-fee schools (as captured by their quintile status). The
logistical constraints of the study meant that schools were not selected for
representivity in other categories, such as school size and phase. 180 schools
were randomly selected with 4540 teachers as potential respondents (see Figure
1). Schools were sampled to allow for a minimum response rate of 51% for
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 131

Figure 1: Distribution of surveyed schools (sampled schools in red, unsampled schools in

blue)
132 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

teachers. Currently, 52% of teachers and 71% of schools have responded

positively, although the survey is still ongoing.

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Western Cape Education
District and Cape Peninsula University of Technology. All respondents gave
their informed consent to participate in the study. Respondents completed a
self-administered questionnaire in English or Afrikaans, according to their
preference (principals at isiXhosa medium schools rejected questionnaires in
isiXhosa, citing relatively higher English literacy). Fieldworkers administered
the questionnaire after school. Teachers typically took thirty minutes to
complete the questionnaire, but they were allowed as much time as they
wished.

The anonymous questionnaire consisted of 180 questions in 8 categories: (1)

demographics, (2) professionalism, (3) autonomy, (4) continuous professional
development, (5) policies that affect teachers, (6) accountability, (7) teacher
organisations, and (8) violence in schools. The questions were in likert scale
and dichotomous (yes/no) formats. In addition, fieldworkers completed their
own questionnaire concerning their observations of the school infrastructure,
their interaction with the principal, and any questions teachers had regarding
the questionnaire.

Drawing from the literature review, the questionnaire focused on five main
characteristics of professionalism: knowledge, autonomy, service,
qualifications, and political identity. We also asked questions about the main
obstacles to being a professional teacher, and here we focused on the social
standing of teachers (including their remuneration and community standing),
constraints on autonomy, the availability of resources (including both
physical infrastructure and knowledge resources), workloads and institutional
support for teachers. With regard to accountability, we considered which
groups teachers felt most accountable to. We included items on both vertical
accountability (such as accountability to the state) and horizontal
accountability (such as accountability to other teachers).

There are two important limitations to the study’s design. First, since the
survey was voluntary, non-response of schools or teachers is plausibly a
source of sampling bias. Their reasons for declining to participate in the
survey may be correlated with their views and experiences of professionalism
and accountability (Heckman, 1979). Second, on the basis of the pilot data,
informal interviews with teachers in the pilot study, and secondary empirical
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 133

research (Hungi et al., 2011), we have reason to believe that many teachers
have poor literacy skills relative to their oral skills. This implies a greater
cognitive effort to complete the questionnaire, resulting in respondent fatigue
and less accurate results. Ideally, the survey would have been conducted in
interview form, but time and budgetary constraints did not permit this option,
so the questionnaire was simplified and shortened as much as possible.

Preliminary analysis

Sample characteristics

Since the survey is not yet complete (71% of target schools had been surveyed
at the time of writing), this preliminary analysis treats the data as a
population, rather than as a representative sample. However, it is useful to
check whether the sample proportions match those of the population. Here we
report the proportions of teachers at no-fee and fee-paying public schools, as
well as the racial composition of teachers.

By government policy, schools in Quintiles 1 to 3 do not charge fees, while

Quintiles 4 to 5 charge fees (Department of Education, 2006). In the sample,
the proportion of no-fee schools to fee-paying schools corresponds with that
of the population (Table 1.1). Although the survey was not designed for the
racial representivity of teachers, the composition of teachers in the sample
corresponds with that of different groups in the population (Table 1.2).

Table 1.1: Fee and no-fee paying schools in the Western Cape and from
survey data

Western Cape data Survey data

School type Frequency % of cases Frequency % of cases
No-fee school (Quintile 1–3) 671 46% 51 44%
Fee-paying school (Quintile 4–5) 786 54% 64 56%
Total public schools 1457 100% 115 100%

Notes: WCED data is missing information for 8 schools, which are not included in this table.
134 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

Table 1.2: Race composition of teachers in the Western Cape and from
survey data

Western Cape data Survey data

Race Frequency % of cases Frequency % of cases
African/Black 6 888 19% 393 17%
Coloured 18 370 50% 1 164 51%
Indian/Asian 306 1% 35 2%
Other 327 1% 37 2%
White 10 568 29% 569 25%
No response - - 89 4%
Total 36 459 100% 2 287 100%

What kinds of educational inequalities do teachers face in terms of

race, gender and class?

A breakdown of teacher characteristics by race and gender suggests that, on

average, African and coloured women bear the brunt of educational
inequalities, while white and Indian women indicate greater advantage
relative to other women (Table 2).5 This provides grounds for grouping
African and coloured women together under the term ‘black women’ in order
to investigate the intersection of race and class in a clear and simple way. An
analysis of the difference in means for black women compared to other groups
provides the following statistically significant and substantive results (Table
3):
! 58% of black women work at no-fee schools compared to 33% of other
teachers

! Black women teach classes that are 14% larger on average than classes
of other groups

5
Coloured women are the least qualified and are least likely to send their children to their own
school relative to all other groups. African women have the largest class sizes, work
overwhelmingly at no-fee schools, and tend not to live in their school community. White
women indicate greater advantages relative to all black women, save for their
disproportionate status as temporary teachers. Indian women indicate similar characteristics
to white women, but have a much greater presence on the school management team than all
other women and a lower incidence of temporary employment than white women. Women
across racial categories tend to indicate greater disadvantages relative to men, but in some
instances white and Indian women indicate greater advantage than black men, as noted in
Table 2 above.
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 135

! 48% of black women have a university qualification in contrast with

65% of other teachers

! 14% of black women have a school leadership role compared with 22%
of other teachers

! 47% of black women send their children to their school or would do so

if they had children, compared to 51% of other teachers

! 38% of black women live in their school communities while 43% of

other teachers do so
136 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

Table 2: Teacher characteristics by race and gender

Female
African Coloured Indian White Total
0.83 0.48 0 0.18 0.46
No-fee school
(0.09) (0.07) (0) (0.06) (0.05)
0.53 0.46 0.68 0.72 0.55
Has a university qualification
(0.04) (0.03) (0.13) (0.04) (0.02)
0.36 0.39 0.41 0.53 0.42
Lives in school community
(0.05) (0.03) (0.14) (0.06) (0.03)
0.55 0.43 0.50 0.59 0.50
Sends children to own school
(0.03) (0.03) (0.12) (0.06) (0.03)
0.24 0.27 0.24 0.41 0.29
Temporarily employed
(0.04) (0.02) (0.08) (0.03) (0.02)
0.14 0.13 0.32 0.10 0.13
On school management team
(0.02) (0.01) (0.09) (0.01) (0.01)
40.8 36.6 33.4 28.2 35.3
Class size
(0.95) (0.61) (1.29) (0.93) (0.76)

Notes: Robust standard errors corrected for clustering at school level in brackets.

Male
African Coloured Indian White Total
0.75 0.47 0.13 0.10 0.45
No-fee school
(0.09) (0.07) (0.12) (0.06) (0.06)
0.60 0.59 0.88 0.71 0.61
Has a university qualification
(0.08) (0.03) (0.12) (0.05) (0.02)
0.40 0.35 0.38 0.53 0.39
Lives in school community
(0.06) (0.03) (0.17) (0.07) (0.03)
0.54 0.42 0.57 0.68 0.48
Sends children to own school
(0.06) (0.03) (0.19) (0.06) (0.03)
0.23 0.17 0.25 0.32 0.21
Temporarily employed
(0.06) (0.02) (0.15) (0.06) (0.02)
0.30 0.29 0.38 0.26 0.29
On school management team
(0.04) (0.02) (0.17) (0.04) (0.02)
41.3 36.8 40.1 27.5 35.9
Class size
(1.12) (0.62) (4.05) (0.90) (0.72)

Notes: Robust standard errors corrected for clustering at school level in brackets.

This provides grounds for grouping African and coloured women together
under the term ‘black women’ in order to investigate the intersection of race
and class in a clear and simple way. An analysis of the difference in means for
black women compared to other groups provides the following statistically
significant and substantive results (Table 3):
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 137

Table 3: Difference in mean characteristics for black women and other

groups

Not a black
Black female Difference % Difference
female
0.58 0.33 0.24 ***
No-fee school 76%
(0.02) (0.01) (0.01)
0.48 0.65 0.17 ***
Has a university qualification -26%
(0.02) (0.01) (0.02)
0.38 0.43 0.05 **
Lives in school community -12%
(0.02) (0.02) (0.02)
0.47 0.51 0.04 **
Sends children to own school -8%
(0.02) (0.02) (0.02)
0.26 0.28 0.02
Temporarily employed -7%
(0.01) (0.01) (0.02)
0.14 0.22 0.08 ***
On school management team -36%
(0.01) (0.01) (0.02)
37.8 33.2 4.5 ***
Class size 14%
(0.28) (0.29) (0.41)

Notes: Robust standard errors corrected for clustering at school level in brackets.
Significance: *** p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1

These results indicate that black women tend to carry greater educational
burdens (working at poorer schools and teaching larger classes) with less
institutional power to affect change (less formal education and fewer
leadership positions). Sending one’s children to one’s school plausibly
indicates a basic endorsement of the school. On this interpretation
substantially fewer black women endorse the school they work at.

Many of these disadvantages are institutional in nature and concern the kind
of schools in which black women teach. 63% of teachers at no-fee schools are
black women (Table 5.1), and being a black woman is strongly correlated
with teaching at a no-fee school, where this correlation is statistically
significant at the 0.01 level (Table 5.2). But working at a no-fee school is
positively correlated with substantially larger classes, and is negatively
correlated with sending one’s children to one’s school and living in the school
community, where these associations are statistically significant and
substantive (Table 4).

One way of interpreting these patterns is that the rules of the ‘education game’
are skewed in such a way that black women teachers tend to come out losing,
138 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

so that part of the institutional meaning of being a black woman teacher is

multiple disadvantage. This disadvantage finds expression particularly in the
close relationship between being black, female and teaching at a no-fee
school.
Table 4: Correlates of working at a no-fee school

Lives in
Sends children school
Class size3
to own school1 community2

-0.05** -0.03*** 3.35***

No-fee school
(0.02) (0.02) (0.43)

Notes: Robust standard errors corrected for clustering at school level in brackets. Significance: ***
p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1. 1. Probit regression 2. Probit regression. 3. OLS regression

Table 5.1: Race and gender composition of teachers at no-fee and fee schools

No-fee school Fee-paying school

Black female 63% 38%
Black male 25% 19%
White female 7% 26%
White male 1% 8%
Other 4% 9%
Total 100% 100%

Table 5.2: Association between working at a no-fee school and being a black
woman (probit estimation)

No-fee school

0.24***
Black female
(0.02)

Notes: Robust standard errors corrected for clustering at school level in brackets. Significance: ***
p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1

Given the substantive differences between no-fee schools and fee-paying

schools, and the ways in which these differences are raced and gendered, the
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 139

next section considers teachers’ views of professionalism and accountability

in terms of whether they work at no-fee or fee-paying schools. This
distinction is largely consistent with previous work on the bimodal
distribution of schools, in which the wealthiest quartile of schools (25%)
performs very differently from the remaining three quartiles (75%), where the
wealthiest schools are typically fee-paying historically white schools, and the
remainder are typically no-fee historically black schools (Van der Berg, 2008;
Spaull, 2013; Fleisch, 2013).6

What are the most important characteristics of a professional

teacher?

Respondents were asked to indicate what they believed to be the

characteristics of a professional teacher by rating thirteen statements on a
likert scale: ‘strongly disagree’, ‘disagree’, ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree.’ Table
6 presents all the ‘strongly agree’ responses.7 The majority of teachers
emphasise their identity as classical professionals, stressing excellent content
knowledge, intrinsic motivation, collegiality, and an ideal social positioning
similar to that of doctors and lawyers. Teaching skills and lesson preparation
are emphasised by fewer teachers, while a minority stress autonomy in the
classroom and in the political realm as being central to their understanding of
professionalism.

However, there are substantial and statistically significant differences

between teachers at no-fee schools and those at fee-paying schools.
Considerably fewer teachers at no-fee schools emphasise content knowledge
and teaching skills, and fewer claim an identity similar to that of doctors and
lawyers. Instead, many more teachers emphasise placing learners’ interests
first, arriving early before school starts, and knowing all the parents of
learners. In contrast, more teachers at fee-paying schools report that ‘going on
strike’ is incompatible with being a professional.

6
The precise division of this bimodal or bifurcated system is under debate. Some scholars
argue for a division by wealth quartiles (Spaull, 2013), while others use quintiles (Van der
Berg, 2008). In this paper, we use the division into no-fee and fee-paying schools, which
tracks wealth quintiles.
7
Given the nature of likert scales, respondents tend to gravitate towards the centre. We therefore
focus on the tail-end of the distribution (those who strongly agree) as this is more illustrative
of differences between groups.
140 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

Table 6: Proportion of respondents who strongly agree that professional

teachers have the following characteristics

Fees No fees Difference p-value

Must have excellent subject/content knowledge 75.53 67.06 -8.47 ***

Teachers are professionals, like doctors & lawyers 59.07 48.31 -10.76 ***
Must be passionate about teaching 56.16 51.17 -4.99 **
Must always try and support other teachers 51.85 52.75 0.90
Must always place learners' interests first 43.84 49.68 5.84 ***
Must fight against policies that are bad for learners 42.96 39.83 -3.13
Must always arrive early before school starts 43.4 50.53 7.13 ***
Must constantly update knowledge and study further 40.05 44.49 4.44 **
Must have excellent teaching skills 40.14 35.17 -4.97 **
Teachers are professional workers, like social
workers & nurses 36.62 39.41 2.79
Must prepare lessons in advance 34.51 34.75 0.24
Can be ‘political’ & professional 19.98 20.23 0.25
Must know all parents of learners 15.76 22.14 6.38 ***
Teachers are workers, like textile workers
& miners 14.61 15.15 0.54
Cannot go on strike 11.09 6.57 -4.52 ***
Must have curriculum freedom 9.6 11.76 2.16 *
Does not need teaching qualifications 3.43 3.39 -0.04

Notes: Significance: *** p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1. 1.

These differences suggest that teachers at no-fee schools may see pastoral,
care-work as more central to how they understand being professional
teachers, which is an area that is under-explored in the academic literature of
being professional teachers. Which is an area that is relatively less explored in
the academic literature. In contrast, those at fee-paying schools tend to focus
more on their claims to pedagogical knowledge and job prestige. This is more
in line with the normative ideals prevalent in academic literature. One
explanation for these differences may lay in the different obstacles that
teachers face, which we explore in the next section.

What are the most important obstacles to being a professional teacher?

Respondents were asked to indicate what they believed to be obstacles to

being a professional teacher by rating twenty statements on a likert scale:
‘strongly disagree’, ‘disagree’, ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree.’ Table 7 presents
all the ‘strongly agree’ responses. While there is some level of disagreement
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 141

between teachers at different schools regarding their conceptions of

professionalism, the disagreement between teachers regarding their views on
important obstacles to professionalism is both more intense and
comprehensive.

The majority of teachers at fee-paying schools identify low salaries as the

most important obstacle to being a professional; in contrast, the majority of
teachers at no-fee schools emphasise socio-economic problems in the
surrounding community as their chief concern. This is a statistically
significant and substantive difference: 62% of teachers at no-fee schools
stress socio-economic problems in the community, while only 43% of
teachers at fee-paying schools do, where this difference is statistically
significant at the 0.01 level.

These large and statistically significant differences persist for each item in the
survey. Many more teachers at no-fee schools stress learner behaviour and
home background as obstacles, and indicate less support from their
community. Resource allocation, in the form of class size, lack of libraries
and textbooks and poor infrastructure, features far more prominently for
teachers at low-fee schools. Many more of these teachers also indicate a lack
of effective institutional support from education departments, school
management teams, unions and colleagues as being significant obstacles,
where greater emphasis is placed on education departments and the school
management team. Finally, more teachers at no-fee schools identify a lack of
autonomy in the classroom as obstacles to professionalism, in the form of
administrative burdens and a lack of curriculum freedom.
142 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

Table 7: Proportion of respondents who strongly agree that the following

are obstacles to being a professional teacher

Fees No fees Difference p-value

There are too many socio-economic problems

in the community 42.67 61.88 19.21 ***
Teachers' salaries are too low 60.34 59.74 -0.6
My classes are too large 44.88 56.96 12.08 ***
I have too many administrative tasks 45.23 52.78 7.55 ***
Learners' home backgrounds make it difficult
to be effective 38.96 52.03 13.07 ***
Learners at my school are not well-behaved 39.05 45.5 6.45 ***
My school does not have a library 26.59 39.61 13.02 ***
My school does not have a good library 26.68 37.79 11.11 ***
Education departments do not treat teachers well 30.92 37.58 6.66 ***
The school management team does not
communicate well with teachers 22.88 30.41 7.53 ***
The school management has a top-down leadership
style 20.67 29.34 8.67 ***
The buildings are broken and not well-maintained 25 28.37 3.37 ***
There are not enough textbooks for my learners 21.29 28.27 6.98 ***
The community does not value me as a teacher 22.26 27.73 5.47 ***
The Education Department doesn't provide adequate
in-service training 20.23 27.3 7.07 ***
Unions do not support teachers adequately 20.23 25.91 5.68 ***
Teachers do not support each other at my school 18.82 25.05 6.23 ***
The school management team does not support
teachers adequately 17.58 23.66 6.08 ***
The school management team does not treat
teachers fairly 18.99 22.7 3.71 **
I do not have freedom to teach what I think is best 13.07 22.59 9.52 ***

Notes: Significance: *** p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1. 1.

These differences suggest that teachers at no-fee schools continue to bear

historical burdens arising from long-term under-investment in black schools
(Motala, 2006) and state violence against black people (Kallaway, 2002).
However, they also suggest that teachers at no-fee schools get less support
from education departments and structures within their schools. In the
language of institutional analysis, there are likely two kinds of differences
related to the informal aspects of institutions. The first difference lies in the
informal rules guiding the behaviour of learners and the broader community,
related to a history of state violence against black people. The second
difference lies in the informal rules guiding the behaviour of support
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 143

structures from the state and within the school. Consequently, while a policy
analysis may reveal that schools are subject to roughly equitable formal
institutions, the survey data suggests that there are substantial differences in
the informal dimensions of institutions.

These differences in institutional environments matter, since they may play a

role in shaping how teachers conceptualise their roles as professionals. It is
not implausible that teachers who work with learners who are traumatised by
historical violence against black communities come to conceive of
professionalism as comprising a strong pastoral, care-work component. An
indication of this is a simple linear regression of teachers’ views of their
profession on their views of obstacles related to social trauma, which
indicates that this line of thought is a promising one (Table 8). Controlling for
the race and gender of teachers, as well as the no-fee status of schools, there is
a positive, statistically significant relationship at the 0.01 level between
teachers’ emphasis on obstacles related to social trauma and their predilection
for emphasising a pastoral view of professionalism. Here, social trauma
factors were roughly represented by teachers' views on the following
obstacles to professionalism: the poor behaviour of learners, learners' home
backgrounds, socio-economic problems in the community, and community
disregard for teachers. A pastoral view of professionalism was roughly
captured by teachers' views on how important it was to know all parents of
learners, place learners' interests first, and fight against policies that are bad
for learners. This does not show that the correlation is not spurious or
confounded by unobserved variables, but it does suggest that further research
may bear interesting results. In particular, further research could investigate
the survey data on teachers’ views of the frequency and intensity of different
forms of violence at school.
144 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

Table 8: The correlates (linear regression estimates) of emphasising

pastoral characteristics of professionalism

(I) (II)

0.04** 0.04*
Trauma
(0.02) (0.02)
-0.17** -0.13
No fee school
(0.07) (0.07)
0.14*
Black
(0.07)
0.21**
Female
(0.10)
0.15*
Black female
(0.08)

Notes: Robust standard errors corrected for clustering at school level in brackets. Significance: ***
p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1. 1.

Which group should teachers be held most accountable to?

Respondents were asked to indicate which group teachers should be held most
accountable to by selecting one out of the ten options. Table 9.1 presents the
responses for all ten options. Overall, the disagreement between teachers at
different schools is more muted than their differences regarding
professionalism.

The majority of respondents across schools indicate that teachers should be

accountable to a state actor – the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the
Western Cape Education Department (WCED) or the South African Council
of Educators (SACE). This greater emphasis on vertical accountability
nevertheless admits of variation between groups. A much larger proportion of
teachers at no-fee schools indicate that SACE and the DBE are paramount,
where these differences were statistically significant at the 0.01 level. In
contrast, more teachers at fee-paying schools identify the school as a whole
and the school management team as being the most important for
accountability, where these differences are statistically significant at the 0.01
level. Very few teachers across schools rate the school governing body as the
most important body to oversee accountability.
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 145

Table 9.1: Proportion of respondents who identified the following groups as

the most important for accountability

Fees No fees Difference p-value

Western Cape Education Department 26.18 25.89 -0.29

South African Council of Educators 13.88 20.5 6.62 ***
Learners 19.98 17.07 -2.91
Department of Basic Education 9.07 14.55 5.48 ***
Parents and guardians 6.01 7.9 1.89 *
School as a whole 12.3 7.22 -5.08 ***
School management team 5.92 3.32 -2.6 ***
Community 2.68 1.6 -1.08
School governing body 2.78 1.49 -1.29 **
Teacher organisations 1.2 0.46 -0.74 *

Notes: Significance: *** p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1. 1.

These results are largely consistent with teachers’ responses when asked to
rate the importance of all ten groups for teacher accountability on a four-level
likert scale: ‘no importance’, ‘low importance’, ‘some importance’ and ‘very
important.’ Table 9.2 presents all the ‘no importance’ and ‘low importance’
responses,8 and Table 9.3. presents all the ‘high importance’ responses.
Almost a quarter of all respondents across schools indicate that the school
governing body has no or low importance for accountability, and large
proportions indicate that non-state actors, such as unions, communities and
parents, have little or no relevance (Table 9.2). However, this contains
substantive variation between schools. More teachers at no-fee schools stress
the importance of various groups for accountability in general, whether to
state actors or non-state actors (Table 9.3).

8
A very small number of respondents selected “no importance” and it was therefore more
useful to group “no importance” and “low importance” responses together.
146 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

Table 9.2: Proportion of respondents who attach no/low importance to the

following groups regarding accountability

Fees No fees Difference P-value

Teacher organisations 36.43 27.46 -8.97 ***

Department of Basic Education 15.24 9.3 -5.94 ***
South African Council of Educators 21.28 15.75 -5.53 ***
Community 32.55 27.9 -4.65 **
Parents 23.17 19.69 -3.48 *
Western Cape Education Department 6.94 5.36 -1.58
Learners 18.21 16.96 -1.25
School as a whole 15.6 15.86 0.26
School management team 11.81 11.71 -0.1
School governing body 24.71 24.84 0.13

Notes: Significance: *** p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1. 1.

Table 9.3: Proportion of respondents who attach high importance to the

following groups regarding accountability

Fees No fees Difference p-value

School management team 40.13 40.26 0.13
School governing body 29.31 29.65 0.34
School as a whole 39.31 39.72 0.41
Learners 43.28 47.16 3.88
Parents 32.91 37.86 4.95 **
Western Cape Education Department 56.27 58.21 1.94
Community 22.27 28.88 6.61 ***
South African Council of Educators 40.58 48.58 8 ***
Department of Basic Education 41.3 49.45 8.15 ***
Teacher organisations 17.31 26.81 9.5 ***

Notes: Significance: *** p<0.01, **p<0.05, *p<0.1. 1

Conclusion

This study makes two main contributions to the literature on basic education
in South Africa. First, the results suggest that theoretical accounts of
professionalism and accountability should take into account the different
positionalities of teachers within the schooling system in terms of categories
of exclusion and exploitation – in this case, race, class and gender.
 Hoffman, Sayed and Badroodien: Different rules for different teachers. . . 147

Teachers at no-fee schools, who are predominantly black women, tend to

emphasise different characteristics of professionalism relative to their
colleagues at fee-paying schools. They stress the pastoral and care-work
dimensions of their profession, while their colleagues at fee-paying schools
stress their claims to pedagogical knowledge and job prestige as central to
being a professional.

Related to this, many more teachers at no-fee schools report facing burdens
related to historical under-investment in black schools, social trauma arising
from state violence against black people, and a lack of institutional support
from the state and the public. We suggest that it is not implausible to see a
relationship between the obstacles that teachers face and how they
conceptualise their roles as professionals – in this case, dealing with high
levels of social trauma and conceiving of their jobs as pastoral care-work –
something which future analyses of the complete survey data could
investigate more carefully.

While several authors argue that the difference in accountability across

schools is a key factor in explaining differences in learner performance (van
der Bergh, 2007; Taylor, 2009; Spaull, 2015), the survey results indicate that
teachers' different conceptions of professionalism do not necessarily suggest
different views of accountability, which appear to be roughly similar across
school types. Instead, the reports of teachers at no-fee schools facing the
greatest burdens related to social trauma and historical under-investment in
schools, suggesting they need greater institutional support, present an
additional layer of potential explanations related to the ways in which
teachers at different schools may be subject to different and unequal
institutions. This warrants further exploration.

Second, the results suggest that inequity operates not only at the level of
learners, but also at the level of teachers. The concept of a bifurcated
education system should therefore be expanded to consider teachers and
deepened to consider the ways in which institutions are raced, classed and
gendered to create multiple disadvantages for teachers at the bottom of the
social hierarchy.
148 Journal of Education, No. 65, 2016

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Nimi Hoffman
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Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Doctoral student: Institute for Social and Economic Research
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[email protected]

Yusuf Sayed
Centre for International Teacher Education (CITE)
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Centre for International Education, University of Sussex, UK

[email protected]
[email protected]

Azeem Badroodien
Centre for International Teacher Education (CITE)
Cape Peninsula University of Technology

[email protected]
 Educational Psychologist

ISSN: 0046-1520 (Print) 1532-6985 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hedp20

Shaping the Epistemology of Teacher Practice

Through Reflection and Reflexivity

Barbara K. Hofer

To cite this article: Barbara K. Hofer (2017) Shaping the Epistemology of Teacher
Practice Through Reflection and Reflexivity, Educational Psychologist, 52:4, 299-306, DOI:
10.1080/00461520.2017.1355247

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EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST, 52(4), 299–306, 2017
Copyright Ó Division 15, American Psychological Association
ISSN: 0046-1520 print / 1532-6985 online
DOI: 10.1080/00461520.2017.1355247

Shaping the Epistemology of Teacher Practice

Through Reflection and Reflexivity
Barbara K. Hofer
Department of Psychology, Middlebury College

Reflection on practice is a core principle for guiding improvement in professional work such
as teaching and can be enhanced by reflection on epistemic cognition, the way we think
about knowledge and knowing. Viewed as an intellectual virtue, a habit of mind, and a
learnable skill, epistemic reflection can help teachers learn to critically question the source,
certainty, reliability, and veracity of their own knowing. In this response to a set of articles
on changing epistemic cognition through reflection and reflexivity, a case study of teaching
educational psychology is provided as an example of putting these complex ideas into
practice. Through such practices, instructors can also help future teachers learn to better
understand and utilize empirical evidence as a knowledge basis for pedagogical decisions.

Reflection on practice is often viewed as a core principle for In the process of such reflections, we may draw on prior
guiding improvement in professional work such as teach- experience, intuition, research, pedagogical content knowl-
ing, and in a broad range of other fields, including architec- edge (Shulman, 1987), and the feedback of others, all
ture, psychotherapy, medicine, and management (Sch€on, aspects of what Sch€on (1983) called our epistemology of
1983, 1987). As educators, we are all likely to recognize practice, a way in which we construct and test and apply
those moments in the midst of teaching when something is models of knowing how to teach. Reflective practice is pro-
not quite working as expected, and we try to quickly adapt voked when a lesson does not go as planned, or when there
our methods, what Sch€ on (1983) called reflection-in-action. is uncertainty or ambiguity. Sch€on (1983) described how
In addition to this approach to reflection, requiring consid- such surprise leads to turning thought back on action and
erable metacognitive agility, we also have occasions where the knowing implicit in action, encompassing the idea of
we are more deliberate and evoke reflection-on-action reflexivity. Overall, this use of a critical lens on our own
(Sch€on, 1983, 1987), a less time-sensitive process. We pedagogy and our ability to alter practice through this pro-
might keep a running record of teaching notes where we cess of reflection and reflexivity are central to professional
review what worked and why, and what we want to alter growth as educators.
when we return to a particular lesson, reflexively looking When teachers reflect on practice, when they think back
back on action and on ourselves as teachers. We receive on their actions and consider what to do next, or what to do
student evaluations at the end of the term and glean what differently next time, they also engage in epistemic cogni-
was effective and what needs improvement, and consider tion, a set of mental processes that involve the development
what to change when we next offer the course. We use and employment of one’s conceptions of knowledge and

assessments to determine not only what students learned knowing (Greene, Sandoval, & Braten, 2016; Hofer, 2016;
but also why they might not have learned what we had Hofer & Pintrich, 1997). They draw on their own knowl-
hoped, and then experiment with altering how we teach. In edge of the situation, of a particular student, of prior prac-
these situations, we are also practicing what Dewey, in his tice, and perhaps (we might hope) on theory and research.
work on reflection and reflective thinking (Dewey, 1910, They are thinking about what knowledge can best guide
1933) called systematized foresight. We test our inferences their decisions about pedagogical choices, often requiring
and try out our ideas, the next step in Dewey’s model. an evaluation of competing claims. Envision the elementary
school teacher who worries about a student consistently
failing to do homework, a teacher who knows that what she
has tried so far to foster the student’s motivation has not
Correspondence should be addressed to Barbara K. Hofer, Department
of Psychology, Middlebury College, 276 Bicentennial Way, Middlebury,
worked. How does she decide what to do, and what knowl-
VT 05753. E-mail: [email protected] edge does she access, and then evaluate, to make that
300 HOFER

decision? How does she address the competing claims of and dedication (resolved action). In a three-stage process,
what she has witnessed in a lifetime of schooling and in the teachers reflect on their teaching practices and epistemic
practices of teachers in her building against what auton- aims, then engage in Stage 2 engage reflexivity, which
omy-supportive motivation research would suggest (Reeve, involves evaluating alternative perspectives in light of episte-
2009)? Does she punish the student by taking away recess, mic aims. This leads to changes in practice that are likely to
the most common response she has observed, or engage the achieve those aims, and may recursively lead back to further
student in a discussion of the problem, or choose some discernment and deliberation (Lunn Brownlee et al., 2017/
other response? What source of knowledge does she privi- this issue). (Neither Sch€on nor Dewey are noted in the devel-
lege? As teacher educators, what would we like her to do in opment of this framework.)

this situation? How might we better prepare her as a reflec- By contrast, Braten, Muis, and Riznitskaya (2017/this
tive and reflexive practitioner who mindfully engages epi- issue) focus more directly on teachers’ epistemic cognition
stemic cognition? and suggest that reflection on epistemic cognition is needed
Assisting teachers such as this one in more deliberately to foster calibration of argumentation practices that pro-
employing epistemic cognition in their reflective practice, in mote deep understanding. They draw on Dewey (1933) in
a reflexive manner, is at the heart of this special issue. The describing the reflective thinking they suggest teachers
issue has its origins in a collaborative symposium on the could best employ. This type of thinking occurs when indi-
topic among researchers working with the same concepts, viduals carefully consider beliefs in light of supporting evi-
yet each article offers a distinct perspective, provoking, dence, which they note has also been described as central to
enriching, and sometimes challenging our understanding of reflective judgment (King & Kitchener, 2004). In a descrip-
these constructs and their interrelationship. Read as a group tion of the process involved and its application to how
(not often the case with digital publication, unfortunately), teachers learn to facilitate inquiry dialogue, they apply the
they serve to expand our ideas about improving teacher prac- model of Lunn Brownlee et al. (2017/this issue) to suggest
tice in novel ways by explicitly addressing epistemic cogni- how teachers can employ reflexivity to identify a problem,
tion as a key aspect of reflective practice. reflect on solutions, choose an action, try it out, and evalu-

ate it (Braten et al., 2017/this issue). (The authors do not
include either Sch€on’s ideas about reflective practice or
REFLECTION, REFLEXIVITY, AND EPISTEMIC Archer’s work on reflexivity.)
COGNITION In their attention to the particular problem of classroom
assessment practices, Fives, Barnes, Buehl, Mascadri, and
Reflection and reflexivity, two of the three key terms in this Ziegler (2017/this issue) show how reflexivity, based on
special issue, are used purposively and distinctively in the Archer’s construct, can serve as an epistemic virtue that
title of this special issue. They are not always defined simi- supports teachers’ epistemic cognition. They use both
larly across, or even within, this set of articles, however, nor “reflexive practice” and “reflective practice,” and in an
do the authors draw evenly on the same set of resources to example of reflective practice (and drawing on Sch€ on,
develop the terms. In their introduction, Feucht, Lunn 1983) in formative classroom assessment they describe
Brownlee, and Schraw (2017/this issue) argue that reflection how teachers set goals, collect assessment data, and inter-
on practice involves mindful introspection but that such pret outcomes in order to guide future instruction. They
reflection does not necessarily lead to informed practice. press for helping teachers to refine dispositions to engage in
They posit that reflexivity may be the key that advances the reflexivity (Fives et al., 2017/this issue).
movement from inner thought toward action. They view Similar to Fives et al., (2017/this issue), Weinstock,
reflexivity as an internal dialogue leading to action that, Kienhues, Feucht, and Ryan (2017/this issue) explore the
moreover, beyond informing practice, leads to transforming idea of informed reflexivity as an enactment of epistemic
it (Archer, 2012). In their view, reflection becomes reflexivity virtue. Utilizing the term “reflexive practice” rather than
in this process (Feucht et al., 2017/this issue). reflective practice, although without explication as to the
The conception of “epistemic reflexivity” proposed by distinction (and without reference to Sch€on), the authors
Lunn Brownlee, Ferguson, and Ryan (2017/this issue) moves describe what they call a learned disposition to reason about
these ideas about reflection and reflexivity into the creation knowledge-related actions, a means of supporting sound
of a framework that incorporates adaptive epistemic cogni- epistemic cognition. Through application to science and
tion into reflective practice. The authors propose that reflec- history, and to critical thinking and writing, they show how
tion is a necessary component of reflexivity; from this this intellectual attitude might play out in education, and
perspective, reflective thought is followed by the internal dia- why it should be fostered by teachers. By “informed” they
logue and action that they see as defining reflexivity, which suggest that reflexivity is utilized in particular contexts and
they also view as similar to critical thinking. Their view of for particular epistemic purposes, and not generically
reflexivity draws on the sociological theory of Archer (2012) (Weinstock et al., 2017/this issue). Yet they also state that
and comprises three components: discernment, deliberation, epistemic aims should emerge from the practice of
 SHAPING THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF TEACHER PRACTICE 301

reflexivity, creating some circularity in the model, or per- professionals think about what they are doing as they per-
haps recursiveness. form their practice and engage in reflection-in-action in
Given the complexity of the terms involved, and the cases of uncertainty, ambiguity, conflict, and uniqueness
multiple uses of these terms, more unpacking of terms (Sch€on, 1983). Sch€on’s goal was to try to legitimize reflec-
would seem useful, and a quick historical overview follows. tion-in-action as part of the epistemology of practice, as an
As the work in this field advances and additional research accepted way of knowing, and he called for broader,
flows from the articles in this issue, conceptual clarity will deeper, and more rigorous use across the professions. He
be needed to build testable models. envisioned reflective practitioners as researchers who carry
out experiments in response to the problems they observe
Reflective Thought and Reflective Judgment in their practice, resulting in both new understanding and
changes in the situation. Sch€on did not separate thinking
Philosopher John Dewey appears to have initiated the idea from doing but saw them as deeply intertwined, with exper-
of reflection and reflective thinking as an important aspect imenting as action, and with implementation built into
of education in his two books about “how we think” inquiry.
(Dewey, 1910, 1933). For Dewey, reflective thought was This vision of the reflective practitioner encompasses
defined as “active, persistent, and careful consideration of reflexivity, both the self-awareness aspects and the move
any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the toward action. Such a professional reflects on tacit norms,
grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which on theories implicit in behavior, on one’s own framing of a
it tends” (Dewey, 1910, p. 6). He described reflective think- problem, or the role one has constructed in an institutional
ing as requiring a suspension of judgment, an openness, a context. Sch€on (1983) described “a somewhat subversive
willingness to overcome mental inertia and entertain doubt. aspect” (p. 337) of teachers becoming reflective practi-
His definition encompasses the basic premises of what is tioners, as they may begin to question the organizational
now thought of as epistemic cognition, including his list of knowledge structure (and current examples abound, partic-
what might be seen as epistemic virtues that enhance intel- ularly in regard to issues of assessment). Here Sch€ on
lectual endeavors. The first explicit bridge from Dewey’s (1983) made the leap beyond individual learning, indicating
reflective thinking to epistemic cognition was in the that organizational learning can occur more readily in
development of the reflective judgment model (King & organizations that value reflective practice. Most impor-
Kitchener, 1994, 2004). Building directly on Dewey’s ideas tantly, reflective practice can be learned, he argued, moving
that uncertainty is the hallmark of the search for knowl- beyond statable rules and toward learning to think like a
edge, King and Kitchener forged a developmental scheme professional, one who can construct and experiment with
that focuses on how individuals perceive of the relative cer- new categories of understanding and develop new strategies
tainty of knowledge and how this is transformed over time for action (Sch€on, 1987). In the example provided by Fives
and with education. Kitchener (1983) also coined the term et al. (2017/this issue), the teacher they describe reflects on
“epistemic cognition,” although with more limited meaning uses of assessment and alters practices; in a school where
than its current broad use, and contrasted it with cognition this type of behavior was encouraged, such changes could
and metacognition. feed back into institutional changes.

Reflective Practice Reflexivity

Dewey is also part of the origin story of reflective practice Archer (2010), in her brief introductory “biography of
(Sch€on, 1983, 1987). Sch€ on, perhaps most known as an reflexivity,” tracked the term back to Plato’s Theaetetus,
organizational consultant, trained as a philosopher at where it was first described as practiced through inner con-
Harvard and wrote his dissertation on Dewey’s theory of versations, on through Kant, Mills, and Peirce. For Peirce
inquiry. This led to a lifelong interest in the role of reflec- (1868–1871), notably, the inner dialogue was purposeful, a
tion in learning processes, both individually and organiza- guide to a future source of action, and an idea that has
tionally, and to two books on the topic, one on reflective helped shape evolving definitions of reflexivity. The impor-
practice (1983) and one on educating the reflective practi- tance of inner speech and its role in reflexivity have also
tioner (1987); each book has had considerable influence in been tracked back to James, Dewey, Vygotsky, and Bakhtin
education and other professions. As did Dewey, Sch€on (Wiley, 2010), not surprisingly for educational psycholo-
described critical analysis and doubt as central to reflection, gists. The rare link between reflexivity and reflective prac-
and through multiple cases within the professions he tice by those who study reflexivity comes from an
showed how individuals utilize doubt and reflection to organizational historian who suggests that reflective prac-
forge new actions and then reflect back on them. tice, as advocated by Sch€on (1987), may be a form of meta-
Whether a jazz musician attuning to others or a teacher reflexivity, involving reflection on one’s own reflexivity
recalibrating a lesson in response to student difficulty, (Mutch, 2010). Mutch (2010) likened reflexivity to
302 HOFER

metacognition, but with a cautionary note that the construct epistemic cognition to better inform teacher practice.
of metacognition “is derived from the literature on educa- Again, the authors provide a diverse array of how this might
tion which is profoundly influenced by cognitive psychol- occur, focusing on different aspects of each of these three
ogy, with its individualizing tendencies” (p. 255), perhaps constructs. The authors draw largely on the three-compo-
less of an impediment for most readers of this journal. The nent AIR model of epistemic cognition, an integration of
role of metacognition within reflection and reflectivity philosophy and psychology, encompassing epistemic aims
could be a meaningful area for future research. Throughout and values (A), epistemic ideals (I), and reliable processes
the models described in this issue metacognition seems to (R) for achieving epistemic ends (Chinn & Rinehart, 2016;
be an inherent aspect of both reflection and reflexivity, as Chinn, Rinehart, & Buckland, 2014). One central contribu-
both require the ability to think about one’s own thinking. tion of this issue is the way in which teams of scholars have
Thus it may be necessary but not sufficient. Further work is found this model fruitful and show how it can be applied in
needed to also make the bridge to conceptions of epistemic service of teacher preparation. Fives et al. (2017/this issue)
metacognition (Barzilai & Zohar, 2014; Hofer, 2004), also make use of the model of “Epistemic Cognition in
which is likely at work in the 3R-EC framework described Teaching,” including and elaborating on Chinn et al.’s
by Lunn Brownlee et al. (2017/this issue). components (Buehl & Fives, 2016). Several of the authors
Archer (2010) described reflexive practice as including also utilize the framework provided by Lunn Brownlee
self-monitoring, self-awareness, and self-conscious recog- et al. (2017/this issue), the 3R-EC Framework, with its
nition. She initially distinguished between reflection as the components of reflection, reflexivity, and resolved action
action of a subject toward an object (as a mathematician for epistemic cognition. Although the review of Sch€ on’s
might reflect on a problem) from reflexivity, which involves work suggests that his ideas of reflective practice incorpo-
the bending back of thought upon the self, extending rated both reflexivity and action, this new framework artic-
subject–object to subject–object–subject. She concluded, ulates a three-stage process that could be useful for better
however, that “undoubtedly, reflection and reflexivity have explaining each function to teachers. This draws out and
fuzzy borders and can shift from one to the other.” (Archer, clarifies what occurs at each step in a way that may make it
2010, p. 2). It may come as no surprise, then, that these more testable and more teachable.
terms seem a bit muddled across the terrain of the initial In the process of integrating the constructs of reflection,
attempts in this issue to integrate reflection, reflexivity, and reflexivity, and epistemic cognition, the authors offer
epistemic cognition, but more work is needed in clarifying numerous approaches and the deployment of new terms to
the terminology if the authors are to provide testable mod- describe what emerges—among them, epistemic reflexivity
els and make the framework accessible to teacher (Lunn Brownlee et al., 2017/this issue), epistemically
educators. informed praxis (Buehl & Fives, 2016; Fives et al., 2017/

Borrowing from social theory, postmodern ideas, and this issue), reflection on epistemic cognition (Braten et al.,
qualitative researchers, reflexivity conveys subjectivity, the 2017/this issue), and informed reflexivity (Weinstock et al.,
bidirectionality of causes and effects, the influence of the 2017/this issue). Each offers a nuanced look at the intersec-
observer on the observed, and the need for self-awareness tion of these constructs. Several of the authors also take the
and bias. Viewed from this lens, reflexivity adds another stance that the practice of epistemic reflection, however it
level of reflection, including a recognition that one’s biases might be named, is an intellectual virtue, a habit of mind,

can affect what we think we are observing and how we and one that can be taught (Braten et al., 2017/this issue;
approach a problem and can open us to consider other Weinstock et al., 2017/this issue). This has roots in early
approaches. Applied to reflective practice, reflexivity might conceptions of epistemological development, proposed by
mean that teachers, reflecting on a pedagogical problem, King and Kitchener (1994), for example, about the episte-
would attune to their own biases as part of the process, mic aspects of fostering critical thinking. Given the focus
whether those are superficial and limiting judgments made of the issue on teacher change, this attention to how to
about a particular student, or an awareness that they had address it is particularly important, and several authors

neglected to take into account what they had recently elaborate thoughtfully on what might occur. Braten et al.
learned about an issue in their educational psychology (2017/this issue), for example, described ambitious pro-
course and had simply acted out of habit. The latter would grams for introducing discussion of epistemic aims within
be a form of epistemic reflexivity, reflecting on the knowl- coaching sessions provided for teachers as part of profes-
edge utilized to solve the problem, as the authors in this sional development, geared toward better calibration
issue suggest. between epistemic cognition and instructional decisions.
Weinstock et al. (2017/this issue) noted the important shift
Epistemic Reflexivity and Teacher Practice involved in seeing school not merely as a site of knowledge
acquisition but as a training ground for making epistemi-
Overall, the goal of these articles and the symposium that cally sound decisions about real-world issues. This is a crit-
gave rise to them is to integrate reflection, reflexivity, and ically important function of schooling and a way in which
 SHAPING THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF TEACHER PRACTICE 303

deliberate attention to epistemic cognition can help individ- practices? Do we have a better way of talking about it?
uals toward better understanding and reasoning about com- How do we make that happen so that the important work
plex scientific issues such as climate change, stem cell these authors suggest is more likely to put into practice?
research, vaccination choices, genetically modified organ- We need more translational writing, bridges to teacher edu-
isms, and similar topics (Sinatra & Hofer, 2016; Sinatra, cation that are jargon free, and research that links theory
Kienhues, & Hofer, 2014). and practice. Research findings that make it from academic
journals to practice need to be viewed as viable, useful, and
accessible. As Fives et al. (2017/this issue) comment, much
DISSEMINATION of the research about teacher beliefs is inconclusive. The
growing body of research findings on epistemic cognition
Educators have long argued that reflective practice is bene- has rarely been articulated into suggestions for practice or
ficial for improvement of teaching, and these authors are to written in language that educators and teachers can easily
be commended for further elaboration on the topic, the access, with notable exceptions (Fives & Buehl, 2016). Can
links to reflexivity, the building of a framework to explain the language and framework provided in this special issue
those links, and the elaboration of the connection to episte- help to codify a process, improve practice, enhance perfor-
mic cognition. They have also indicated some of the ways mance, and increase student learning?
that the ideas they suggest, drawing on an integration of As Fives et al. (2017/this issue) noted,
multiple literatures, can be put into practice in teacher edu-
cation and professional development. It is less clear how [T]he need for epistemic cognition seems hidden from the
these ideas and implications for teacher development will explicit practice of teachers. Scholars in this area need to
make their way into practice, not an uncommon concern for find ways to make epistemic cognition visible for teachers,
researchers in educational psychology, and in the field of to support their ability and willingness to critically reflect
epistemic cognition, in particular. on epistemic issues in their practice. (p. 281)
Perhaps what those of us who study the topics in this
special issue can contribute is reflection on our own prac- Perhaps we can begin with ourselves, as teachers of edu-
tice as scholars, reflexively questioning how we go about cational psychology, and share what we do in our own prac-
our dissemination of knowledge and how we can focus on tices to address what the authors are suggesting. I offer a
clearer, more direct communication with those who can use modest case study on fostering epistemic reflection to start
our findings. Epistemic cognition researchers have become the conversation.
better at refining ideas within our own community of schol-
arship, including perhaps settling on a term that seems to
adequately describe the construct we are addressing. But FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: TEACHING
epistemic cognition does not yet translate well to teachers, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY TO FOSTER
teacher educators, and other practitioners who would bene- EPISTEMIC REFLECTION
fit from the research (and the concept of reflexivity seems
equally burdensome). I have watched university scientists, The guiding premises of this issue, evident in the title, and
introduced to the term and persuaded of its value in their as articulated by Lunn Brownlee et al. (2017/this issue) are
work as science educators, struggle to even pronounce it that (a) teachers’ epistemic cognition mediates conceptions
while confessing they still were not sure exactly what it of and engagement in teaching, and (b) active reflection
means. I suspect it is the rare teacher who would have the and reflexivity can foster more adaptive epistemic cogni-
rationale and prior knowledge required for reading any of tion. The expectation is that such changes will improve and
the numerous articles on epistemic cognition that have enhance the professional practice of teaching. The goal of
appeared in this journal or similar ones. fostering reliable epistemic processes in teachers’ use of
As a field, even as we grow—and that growth has been teaching knowledge is also articulated by Fives et al.
substantial (Hofer, 2016)—we risk becoming increasingly (2017/this issue). Changes may come about through episte-
insular, even within the educational psychology commu- mic reflexivity (Lunn Brownlee et al., 2017/this issue),

nity, much less within a broader field of teacher develop- calibration of argumentation with epistemic aims (Braten
ment and practice. In spite of considerable attention in this et al., 2017/this issue), and the enactment of the epistemic
journal, the research on epistemic cognition appears seldom virtue of informed reflexivity (Weinstock et al., 2017/this
if at all in educational psychology textbooks, and it rarely issue). This requires more than reflecting on the effective-
makes an appearance in related courses. Where do we think ness of what we are doing in those reflection-in-action
future teachers could best be introduced to the construct of moments but also the deep epistemic doubt (Bendixen &
epistemic cognition, to an understanding of their students’ Rule, 2004) that triggers more adaptive epistemic cogni-
epistemic beliefs and development, and to instructional tion. How does a teacher make this happen? How do we
practices that might promote productive epistemic motivate the cognitive conflict that will drive a
304 HOFER

reexamination of teachers’ conceptions of what counts as The next step makes the move to epistemic reflection: I
authoritative knowledge to put into practice? ask them to articulate how they know what they know. What
I have found this press toward epistemic doubt to be a was their source of knowledge for these answers? The
fundamental objective in my teaching of educational psy- responses pour out: I know I’m a visual learner because I
chology, an animating theme of the course, arising from an learn better in classes where the professor uses PowerPoint
awareness that students often subscribe to a series of myths rather than just lecturing (personal experience); my third-
and urban legends (Kirschener & van Merrienboer, 2013) grade teacher gave us a test about our learning styles and
about learning, teaching, and education. In the process of told me I was a visual learner (authority) and I have always
serving as a myth-buster, I am also pressing students to believed it; my roommate says he is an auditory learner
question the sources of their knowledge, the certainty of because he doesn’t learn well from reading books and needs
their knowing, and how they justify what they know, all to discuss the material (testimony from others). I can return
aspects of epistemic cognition. The goal is to persuade to these examples when we work on refuting the claims
them over the course of a semester that empirical evidence over the course of the semester, but for now I use this to
is an excellent platform for teacher practice and to teach talk more about how we know what we know. I offer a slide
them how to access and understand such knowledge, and that lists common sources of knowledge (introspection,
how to identify and assess competing claims. In the spirit authority, anecdotal evidence, etc.), and we discuss where
of moving from theory to practice, I offer the following their responses fit. This list concludes with “empirical
case study to exemplify what the authors in this special evidence” as a source of knowledge, which I explain is the
issue are suggesting to those of us who work with budding foundation of the course ahead, one I hope they will learn
student teachers, in a course that readers of this journal are to value, better understand, and call upon often as a basis
most likely to teach, Educational Psychology. for their teacher practice, as well as for becoming better
learners. Sometimes I label what we are doing with this
task and introduce the idea of epistemic cognition, which I
A Case Study return to later in the term.
In the classes that follow, I work to draw on what educa-
On the first day of Educational Psychology, embedded
tional psychologists know about the complexities of con-
among other activities and tasks, I offer a quick pretest I
ceptual change and teaching for deep understanding. For
have adapted over the years, from the first edition of Jeanne
each of the problematic topics I try to show empirical infor-
Ormrod’s (1994) educational psychology text. (See Ormrod,
mation that contradicts what they believe, help them chal-
Anderman, & Anderman, 2017, for their current version of
lenge the misconceptions they hold, and assist them in
the pretest.) With 10 true–false questions, the test is a land-
understanding how the alternative information is more
mine of misunderstood claims about learning and teaching.
plausible. With some topics, such as beliefs about learning
Here are two examples that nearly all my students get wrong:
styles or gender differences, I also help them come to see
how holding such beliefs might be harmful, as teachers and
Knowledge about the brain from neuroscience suggests that
as learners. I use refutational texts that systematically
teachers should develop learning activities that are specifi-
debunk particular myths (Howard-Jones, 2014), and make
cally targeted to each side of the brain. T/F
space for reasoned argumentation, as posited by multiple

Individuals learn better when they receive information in authors in this issue (Braten et al., 2017/this issue; Wein-
their preferred learning style (e.g., visual, auditory, or kin- stock et al., 2017/this issue), through discussion periods
esthetic). T/F focusing on single hot topics. Continued reflection on these
practices and awareness of the deep entrenchment of some
I also tell the students, after a brief pause (so we can also student beliefs has led me to allot substantial time to these
discuss anxiety as a pervasive classroom emotion, as they constructs and to revisit them in multiple contexts.
readily identify sweaty palms and racing hearts, as well as What I hope I am doing in this course is fostering the
use this example during the next class period when we dis- doubt that Dewey places at the heart of reflective thinking
cuss classical conditioning), that they do not need to put their and Sch€on claims is at the core of reflective practice, the cat-
names on the tests and they can keep them. (Audible sighs of alyst for changes in professional thinking and behavior.
relief.) They quickly complete the test, and I ask them to pair Moreover, I want to foster epistemic doubt, posited as the
with a partner and discuss their answers and to feel free to central mechanism for changes in epistemic cognition
change their responses if they wish. When they are done, I (Bendixen & Rule, 2004). In this regard, I am drawing on
ask for a show of hands on each question, true versus false, what researchers view as reliable processes to achieve a par-
and briefly explain the rationale for the correct answers as we ticular epistemic aim. The focus is on epistemic conceptual
work through the test, and I use this activity as a preview of change (Sinatra & Chinn, 2012). I want them to change not
the course (as does the Ormrod et al., 2017, text), showing only their conceptual knowledge about teaching and learn-
how each question is tied to an upcoming substantive topic. ing but also their beliefs about what knowledge to privilege
 SHAPING THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF TEACHER PRACTICE 305

in that process, and to learn to recruit a sense of epistemic preliminary conclusions and pursue truth further (Roche,
vigilance (Sperber et al., 2010), marshalling the motivation 2017)—all characteristic of epistemic virtues.
to question both the source and the content of relevant infor- Learning to teach, and teaching others how to learn to
mation. Often what is involved is more than helping students teach, is at the core of our profession as educational psy-
resolve competing theoretical claims, but helping them chologists. We are indebted to these authors for providing a
resolve claims from competing authorities and sources— new lens for reflection on our practice, for making it evi-
prior teachers, their experience, anecdotes, intuition, and dent why epistemic cognition needs to be central to those
research. I do not want to be simply another authority in the reflections, and for offering cogent suggestions for affecting
process of their long education but a guide to more adaptive teacher change.
epistemic practices in the profession of teaching. I want to
teach and model aspects of epistemic cognition that are at
the core of critical thinking (Greene & Yu, 2016) and to fos- ORCID
ter epistemic competence (Murphy & Alexander, 2016).
Barbara K. Hofer http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6361-7831
Along the way I try to model reflective and reflexive
practice, through transparency about why I do what I do
and how I utilize Sch€ on’s ideas of both reflection-in-
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(pp. 439–459). New York, NY: Routledge. Routledge.
 Opening the Doors of Learning
Changing Schools in South Africa

Pam Christie

TITLE PAGE TO COME

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 Published by Heinemann Publishers
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© in text: Dr Pam Christie

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First edition published in 2008

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Acknowledgements
While every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of materials
used, this did not always prove possible. Copyright holders are therefore
requested to contact the publisher in cases where formal permission could not
be obtained.

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 cONTENTS
Chapter 1 Schooling and social change: framing
the challenges 1

Chapter 2 Goals and purposes of schooling 12

Chapter 3  lobalisation, the ‘knowledge economy’

G
and education 41

Chapter 4 Development and education 72

Chapter 5 Education policy 115

Chapter 6 Schools and classrooms as places of learning 163

Chapter 7 Facing the challenges: a framework of ethics 209

List of Acronyms 218

Index 220

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 Acknowledgements
My special thanks to Dawn Butler, Orenna Krut, Adrienne Bird, Sanet
Lombard, Mark Potterton and Colin Collins for their sustained engagement
with the ideas of this book and for so generously reading the text. Thanks
also to a number of people who provided critical comments and reflections
on different sections of the book: Heather Jacklin, Ravinder Sidhu, Maree
Hedemann, Wayne Hugo, Thiatu Nemutanzhele, Veerle Dieltiens, Viv
Linington, Francine de Clercq, Volker Wedekind, Aslam Fataar, Ruksana
Osman and Brahm Fleisch. Thanks all – and the usual disclaimer applies!
The staff and editorial team at Heinemann offered superb support.
Thanks in particular to Orenna Krut, Claudia Bickford-Smith, Josie Egan
and Silvia Raninger.
Not least, my thanks to the graduate students and their advisors in the
PhD Consortium operating between Wits, UCT, UWC and UKZN with
Stanford University, and also my graduate students at the University of
Queensland and CPUT. Their critical engagement with a range of ideas
stretched and sharpened my thinking.
Two significant people who supported my work on this book did not
live to see its completion: Cathie Christie and Ann Levett. I take this
opportunity to thank them, as well as my sister, Pat Klopper. This book
was made possible through the loving support of Dawn Butler, to whom it
is dedicated.

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 chapter 1
Schooling and social change:
framing the challenges
This chapter locates the launching of a new democracy
in South Africa within the global context of change. It
outlines the major changes in schooling after the end of
apartheid, and raises the question of why the Freedom
Charter’s dream that ‘The doors of learning and culture
shall be opened!’ has been so hard to realise. It outlines
the approach taken in various chapters of the book, and
also the key conceptual tools of structure/agency, ethics,
equity and social justice. It sets out the framework for
the book as a whole.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

A time of change
In 1994, a new democracy was launched in South Africa, and 40 years of
apartheid were brought to an end. It was a moment of great achievement
for all those people who had struggled – in many different ways – to
achieve a fair and more equal society in South Africa. Many people had
given their lives and many had died to achieve human dignity, rights and
equality for all. Many of them were school and university students.
This was a time of great achievement, and a time of great hope. In
human history, there are highpoints of change after which nothing is
the same again. For South Africa, 1994 was a highpoint of this sort.
But it was also a highpoint for the rest of the world. The South African
example showed that it is possible to bring an unjust system to an end
without major bloodshed. It showed that opponents could negotiate with
each other successfully to reach a settlement, and that they could share a
government of national unity. It showed that people could work together
to achieve major social change.
There were also other reasons why the 1990s were a highpoint of change
in world history. The victory of democracy in South Africa happened at
the same time as the fall of Eastern European communist states, which
crumbled one by one, starting with East Germany and the Berlin Wall
in 1989. The Cold War was over. Capitalist market economies were seen
as victorious over communism and state-controlled economies. It so
happened that the Communist Party of South Africa was unbanned and
relaunched at the same time as Communist parties in many other countries
of the world were closing down.
And at the same time, other changes were taking place in the economies,
societies and cultures of the world – changes associated with globalisation.
New technologies were changing the face and pace of communication
across the globe. Economic and financial transactions were taking place at
a speed that had never been imagined. Capital, finances, ideas, images –
and people – were flowing across the borders of countries as never before.
The new South Africa was born in a time of great change. It was born
in circumstances that could not have been imagined when apartheid was
designed in the 1950s nor when the armed struggle was launched in the
1960s. The new government came to power with a mandate to build a just
and equal society. It had to do so on a terrain of great global change, of
which it was also a part.
However, building a new society does not start on clear ground. Change
emerges from what already exists. In South Africa, the new government
was faced with the challenge of having to run the country and change it

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 Schooling and social change: framing the challenges

at the same time. It had to build a democracy, develop the economy, and
regulate society in line with the values of human dignity, equality and
justice. South Africans’ expectations were high, and the challenges facing
the government were enormous.
One of the most important tasks facing the government was to rebuild
the education system. Forty years of apartheid had left deep inequalities
in schooling. Among these, racial inequalities were most obvious, but
there were also inequalities between urban and rural schools, between
rich and poor, and between boys and girls. HIV/AIDS brought an
unanticipated ingredient into the mix. How could the old apartheid system
be transformed to reflect the values of equality and justice? How could
education be redesigned into a system of quality to prepare all young people
to share a joint citizenship and also take their place in a rapidly globalising
world? How could the new government run the education system and
change it at the same time? Where to start and what to do?
In 1994, a new government of national unity took power in South
Africa, with the mandate of transforming the racial apartheid state
into a modern democracy. The new government moved to bring the
racially divided education departments into provincial departments.
It developed a system of funding which would make it possible for the
poorest provinces and schools to receive more than their wealthier
counterparts. The government built more schools and classrooms,
and improved the resources in the poorest and most disadvantaged
schools. Soon, all primary age children were in school, and more and more
children were in secondary schools. Unlike many other countries, girls
and boys appeared to be attending school in more or less equal numbers.
Governing bodies were set up for all schools, and a measure of self-
management was progressively introduced. A new curriculum was put in
place and revised when difficulties were encountered. Teachers’ conditions
of work and pay were regularised and a new system of teacher appraisal
and whole school evaluation was put in place. A great achievement was
that the system kept operating at the same time as fundamental changes
were introduced.
However, several shadows fell over the achievements of change. First,
test scores suggested that the system was not serving all of its students
equally, or even well. Matriculation results told a mixed story of success
and failure. Comparative international tests were equally – if not more –
problematic. South Africa’s performance was disappointingly poor, even in
comparison with countries in the Southern African region. Internationally,
even the best performances in South Africa were no more than average in
comparison with top performing countries.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

A second, deep shadow was the poverty and poor functioning of many –
if not most – of the country’s schools. It seemed that for the majority of
young people, democracy had not brought better prospects in education.
Patterns of inequality in education remained the same: poverty, race,
gender and region mark out different educational experiences for most
South African children. Why had this not changed?
For decades, since its adoption in 1955, the Freedom Charter had provided
a vision for a future society based on human dignity, democracy, equality
and sharing of wealth. The Freedom Charter famously declared that

The doors of learning and culture shall be opened!

This vision was given legal status in the new South African Constitution
of 1996, which declared that:

Everyone shall have the right: (a) to basic education, including adult
education; and (b) to further education, which the state, through
reasonable measures, must make progressively available
and accessible.

Why was this vision so hard to put into practice? After 10 years of
democracy, despite many changes in education policy, why were
improvements so uneven? Why has it been so hard to ‘open the doors of
learning’ and to provide education for all as a basic human right? What
can be done about this situation? These questions have puzzled educators,
policy makers and social reformers in South Africa. Interestingly, other
countries have also faced similar puzzles about how to reduce educational
inequalities and how to change schools. South Africa’s experience is not
completely unique – though, of course, its specific forms are.
This book addresses the puzzle of educational change, from the
perspective of South Africa. It does not aim to provide a narrative of the
change processes in South Africa – what was done, by whom, when, and
why. It is not primarily a book written about South African education, but
a book written for educators grappling to understand the forces of change
in the South African context.

Scale and educational change

This book approaches the puzzle of educational change by looking at what
change might involve from the perspectives of a series of different scales.

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 Schooling and social change: framing the challenges

Each scale engages with its own debates, discourses, and logics, and each
offers different approaches to education and educational change. The
scales explored in this book are:

the global scale, and the challenges that globalisation poses for
educational change
the scale of nation state development, and how decisions about economy,
society and government at the scale of the nation state pose their own
challenges for educational change
the scale of state policy, and how the policy processes of modern states
open possibilities for educational change, but also face limits in
changing schools
the scale of the school and classroom, and the importance of providing
learning experiences of high quality for all students, so that the doors
of learning may be opened for all.

The different scales of change offered here might have the appearance of
a telescope, with each scale growing smaller and smaller and providing
greater detail. But a telescopic logic is not the only one at work, and is not
necessarily the best one to use. An alternative logic is to recognise that
each scale opens up a terrain of its own. The terrain opened at each scale
has its own concepts, ways of arguing, central concerns and focal points.
The different scales of each terrain do not necessarily come together neatly
to fit with other scales in a telescopic manner, so as to bring a sharper
focus on a particular issue. In fact, the concepts and logics of each scale
may be too different to fit easily together. It may take great effort for us
as educationists to bring the insights of the different scales to bear on a
single issue, such as school change. Yet the effort is worthwhile – indeed
it is necessary – because the issue of schools and change is too complex to
understand on a single scale.
Nor is it useful to see the scales as competing with each other to
provide ‘the truth’ about educational change. It is more useful to view
the scales as complementary. When read side-by-side, they provide a
more comprehensive understanding of events than each would as a
single account. Nor are these scales and the terrains they open up the
only ones that could explain education in post-apartheid South Africa.
Put together, however, they provide a particular account of events, a
particular explanation of why things are as they are, and a particular set of
possibilities for future change.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

Conceptual frameworks for

educational change
This book draws on a tradition of research and theory which takes as
its starting point the idea that human beings make their own history,
along with others, though not in circumstances of their own choosing.
The interplay of human agency with social structure in time and place is
essentially creative, and is a source of identity and meaning for people.
Each of the chapters of the book draws on this set of assumptions. Each
chapter also draws on an approach to ethics, which calls for continual
engagement with questions of how we might best live in the world we
share with others. Achieving greater equity and social justice are values
that this book aspires to contribute towards.
A closer look at the concepts of structure and agency, and of ethics and
equity, provides a useful basis for discussions in later chapters.

Structure and agency

This book teases out a central question that the humanities and social
sciences pose – and help us to address. Put simply:

How do individuals live in and change their shared social worlds? To

what extent are individuals able to shape their lives as they would like
to? To what extent are their opportunities shaped by the circumstances
they are born into – social structures and historical time? What ‘agency’
do individuals have to influence their lives and their societies?

This is sometimes termed the ‘structure/agency’ debate. To take an

example from schooling:

To what extent is success or failure at school the result of individual

effort and capabilities? Can everyone succeed if they try hard enough?
To what extent is success or failure already predetermined by a
person’s family background or the quality of the school they attend?
Are some people destined to fail because circumstances are against
them? What freedom of choice and action do individuals have?

In answering questions such as these, this book starts from the position
that human beings actively create their social worlds, but they do so in
particular conditions and circumstances that are already structured by

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 Schooling and social change: framing the challenges

history. An analysis of structure and agency in time and place underpins

each chapter of the book.

The sociological imagination

The American sociologist C Wright Mills, writing in the 1950s, developed
the concept of ‘the sociological imagination’ as a way of thinking about
structure, agency and history. Each of us has our own individual life, our
own hopes and dreams, our own relationships and decisions, our own
careers, achievements and failures. At the same time, each person lives in
a particular society at a particular time. What happens to us often happens
to other people as well. We fit into social categories (sometimes without
knowing it) and we experience ‘structures of opportunities’ that are similar
to others like ourselves. In fact, says Mills, we can’t really make sense
of our own experiences and chances in life until we are aware of other
individuals who are in the same circumstances as we are. The sociological
imagination, Mills suggests, helps us to see relationships between our own
lives, the lives of others, and the times in which we live.
In Mills’s words, the sociological imagination helps people ‘to grasp what
is going on in the world, and to understand what is happening in themselves
as minute points of intersection of biography and history within society’
(2000/1959:7). At the intersection of individual biography, social structures and
the ‘push and shove’ of history lie the possibilities for engaging with change.
Developing his argument further, Mills makes a useful distinction between
personal troubles and social issues. Personal troubles are problems that have
to do with ourselves alone. Social issues are problems that have to do with
broader social patterns and opportunities. Mills gives several examples of this:

Unemployment:

When, in a city of 100,000, only one man is unemployed, that is his

personal trouble, and for its relief we properly look to the character
of the man, his skills, and his immediate opportunities. But when in
a nation of 50 million employees, 15 million are unemployed, that is
an issue, and we may not hope to find its solution within the range
of opportunities open to any one individual. The very structure of
opportunities has collapsed. Both the correct statement of the problem
and the range of possible solutions require us to consider the economic
and political institutions of the society, and not merely the personal
situation and character of a scatter of individuals. (2000/1959:9)

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

War:

The personal problems of war, when it occurs, may be how to survive

it or how to die with honour; how to make money out of it; how to
climb into the safety of the military apparatus; or how to contribute
to the war’s termination. In short, according to one’s values, …
to survive the war or make one’s death in it meaningful. But the
structural issues of war have to do with its causes; with what types
of men it throws up into command; with its effects upon economic
and political, family and religious institutions, with the unorganised
irresponsibility of a world of nation-states. (2000/1959:9)

These concepts of personal troubles and social issues, of personal

biographies and social structures, are useful in thinking about education.
They are tools for analysing our social – and personal – circumstances.
They may be helpful in understanding what our scope for action is: what
the possibilities are, and the limitations. To what extent individual lives
are determined by social structure, and to what extent they are shaped by
free choice and human agency, is a matter that needs careful consideration.

Looking back to our earlier question about schooling:

Whether students succeed or fail at school is partly a reflection of their

personal biography, individual capacities and choices. Success may well be the
result of personal effort, and failure may be a reflection of ‘personal trouble’.
At the same time, success and failure are also influenced by structures of
opportunity that lie beyond the control of single individuals: what school an
individual attends; his/her levels of wealth or poverty and the resources he/she
has at home; his/her networks of social relationships; how well he/she speaks
the language of instruction; his/her teaching and learning experiences in
classrooms and so on. When groups of people fail in predictable patterns, this
is a ‘social issue’ that goes beyond the individual person. Understanding the
interplay of these two – the personal and the social – helps us to understand
the scope for action at that time and in that place.
On the one hand, it is important not to ‘blame the victim’ by holding
people responsible for circumstances over which they have no control. On
the other hand, it is important that we don’t assume that people are simply
‘victims of their circumstances’. We need a more dynamic analysis of this
interplay if we are to understand success and failure at school.
In thinking about theories of education, it is also important to think
about ethics. What does ethics entail?

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 Schooling and social change: framing the challenges

Ethics
Ethics entails thinking about what counts as a good life, and how we
should live together with others in the world we share. Schooling is full
of ethical considerations. Schooling is a shared human activity (and so is
theorising about schooling). It involves judgements of all sorts: about what
is good and what is bad achievement; about what is correct and incorrect
performance; about what is normal and what is deviant behaviour. In fact,
schooling practices are saturated with judgements about the actions of
human beings in relation to each other, and about what is good and right.
In other words, they inevitably involve ethics.
Some theorists see ethics as a set of abstract principles about good and
bad, right and wrong. However, the approach taken here is that ethics
is an ongoing practice, rather than a set of ideal principles. It involves
continuously being open to others and being prepared to think about how
we should live together in the world.
The theorist Anna Yeatman (2004) sets out this position well:

Ethics refers to the practice of thinking about what living as a

human subject in relation to fellow subjects, and the world that
they share, demands of us. To open ourselves to ethical demands is
to open ourselves to the challenge of thinking well and in ways that
make our thoughtful engagement with the human condition both
open and accountable to our contemporaries as fellow co-existents.
It means being willing to listen to their objections to how we have
represented the demands ethics poses for us and them, and when
we have listened to those objections, to reconsider our position and
to continue to engage in the dialogue…

This approach to ethics will be woven through our discussions of schooling

in the rest of the book. Hopefully, this will be evident not so much in a
fixed set of principles as in a continuous engagement with issues of human
consequences as we consider different dimensions of schooling.

Equity and social justice

As a starting point, it is useful to distinguish equity from equality. Briefly,
equality means sameness of treatment. The problem arises, however, in
that people do not have equal capacities and resources. How then, might

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

societies recognise this? Some theorists argue that societies should not
interfere. Others argue that social goods should be unequally distributed
in order to benefit the least advantaged. This is the subject of much
philosophical debate.
Another response is to argue that instead of equality, societies and
education systems should aim for ‘equity’, or fairness. The question then
becomes, how might societies and their education systems be more fair? For
example, it may be fair to give more to some individuals or groups than to
others, because they start out at a disadvantage.
This brings us to considerations of justice, which is a philosophical
concept with a long history of debate in western thinking. According to
Plato, the famous ancient Greek philosopher, justice is about the right and
the good. Social justice, then, is about how societies may act in terms of
what is right and good.
Using the approach to ethics suggested above, this book does not seek to
find abstract principles of equity and justice. Rather, it attempts to think
with these concepts in continually open ways, working towards building
education systems for the greater benefit of all.

Outline
The chapters that follow address a set of questions, within the conceptual
framework set out above:

What are the purposes of schooling? Why do societies have schools?

What should we expect schools to do?
What sorts of changes are currently taking place due to globalisation,
and how should schools respond to these changes? How do global
patterns relate to local conditions?
What development policies did the post-apartheid South African
government adopt to change the economy, society and politics, and
how did these affect education?
What policies were developed to change the education system? How
was the policy process understood? What can policy achieve and what
are its limits in terms of educational change?
What can be done at the level of schools and classrooms to make a
difference to students’ learning?

Let’s move, then, to look at the goals and purposes of schooling.

10

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 Schooling and social change: framing the challenges

References
Mills, CW (2000/1959) The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Yeatman, A (2004) Ethics and contemporary global society. On-line
opinion, posted 18 October [Accessed 1 March 2005].

11

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 chapter 2
Goals and purposes of schooling
This chapter sets the foundation for discussions
about schools and change. It argues that the goals of
schooling are multiple and sometimes competing, and
it introduces the concept of ‘discourse’ as a way of
working with these different approaches. It suggests
that we read different discourses as operating alongside
one another, offering partial insights. Ultimately, the
chapter does not attempt to reach certainty or closure
about the goals and purposes of schooling. Instead,
it suggests that we work across ‘binary distinctions’
without jumping to either side, and we try to hold both
sides of seemingly contradictory positions. This is a task
of intellectual rigour, not sloppy reasoning. The chapter
argues that the doors of culture and learning are not
likely to swing open in front of us. It suggests that we
try to understand what is entailed in opening doors
of learning, and to push strategically where we can.

12 12

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

Imagine a society without schools.

You may be surprised to learn that schools are very recent social inventions
in western societies. Two hundred years ago, there were no schools as we
know them today. Education took place in other ways. Most children
lived and worked alongside their families, in the countryside and in
households, and did not read or write. Children of wealthy families were
taught by private tutors or were educated by the church. But over the
last 200 years, schools developed in Europe and the United States, and
spread across the world to all modern countries. Most societies today have
schools, and schools across the world look much the same. They have
the same basic institutional forms, such as classrooms and timetables, and
groups of children organised by age, taught by adults. And most primary
schools, at least, teach more or less the same curriculum areas: languages,
mathematics, science, social studies and religious or moral education.
Of course, what happens inside schools, classrooms and the curriculum
is another matter – that’s where we see great variations within the same
institutional form.
It’s hard to imagine a modern society without schools. And given how
fixed and certain schools appear to be, it’s easy to forget that they are
social constructions of fairly recent origin. If schools are constructed by
social activity, then logically, it should be possible to change them. Yet
schools around the world have proven hard to change. Societies appear
to be committed to keeping schools much the same, even in times of
considerable social change. Why is this? This is a puzzle which is explored
throughout this book.
This chapter focuses on the goals and purposes of modern schooling.
It explores in a systematic way the questions raised so far: Why do
societies have schools? What purposes do schools serve? What should
we expect schooling to do? In addressing these questions, the chapter
also suggests how we might ‘read’ and engage with different theories
about schooling.

13

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

1 Why do societies have schools?

Let’s look briefly at two different answers to the question of why societies
have schools. We’ll see that different narratives of schooling provide
different explanations and different possibilities about what schools may
and may not achieve.

A sociological narrative:
First, a narrative about the history of schooling using sociological discourses:

If we look at the history of schooling in different societies, we

see that schools developed at the same time as societies were
changing from being ‘traditional’ to being ‘modern’. Mass schooling
developed alongside industrialisation. It served two main purposes.
First, as traditional social structures were breaking down, schools
were agents of socialisation. They taught the cultures and values
that were once taught in families and kinship groups. They were
important institutions for building social cohesion. Second, as
economies were changing, schools prepared people for different
forms of work. They taught the skills and knowledges necessary for
participation in modern economies.

In serving both these purposes – social cohesion and preparation for

work – schools at the same time sorted and sifted students. Those
who completed only a few years of schooling were prepared to do
the less skilled, less valued work in society. Those who stayed longer
were prepared for clerical and white collar jobs. And those who
completed schooling could go on to university and to higher paid,
professional or managerial work.

When western powers colonised other countries, they introduced

schooling. Often, this role was taken on by missionaries who were
keen to spread their religions. Schooling disrupted traditional
social patterns, and imposed the worldviews, values and skills of
colonisers. It prepared most colonised people for subservient roles
and often gave them a sense of inferiority. But it also opened doors
for a small group of people who formed the elites of their societies.
Access to education has been part of independence struggles in
many countries, and education has been important in the formation

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

of postcolonial states. It is an important signifier of modernity.

Increasing access to education – Education for All – is a global goal
promoted by nation states as well as international organisations.

This is a typical ‘functionalist’ account of schooling. It views schooling as

serving particular social – and perhaps individual – functions or purposes.
Schools teach individuals the skills and values that are necessary for
social functioning in their particular historical times. They pass on valued
knowledge to young people. They prepare students for different social and
economic roles, for civic participation, and to take up different places in
the economy. And people are able to use schools to meet their own social
goals, particularly goals of social advancement.
Depending on their value-orientation, these theories view the role of
schooling as part of a pattern which needs to be maintained, or modified,
or broken altogether.

Those who broadly support existing arrangements in society view

schooling as important for social stability. They stress the role of
schooling in social cohesion, and favour the expansion of schooling
in order to socialise people and prepare them for civic and economic
life. In this approach, schools have a conservative role in maintaining
traditions and passing them on to future generations.

Using the same broad approach, other theorists suggest that schools
may also function to improve societies. They may provide equal
opportunities to people of different backgrounds to enable them to
advance themselves. Improving access to schooling, and to higher
levels of schooling, may be a way of reducing inequality and improving
the quality of life both for individuals and societies as a whole.

In contrast to these views, theories that favour social change – for

example, Marxist theories – see schooling as part of the problem of
inequality, rather than a solution to it. These theories point out that
schools appear to offer equal opportunities to students, but in practice,
they don’t. Schools reproduce class inequalities and at the same time
make these inequalities seem fair and natural, the result of individual
abilities rather than social position. In this analysis, schooling
functions to reproduce society. Thus it needs to be changed as part of
broader social change.

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A sociocultural psychology narrative:

Here is a second narrative about the history of schooling, this time drawing
on discourses of sociocultural psychology:

To understand schools, we need to start by looking at human beings

and how they learn. The human mind develops biologically as part of
the body, but it also develops through social contact with others. We
experience a physical world, but we make sense of the world through
our interactions with other people. Human conscious thinking
requires language, and language is part of culture. Culture provides
us with shared meanings, language and symbols, through which
we understand the world and communicate with others. Different
languages and cultures provide different understandings of the world.
Human understanding is ‘culturally mediated’, that is, it takes place
within culture. Thus, human beings experience a ‘double world’: a
natural world, and a cultural world of human making.

Where does schooling fit in with this? All cultures have language and
symbols that they transmit from generation to generation, but not all
have written language. Schools originated hundreds of years ago in
those societies which had developed written language. Writing is the
central cultural practice associated with schools, and it is the particular
form of ‘cultural mediation’ that schools use and promote.

Children learn and develop outside of schools, but schools in the

western world have a particular structure of learning. They teach
written symbol systems (such as reading, writing, arithmetic); they
teach abstract, coded, systems of knowledge; and they do so in
particular ways. Material to be learnt is sorted and sequenced;
category systems are used; and students practise mastery through
repetition and recitation. Classroom language tends to follow the
same pattern, called ‘initiation – reply – evaluation’, where a teacher
asks a question, a student responds, and the teacher gives feedback
on the response (see Cazden, 1988). Schools use formal modes of
expression and tend to exclude everyday experience. They focus on
formal and abstract thinking, and develop certain kinds of problem
solving. In short, there is such a thing as ‘school knowledge’, generally
understood, and school-based forms of thinking (or cognition).

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

Put simply, the purpose of schooling is to teach ‘school knowledge’

and ways of thinking. Whether or not this has application outside
of schools, or brings personal advancement and social change, are
matters of considerable debate.

Some theorists view literacy as a set of technical skills to be

learnt. They talk of ‘functional literacy’, and assume that it is ‘a
good thing’ for everyone to have these skills, which open up
possibilities to the world beyond the school. Others dispute this,
saying that literacy is not a neutral, value-free set of competencies.
What counts as literacy depends upon social context and power
relationships. Not all literacy provides people with the critical skills
needed to understand the world and how power relations work.

Some theorists argue that school knowledge and ways of

thinking are important in themselves, and that they bring
positive changes for individuals and societies. Others argue that
students’ school knowledge and cognitive operations ‘become
rusty’ if they are not used. Learning literacy through schooling
may be a waste of time and money if there are no opportunities
to use it in the wider world. School knowledge is not necessarily
valuable in itself. We can’t assume that it is associated with
positive change, either for individuals or societies.

The sociocultural psychologist Mike Cole (1990) draws the

following conclusions about these debates:

Where writing is the medium of public life, learning to write at school

may help students to perform in many settings outside of school.

Where the content of schooling is relevant to their circumstances, schools

may help students to understand their social and historical contexts.

Where language capacity is expanded, schools may help to deepen

students’ cultural understanding. For, as Cole points out, every
language ‘carries within it the culture’s theory about the nature of
the world’. An expanded language capacity may give access to the
meaning systems embedded in the language, and students may
acquire understanding that may be applicable outside the school walls.

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But, according to Cole, if these conditions are not present, learning

literacy through schooling may be of doubtful benefit.

Cole agrees that schooling is associated with the development of

urban centres of trade and technologies of production. However, his
view is that schooling was neither the cause nor the effect of these
changes. Rather, schooling was an enabling condition which helped
changes to occur. He suggests that schooling in less developed
societies has been ‘an alien form’, imposed by colonialism. Schooling
may well be associated with modernity, but, in his view, ‘there is
little doubt that widespread adoption of formal schooling has also
been a source of social disruption and human misery’ (1990:107).

Comparing the two narratives

These two narratives about why schools developed and why they persist,
tell us different stories. Both use the elements of the sociological imagination
that we discussed in Chapter 1 – the individual life, the social context, and
the historical times – but they do so in quite different ways. It’s not that
they contradict each other, or that we necessarily have to choose between
them. What is important, rather, is to understand the way theories operate
as explanations, and how we may work with them.
Each theory has its own particular concepts and concerns, and its own
methods and logics of analysis. In an important sense, theories themselves
set the terms within which they provide explanations. Theories use
different discourses, or sets of language practices. In fact, some people argue
that theories themselves are discourses.
Discourses, in this sense, are patterns of language use (speaking, listening,
thinking) which provide us with shared social meanings. They position
us as subjects in relation to others and to the world (for example as
‘teachers’, ‘students’, ‘illiterate adults’ and so on), and provide us with
social identities. Discourses demarcate what ‘makes sense’ (and counts as
knowledge) from what ‘makes no sense’ (and therefore cannot be ‘true’).
They link knowledge to power in specific ways. What counts as knowledge,
who has access to it and how – these discourses involve power relations.
Analysing discourse enables us to explore the relationships between
language, power, meaning, and subjectivity or identity.
Looking back at the two narratives on schooling presented earlier, we
can see different discourses at work.

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

The first uses discourses of social function, social cohesion and

socialisation, where schools prepare individuals to fit into and
contribute to complex modern societies – a pattern to be supported,
worked with, or broken.

The second uses discourses of human learning, of mind and cultural

mediation, where schools provide access to written symbol systems and
codified knowledge. The usefulness of this narrative depends to a large
degree on social context.

Both explanations seem coherent in their own terms – though they make
little or no reference to each other. In each discourse, the school (which is
familiar to us) is presented quite differently. In other words, each discourse
provides the terms within which we may understand the school. In this
sense, we could say that the discourse itself ‘creates’ the school. The French
theorist Michel Foucault has famously made the point that ‘discourses
create the objects of which they speak’.
Why are these points useful to understand? They open up considerations
about how we might work with theory in understanding the social world.

Working with theory

This book starts from the premise that, in the humanities and social
sciences, many different explanations are possible. Different theories and
discourses use different central concepts, methods and logics of argument.
They start at different points, and develop along different lines. Following
these different lines brings us to different outcomes. No single narrative or
discourse can account for everything. There is no single answer or single
‘truth’ waiting to be discovered. There are different answers, depending
on different theories and discourses. Of course, this doesn’t mean they are
all equally good answers, or equally useful. But it is helpful to know that
we can analyse each approach within its own terms, and put different
approaches side-by-side and understand them in relation to one another.
The approach in this book is that it is useful to explore relationships
between language, power, meaning and subjectivity in different discourses.
This position should not be confused with simple relativism, where
‘anything goes’ and the rules of logic may be set aside at whim. Instead, it
supports the position that all knowledge is situated, and is governed by the
perspectives of the ‘knowers’ (this perspectivalist position is well described
by Yeatman, 1994).

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The two narratives of schooling we have looked at are both ‘grand

narratives’, in the sense that they tell overarching stories that explain the
world. However, these narratives tell us nothing about particular schools
in particular times. To get a sense of the texture of a particular school,
in its community, at a particular social and historical moment, requires a
different sort of analysis. It requires detailed research of the kind usually
carried out by historical and anthropological studies.
Some further comments are necessary. First, the two narratives presented
here, from sociology and psychology, are just two among very many. They
are by no means the only narratives in those two disciplines. Second, it
is worth noting that a lot of scholarly activity is concerned with delving
into greater depth and detail to understand apparent social and historical
patterns – or exceptions to these patterns.
A third observation concerns a point of change in theory. In the last
few decades, important work in the humanities and social sciences has
challenged the certainties of ‘grand narratives’ as a form of explanation.
This ‘destabilisation’ in theory is partly associated with ‘post’ theories:
post-modernism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and so on. ‘Post’
here is used to indicate that these theories are questioning and moving
beyond the mainstream theoretical work that they have drawn on.
However, not all theorists who analyse discourse, who look at relationships
between knowledge and power, and who question the nature of ‘universal
truths’ would identify themselves as ‘post’ theorists. Michel Foucault and
Edward Said are significant examples. The theories clustered here generally
favour a multiplicity of narratives, voices, meanings and subjectivities.
This book draws on and explores a number of these theories in an open
rather than dogmatic way. And it invites you, as reader, to question and to
position yourself ethically where you judge best.

To sum up …
In unpacking the question of why societies have schools, we started by
looking at two sets of explanations, and moved from there to think about
the nature of explanations themselves. The sections that follow will build
on the narratives of schooling, as well as on the ideas raised about the
nature of theory, discourse and ethics.
As we move to our second question on the goals and purposes of
schooling, we’ll see how different discourses formulate different goals and
purposes, which highlight different dimensions of schooling.

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

2 What purposes do schools serve?

In exploring this question, it is important to ask ‘Whose purposes?’
Purposes don’t float free, like butterflies, waiting to be found. Purposes
depend on people who have different perspectives and interests, different
ethical understandings and different relationships to power. In talking of
schooling, are we interested in the purposes of children, or teachers, or
parents, or social interest groups, or governments? Purposes are socially
constructed; they are never neutral or interest free.
Here are some statements that you’ll recognise about the purposes
of schooling:

The primary purpose of a school is to provide an environment where

teaching and learning take place.
An important purpose of schooling is to prepare people for the world
of work beyond school.
Nation-building and citizenship – political goals – are the key purposes
of schooling.
In a democracy, public education – schooling – is one of the major
vehicles for teaching the values of a society to children and young adults.
Education is about the development of the individual.

These are very broad-ranging and sometimes grand claims. How might we
assess them?
To explore these statements further, it is useful to look in greater depth at
the discourses they represent – discourses about teaching and learning; about
economics, politics and values; and about individual purposes of schooling.
This chapter has touched on some of these already, particularly in the two
narratives of schooling provided earlier. Hopefully, in tracing these discourses
and placing them side-by-side, different pictures of the purposes of schooling
will sharpen and fade, in ways that are complex but also recognisable.

Teaching and learning in schools

Let’s start by looking at the first statement of purposes from the list above:

The primary purpose of a school is to provide an environment where

teaching and learning take place.

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In unpacking this statement, a good place to begin is with schools

themselves, and what happens every day in schools.

Everyday life in schools

The sounds and smells of schools – everyone who has been to school
has their own memories. Sitting at a desk next to a friend. Waiting for
the bell to ring and the class to end. Punishment for breaking a rule
or talking in class. A favourite teacher. A teacher who hits students.
The Science teacher’s dog. Break times. Tests. Reports. Being anxious
about not knowing the right answer to the teacher’s question.
Embarrassment. Doing homework. Playing sport. Library periods
amidst the books. Reading under the desk. Being with friends. Other
kids – those who always did well, those who did badly. Bullies. Popular
kids. The sinking feeling of going back to school after holidays.

These are some of my memories that surface when I think of my school

days. What memories do you have of school? Some people have memories
of walking long distances to school, being hungry in class, being abused by
teachers or other students. These experiences are part of everyday life in
school for some children. Our particular experiences differ, but they also
fall into patterns.
Students – and teachers – do many things at school. We play as well as
work. We learn outside of the classroom as well as inside, informally as
well as formally. We learn from our friends – and from our foes – as well
as from our teachers. Sometimes we learn very little from our teachers (in
fact, sometimes we learn in spite of them). We learn worthwhile things,
and things we would be better off not learning. For a long period of our
childhood and youth, we are placed in groups of our own age under the
tutelage of adults. Our days are structured in particular rhythms which we
may conform to, or resist. Along the way, our identities are shaped and
formed, in a particular social institution alongside our peers.
Amidst the wide range of things that schools do, they have one defining
purpose of their own that makes them distinctive: they are the only social
institutions that are dedicated to formalised teaching and learning for
young people. Though people learn in many different social institutions
and activities (churches, sports clubs and so on), schools are the only
social institutions whose central purpose is the formalised transmission of
knowledge, skills and values.

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

The narrative from sociocultural psychology presented earlier provided

a brief description of school knowledge and ways of thinking. ‘School
knowledge’ is by no means all the knowledge a society has. It is a particular
selection and ordering of knowledge, and it gives priority to some ways
of knowing and learning while downplaying others. Some students are
better than others at dealing with school knowledge. Social background
and context are big factors. For some students, what happens in school
is similar to what happens at home, in terms of classroom language,
activities and learning objects (such as books and computers). For other
students, there are large gaps between home and school experiences. Some
schools provide better learning environments than others; some contexts
are easier for schools to operate in than others. International research
in sociology of education over many years has shown that there are
patterns to performance, relating to home background and socioeconomic
context (as well as language, race, gender and so on). These findings
pose huge ethical and practical challenges in terms of social equity
and fairness.
In the light of this, how might we respond to the statement ‘The primary
purpose of a school is to provide an environment where teaching and
learning takes place’?

A strong response, proposed by Ivan Illich in the 1970s, is that we

should ‘deschool’ society, because schools do more harm than good.
Another response is to try to bring different knowledge and learning
approaches into schools, so that they reflect a broader selection of
social interests.
Yet another response is to argue that if school knowledge is related to
social power, then it is important for schools to open this knowledge
to the very students who do not have easy access to it in their homes
and neighbourhoods.

What these responses have in common is ethical positions which engage

with, rather than accept, the status quo in society. Calling into question
the relationship between school knowledge and social power is an
important starting point for an ethics of engagement.
The position favoured in this book is that schools should be held
accountable to their mandate of teaching school knowledge – the formal,
codified knowledge of the society. Taking this further, they should do so
in ways that open up possibilities for students to understand their worlds,
and change them. And they should provide surroundings that are safe and
show respect for teaching and learning.

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As well as teaching and learning, the purposes of schooling are also

framed in terms of economics, politics and values or ethics. Let’s move on
to look at these, one by one.

Schools and the economy

Economic discourses play across schooling in two main ways. First,
education systems involve costs and need to be funded. How are decisions
to be taken about the production and distribution of resources for
education? What proportion of a government’s budget should be spent on
education? Should governments meet all or most of the costs of schooling?
Should people pay fees? What is the optimum balance between the state
and the private sector (or market) in providing education? Given that
some forms of education are more costly than others (it is much more
expensive to teach with science laboratories and vocational training
facilities, for example, than to teach in primary schools), how much
should be allocated to different activities and sectors of education? What
education should governments fund to enhance economic development?
And so on.
These are not simple questions. And as we address them, they give
way to further questions. Certainly, they give way to questions about
interests and values, political arrangements and power relations, as well as
important questions of ethics. There are also questions about what further
knowledge we may need to answer them. Some people suggest that this
process is like peeling an onion, where there is a layer underneath each
new layer. But this gives the impression that we would come to an end
at some point – and the theoretical position suggested so far is that the
process is a continuing one. There is no end point waiting to be discovered,
no single truth or solution. Of course, some social arrangements are better
than others – they are fairer and less oppressive. The task is to work
continuously towards better solutions, without assuming that there is one
ideal solution waiting to be found and put in place.
A second set of economic discourses is more directly concerned with the
link between schools and the economy. Among the many questions that
could be raised here, two stand out as important for educators. What is the
link between schooling and the jobs people get after school? What role
do schools play in individual and social development? Let’s look briefly at
both of these.

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

Schools and the labour market

Common sense suggests that there is a link between the amount of
schooling that people have, and the jobs that are open to them. In
general, less schooling is associated with unskilled work, and sometimes
unemployment. More schooling is associated with better-paid, and higher-
level skilled work. This suggests that

an important purpose of schooling is to prepare people for the

world of work beyond the school.

Of course, we can think of instances where the link does not operate, but
the general pattern seems self-evident.
However, as the Italian theorist Gramsci (1971) warns us, common sense
is not always good sense. It requires further refinement.

If we think more carefully, it is evident that people often don’t use the
actual knowledge they learn at schools and universities to do their
jobs. In fact, new knowledge is being developed at great speed, and a
lot of what we learn is soon out of date. We could counter this point
by saying that schooling teaches people how to think, and this is what
is important for work performance. But here we need to bear in mind
the point made earlier by sociocultural psychologists – that school
knowledge may ‘become rusty’ if there is no context in which to use it.

In some cases, higher qualifications are required for jobs that have
not changed. Think of all the jobs where a senior certificate was once
enough, and now a university degree is required. We could counter
this point by saying that schools and universities help to sort people
according to their credentials, which are based on their suitability for
the job market. The issue then becomes one of credentials, rather
than competencies.

Social institutions – like schools and labour markets – aren’t neutral

sites that offer equal opportunities to everyone. People don’t enter
these institutions as equal participants, and they aren’t simply given
equal life chances through them. The problems are more complex.
People can’t always get the jobs they want. Sometimes, this is what
Mills would call a ‘personal trouble’; sometimes it is a ‘social problem’.
More careful thinking is needed to understand the reasons. And there
are ethical implications if social institutions operate unfairly.

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People sometimes blame schools and the education system for

unemployment. But this transfers the problem from the economy to
schools. Schools don’t create jobs – economic activities do. Schools may
prepare people for jobs, and they may make people more employable.
Certainly, modern economies rely on schooling as well as on skilled
workers. But schools alone cannot make economies productive.

A simple functionalist argument does not take us far enough in explaining

the link between schooling and jobs. As Mills’s sociological imagination
reminds us, there is a structure of opportunities that individuals encounter
at any historical time, and individuals make choices and take actions as they
live their lives. Gender plays a role. So does race. So does the place where an
individual lives. And there are many other variables too. We need a more
dynamic analysis linking individuals to social structure and time. We also need
an analysis that looks at different meanings, subjectivities and power relations.
In modern industrial societies, the link between schooling and the labour
market has become increasingly tighter. As mass schooling has expanded,
its social and economic significance has grown. The Australian sociologists,
Teese and Polesel (2003:12), point out that currently, ‘practically all avenues
to economic advancement’ are linked to schools. This does not mean that
schools work in democratic ways to open all avenues equally to all students.
As well as providing avenues to advancement, schools also provide avenues
to failure and marginalisation. Though the link is obvious, it is not quite as
simple as it may seem, and it has proven very difficult to change. Certainly,
this raises ethical issues about what schooling can and can’t be expected to
do in relation to students’ life chances. Holding this analysis in mind, let’s
turn to another discourse that links schools to the economy.

Schools and economic growth

A major theory linking schools to the economy is human capital theory,
which is part of neoclassical economics. This theory views education
in economic terms, and analyses schooling as a ‘production’ factor
contributing to economic growth.
Human capital theory argues that education should be viewed as
investment (rather than consumption) which brings rates of return to
individuals and societies. Individuals who invest in their education, and
forego opportunities to earn money by going to school instead (that is, bear
opportunity costs), reap the rewards of their investments by getting better,
higher-paid jobs. Societies that provide education for their members are able
to develop their economies by having better prepared workers, and they reap
social benefits as well in terms of healthier, more prosperous citizens.

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

Human capital theory quite obviously uses a discourse of economics – of

inputs and outputs, costs and benefits, investments and rates of return,
production and consumption. Notably absent in this discourse is any detail
about what actually happens inside schools and classrooms.
Human capital theory has strong supporters, particularly among economists,
and strong critics, particularly among those who resist the treatment of
education as ‘goods’ in economic terms. This discourse may appear misleadingly
simple to those who disagree with it, but in practice, human capital theory is a
sophisticated and influential set of research undertakings. And it has had
important policy implications, particularly in developing countries.
A good example of research using human capital theory in South Africa
is Charles Simkins’s study with Andrew Paterson, Learner Performance
in South Africa: social and economic determinants of success in language and
mathematics (2005). The study contains data on households and test results,
as well as detailed accounts of the statistical procedures and methods used
to analyse the data.

First, a summary of the study:

South Africa has done well to systematically expand its educational

system and to lengthen the schooling experience of successive
learner cohorts. But the quality of the output from the school system
has been questioned. In seeking to identify the reasons for this, it is
important to relate educational outputs (competencies, as measured
for instance by examinations or standardised tests) to inputs.
Determining the relative contributions of the inputs – of the school,
the household and the individual learner – to educational outputs
is not straightforward, particularly since very little educational
production function analysis has been undertaken in South Africa.

Until recently, no South African school data has incorporated test

results, school characteristics and information on the household
circumstances of individual learners necessary for this kind of
analysis. However, the results from a survey of a sample of schools
involved in the large-scale Quality Learning Project (QLP), funded by
the Business Trust, have yielded such data. The QLP data set offers
a new analytical opportunity to address the question: What are the
effects of social and economic variables on educational outcomes in
the QLP schools? (Human Sciences Research Council, 2005)

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Now, two extracts from the summary of its findings:

The general assessment is that social and economic variables at

the household level do not play an enormous role in academic
performance, with the exception of language variables. Pupils
whose home language is an African language are at a considerable
disadvantage in the language of instruction by the time they reach
Grade 11 if the language of instruction is never spoken at home. This
can be offset somewhat if the language of instruction is sometimes
spoken at home and it can be offset considerably if the language of
instruction is often spoken at home. (Simkins and Paterson, 2005:33)

… The rules to be followed by parents if they want their children to

do well at school are Victorian in their simplicity:
Feed them as well as you can;
Equip them with a full range of inexpensive study aids;
Talk to them often in the language of instruction;
Don’t fret about your somewhat richer neighbour – household
wealth does not give much edge in school performance.
(Simkins and Paterson, 2005:34)

Studies such as these provide important, research-based knowledge about

schooling. The picture is an important one, but it is a partial one – particularly
for those who are interested in learning and teaching inside schools.

Development and the World Bank and International

Monetary Fund
A discussion of the economics of education would be incomplete without
considering the influence of the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund (IMF). These two bodies, established after the Second World War to
provide development assistance to countries, have linked their financial
aid to their preferred education policies. These policies reflect human
capital assumptions.
For example, over time, the World Bank has supported countries to build
up primary education, or vocational education, arguing that these give
good rates of return on investment. These funding decisions have been
made with little consideration of the policy preferences of people in the
countries concerned. They have been driven by a particular understanding
of economics and education, and reflect a particular power/knowledge

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position. They favour an economics of structural adjustment, which means

cutting down what governments spend on social services, and opening up
markets. There is much debate about the effectiveness of these policies.
Economists such as Joseph Stiglitz (2002), a former chief economist at the
World Bank, argue that they actually lead to poverty and social disruption.
Certainly, these policies are not neutral or value-free; they reflect particular
interests and power relationships.

To sum up …
Without going further into this debate, let’s link back to theories of
discourse. It is important to note here that all discourses are constructions
of a particular sort. They make assumptions about what is important; they
provide particular social identities and meanings; they draw on and expand
their own bodies of knowledge; and they justify actions in terms of these.
Assumptions about the purposes of education and about how funding
is appropriately spent can never be value-free. They always need to be
considered in terms of power relations, social interests and ethics (as well
as in terms of their scholarly worth).
This does not mean that educationists should try to avoid discourses
on schooling and the economy. On the contrary, these discourses are
valuable and in a certain sense, indispensable. Schools do have links to the
economy, and we cannot talk about these things without discourses. What
is important, rather, is to continually explore their meanings, to probe
them for their inconsistencies and cracks, and to work with and against
them towards goals we value. After all, this is what they do themselves,
and what they invite us to do.
Moving on from this picture of economic purposes of education, let’s now
consider the political and social purposes of education.

Schooling and political cohesion

Building the modern state
Around the world, schooling is associated with the modern state.
Governments have set up education systems, and state education
departments regulate a whole range of activities, from financing, to
curriculum, to conditions of employment of teachers, to performance
of students. Governments monitor school enrolments and attendance.
And they commonly turn to schools to solve all sorts of social problems –
or to blame them for the existence of problems, which may have nothing
to do with them.

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As the institutional theorists Bruce Fuller and Richard Rubinson

(1992:4) note, states across the world, and particularly in developing
countries, ‘hold the school institution sacred; they regard it as being
the organisational mechanism for delivering mass opportunity, economic
growth and national integration’. Fuller and Rubinson see schools as
an important indicator of western ideology. However, in their view,
schooling is neither the result, nor the cause, of economic development
or state organisation – a position compatible with that of Cole, as
stated earlier.
Stephen Heynemann, a World Bank adviser, argues strongly that schools
play an important role in ‘building social cohesion’. In his view:

Nation-building and citizenship – political goals – are the key

purpose of schooling.

In an article entitled ‘A renewed sense for the purposes of schooling:

the challenges of education and social cohesion in Asia, Africa, Latin
America, Europe and Central Asia’ (2000), Heynemann and Todoric-
Bebic emphasise the following three points about schooling:

The first is that the social cohesion function of education is at

the heart of each nation’s education system, and one of the main
reasons why nations invest in public schooling. The second is that
some school systems accomplish this better than others. In fact,
it is possible to judge the performance of an education system
as much on the basis of its contribution to social cohesion as on
its attainment of learning objectives. The third is that the social
cohesion objectives and concerns are not uniform around the world.
There are countries in some regions that are concerned primarily
with ethnic identity, while countries in other regions might be
concerned with public corruption or illegal behaviour. But, regardless
of the emphasis placed on social cohesion in different regions, one
element appears to be true throughout: countries, when faced with
a tendency to splinter, use public education to reduce the risk of that
happening. (2000:146, original emphasis)

Heynemann and Todoric-Bebic identify the following nation-building

approaches that have been adopted by African states:

Developing common nationality while preserving minority languages

and cultures (e.g. Nigeria)

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

Quickly developing a unique new culture resulting from the synthesis of

previously existing groups (e.g. Chad, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania)

Gradually developing a national culture (e.g. Zimbabwe)

Developing unity within diversity (e.g. South Africa) (2000:147–48)

These authors identify the following issues to be addressed by education

and social cohesion in Africa:

Language of instruction
Equality of opportunity
Universal primary education
Administration, organisation and school governance
The role of the teacher in political socialisation (2000:148–50)

This discourse of social cohesion – its language, priorities, interests – stands

alongside human capital theory in stating the purposes of education. It
provides a different, but not incompatible, account. And it has a familiar
ring in post-apartheid South Africa. Both discourses are more concerned
with broader social issues than with what happens in teaching and learning
in schools. In this case, building the nation state, reducing conflict and
enhancing citizenship are foregrounded. As we read earlier, Heynemann
and Todoric-Bebic go so far as to say, ‘In fact, it is possible to judge the
performance of an education system as much on the basis of its contribution
to social cohesion as on its attainment of learning objectives’ (2000:146).

Schooling and values

A similar – and familiar – discourse of the purposes of schooling
foregrounds the transmission of values. To quote the Report of the Working
Group on Values in Education (2001):

In a democracy, public education is one of the major vehicles by

which the values of a people are acquired by the children and young
adults who make up our schools’ population.

Elaborating on this, the report states:

In this report we make an argument for the promotion of the values

of equity, tolerance, multilingualism, openness, accountability

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and social honour at our schools. We believe that these values

are important for the personal development of our school-going
population. They also define the moral aspirations of South African
democracy as defined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The
definition we give to values today is an avenue to imagining the
future character of the South African people. These values are
therefore the moral aspirations which South Africans should regard
as desirable. (2001)

This statement of values grounds itself in the particular political settlement

framed in the South African Constitution and Bill of Rights. In this way,
it makes some of its own assumptions explicit – it takes us a layer back to
show us what its own immediate reference point is. This is a way of making
its power/knowledge claims explicit. Even so, value statements are more
problematic than they seem. They always raise questions of ‘Whose values
are these? Why are they being promoted here and now? What are the
ethical implications?’
Other questions arise. How do schools teach values? Can people be told
what values they should hold? When does teaching of values become
indoctrination? What happens if general social values cut across other moral
aspirations that people regard as desirable? What happens when values clash?
Discourses of values often present complex concepts as if they have single
meanings. The particular value statement quoted above does try to specify
what it means by equity, tolerance, and so on, and it assumes that most
members of South African society would agree to these values.
But the apartheid state also had a set of values that it promoted
through schooling.

One of its stated values was ‘separate but equal’.

It specifically linked schooling to purposes of social cohesion in

terms of ‘separate development’.

Its own philosophy of education, Fundamental Pedagogics,

stressed the importance of moral development. It viewed
‘Bantu people’ as having the status of children who needed
to be guided towards maturity.

And in one way or another, apartheid education policies addressed all

of the social cohesion issues raised by Heynemann and Todoric-Bebic.
There were policies on language of instruction, on (in)equality of

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

opportunity; on universal primary education for whites but not for blacks;
on administration, organisation and governance; and on the role of the
teacher in political socialisation. This cautions us never to take such
claims at face value.
Given that education systems are linked to political and economic
purposes, it is important to engage with these critically. There are
always questions to be asked about the nature of the political economy
and the state, about legitimacy, and about what actions are ethical and
appropriate. History is continuously made and changed by human action.
As configurations of power shift, as interests give way to other interests, as
social relations are reshaped, as values shift, there is a continuous need for
us to understand and engage with them.
The approach suggested here is that we work with the discourses and
social arrangements we find ourselves in, recognising our own value position.
Instead of trying to sidestep the power/knowledge link, there are always
possibilities to engage reflectively and ethically with our conditions. Social
institutions and cultures are imperfect, but they are constantly formed and
transformed through human activity. Reflecting on action in ethical ways
and engaging with change are important tasks for critical educationists.

Schooling and individual development

This brings us to the final statement made earlier about the purposes
of schooling:

Education is about the development of the individual.

It would be hard – and even foolish – to deny that education is about

individual development.
That said, the approach we have developed in this chapter suggests that
a statement like this can be read in multiple ways. It takes on different
meanings in different discourses. The different discourses – with their
language, meanings, power relations and subjectivities – address ‘individual
development’ in different ways:

The analysis suggested by Mills’s sociological imagination links

individuals in a dynamic way to their social structures and historical
time. It argues that we cannot understand individual choices and
actions (and development) without understanding the particular
societies they are part of, how they are located within their societies,
and the times in which they live.

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The narrative from functionalist sociology stresses the importance

of schooling in the socialisation of individuals, so that they are
prepared to contribute to social, civic and economic life. Individual
development is seen to be a purpose of schooling, and individuals
themselves may use schooling to take advantage of the benefits and
opportunities it offers. Depending on their value orientations, theorists
may seek to promote, work with or disrupt the school-society link.

The example from sociocultural psychology argues that individuals

experience the world ‘twice’ – as a natural world, and through the
meanings of a culture. Individual development requires language and
the shared meanings of culture. Individual development is a social, as
well as an individual, process. Individual development does not only
occur inside individuals; it is also linked to others.

The discourses we have looked at on economy, politics and society have

their own notions of the individual framed in terms of their own
meanings and subjectivities. The economic subject who invests in her
education, the political subject who learns a national language as well
as a home language, the social subject who, as a young rural woman
makes choices in relation to her labour market options – all of these
encompass notions of ‘individual development’ and individual agency.
These positions need not contradict each other; in fact, individuals
hold multiple subject positions, and ‘individual development’ has
multiple meanings.

To sum up …
Schooling serves many purposes in modern societies. Schools are key
social institutions which link young individuals to their social contexts in
different historical times. For many, schooling serves to cement their social
position of advantage or disadvantage. For some, schooling brings change.
Complexities and contradictions abound in schooling. Schools are public
places, shared by many people. At the same time, they are also places of unique
personal experience and memory. Schools are places of purposive human
activity, but they are full of unplanned and unintended activity as well. They
are places of formalised learning, but they are also places of informal learning,
unintended learning, and failure to learn. They are places of conformity and
tradition, but they are also places of new experiences. They are places regulated
by routine and compulsion, but they are also places where people make
choices. Experiences of schooling are infused with emotions, leaving lasting
memories. Power pulses through them in obvious as well as hidden ways.

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

Many different discourses ‘create’ the school, and most fill it with
intention, optimism and purpose.

3 What should we expect schooling

to do?
Schooling seems to hold ‘keys to the future’. Discourses of social, economic
and political change almost always include schooling. Yet, for all this,
schooling across the world has not been easy to change, or to harness
for specific purposes. In particular, social reformers in western countries
over the past 50 years have stumbled in their attempts to use schooling
to reduce social inequalities. Often, the hopes and purposes attached to
schooling bear little resemblance to schools that actually exist or the
schools we have experienced.
Here is an example of the optimism often associated with schooling:

Today the international community is faced with increasingly serious

problems: proliferating acts of violence and conflicts; poverty and
illiteracy; the gap between rich and poor; and marginalisation and
social exclusion in a world where one quarter of all human beings
live in poverty. The right to education is an invaluable tool in the
bid to eradicate poverty and to tackle these problems. (Daudet and
Singh, 2001:9)

Another example is from the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
who used the election catchphrase ‘Education, Education, Education’ to
sweep the Labour Party to victory in the elections in 1997.
The right to schooling is presented here as a ‘solution’ to wide-ranging social
problems: violence, poverty, inequality, marginalisation and social exclusion.
Yet there is very little evidence that schooling has actually achieved these sorts
of goals in a sustainable and large-scale way. On the contrary, we could gather
evidence of cases where schooling is part of, or contributes to, these very
problems, rather than being part of their solution. Certainly, improvements
in schooling may happen alongside the solution to social problems such
as these. But that doesn’t mean they have caused either the problems or
their solution. (This is a similar point to the one made earlier by Cole and
Fuller and Rubinson: that schooling developed historically alongside other
social processes, but it isn’t a direct cause or effect of these processes.) It
is difficult to establish clear patterns of causation around schooling. It is

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easier to show correlation (that things are happening simultaneously) than

causation (that the one has caused the other to happen).
Is it possible to ‘open the doors of learning’ and use schooling to build a
more equal and just society? As the debates covered in this chapter suggest,
this question is not as straightforward as it might seem, and there are no ready
answers. It is a question that will be addressed in different ways in the chapters
that follow. This chapter suggests that one of the reasons why schooling is
hard to change is that it serves a range of goals and purposes. As this chapter
has shown, many discourses are at work to ‘create’ the school. There is no
single logic that fully answers the question of why societies have schools.
There is no single account that fully captures all the purposes of schooling.
And there is no single action that could be taken to satisfy all of the
different interests in schooling. Just as there is no single ‘grand narrative’
to explain schooling, there is no single ‘grand narrative’ to address how
schooling might be changed. To change schooling means engaging with
many different logics, purposes, and interests. It means engaging with power
relations and grappling with ethical implications. Schooling can certainly be
changed, but experience shows that this takes time and effort.
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, made a wry comment about
the difficulties of achieving results in his own area of therapy. He said:

It almost looks as if analysis were the third of those ‘impossible’

professions in which one can be sure beforehand of achieving
unsatisfying results. The other two, which have been known much
longer, are education and government. (1964:248)

In other writings, Freud talks of educating, healing and governing as the

‘impossible professions’ (1961:273).
What do these three professions have in common? What makes them
‘impossible’? All three involve human beings with complex inner lives,
meanings and activities. They involve social institutions, social practices
and beliefs. All of these make change difficult. In all cases, change is
time-consuming and cannot easily be rushed. The results are variable –
there is almost always a mix of success and failure. There are unintended
consequences. Changes are never completed – remnants of old practices persist
alongside new ones, and there is always more to be done. It is often easier to
settle for an incomplete solution. If one ‘problem’ seems to be resolved, another
will surely appear. And if one set of interests appears to be satisfied, another
will surely be dissatisfied.
However, this is not to say that the ‘impossible professions’ should be
abandoned. They cannot be, since they are crucial to human societies.

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

Instead, the challenge is to work with imperfections.

For example, the educationist Jerome Bruner (1996) suggests that we
approach dilemmas in education as ‘antinomies’ – as opposites which are
both true, or contradictions which simply cannot be solved.
Bruner discusses three such antinomies:

Education aims to help individuals to fulfil their potential; but it also

aims to preserve and reproduce existing cultural and social patterns.
Learning in schools is about individual intelligence; but it also depends
on cultural context and the ‘toolkits’ that teachers provide to learners.
In education, ‘local knowledge’, experience and ways of thinking should
be valued as authoritative. But there are also questions of ‘universal
knowledge’ and of larger settings that education should address.

Bruner’s response to these antinomies is that we should not try to resolve

them by large-scale solutions. Instead, we should work with them using
case-by-case judgement. He says:

We have three antinomies, then: the individual-realisation versus

the culture-preserving antinomy; the talent-centred versus the
tool-centred antinomy; and the particularism versus universalism
antinomy. Without keeping them in mind, we risk losing our way in
evaluating what we have learned about early schooling and where
we are moving. For they help keep the issues in balance. There is no
way to get the full measure from both sides of an antinomy, these
three included. We need to realise human potential, but we need
to maintain a culture’s integrity and stability. We need to recognise
differing native talent, but we need to equip all with the tools of
culture. We need to respect the uniqueness of local identities and
experience, but we cannot stay together as a people if the cost of local
identity is a cultural Tower of Babel [where we speak so differently that
we cannot communicate with each other]. (1996:69–70)

Bruner goes on to suggest that it makes no sense to look for some

‘midpoint’ between antinomies. Nor can they be ignored. Instead, he
suggests, we need to work with them in mindful and reflective ways.
If we expect the doors of culture and learning to swing open in front of
us, we will surely be disappointed. An alternative approach is to frame
the challenge differently: to try to understand what is entailed in opening
doors of learning, and to push strategically where we can. The chapters
that follow will return to this point.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

Why literacy matters…

A comment by the Australian Professor Frances Christie:

To be literate in the contemporary world is to understand the very

large range of written forms, text types or – as I shall call them
here, genres – which we all need for both the reading and writing
essential to participation in the community…. Genres of speech
include job interviews, casual conversations, public speeches, to
name a few obvious ones…. Genres of writing include items as
various as recipes, reports, newspaper articles, different types of
essays and so on.

To learn to recognise and create the various genres found in one’s

culture is to learn to exercise choices – choices in building and
ordering different kinds of meaning and hence, potentially, choices
in directing the course of one’s life. Learning to control such genres,
with their patterned uses of language, is a matter of practice and
opportunity, and here the schools have a major responsibility to
provide good educational programmes for the teaching and learning
of literacy. The more students can be encouraged to enter with real
understanding into the ways the written language works in creating
the many written genres, the more enriched and independent they
will actually become.

We need to develop resistant and critical readers as well as

challenging and fluent writers. The most effective way to achieve
this will be through educational programmes that cause students
to examine the ways language works for the building and ordering
of meanings. Such programmes will, by their nature, involve
examination of both the spoken and the written modes, and they
will teach explicitly the ways in which language operates. Knowing
how language works in one’s culture is important, I suggest, not only
because it enables the individual to operate effectively in the culture,
but also because it enables the individual to work for changes within
the culture, where that is deemed a desirable thing. (1989:3)

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 Goals and purposes of schooling

References
Bruner, J (1996) The Culture of Education. Cambridge MA: Harvard
University Press.
Cazden, CB (1988) Classroom Discourse: the language of teaching and
learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Christie, F (1989) ‘The changing face of literacy’. In F Christie (ed.).
Literacy for a Changing World. Melbourne, Australia: ACER.
Cole, M (1990) Cognitive development and formal schooling: the
evidence from cross-cultural research. In LC Moll (ed.). Vygotsky and
Education: instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical
psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (89–110).
Daudet, Y and Singh, K (2001) The Right to Education: an analysis of
UNESCO’s standard-setting instruments. Paris: UNESCO.
Foucault, M (1997) Ethics: subjectivity and truth. P Rabinow (ed.);
R Hurley and others (trans.). Essential works of Michel Foucault,
1954–1984, Vol 1. London: Penguin.
Foucault, M (2000) Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology. J Faubion (ed.);
R Hurley and others (trans.). Essential Works of Michel Foucault,
1954–1984, Vol 2. London: Penguin.
Foucault, M (2000) Power. J Faubion (ed.); R Hurley and others (trans.).
Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954–1984, Vol 3. London: Penguin.
Freud, S (1964) Analysis terminable and interminable. The Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud,
Vol 23. London: The Hogarth Press.
Freud, S (1961) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of
Sigmund Freud, Vol 19. London: The Hogarth Press.
Fuller, B and Rubinson, R (1992) The Political Construction of Education:
the state, school expansion, and economic change. New York: Praeger.
Gramsci, A (1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks. New York:
International Publishers.
Heynemann, S and Todoric-Bebic, S (2000) A renewed sense for the
purposes of schooling: the challenges of education and social cohesion
in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Central Asia. Prospects.
Vol 114 No 2 (145–66).
Illich, ID (1973/1970) Deschooling Society. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Mills, CW (2000/1959) The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Report of the Working Group on Values in Education (2001) Pretoria:
Republic of South Africa, Department of Education.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

Republic of South Africa (1996) Constitution. Pretoria: Government

Printers.
Said, E (2004) Humanism and Democratic Criticism. New York: Columbia
University Press.
Said, E (1978) Orientalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Simkins, C with Paterson, A (2005) Learner Performance in South Africa:
social and economic determinants of success in language and mathematics.
Pretoria: HSRC Press.
Stiglitz, J (2002) Globalization and its Discontents. London: Penguin Books.
Teese, R and Polesel, J (2003) Undemocratic Schooling: equity and quality in
mass secondary education in Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University
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Yeatman, A (1994) Postmodern Revisionings of the Political. New York and
London: Routledge.

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 chapter 3
Globalisation, the ‘knowledge
economy’ and education
This chapter builds on discussions about the goals and
purposes of education and the challenge of Chapter 2 to
understand what ‘opening the doors of learning’ might
involve from different perspectives. The perspective
developed in this chapter is derived from a global scale.
The global scale brings to the fore complex debates
about the nature and speed of current change. In fact,
key theorists like Castells and Appadurai suggest that
the challenges of globalisation are so different that they
call for new understandings and theoretical approaches.
The global scale opens a terrain where education is
called upon to respond to new challenges, and indeed
the chapter ends by illustrating scenarios for the future
of schooling. These scenarios, posed within concerns
and discourses raised by globalisation, are based on the
premise that schooling cannot stay the same if it is to
address the needs of the future. However, the chapter
suggests that these challenges – and the discourses,
debates and logics that they draw upon – need to
be critically probed. What do the complex dynamics
of globalisation mean for educational change in a
country like South Africa? What possibilities do they
open or exclude?

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

It is 8 am, and the school day begins for Lebohang and Thembile.

Lebohang attends a multiracial school in a city. Her father drops

her off at school by car on his way to work in the morning, and
her mother fetches her in the afternoon. School fees are high, but
Lebohang’s father is a top-earning businessman. The school buildings
are old and can be cold in winter, but Lebo has a warm uniform, and
a good breakfast helps too. As she drives to school, she enjoys some
new music that her brother downloaded onto her iPod at home the
night before. Their computer at home is newer and faster than the
ones at school, and Lebo likes to surf the net. Her brother prefers
computer games. On the way to school, she sends an sms to her friend
Angie to arrange to meet her at break. Angie has promised to lend
her a new dvd that her parents bought for her on a trip overseas.
Today’s school timetable starts with Maths, then moves on to Science,
English, and History. Lebohang likes the Maths teacher this year, and is
thinking of studying finance after school. She has her tennis gear with
her because her team is playing a match against another school in the
afternoon. She likes that. As the first lesson starts, Lebohang yawns
and stretches. She hopes the day will pass quickly.

Thembile lives in a remote rural area. She walks a long way to

school, over a hill, across a river and past some scrub bush which is
sometimes scary for her. In winter, it is still dark when she sets out.
She has no electricity or running water at home. Her uniform is
wearing thin, and sometimes she feels ashamed of her old jersey.
Her mother struggles with odd jobs to earn money. So far, Thembile
has managed to stay in school. She feels fortunate compared with
her friend Thandeka, who used to come to school without eating
breakfast, and had to leave school when her father died and there
was no money at home. Before and after school, Thembi does
household chores like cooking, washing clothes and sweeping the
yard. Her brother takes the cattle to pasture before school and fetches
them afterwards. Yesterday, he skipped school because he had to take
the cattle to the dip. Today at school Thembile will have lessons in
Maths, Science, English and History. Thembile likes her Maths teacher,
though she has a feeling that perhaps she isn’t learning as much as
students in city schools. But she doesn’t see herself moving away after
school, so it isn’t a problem for her. She wants the best schooling she
can get, and maybe she will continue to study afterwards. Tomorrow,
the school will be practising for the choir competition at the weekend.

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 Globalisation, the ‘knowledge economy’ and education

She is looking forward to that. As the first lesson begins, Thembile

yawns and stretches. She hopes the day will pass quickly.
(Story based on Emerging Voices: a report on education in South African rural
communities, 2005)

Schooling in South Africa provides vastly different experiences for

different students. These two snapshots show extreme ends of a spectrum,
and there are many other experiences in between. The snapshots point
to significant features of post-apartheid South Africa. Most obviously,
they show that the deep inequalities carved by apartheid are still
present. Poverty is a painful reality for many people, though some people
experience great wealth. In fact, South Africa is still one of the most
unequal countries in the world. Electronic technologies are an important
indicator of inequalities. Some people have easy access to mobile phones
and the internet so that instant communication is part of their daily lives.
Others are able to access these technologies only with effort. And some
may never have used them at all. For some people, the global world is open
or at least accessible. Others know only their local worlds. Young people
have different life chances, and different worlds of identity and meaning.
Schooling is part of this difference.

In post-apartheid South Africa, there are significant differences in terms of:

the ways people earn their living and their levels of wealth and
poverty (economy)
the social activities and social institutions they participate in, and the
social services they have access to (society)
their sense of who they are and what has meaning in their lives
(identity and culture)

These differences raise a central question: How might schooling work

across social divisions to provide worthwhile learning experiences that
prepare all students for their lives beyond school?
In current times of global change, this question takes on added complexity.
To use Bruner’s (1996) term, there are new antinomies to be addressed –
contradictions which cannot be solved. Is it possible for schooling to be geared
towards preparing highly skilled people for technologically based economic
activities, and at the same time be geared towards advancing the development
of other ways of earning a living? How might schooling best prepare all
young people to participate in a global world as well as their local worlds?
These are some of the issues and antinomies that this chapter explores.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

The chapter has four parts. It begins by looking at debates on globalisation

and the complex changes that are taking place in economies, societies and
cultures across the world. It then examines the notion of the ‘knowledge
economy’ as part of these changes. Framed by this analysis, it explores an
agenda for schooling in global times. Finally, it considers schooling for the
future. In these four parts, the chapter works with concepts of economy,
society and culture. And it draws on some of the key concepts of Chapters
1 and 2: structure, agency and history; ethics; discourse and power.

1 Globalisation
In the1990s, ‘globalisation’ emerged as a buzz word to describe enormous
changes taking place across the world. Goods, money, ideas, images and
even people are moving across the world at a greater pace and volume than
ever before. But what this means is hard to pin down. Does it mean a new
epoch in history, or simply a speeding up of processes already underway?
Are the changes beneficial and to be embraced, or are they detrimental
and to be resisted? The meaning and implications of globalisation have
been widely debated, both politically and academically. Supporters
portray globalisation as an irresistible force that has the potential to bring
about economic prosperity across the world. Opponents argue that while
globalisation in its current form may bring benefits to some, it excludes
others and increases their marginalisation. Given the emotive and
politicised debate, it is important to weigh up the many different discourses
on globalisation. What are the economic, social and cultural shifts that
characterise current times, and why are they so contentious?

Points of agreement
Economists, sociologists and anthropologists (who study culture) generally
agree on a number of points – though they may interpret them differently
and explain them in different discourses.
First, there is agreement that new information and communication
technologies are changing the world. These technologies – developed in
the last decades of the twentieth century – zig-zag across the world in
networks, transforming every activity they touch. Information and images
move instantly on the internet, crossing national boundaries as if they
were not there. People buy and sell and do their banking electronically,
whenever they like, from wherever they are. New technologies are able
to shorten time and shrink space, a process which David Harvey (1989)

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termed ‘time-space compression’. People are able to communicate instantly

anywhere across the globe – as long as they are connected to the network.
Second, there is agreement that there is now a single economy operating
across the globe in a single time unit, and it is a capitalist economy. The
volume of international trade has increased, and many trade barriers
have been dropped. Global financial markets, in particular, move money
anywhere and everywhere, and depend on technological infrastructures
to operate at great speed. Multinational corporations, operating in global
networks, are able to unbundle their activities and disperse them across
the world to their comparative advantage. Their networks of production,
management and distribution operate across national boundaries.
Multinationals account for two-thirds of the world’s trade – but much
of this takes place within their own networks. In the new economy,
knowledge itself is a source of value; knowledge-intensive and high-tech
industries are the fastest-growing sectors of the global economy.
A third point of agreement among theorists is that globalisation brings
social and cultural changes, as well economic. Sound bytes and images dart
across the globe, as do newsclips, commercials and soap operas, music
and movies, designer labels and icons of all sorts. Cultural ideas and
practices move from one context to another, to be incorporated in daily
life in imaginative new ways. Cultures mix to become hybrid. The spread
of cultural images and ideas gives people a different consciousness of the
world. There are different imaginative possibilities for the local and the
global. Identity, meaning and culture shift with globalisation.
Predictably, within these points of agreement there is also much to
disagree about.
In particular, there are political and ethical disagreements about the
forms and effects of these changes.

Points of disagreement
First, globalisation links economies on particular capitalist terms.
Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) monitor the rules of the global game. There
are very few possibilities for individual countries to change the terms of
their involvement, particularly if they are developing countries on the
margins of the game. And the terms favour the already industrialised and
wealthy parts of the world. The IMF and the World Bank have promoted
neoliberal policies of structural adjustment in developing countries.
Neoliberal economics favours deregulating markets, reducing the role
of the state, and reducing social expenditure, including expenditure on

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education. In many cases, these policies have brought great hardship and
questionable benefits. Are neoliberal economic terms the best for world
development? This is a point of disagreement.
Second, the global game is not an equal one. Global economic forces are
heightening the divide between rich and poor. There are great differences
in wealth between countries, with some benefiting much more than others.
And this also applies within countries, where the gap between rich and poor is
growing. Though world trade has increased overall, the value of goods traded is
vastly different, and growth is very uneven. While there is an increasingly
internationalised economy, not all countries participate equally, or, for
that matter, participate at all. Among the wealthy in countries across the
world, there exists a global world, global investment markets and economic
opportunities, global travel and global work opportunities. But the poor are
often left out of these opportunities. Their economic conditions may not
globalise – particularly if they are not linked to the net – and the only place
they may experience is the local. Does wealth ‘trickle down’ from the rich to
the poor? Is it possible that wealth could be more equally spread under current
global arrangements? These are further points on which there is disagreement.
Third, the network technologies that link people across the globe also
radically exclude those who do not have access to them. This is true of
whole countries, as well as pockets within countries, and individuals.
There are concentrations of people with access to network technologies
– and there are those who are completely bypassed. This is sometimes
referred to as the ‘digital divide’. Can these jagged inequalities around
technology be reduced? This is also a point of debate and disagreement.
Fourth, while there are financial institutions to support global
interconnectedness, there are currently no comparable political and social
institutions. Institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF are able
to regulate financial transactions, but there are no agencies to monitor
global governance and to build global social cohesion. International
institutions such as the United Nations have limited powers in terms of
global governance. Agreements such as Kyoto on the global environment
are voluntary, and not binding on countries. How might a common global
public good be built? How might global institutions be set up to promote a
common global public space? These are points of debate.
Fifth, there are questions about whether current ways of living can be
sustained as they are. There are grave concerns about the destruction of the
environment due to intensified globalisation. Poverty is a reality across the
globe, and there are few signs that human wellbeing and freedom are being
advanced. Most people do not participate in global trade and technologies.
Are the current ways of living sustainable for the future? Is it feasible to

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assume that growth can simply continue? How might people best live together
in the world we share? What are the possibilities for ethical globalisation?
In short, globalisation in its current form has the effect of intensifying
capitalist relationships across the world and increasing inequalities.
Whether or not its processes are beneficial is a matter of political and
ideological debate. Anti-globalisation activists have focused attention
on these issues, using network technologies to link up with each other
across the globe and filling screens across the globe with images and
messages. Some have called for the reform of existing arrangements. Others
have called for a more radical change: for democracy at a global level to
bring greater accountability; or for communities to ‘delink’ from global
arrangements and pursue local autonomy. Movements for deglobalisation
and degrowth have challenged mainstream thinking. Calls for global
justice have inspired global social movements (see, for example, Walden
Bello [2004]).
The International Labour Organisation (2004) summed up debates
on globalisation in its report, A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities
for All:

Globalisation and its impact

Globalisation has set in motion a process of far-reaching change

that is affecting everyone. New technology, supported by more
open policies, has created a world more interconnected than ever
before. This spans not only growing interdependence in economic
relations – trade, investment, finance and the organisation of
production globally – but also social and political interaction among
organisations and individuals across the world.

The potential for good is immense. The growing interconnectivity

among people across the world is nurturing the realisation that
we are all part of a global community. This nascent sense of
interdependence, commitment to shared universal values, and
solidarity among peoples across the world can be channelled to build
enlightened and democratic global governance in the interests of
all. The global market economy has demonstrated great productive
capacity. Wisely managed, it can deliver unprecedented material
progress, generate more productive and better jobs for all, and
contribute significantly to reducing world poverty.

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But we also see how far short we still are from realising this
potential. The current process of globalisation is generating
unbalanced outcomes, both between and within countries. Wealth
is being created, but too many countries and people are not sharing
its benefits. They also have little or no voice in shaping the process.
Seen through the eyes of the vast majority of men and women,
globalisation has not met their simple and legitimate aspirations for
decent jobs and a better future for their children. Many of them live
in the limbo of the informal economy without formal rights and in
a swathe of poor countries that subsist precariously on the margins
of the global economy. Even in the economically successful countries
some workers and communities have been adversely affected by
globalisation. Meanwhile the revolution in global communications
heightens awareness of these disparities. (2004:x)

In the view of the report,

These global imbalances are morally unacceptable and politically

unsustainable. (2004:x)

Returning to the snapshots of Lebohang and Thembile at school in South

Africa, they illustrate two individual lives that make up broader social
patterns that are characteristic of South Africa in a time of globalisation.

The snapshots illustrate how the inequalities of globalisation operate

within a single country. Lebohang lives in a wealthy segment of the
economy, and has opportunities to participate in the global economy.
She is networked to a whole world of activities which Thembile has
no access to. Those like Thembile, who live in rural societies on the
margins of the global economy, have few possibilities of generating
wealth. Unless they have jobs, they are likely to live in poverty.

Without electricity and telephone connections at home or school,

Thembile does not have easy access to the new technologies in her
daily life – though people in her community might have mobile
phones, and watch TV in a shopping centre. Thembile’s access to
the global world is limited until the infrastructures (like electricity,
telephones and satellite links) are built up in her community.
Lebohang’s home is networked, and she has the private means to
upgrade technology continuously.

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Access to technology offers different imaginative possibilities.

Lebohang participates in a global world of instant communication and
time-space compression, as well as her local world of time and place.
She has access to all sorts of ideas and images through technology
and travel. Thembile lives in the time and place of a different local
world. Until she is part of the network, the imaginative possibilities
of the global world remain out of reach. The worlds of Lebohang
and Thembile – with their different mixes of the global and the
local – have different structures of opportunity. And schooling is one
dimension of these differences.

In short, the snapshots show a local, South African version of global

patterns. South Africa still bears the marks of apartheid inequalities, and
globalisation interacts with this legacy in complex ways. This produces
particular conditions that are both similar to other places in the global
world, and also quite unique.

Understanding globalisation
Globalisation is a vast and complex issue, and it is constructed differently
in different discourses. Because of the scope of the topic, discourses of
globalisation may easily become ‘grand narratives’ – overarching explanations
of everything. These kinds of narratives often assume that there is a single,
universal experience that people share – or should share. They have limited
value for understanding local experiences, and local possibilities for action.
Given the power of global forces, it is easy to slip into structuralist
narratives, where ‘the net’ and ‘the market’ and ‘the image’ seem to have a
life of their own, and human agency disappears from the picture. Current
forms of globalisation may appear to be inevitable – even if they are not
satisfactory. The logics of global markets may seem self-evident – even
though they produce inequalities. Global images may appear convincing
as they portray the world – even though they may be completely distorted.
It is often difficult to work against the logics of dominant discourses to find
alternative meanings. However, it is important to analyse these discourses,
to find their cracks and spaces, and to explore relationships of power –
which are often masked within the discourses themselves.
Among the many theorists of globalisation, two who have opened up new
ways of thinking are the sociologist Manuel Castells and the anthropologist
Arjun Appadurai. These theorists provide powerful images of globalisation
which also stimulate alternative thinking and possibilities for action.

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Castells and the Information Age

Manuel Castells is a controversial and challenging theorist. Some readers
view his work as deterministic and pessimistic, with too much emphasis
on structure and technology. But it is also possible to read his analysis
differently, and to find spaces for action and agency.
Castells’s monumental three-volume study, The Information Age: economy,
society and culture (1996, 1997, 1998), provides a comprehensive picture of
current times. It illustrates the new global economy, based on information
technologies, organised in fast-acting networks around the world, operating
in ways that are selective and uneven. Castells argues that the power to
access networks, and switch between multiple networks, is essential to
participation in the information age. The flexible nature of the network
means that it is possible to connect some people, firms and territories that are
regarded as valuable, and discard those who are devalued (2001:17). Whole
societies and parts of societies – including almost all of sub-Saharan Africa –
are, in Castells’s words, ‘the black holes of the informational age’ which are
‘increasingly irrelevant for the global information economy’ (1996:56).
Old divisions of the world into North and South no longer apply, because
the internet cuts across both. In developing countries, there are small
information-based sectors which are highly dynamic. These local elites
may be wealthy and powerful in global terms. But there are huge numbers
of people who are left out. They live precariously on the edges, cut out of
the networked informational economy, and irrelevant to it.
In the new global economy, stable jobs with predictable careers
are disappearing. They are being replaced by ‘flexible labour’. Highly
specialised workers are able to use information and innovation to generate
value, and to continually reshape their work profiles to meet new demands.
But the majority of workers are ‘generic labour’, with basic education
and no particular skills. They work in part-time and casual jobs. And
many people live in the survival sector, the informal sector and the
criminal sector. The division of the world into highly unequal sectors is a
characteristic feature of the global informational economy.
Castells paints a picture of a global economy that is simultaneously
highly creative and productive, and highly exclusionary. In his view, this
contradiction of development produces conditions which are not sustainable.

Economically and technologically, the global system is vulnerable.

Financial markets are unstable and cannot easily be regulated.
Increased productivity may mean that more goods are produced than
can be sold on the market.

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Socially and politically, a system which excludes two-thirds of

humankind and pushes them to the margins of survival is unstable,
and cannot be sustained.

Castells (1998) predicts that the excluded segments of humanity will try to
play the game of global capitalism by different rules. One way will be through
participating in a growing global criminal economy. Another way will be
through fundamentalist movements which challenge the domination of one-
sided global capitalism. The world will be vulnerable to terrorism by individuals,
organisations and states who may have access to technologies of destruction.
Certainly, Castells’s picture may be read as pessimistic and deterministic.
Yet it also opens spaces for intervention and for agency. If trends can be
identified, then it is possible for social action and political projects to take
these up. As Castells says,

There is nothing that cannot be changed by conscious, purposive

social action, provided with information, and supported by
legitimacy. (1998:390)

This task requires massive political and social effort, but there are spaces
and possibilities for action. Castells (2001) himself points to two key areas
in development:

A first priority for development, he argues, is to build an internet-

based economy. If the global economy bypasses and radically excludes
those who are not linked to the net, then linking up should be a
development priority. This means building an information processing
and communication structure, and providing internet access for local
communities. Poor sectors need to be linked to dynamic sectors. Even if
countries do not develop internet industries themselves, they still need
information processing structures to be productive and competitive.

Castells recognises that poor countries may not have the resources for
technological development. He proposes a massive programme of multi-
lateral international aid for development policies based on technological
innovation and diffusion. In his view,

Only an Internet-based economy can generate enough value in the

new, global economy to enable countries to develop fast enough to
provide for themselves without having to resort to international charity
on a permanent basis. (2001:160)

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Equally important, Castells suggests, is education. There is no point

in investing in an expensive infrastructure if people are not able to
take advantage of its opportunities. It is important for people to have
the capacity to use knowledge and information in a whole range of
economic activities – production, management, marketing and sales,
and the delivery of goods and services. People need to be able to find
information, analyse it, and use it, and to do this, they need education.
This means more than simply putting children into schools with poorly
prepared teachers and few opportunities for intellectual engagement.
He terms this ‘warehousing children’. Education systems need to be
urgently improved, from top to bottom, and quickly. He states:

There is an absolute need to upgrade technological literacy in the

short term. Short-cut strategies include community technology
training centres; information technology extension programmes, both
public and private; co-ordinating and combining existing resources;
and fostering on-line development programmes. (2001:161)

An info-development model is based, in developing countries as

everywhere, on on-line work, on-line service delivery, on-line learning,
all linked to local economies and local communities. (2001:163)

Is Castells right to place so much confidence in new technologies as an

engine for development? Is his approach too technologically determinist?
Are his suggestions realistic? Are they achievable? Is it possible for
education to change in the ways he suggests? These are some of many
questions to be asked. There is no doubt that Castells is calling for
enormous and unprecedented changes in education – but he would argue
that these are unprecedented times.

Appadurai, flows and landscapes

The anthropologist Arjun Appadurai uses a language of flows and
landscapes, and calls for a different imagination of globalisation. In
Modernity at Large: cultural dimensions of globalisation (1996), he argues that
current changes are so significant and complex that existing discourses
can no longer explain them. Although world trade, imperialism and
movements of people have been taking place for hundreds of years, there
is a new complexity to them. Existing discourses of economy, culture and
politics are inadequate. Instead, Appadurai suggests that we think of global

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‘flows’ to capture unpredictable movements of speed, scale and volume,

that cross boundaries as if they weren’t there. (Castells also uses the term
‘flows’ to describe globalisation.) The image of flows may call to mind ease
of movement. But flows may also be turbulent and even destructive – think,
for instance, of a river in full flow that washes away everything in its path.
Appadurai suggests that we think of the global world in terms of
overlapping landscapes of fluid, irregular shapes. These landscapes
bring people into complex and changing relationships where different
perspectives give different meanings. He suggests that global flows can
be thought of in terms of five ‘(land)scapes’: ethnoscapes, mediascapes,
technoscapes, financescapes, and ideoscapes. These landscapes are the
building blocks of imagined worlds:

Ethnoscapes are the shifting landscapes of people moving in

global times, as tourists, businesspeople, migrants, exiles, and
refugees. Movement – and the imagination of movement –
is as much part of global societies as are the more stable
relationships of family and kinship.

Technoscapes are the fluid global configurations of

technology, distributed unevenly across the world in complex
relationships. They jump in networks and connections rather
than following straightforward economic or political controls.
And in their complex interrelationships, they cannot simply be
explained and predicted by conventional economic discourse.

Financescapes, says Appadurai, refer to ‘the disposition of global

capital’, which, as he vividly describes, ‘is now a more mysterious,
rapid and difficult landscape to follow than ever before, as
currency markets, national stock exchanges, and commodity
speculations move megamonies through national turnstiles
at blinding speed, with vast, absolute implications for small
differences in percentage points and time units’ (1996:34–5).

Mediascapes and ideoscapes refer to landscapes of ideas and

images dispersed across the world through electronic means,
to private homes and public outlets, to squatter settlements
and remote rural areas – but not in controllable or fully
predictable ways.

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Appadurai stresses the importance of imagination and of thinking differently. He

suggests that the different ‘scapes’ interact and influence each other in complex
and dislocating ways – what he terms ‘disjunctive’. Working with disjunctive
flows opens spaces for new understanding, and also for intervention.
Appadurai (2002) is critical of academic discourses of globalisation which
seem to have little to do with the everyday understandings of the poor and
marginalised. He calls for theory and research on ‘globalisation from below’.
This would support people who speak on behalf of the vulnerable, poor and
marginalised in international forums. And it would open up other discourses
and meanings for globalisation, which would challenge neoliberal versions.
It would show that ‘the word globalisation, and words like freedom, choice, and
justice are not inevitably the property of the state-capital nexus’ (2001:19).
To illustrate this point, Appadurai presents a study of an activist
movement among the poorest of the poor in Mumbai, India. This
movement shows a new form of politics emerging from below, drawing on
the expert knowledge of the poor on how to survive poverty. It shows that
it is possible for linkages to be made, through the internet, between similar
alliances in cities across the globe, and to build transnational advocacy
networks from below. Appadurai gives a fascinating picture of ‘deep
democracy’, where marginalised people are not simply victims of their
circumstances, but have vision, imagination and agency.
Is Appadurai too optimistic in his picture of a politics from below? Can
global trends be shifted in this way? Can new imaginary worlds be opened
up through thinking of moving flows and landscapes and globalisation from
below? What part might education play in this? Is it possible for education
to be part of the building blocks for different imagined worlds? These are
some of the questions to be asked.
Theorists such as Castells and Appadurai suggest different ways of
thinking about globalisation – to build new understandings, and to find
space for agency. Whatever the strengths and weaknesses of their particular
approaches, their challenges are important. In particular, they challenge us
to work in an ethical frame that considers the poor and marginalised and
how their interests might be promoted under globalisation.
One of the specific debates within theories of globalisation is concerned
with the ‘knowledge economy’ and its implications. This is addressed in
the section that follows.

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2 The ‘knowledge economy’ and

education
A theme which frequently emerges in discussions of globalisation is the notion
of a ‘knowledge economy’ (see Robertson, 2005). Castells and others have
convincingly shown that a new economy is growing alongside and within
the old. It is a global capitalist economy, linked by technologies, operating
in a single time unit, and it is changing the nature of production and
consumption. Given that knowledge and information have become sources
of value in the global economy, the term ‘knowledge economy’ has some
appeal. Questions then arise about an appropriate education for the knowledge
economy. However, the concept of a knowledge economy needs closer
consideration, as does the notion of education for a knowledge economy.

The following extracts from the World Bank Report, Lifelong Learning in
the Global Knowledge Society (2003), illustrate a particular human capital
view of the knowledge economy and the role of education:

Extract 1

A knowledge-based economy relies primarily on the use of ideas

rather than physical abilities and on the application of technology
rather than the transformation of raw materials or the exploitation
of cheap labour. It is an economy in which knowledge is created,
acquired, transmitted, and used more effectively by individuals,
enterprises, organisations and communities to improve economic
and social development….

The knowledge economy is transforming the demands of the labour

market in economies throughout the world. (2003:1)

Extract 2

Preparing workers to compete in the knowledge economy requires a

new model of education and training, a model of lifelong learning.
A lifelong learning framework encompasses learning throughout
the lifecycle, from early childhood to retirement. It includes formal,
nonformal, and informal education and training…

Lifelong learning is crucial in enabling workers to compete in the

global economy. (2003:3–4)

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Extract 3

Traditional educational systems, in which the teacher is the sole

source of knowledge, are ill-suited to equip people to work and live
in a knowledge economy…

A lifelong learning system must reach larger segments of the

population, including people with diverse learning needs. It must
be competency driven rather than age related. Within traditional
institutional settings, new curricula and new teaching methods are
needed. At the same time, efforts need to be made to reach learners
who cannot enrol in programmes at traditional institutions. (2003:28–9)

In the functional logic of human capital theory, changes in the economy

lead to changes in the labour market, these in turn require changes in
education. This logic tends to work best for ‘big picture’ analysis. On closer
examination, however, the picture appears less straightforward.
First, it is important to remember that the economy is a complex structure
of many different activities – not simply knowledge. Just because the new
global economy is linked in networks, this doesn’t mean that it is an
economy of internet businesses. Rather, as Castells (2001) points out, it is
an economy of all kinds of businesses that use the internet. For although
the high-tech sector generates most wealth, there are comparatively few
expert ‘knowledge workers’ in this sector. Economic activities are spread
across other sectors too. The service sector employs many people, as does
manufacturing – including sweatshop manufacturing. Physical abilities, the
transformation of raw materials and the exploitation of labour (to use the
terms of the World Bank Report) are still part of production processes that
generate wealth. What is different is that technologies are used throughout
the process. Many of the technologies – such as mobile phones, computers
and the internet – don’t require complex skills and knowledge to operate.
But they do require a different imagination and new ways of working. The
new economy is transforming the old, into a range of economic activities
using technologies of all sorts and linked to the net. Education needs to
prepare people for a range of different ways of earning a living.
Second, in terms of the labour market, one of the most important
changes is that there are fewer stable jobs. Flexibility is the new order of
the day. Highly skilled and highly paid individuals increasingly work on a
contractual basis. ‘Generic labour’ works increasingly in part-time, insecure
jobs, often for little pay. And there are people who exist in survival sectors

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outside the formal economy. In this scenario, lifelong learning may mean
continually reskilling in order to get work.
Third, in terms of education, it is true that schools have a role in
preparing people for work. But schools also have broader goals and purposes
beyond learning for work. They are complex social institutions with many
activities and goals, including social, cultural and political as well as
economic. And experience shows that they are not easy to change. There
is no single ‘master narrative’ that captures all that schools do – however
persuasive the human capital narrative may seem.
The quote from the World Bank’s Report on Lifelong Learning claims that
schooling is ‘ill-suited to equip people to work and live in a knowledge
economy’ and therefore needs to change. This assumes that there is a
simple, functionalist relationship between schools and the economy – an
assumption which needs to be challenged, as the debates in Chapter 2
have shown. A simple functionalist account does not throw much light on
how schools actually change – or fail to change.
Fourth, in overall terms, it is important to consider the earlier
debates about the nature of the economy under conditions of neoliberal
globalisation. There are questions about developing sustainable futures and
about living together in ethical ways. There are persistent questions about
how to reduce inequalities and about whether the benefits of growth can be
spread more fairly under the current system. None of these issues is debated
in the simple formulation of human capital theory presented on page 55.
These cautionary comments are not intended to discredit discourses that
link education to the economy. Schools do have links to the economy and
to the labour market, and these discourses enable the links to be explored.
The intention, rather, is to press these discourses away from simplistic
notions towards more complex explorations in which social, political and
ethical issues are considered. After all, discourses of the economy are quite
capable of this complexity.
Perhaps ‘knowledge society’ is a more useful term than ‘knowledge
economy’. If the term ‘knowledge society’ is used as shorthand for the
changing global economy and society, the question then remains: How might
schooling best prepare all young people to participate in a global world as
well as their local worlds? Drawing on concepts such as Harvey’s time-space
compression, Castells’s networks of inclusion and exclusion, and Appadurai’s
landscapes and flows of the global imaginary, what might schooling for a
global world look like? A further question might be: Is schooling capable
of meeting the demands of the knowledge society, or is it outdated as an
institution? We address these questions in the sections that follow.

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3 Setting an agenda for schooling in

global times
Schools are key social institutions that link young individuals to their social
contexts and to the historical times in which they live. But the relationships
between individuals, schooling, social contexts and historical times are complex
and dynamic, rather than functional and straightforward. Different discourses on
the goals and purposes of schooling (discussed in Chapter 2) illuminate different
ways of thinking about these issues. They provide different approaches to
understanding the changes in economy, society, culture and identity that make
up global times. There is no single ‘right answer’ to the questions posed above
– although some answers are better than others. To some extent, the ‘solution’
depends on how the ‘problem’ is defined in the first place.
In what follows, the discourses are grouped and used somewhat
differently from Chapter 2, but their themes and logics are evident. In
exploring an agenda for schooling in global times, three central goals of
schooling are explored here:
systematic teaching and learning
active participation in the world
individual development.

These three broad goals provide a framework for thinking about schooling
in global times.

Systematic teaching and learning as a goal of schooling

As institutions, schools have a defining purpose that is distinctively their
own: they are the only social institutions that are dedicated to structured
teaching and learning for young people. This doesn’t necessarily mean that
they fulfil this purpose, or fulfil it well. But it does provide a touchstone for
thinking about what might be expected of schooling.
In exploring an agenda for schooling in global times, questions like the
following ones arise about teaching and learning:

What should schools teach? What structured teaching and learning should
schooling be responsible for in global times? What are the ‘building blocks’
of necessary learning that all students need access to in a knowledge society?
What impact do network technologies have on schooling and, in
particular, on the cultural images and identities they give rise to? How
should schooling respond to technologies?

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What happens to ‘local knowledge’ and ‘local contexts’ under

conditions of globalisation? What should be the relationship between
local knowledge and global knowledge?

Let’s consider each of these questions in turn.

What should schools teach?

Sociocultural discourses (explored in Chapter 2) provide a useful point

of departure in addressing this question. These discourses start from the
premise that human learning and development take place in social and
cultural contexts. Humans understand the world and communicate with
each other through the shared meanings of language and culture. Schools
have a particular task in terms of social and cultural learning. They teach
the formal symbol systems of culture, such as reading, writing and number
systems. They also teach formal, abstract thinking as well as codified
systems of knowledge. Traditionally, these are viewed as the building blocks
for participation in the modern world. Whether or not this knowledge and
learning is valuable depends on a number of conditions, as Mike Cole
(1990) suggested: whether or not there are opportunities to use it in the
wider world; whether or not the content of what is taught helps students
to understand their social and historical contexts; and whether or not it
opens deeper cultural meanings.
Extending this further, theorists such as the New London Group
(1996) argue that the changes brought about by economic and cultural
globalisation place additional demands on schooling. Schools need to
teach more than the traditional skills and literacies of reading and writing.
They also need to teach a multiplicity of discourses so that students
are able to read multimedia texts and images, and to communicate
across cultural and language differences. These theorists use the term
multiliteracies to signify the expanded literacies of the knowledge society.
Arguably, if these symbol systems are needed for participation in the global
world, then all students need to have access to them.
This raises the issue of the technologies that link the global world in
networks of information, images and ideas.

How should schooling respond to information technologies?

Technologies such as mobile phones and the internet open up new spaces
for imagination and activity, and new ways of thinking about the world.
They open up different possibilities in terms of identity and meaning.

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Without access to these cultural tools of global experience, global choices

may be unimaginable. What does this mean for schooling? There are a
number of issues to unpack.
First, much of the learning around new technologies does not happen
through formal teaching at school – even for students like Lebohang, who
have well-equipped schools and well-educated teachers. After all, when
telephones were first invented, people did not learn how to use them at
school. The same applies to equipment of all sorts, including electronic
technologies. Learning happens informally and outside of schools as well
within them. It happens in shopping centres where people see TV, in
community activities, wherever mobile phones are used and the internet is
available. Important learning also happens at workplaces.
The issues for debate here are not about computers in classrooms, or
computers replacing teachers. The issues are about teaching and learning
for a knowledge society. In a knowledge society, it is important for schools to
teach at least the basic building blocks of formal codes and symbol systems to all
students. Certainly, access to opportunities of high level work in knowledge
economies depends on school learning. All young people need access
to the formal knowledge systems and ways of thinking that schooling
transmits, if the doors of further learning are to be open to them.
Second, there are issues to do with new images and understandings
associated with global cultural exchange and shifting identities. What is at stake
here are the knowledge and opportunities to imagine the world in global
ways. Notions of time-space compression, of networks, and of scapes and
flows are examples of different ways of thinking about the world. How can all
young people get exposure to these experiences of the global world? If some
people do not have access to the conditions that open global experiences,
their options and choices may be limited in comparison with those who do.
At the same time, local worlds are also important sources of knowledge and
meaning, and cannot be neglected in chasing after global experiences.

What about the relationship between local and

global knowledge?

Should schools teach all students in order to achieve the same outcomes,
regardless of whether they live in urban or rural areas, and regardless of their
opportunities for participation in a global world? This turns the focus to
Bruner’s antinomy between ‘local knowledge’ and ‘universal knowledge’ –
between valuing the uniqueness of local identity and experience, and also
valuing the larger settings that education should address. Both need to be
worked with in mindful and reflective ways.

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The issue of language illustrates the global–local antinomy and the

careful thinking that this requires:

On the one hand, much research has shown that young children
learn best through their mother tongue, particularly in the early
stages of learning. Languages also give access to the meanings and
symbols of cultures, and are an important resource for life. Learning
the local language is important in valuing the culture and meanings
of the group. In South Africa, where there are 11 official languages,
multilingualism is surely important. It is a cultural resource and an
important means of understanding the rich experiences of meaning of
different world views.
Alongside this position, the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, made
a number of controversial points in the 1920s, arguing that his own
local dialect was not enough to understand the world:

If it is true that every language contains the elements of a

conception of the world and of a culture, it could also be true
that from everyone’s language one can assess the greater or lesser
complexity of his conception of the world. Someone who only
speaks a dialect, or understands the standard language incompletely,
necessarily has an intuition of the world which is more or less limited
and provincial, which is fossilised and anachronistic in relation
to the major currents of thought which dominate world history.
His interests will be limited, not universal… it is at least necessary
to learn the national language properly. A great culture can be
translated into the language of another great culture, that is to say a
great national language with historic richness and complexity, and it
can translate any other great culture and can be a world-wide means
of expression. But a dialect cannot do this. (1971:325)

Debates on language are complex. They involve issues of identity

and power, too important for us to jump to conclusions. Thoughtful
deliberation and action is required to hold both poles of the antinomy.
Similarly, there is a tension between the global and the local that needs to be
held in terms of culture and curriculum. On the one hand, local knowledge
is important, as is knowledge about local livelihoods. This should not simply
be disregarded in support of ‘universal knowledge’ and global imagination.
However, an education that is geared too heavily towards local culture and
experience and local job pportunities is also problematic. It may lock people
out of possibilities of participation in other worlds of experience and activity.

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This is particularly important to remember in South Africa, where the

designers of apartheid used the logic of cultural difference to justify separate
systems of education. Supporters of apartheid and its precursor, segregation,
made powerful arguments that education should prepare young people for the
environments in which they would grow up. The Eiselen Commission, on
which Bantu Education was based, made the following observation in 1951:

The principle of leading the child in his education from the known
and familiar to the unknown and unfamiliar has to be applied
equally in the case of the Bantu child as with children of any other
social group. But educational practice must recognise that it has
to deal with a Bantu child, i.e. a child trained and conditioned in
Bantu culture, endowed with a knowledge of a Bantu language and
imbued with values, interests and behaviour patterns learned at
the knee of a Bantu mother. These facts must dictate to a very large
extent the content and methods of his early education.

The schools must also give due regard to the fact that out of
school hours the young Bantu child develops and lives in a Bantu
community, and when he [or she] reaches maturity he [or she] will be
concerned with sharing and developing the life and culture of that
community. (Rose and Tunmer, 1975:251)

These themes were further developed by Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, who

introduced the Bantu Education Act in 1954. Here are two extracts from
his speech in the Senate:

Extract 1

A Bantu pupil must obtain knowledge, skills and attitudes in the

school which will be useful and advantageous to him [or her] and at
the same time beneficial to his [or her] community.

The subject matter must be presented to him [or her] in such a way
that he [or she] can understand and master it easily, making it his
[or her] own, to the benefit and service of his [or her] community.

The school must equip him [or her] to meet the demands which the
economic life of South Africa will impose upon him [or her]. (Rose
and Tunmer, 1975:262)

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Extract 2

It is the policy of my department that education would have its

roots entirely in the Native areas and in the Native environment and
Native community. There, Bantu education must be able to give itself
complete expression and there it will perform its real service. The
Bantu must be guided to serve his community in all respects.

There is no place for him in the European community above certain

forms of labour. Within his own community, however, all doors are
open. For that reason it is of no avail for him to receive a training
which has as its aim absorption in the European community where
he cannot be absorbed. Until now he has been subjected to a school
system which drew him away from his own community and misled
him by showing him the green pastures of European society in which
he was not allowed to graze. This attitude is not only uneconomic
because money is spent for an education which has no specific aim but
it is also dishonest to continue it… (Rose and Tunmer, 1975:265–66)

Language, culture and identity are complex issues of debate, which are not
easily resolved. Similarly, the relationship between the global and local
in schooling cannot be easily settled. Ideally, the systematic teaching and
learning that happens at school should give students access to the symbol
systems of both global and local worlds. These two worlds should not be
seen as alternatives to each other. At issue are the choices that schooling
opens up for young people. Ideally, everyone should have as much choice
as possible, if the system is to achieve equity. But environment – place
– does matter in terms of the opportunities that are available. So does
quality of educational experience. As Cole points out, we cannot assume
that school learning is always worthwhile. Its value depends on what
opportunities there are to use it, on whether or not it provides social and
historical understanding, and on the extent to which it actually does open
up cultural meanings. These are issues which relate in part to the quality of
the experience and also to its context.
As globalisation widens the gap between rich and poor, a government
which aims at equity has an added responsibility to students who have few
resources at home. This applies both to network access, and also to the
thinking skills and knowledge forms of new literacies. Is schooling able to
provide these knowledge forms? Are teachers adequately prepared to do
this? To achieve this, what resources do schools and teachers need? These
are important issues for governments to consider. If all young people are to

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have opportunities for development, they all need to be able to link to the
networks of the global world, as well as participate in their local worlds.
If the schooling system is unable to provide learning opportunities of this
sort, it is important that they be provided outside of schools – for example
in community centres or alternative education projects – if equity is to
be achieved.
So far, the discussion has centred around systematic teaching and learning
and learning as a goal of schooling. The next issue we will address in an
agenda for schooling in global times is that of participation in a shared world.

Active participation in the world as a goal of schooling

Another important set of goals for schooling is concerned with the
school-society relationship. Schooling prepares young people for active
participation in the world – in the economy and in the institutions of
public life. In social, political and economic discourses, schooling is
linked to purposes of social cohesion, citizenship and the world of work.
These are important items on an agenda for schooling in global times.
In the changing world of work, themes of flexibility and lifelong learning
have become important, as the discussion on the knowledge economy
illustrated. In changing social times, themes of living together in the world
in the face of differences have become increasingly important.
Building an active democracy requires an understanding of rights and
responsibilities – for oneself and for others. It requires an understanding of
the institutions of public life and how these might be upheld and changed.
Developing and nurturing institutions of public life is important if people
are to live together in the world in sustainable and ethical ways. At one
time, these issues of active participation in a shared world applied mainly
at the level of the nation state. Now, they apply also on a global scale. As
well as building shared identity and common purpose at the nation state
level, schooling for global times needs to address issues of global social
cohesion, and participation in global institutions.
The increasing inequalities, marginalisations and exclusions of
globalisation pose particular challenges for a country like South Africa,
as the snapshots of Lebohang and Thembile illustrate. Inequality is
complex and many-stranded. How might schooling build a sense of shared
identity and common purpose when life circumstances are so different?
Schooling cannot easily cut across broad social patterns of inequality and
marginalisation. It cannot compensate for social disadvantage or prevent it.

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However, if schooling itself is manifestly unequal – in terms of both access

and quality – it is more likely to contribute to disadvantage than remedy it.
If South Africa is committed to equity and to social cohesion, it needs to
provide access to learning of high quality to all young people, and do this
in ways that build a sense of common purpose and shared future.
The third item on an agenda for schooling in global times relates to the
development of the individual in a social context.

Individual learning and development as a goal

of schooling
As discussed in Chapter 2, individual learning and development is a goal of
schooling which is addressed in different ways through different discourses.
We have the capacity to reflect on ourselves and the world, to think
critically, to experience a range of emotions, to be creative, to imagine
how things might be different, to make choices, to change our minds, to
do things differently, to form relationships of all sorts, to communicate,
to make ethical judgements, and to take actions based on conscious
processes. Through acting, people change the world and simultaneously
change themselves. Being able to make choices and act ethically are
important dimensions of human life. As a place of individual learning
and development, the school has an important role in enhancing these
capacities.
Ideally, schooling should help people to understand the cultural and
natural worlds in which they live, to communicate with others, and to act
in the world in ethical ways. In Mills’s terms, it should assist in developing
an imagination which understands individual lives in relation to social
structures and historical times.
Mapping these capacities onto a global frame requires a consciousness of
the global as well as the local. It means understanding our individual lives
in the complex social structures and flows that make up the different global
and local worlds of these historical times. The capacity to make decisions
about our individual lives and the lives of others – global and local others
– and to act ethically, are part of the individual learning and development
required for global times.
Globalisation, in its material and imaginary forms, touches individual
lives differently, and working with this difference in creative and ethical
ways is a challenge for schooling in these times. Thinking and acting, both
locally and globally, are important capacities for individuals to develop.

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To sum up …
The agenda for schooling set out here is an ambitious one, and there
is always the danger of expecting more from schooling than it can
realistically provide. But it is more useful to see the complexity of
schooling than to look for simple levers to ‘open the doors of learning’.
Amidst the complexity, it is possible to look for interrelationships and for
the different meanings offered by different discourses, and always to work
in ethical ways towards something better.

4 Schools for the future?

Given the powerful changes taking place in the world, and the seemingly
impossible demands placed on schooling, there are questions about what
the future of schooling might be. Will schooling survive, or will other
places and spaces of learning take its place?
In the late 1990s, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) – an association of 30 market economy countries –
opened a global debate on Schooling for the Future. Here are some of the
questions it put out for debate:

What will our future schools look like? What kinds of teaching and
learning will take place in them? Who will be the teachers, and will
they be high quality? Will schools be laying the foundations for
lifelong learning for all or for just the lucky few? These are crucial
questions for education and society at large at the outset of the 21st
Century. (OECD, 2001)

Using a model of future scenario planning, the OECD developed a set of

six scenarios for schooling in 2020, and suggested that member countries
use the scenarios to stimulate debate. The six scenarios are grouped
as follows:

Attempting to maintain the status quo

According to these scenarios, the schooling system is maintained in
its current form, in spite of its inadequacies and potential crises such
as shortages of good teachers.
Scenario 1: Bureaucratic school systems continue
Scenario 2: Teacher exodus – the ‘meltdown scenario’

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Re-schooling
In these scenarios, major investments are made in schooling, with
high priorities placed on both quality and equity. Schools are
revitalised and changed in the process.
Scenario 3: Schools as core social centres
Scenario 4: Schools as focused learning organisations

De-schooling
In these scenarios, dissatisfaction with schooling leads to the
dismantling of schooling systems.
Scenario 5: Learning networks and the learning society
Scenario 6: Extending the market model

The OECD believes that it is important for schools to change from the
status quo, as the following statement illustrates:

So long as schools continue to adhere to the model and assumptions

of Scenario 1 – bureaucratic systems continuing the status quo –
their capacity to contribute systematically to laying foundations
for lifelong learning is bound to be limited. For in this model,
schooling is too closed and inflexible and its professionals and
organisations themselves are insufficiently defined by lifelong
learning characteristics. Moving towards one of the other scenarios
is thus necessary, though the nature of the foundation laid will
clearly be shaped according to whether this is in the direction of
“de-schooling” or “re-schooling”, and whether the latter would take
the broader social remit or one more focused on knowledge. Which
scenario is chosen also influences whether lifelong learning would
be “for all” as the scenarios differ in their emphasis on inclusiveness.
(2001:102)

The OECD strongly supports a framework of lifelong learning, operating

alongside schooling in one form or another:

The principle of integrating school policy and practice into the

larger lifelong learning framework is now widely agreed, for the
benefit of both schooling and of lifelong learning strategies. It
is less clear what this means in practice and the extent of change
it implies. The scenarios suggest contrasting possibilities such as
shorter, more intensive school careers compared with an extended
initial education; diversified agencies, professionals and programmes

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compared with highly focused knowledge-based approaches. Behind

these choices lie further questions. Does the task of laying firm
foundations for lifelong learning call for fundamentally different
approaches by schools? Or instead, is it tantamount to a restatement
of a demanding equality objective – ensuring that the quality
resources and opportunities presently enjoyed only by the best-
served are available to all students? (2001:109)

These are good questions to leave open for consideration as this chapter ends.
The chapter has provided analysis from a global scale. It suggested
that globalisation, with its contradictory flows, its powerful dynamics
of inclusion and exclusion, and its shifting cultural forms, provides an
important framework for thinking about schooling. The knowledge
society and lifelong learning are key concepts to be considered, alongside
schooling, in thinking about opening the doors of learning in times of
global change. This chapter has raised questions without simple answers, in
an attempt to open debates at a point of historical change.
Let’s now leave Lebohang and Thembile to move into their different
school days, having considered how their individual experiences fit into
broader social patterns in their particular historical times.

Learning: the treasure within

This chapter has presented extracts of ideas from a number of global

bodies: the ILO, the World Bank, and the OECD. To conclude, here is an
extract from a UNESCO Report on learning for the 21st century,
Learning: the treasure within (also known as the Delors Report).
The ‘four pillars of learning’ set out in the Delors Report are ideals for
schooling to meet the future. These are stated in very general ‘one-size-fits-
all’ terms. They would be easier to achieve in some contexts than others –
a point which isn’t always made in declarations on schooling.
The ‘four pillars of learning’ are:

Learning to live together:

The far-reaching changes in the traditional patterns of life require of

us a better understanding of other people and the world at large; they
demand mutual understanding, peaceful interchange and, indeed,
harmony – the very things that are most lacking in our world today.

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Learning to know:

Given the rapid changes brought about by scientific progress and

the new forms of economic and social activity, the emphasis has to
be on combining a sufficiently broad general education with the
possibility of in-depth work on a selected number of subjects. Such
a general background provides, so to speak, the passport to lifelong
education, in so far as it gives people a taste – but also lays the
foundations – for learning throughout life.

Learning to do:

In addition to learning to do a job of work, it should, more generally,

entail the acquisition of a competence that enables people to deal
with a variety of situations, often unforeseeable, and to work in
teams, a feature to which educational methods do not at present
pay enough attention. In many cases, such competence and skills are
more readily acquired if pupils and students have the opportunity
to try out and develop their abilities by becoming involved in work
experience schemes or social work while they are still in education,
hence the increased importance that should be attached to all
methods of alternating study with work.

Learning to be:

In the twenty-first century everyone will need to exercise greater

independence and judgement combined with a stronger sense of
personal responsibility for the attainment of common goals. None
of the talents, which are hidden like buried treasure in every person,
must be left untapped. These are, to name but a few: memory,
reasoning power, imagination, physical ability, aesthetic sense, the
aptitude to communicate with others and the natural charisma of
the group leader, which again goes to prove the need for greater
self-knowledge.

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References and readings

Appadurai, A (1996) Modernity at Large: cultural dimensions of globalization.
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Appadurai, A (2002) Deep democracy: urban governmentality and the
horizon of politics. Public Culture. Vol 14, No 1 (21–47).
Bello, W (2004) Deglobalization: ideas for a new world economy. New
updated edition. London and New York: Zed Books.
Bruner, J (1996) The Culture of Education. Cambridge MA: Harvard
University Press.
Castells, M (1996, 1997, 1998) The Information Age: economy, society and
culture, Vols. I, II and III. Oxford: Blackwell.
Castells, M (1999) Flows, networks and identities: a critical theory of the
informational society. In M Castells, R Flecha, P Freire, H Giroux,
D Macedo and P Willis. Critical Education in the New Information
Age. Lanham MA: Rowman and Littlefield.
Castells, M (2001) Information technology and global development.
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South African debates with Manuel Castells. Cape Town: Maskew Miller
Longman.
Cole, M (1990) Cognitive development and formal schooling: the
evidence from cross-cultural research. In LC Moll (ed.). Vygotsky and
Education: instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical
psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (89–110).
Emerging Voices: a report on education in South African rural communities
(2005), Researched for the Nelson Mandela Foundation by the HSRC
and EPC. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Available at www.hsrcpress.ac.za
[Accessed 15 January 2006]
Gramsci, A (1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Q Hoare (ed.) and
G Nowell Smith (trans.). New York: International Press.
Harvey, D (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century
(1998) Learning, the Treasure Within: Report to UNESCO (Delors
Report). Paris: UNESCO.
International Labour Organisation (ILO) (2004) A Fair Globalization:
creating opportunities for all. Geneva: ILO. Available at <http://www.ilo.
org/public/english/fairglobalization/report/index.htm> [Accessed 11
March 2005]
New London Group (1996) A pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social
futures. Harvard Education Review. Vol 66 No 1 (60–92).

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OECD (1996) The Knowledge-Based Economy. Paris: OECD. Available at

<http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/51/8/1913021.pdf> [Accessed
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 chapter 4
Development and education
The global order, described in Chapter 3, is made up of
nation states. South Africa is one of these. This chapter
views education and change from the scale of the nation
state, and the terrain of debates and discourses that
make up the field of development theory. The first part
of the chapter surveys a range of historical debates that
have left their mark on the field. It shows that there
are no simple answers to how to change economies,
societies, governments and cultures in order to improve
the conditions of people’s lives. The second part of the
chapter looks at the development choices made by the
South African government, particularly in relation to
reducing poverty and inequality, which have been central
goals of the post-apartheid government. It examines the
patterns of poverty and inequality in South Africa, and
looks at why these have been so hard to shift. The third
part of the chapter returns to debates about education
and development. It argues that much is known about
patterns of educational performance in countries across
the world, yet these patterns persist, in South Africa and
elsewhere. It needs to be recognised that the doors of
learning do not open easily, even when governments
express their commitment to providing education for all.
It should no longer be acceptable to simply say that ‘things
are not right as they are’. For change to take place, we
need a more critical approach to inequalities and stronger
commitment to building a common society.
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 Development and education

When the first democratic government came to power in South Africa in

1994, it had to manage the economy, run the government, and build an
institutional framework to reflect the values of equality and democracy. In
short, it needed to set in place a framework for development, in complex
global and local circumstances. Launching the Reconstruction and
Development Programme (RDP), President Nelson Mandela committed
his government to addressing ‘the problems of poverty and gross inequality
evident in almost all aspects of South African society’. This would only be
possible, he said, if the South African economy can be ‘firmly placed on
the path of high and sustainable growth’ (1994:2).
Four years later, in 1998, President Thabo Mbeki reflected on the
difficulties of this task. Commenting on the situation in South Africa, he
spoke of ‘two nations’ existing side-by-side in South Africa:

Material conditions have divided our country into two nations,

one black, the other white. The smaller, white group is relatively
prosperous and has ready access to a developed economic, physical,
educational, communication and other infrastructure. The second,
and larger, nation of South Africa is black and poor, and lives under
conditions of a grossly underdeveloped infrastructure.
(1998, modified)

Mbeki’s observation about the continuing divisions in South Africa raises

a number of questions. Why do poverty and inequality persist after the
end of apartheid, in spite of the new government’s intentions? Would
it be possible to restructure the economy and society to provide better
opportunities and choices for everyone? What part might education play?
These questions relate to nation state development, which is the
terrain explored in this chapter. The debates and discourses, as well as
the problems and logics of meaning which form the substance of this
terrain, are somewhat different to those of globalisation, even though
there are clear overlaps. And they are different again to the debates and
problematics of policy, which is explored in the next chapter.
‘Development’ is obviously a value-laden term, often associated with
notions of growth or improvement or progress. In terms of social theory on
nation states, it usually refers to economic, social and political changes (or
plans to change) in countries that were once colonies or settler societies.
The implication is that these changes would improve people’s conditions of
life. But what counts as ‘improvement’ and how might it best be achieved?
What is desirable? And what is possible? These are matters for debate.

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Over the last decades, there have been a number of different approaches to
development – and to the role of education in development.

This chapter is divided into three parts:

The first part outlines some of the major debates on nation state
development since the end of the Second World War, including their
approaches to education. It looks at different assumptions about what
development is and how it may be achieved, in each case exploring
how education for development is viewed.
The second part builds on this outline, and sets out the development
choices made by the South African government after 1994, in the
context of globalisation. This provides a basis for understanding – and
assessing – Mbeki’s ‘two nations’ claim.
The third part of the chapter returns to themes of education and
development in the South African context. It re-examines and reflects
on how education is positioned in discourses of development, and
looks at the possibilities and limitations of these different approaches.

Overall, this chapter provides another framework for exploring how the
doors of learning might be opened, and it provides a basis for looking at
South Africa’s education policies, which is the topic of Chapter 5.
First, an overview of the different theories of development and the
assumptions about education that each has supported.

1 Development discourses: a brief

overview
Discussions on development surfaced after the Second World War, at the time
of the decolonisation of countries in Africa, South Asia and South East Asia.
How should these countries improve the conditions of life for their populations?
How should they structure their economies and trade relationships, their
governments, and their social institutions? What role might culture and identity
play? Over the years, competing discourses on development have addressed
these questions in different ways. They have drawn on different bodies of
knowledge and provided different analyses of economy and society. In particular,
they have made different assumptions about the causes, power relations and
possibilities of development. This is illustrated in the following brief sketch
of the major discourses of development since the Second World War.

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Modernisation
Modernisation discourses emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. They assumed
that all countries of the world would follow the same path to economic
growth that industrialised countries had taken in the centuries before. They
assumed that this was both possible and desirable. ‘Traditional’ societies in
former colonies would become ‘modern’ and would resemble western states
in terms of economy, government and social institutions. In early discourses
of modernisation, ‘modern’ was equated with ‘western’ and with ‘progress’.
The assumption was that with the right mix of infrastructure, human capital
development (including education) and cultural change, economic growth
could ‘take off’ in all countries. Wealth would ‘trickle down’ from rich to
poor, and the quality of life would gradually improve. This approach was
captured in a highly significant book by WW Rostow (1960) entitled The
stages of Economic Growth: a non-communist manifesto. Gary Becker’s (1964)
definitive text, Human Capital: a theoretical and empirical analysis: with special
reference to education, also appeared at this time.
Modernisation assumptions underpinned the aid programmes of the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the post-war
period. During the 1950s and 1960s, industrialisation was the major goal for
developing countries, particularly with the aim of reducing their dependence
on exporting primary commodities. Typically, these countries adopted policies
of tariff protection to support their emerging industries; they regulated their
financial markets; and they used state-controlled marketing boards to assist in
development strategies (see Seekings and Nattrass, 2005:13). As time went on,
however, development interventions based on these assumptions did not bring
the anticipated economic growth and social equality in former colonies, often
termed ‘the Third World’. Economic growth slowed down during the 1970s
and stagnated in the 1980s and 1990s. Nonetheless, many of the assumptions
linking development, westernisation, industrialisation and progress have
endured and are still in currency in the new century.

How did modernisation theories view education?

Modernisation discourses supported a strong version of human

capital theory – that investment in education would lead to
economic growth. These approaches usually viewed education in
functionalist terms, as a means of bringing about cultural, political
and economic modernisation. They assumed that western-style
schooling would teach people the skills, attitudes and cultural
practices that developing countries would need to build modern

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economies and societies. Under colonisation, provision of schooling

had been limited. Usually, it had been the privilege of small, elite
groups. Modernisation theories assumed that the expansion of
primary and then secondary schooling would result in economic and
social development. Improved education would lead to improved
health and improved standards of living generally. Thus education
would be an agent of modernisation.

Informed by human capital approaches, the World Bank calculated

costs and ‘rates of return’ for different levels of education (primary,
secondary and higher) and for different types of education
(academic and vocational). These assumptions and calculations
underpinned their advice and funding on education policy for
developing countries.

In practice, former colonies struggled to expand educational provision.

It is still generally the case that developing countries do not have
education systems that match those of developed countries. Access to
schooling is still not universal. In very poor countries, there are many
people with little or no schooling. Deep gender inequalities are also
evident in terms of access and outcomes. Providing quality of schooling
has also been a continuing challenge in developing countries.

Briefly, the link between education and development has not

worked in simple functionalist ways, as was hoped in the optimistic
early days of modernisation theory.

Dependency
Dependency discourses challenged the assumptions of modernisation,
particularly in the 1970s. Drawing on Marxist analyses, different theories
of dependency analysed the power relations of neo-colonialism – the
patterns of inequality that continued to exist after colonialism ended.
The general thrust of dependency arguments was that wealthy countries
had developed their economies at the expense of their colonies, and they
continued to do so after independence. This was explained in a number
of ways. Some arguments highlighted unequal trade relations, saying that
wealthy countries exploited colonies and former colonies and caused their
poverty and underdevelopment. Others highlighted the unequal relations
between countries of the ‘core’ and countries of the ‘periphery’, suggesting

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that unequal – or uneven – development was an outcome of capitalism.

Others pointed to the role of elites within poor countries, who were linked
in capitalist relationships to rich countries, and benefited as intermediaries.
This meant that they would be unlikely to lead changes that would disrupt
capitalist relationships to benefit the majority of people.
In the logic of these dependency arguments, economic growth would
be elusive for poor countries as long as the exploitative and unequal class
relations of capitalism continued. Modernity would be little more than a
surface veneer. Two well-known theorists of dependency are André Gunder
Frank and Samir Amin. Related but somewhat different is the work of
Emmanuel Wallerstein and world systems theory.
An important extension of dependency theory, particularly for South
Africa, was the theory of internal colonialism. In this analysis, colonial-
type relationships of exploitation and underdevelopment were seen to
operate within a single country. So, for example, Harold Wolpe and others
argued that the apartheid state used a form of internal colonialism by
establishing reserves or ‘homelands’ for Africans, and then systematically
underdeveloping them. Reserves were used as sources of cheap labour
power and as places to house economically unproductive people,
such as women, children and old people. In this analysis, reserves
were exploited and underdeveloped as part of the unequal relations of
apartheid capitalism.

How did dependency theories view education?

Dependency theories were generally critical of human capital

assumptions that schooling would provide the skills and attitudes
to break out of the cycle of dependency. They pointed out that
schooling systems in former colonies modelled their curriculum
and ways of thinking on those of their colonisers. These schooling
systems produced elites, while providing little benefit to the masses.
Under neo-colonialism and dependency, relations of inequality
would be perpetuated through schooling, not shifted.

At this time, the educationist Paolo Freire (1972) wrote Pedagogy of

the Oppressed and Cultural Action for Freedom. Freire criticised the
‘banking’ model of education, where teachers ‘deposit’ knowledge
into empty heads. Instead, he proposed a critical pedagogy of
dialogue and conscientisation to enable people to name the world
and change it.

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Freire’s work was very influential in challenging modernisation

assumptions that schooling could be value-free. He argued that
education is always political, and he and others pointed out that
schooling may actually work against the liberation of people’s thinking.

Asian developmental states

During the mid-1970s, changes in the Asia Pacific region challenged
the assumptions of modernisation and dependency theories. A group
of countries in the Asia Pacific – South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore
and Taiwan – achieved unanticipated economic growth through
government-driven approaches to development. The growth achieved
by these developmental states was based on state intervention in the
economy rather than free trade. The governments of these states were not
representative democracies of the western model, and they used social
policies to build support and legitimacy (see Zhang, 2003). Like Japan
before them, these ‘Asian tigers’ set economic growth as a priority, and
achieved results. Other Asian countries, including Thailand and Malaysia,
followed this developmental model. This path to development was not
anticipated by either modernisation or dependency theories. In spite of this
different model of development, the World Bank and IMF continued to
support development policies based on free markets.
In the mid-1990s, a number of Asia Pacific countries experienced economic
crises. Economists were divided on what the causes were. Some blamed the
development model, while others blamed speculation and the rapid movement
of finances out of these countries, enabled by globalisation and information
technologies. However, these countries – and others in the region – have
continued to develop in ways that differ from western assumptions. And the
emergence of India and China as important economies – both very large –
brings the prospect of great change to the Asia Pacific region and beyond.

How did the developmental states view education?

Asian developmental states invested heavily in social infrastructure

and social programmes as a means to achieve economic
development and political legitimacy. They viewed education as a
priority in terms of social spending.

The educationist Don Adams (2004) summarises education in the

newly industrialised economies (NIEs) in developing Asia, as follows:

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All had well-developed systems of basic education in place prior

to their period of growth – at least six years for boys and girls.
Some had extensive secondary and higher education systems
as well.
All had ‘enabling laws, national policies and adequate central
financing’ (2004:23).
Government funding was supplemented by parents and private
contributions.
In government and civil society, there were high expectations for
basic education.
There was low absenteeism among teachers and pupils, and
‘teacher quality was comparatively high’ (2004:23).

Not by chance, the Asian tigers performed extremely well on

comparative international tests on mathematics and science – the
very tests in which South Africa has performed poorly. Public and
private investment in education, high expectations and a culture of
achievement provide a picture of an education system very different
to that of South Africa.

Adams comments, however, that rapid growth has not been without
problems, socially, politically and educationally. He adds that ‘The
new education question is whether the schools can better assist
in the acquisition of higher order skills and creativity to sustain
economic and social change’ (2004:23).

Whatever assessment is made, there is no doubt that education

played an important part in the particular growth path developed
by these countries. Their education systems, and the ways in which
they are linked to their economies and societies, provide a different
picture to other developing countries – and a challenging one.

The Washington Consensus

During the 1980s, faced with economic stagnation and debt crises in
poor countries, mainstream development thinking shifted again, this
time influenced by neoliberalism. This shift is known as ‘the Washington
Consensus’. The Washington Consensus refers to a set of assumptions,
supported by the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and the IMF
(known as the Bretton Woods institutions), that developing countries

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need to restructure their economies along particular neoliberal lines

in order for development to take place. ‘Structural adjustment’ means
that economies should be adjusted through a range of policies: reduced
government spending (including spending on social services); tax reforms;
open markets and trade liberalisation; and foreign direct investment. (We
refer briefly to these reforms in Chapter 3.) Structural adjustment became a
precondition for financial aid from the Bretton Woods institutions.

What were the educational implications of these views?

Neoliberal approaches tend to favour the operation of markets

in education. They favour private funding and fees, as well as
individual choice. The emphasis is on individuals being responsible
for making choices to benefit themselves.

Market principles are more concerned with efficiency than equity.

In schooling, market approaches and fees mean that additional
funding comes into the system from private sources. Potentially, this
could result in a better resourced system for everyone, if policies are
developed to redistribute resources. But markets do not operate to
equalise. They offer choice – but only to those who have money to
bring to the market in the first place. Those who have money to pay
fees are able to choose from what is on offer. Those who cannot
afford fees have little or no choice.

Overall, the logic of neoliberal structural adjustment has meant

reduced state spending on social services in developing countries.
And this has meant less money for education. In the logic of
structural adjustment, efficiency is an important consideration.
Rather than increasing funding for education, the emphasis is on
making sure that existing funds are properly used. The argument
is that there is no point in increasing funding to education unless
systems are efficient and use their money well.

Social development agenda

At the same time as the Washington Consensus focused on a largely
economic agenda, the United Nations outlined a broad social development
agenda. It was joined by other multilateral organisations representing
wealthy countries, such as the OECD, the G8 and the European

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Union. Through the 1990s and 2000s, these agencies – predominantly

representing wealthy capitalist countries – have set development goals
for countries in the developing world. (Kenneth King and Simon
McGrath [2004:23] describe this as ‘a new architecture of aid’.) There are
development goals for education, environment, human rights, population,
social development, women, human settlements, food security and
climate change. Every year, the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) gathers information on key indicators such as education, health
and income, and compiles a Human Development Index. At the turn of
the century, the UN restated these goals as Millennium Development Goals.

 (UNDP, 2006:29)

The UNDP describes the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as follows:

The MDGs represent a global partnership that has grown from the
commitments and targets established at the world summits of the
1990s. Responding to the world’s main development challenges and
to the calls of civil society, the MDGs promote poverty reduction,
education, maternal health, gender equality, and aim at combating
child mortality, AIDS and other diseases.

Set for the year 2015, the MDGs are an agreed set of goals that
can be achieved if all actors work together and do their part. Poor
countries have pledged to govern better, and invest in their people
through health care and education. Rich countries have pledged to
support them, through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade.

UNDP is working with a wide range of partners to help create

coalitions for change to support the goals at global, regional and
national levels, to benchmark progress towards them, and to help
countries to build the institutional capacity, policies and programmes
needed to achieve the MDGs. (UNDP, 2006:29)

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However, what is striking is that inequalities across the world have not
reduced, in spite of resolutions such as these. Living conditions in poor
countries continue to fall short of the targeted goals. Under conditions
of globalisation, development goals have been hard to reach and global
inequalities have increased. Poverty and marginalisation continue to
follow predictable patterns.
In contrast to the economic emphasis of neoliberalism and the
Washington Consensus, the social development agenda stresses human
well-being as the goal of development. Annual Human Development
Reports, published by the UN, stress the importance of choice as part of
human well-being. They state, for example:

Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. In

principle, these choices can be infinite and change over time. But
at all levels of development, the three essential ones are for people
to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge and to have
access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. If these
essential choices are not available, many other opportunities
remain inaccessible.

But human development does not end here. Additional choices,

highly valued by many people, range from political, economic and
social freedom to opportunities for being creative and productive,
and enjoying personal self-respect and guaranteed human rights….
According to this conception of human development, income is
clearly only one option that people would like to have, albeit
an important one…. Development must be more than just the
expansion of income and wealth. Its focus must be people.
(UNDP, 1990:10)

An important contributor to the social development agenda is Amartya

Sen (1999), Nobel Prize-winning economist. Sen has argued for
Development as Freedom. He recognises that development has proven to be
elusive. But he argues that it is important for development measures to go
beyond economic goals and other conventional indicators. Development
should enhance human dignity and increase the opportunities that
make it possible for people to fulfil their ‘human capabilities’. Working
alongside Sen, the philosopher, Martha Nussbaum (2000), has drawn up
sets of human capabilities which she suggests should operate universally.
According to the capabilities approach, development involves people’s

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right to access resources that enable them to have sufficient nourishment,

avoid illness, sustain their livelihoods, have self-respect, and live
meaningful lives.
Read what Nussbaum says about the importance of this approach:

…It is important to insist that development is a normative concept

[a concept that involves values] and that we should not assume that
the human norms we want will be delivered simply through a policy
of fostering economic growth. (2004:328)

The capabilities approach has been increasingly influential in discourses of

social development, including education. (In the South African context,
educationists such as Melanie Walker and Elaine Unterhalter have argued
for a capabilities approach to highlight social justice in education policies.)
However, casting a shadow across the ideals and ambitions of the
social development agenda is the spectre of HIV/AIDS, which
disproportionately affects poor and developing countries. HIV/AIDS cuts
across every dimension of life in places where it is prevalent: individual
lives, health and welfare systems, education and social services, and
economic activities. The effects are too immense to be ignored, and
they challenge every dimension of the social development agenda. The
following brief extract from the UNDP Human Development Report of
2006 illustrates the multi-dimensional issues that HIV/AIDS poses for the
development agenda.

HIV/AIDS generates multiple human development reversals

Falling life expectancy is one indicator capturing the impact of HIV/

AIDS. But the epidemic is generating multiple human development
reversals, extending beyond health into food security, education and
other areas.

HIV-affected households are trapped in a financial pincer as health

costs rise and incomes fall. Costs can amount to more than one-
third of household income, crowding out spending in other areas.
In Namibia and Uganda, studies have found households resorting to
distress sales of food and livestock to cover medical costs, increasing
their vulnerability. Meanwhile, HIV/AIDS erodes their most valuable
asset: their labour. In Swaziland maize production falls on average
by more than 50% following an adult death from HIV/AIDS.

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Beyond the household, HIV/AIDS is eroding the social and economic

infrastructure. Health systems are suffering from a lethal interaction
of two effects: attrition among workers and rising demand. Already
overstretched health infrastructures are being pushed to the brink of
collapse. For example, in Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda, patients with HIV-
related conditions occupy more than half of all hospital beds.

HIV/AIDS is eroding human capacity on a broad front. Zambia now

loses two-thirds of its trained teachers to HIV/AIDS, and in 2000
two in three agricultural extension workers in the country reported
having lost a co-worker in the past year.

The spread of AIDS is a consequence as well as a cause of

vulnerability. HIV/AIDS suppresses the body’s immune system and
leads to malnutrition. At the same time, nutritional deficiencies
hasten the onset of AIDS and its progression. Women with HIV/
AIDS suffer a loss of status. At the same time, gender inequality
and the subservient status of women are at the heart of power
inequalities that increase the risk of contracting the disease. Violence
against women, especially forced or coercive sex, is a major cause of
vulnerability. Another is women’s weak negotiating position on the
use of condoms.
Source: Gillespie and Kadiyala 2005; Yamano and Jayne 2004; Carr-Hill 2004;
Swaziland Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives and Business 2002.

How does the social development agenda view education?

This is regarded as one of the most important indicators of human

development, and a key to other dimensions of development. The
global campaign of Education for All (EFA), the Jomtien Declaration
(1990) and the Dakar Framework for Action (2000) all emphasise
the importance of education for individual and social development.
They note that education is a basic human right, and is often the
key to realising other rights. They also emphasise that everyone
should have access to quality education. Yet in spite of numerous
declarations, goals and targets set internationally, the provision of
quality education for all remains elusive.

The EFA Global Monitoring Reports provide detailed pictures

of education in different parts of the world. There is extensive

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information on many indicators in different countries: on enrolments,

including gender participation, retention and repetition rates;
on HIV/AIDS and education; on funding patterns; on literacy; on
achievement on comparative tests; on teacher qualifications; on
national policies. By now, the picture is well known, and broad,
historical patterns of inequality are predictable. Nonetheless, they
have proven to be hard to shift.

The EFA Global Monitoring Report for 2005 suggests that the world
is divided between a large group of countries that have achieved
high and stable enrolments in schooling, and a smaller (but still
large) group of poorer countries that have not. Almost all of the
high achieving countries are located in North America and Europe,
or are one of the Asian developmental states. The low achievers are
the poorest countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.

Before moving on to our final set of theories, it is worth noting that

the impact of HIV/AIDS on education is a major concern for social
development. The following brief statement from the 2002 EFA Report
sums up the significance of this:

The HIV/AIDS pandemic also has implications for the level of

resources needed for education and for household costs. HIV/AIDS
is likely to reduce the overall resource envelope for education and
affects the allocation of available resources within the sector. It has
cost implications for learners, for educators and for the development
of new education programmes responsive to HIV/AIDS. Additional
costs are likely to be incurred from the training and the salaries of
additional teachers, the provision of death benefits, introducing
HIV/AIDS [education] throughout the school curriculum, managing
systemic change, increasing counselling services and providing
incentives to attend school.

The World Bank’s UPE [Universal Primary Education] analysis does

demonstrate that HIV/AIDS [education] adds substantially to overall
education costs. It suggests that in countries such as Rwanda, Malawi
and Zambia the incremental costs due to HIV/AIDS will increase
recurrent budgets by more than 45%. However, it is probable that
the budgetary impact of AIDS is even more dramatic. The EFA Report
estimates the total additional annual costs of the epidemic for the

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achievement of universal primary education as US$975 million

per year, compared to US$560 million estimated in the Bank’s
simulations. The cost implications of HIV/AIDS are so extensive
and so pervasive that they may serve better than anything else to
demonstrate the urgency of protecting the education sector against
the ravages of the epidemic and of using the potential of education
to extend greater protection to society. (UNESCO, 2002)

The social development agenda has become increasingly explicit about the
goals of development in terms of human well-being. But these goals seem
to be elusive, if not receding. Why has the social development agenda
been so hard to achieve?

On the one hand, it is possible to argue that poor countries could

improve their performance (including their performance in education)
with more effort, efficiency and political will.
On the other hand, it could be argued that social and economic
development cannot be separated. The social development agenda
cannot be advanced separately from the economic development
agenda. Setting targets for social improvements cannot rectify the
inequalities of neoliberal economics.

Let’s now move to a final set of theories which look at what development
means and how it might be achieved.

Postcolonial and postdevelopment theories

Development debates are far from settled. The differences between
developing countries (highlighted by changes in the Asia Pacific region),
and the uneven and changing flows and cross-currents of globalisation,
have brought greater complexity to debates. The explanatory power of
major theories such as modernisation and dependency has diminished.
At the same time, it is clear that neoliberal globalisation and structural
adjustment have not stimulated development as hoped. And the goals set
out in social development agendas are proving hard to reach.
In this context, postcolonial discourses have emerged, bringing fresh
perspectives on issues of culture, identity and power. (These discourses
are related to the other ‘post’ discourses mentioned in Chapter 2.) In
this context, ‘post’ does not simply refer to the historical period after
colonialism. Rather, it refers to the task of working against discourses
of colonialism (colonisers and colonised), to show the power relations

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within these discourses, and the unequal subject positions they create.
Postcolonial thinkers have highlighted the ways in which dominant
(western) discourses have distorted and silenced the views and voices of
people on the margins, while privileging the identities and cultures of the
powerful. For example, Edward Said’s work on Orientalism (1978) shows
how western discourses construct notions of the East, which divide the East
from the West and position the West as superior. Gayatri Spivak’s work on
postcolonial feminism explores how knowledge of the world is constructed
within power relations which render those on the margins voiceless.
And Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1998) has challenged whether the language of
colonisers can ever express the experiences of the colonised.
Postcolonial theories are important in challenging power relations,
seeking to forge new identities outside of colonial categories, and valuing
languages and cultures that have been marginalised through colonialism.
They have highlighted the discourses whereby western categories
and frames of knowledge become ‘normal’ and operate in ways that
marginalise others.
Postdevelopment discourses have questioned whether the notion of
‘development’ is an appropriate framework to think about change in
former colonies and settler societies. These discourses have questioned
whether poverty, suffering and marginalisation could ever be reduced in
conventional development frameworks. And they have challenged the
assumption that ‘development’, defined in terms of capitalist growth and
expansion, is possible or even desirable. The work of Arturo Escobar is well
known for challenging the discourses of development. Gilbert Rist sets out
the postdevelopment challenge powerfully in the following statement:

End of sequence. End of game. The lights that made the hope
glow have gone out. The huge enterprise that began in both North
and South at the end of the Second World War, with the aim of
accelerating ‘development’, has come to a complete end. It is time
to recognise that the world cannot be changed with the help of
concepts and strategies belonging to the dreams of yesteryear.
(1997:220, original emphasis)

Postcolonial and postdevelopment theories signal a crisis in theories of

development. They challenge thinkers to move away from the certainties
and predictions of master narratives and overarching explanations and
solutions – such as those provided by modernisation, dependency, the
Washington Consensus, and social development agendas.

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What, then, of education?

Postcolonial approaches to education have highlighted issues

of identity, culture and language. They have questioned the
colonial biases of the curriculum. They have pointed out that local
knowledge and local languages have been marginalised in education
in favour of the knowledge and languages of colonisers. Some
theorists have argued for the importance of indigenous knowledge
systems. Most have stressed the importance of valuing local culture
and language, and of constructing identities in education to
challenge the remnants of colonial relations of power.

Postdevelopmental approaches have questioned links between

schooling, growth and ‘progress’ as part of their general critique of
development assumptions.

To sum up …
The different theories of development illustrate different assumptions
about economy, society, government and culture. Different discourses
define ‘the problem’ of development and its ‘solution’ in different ways.
They draw on different bodies of knowledge, use different terminology,
and point to different relationships of power. They also make different
assumptions about what is desirable and what is possible. All of this
illustrates Foucault’s point that discourses operate in ways that ‘create’ the
objects that they speak about (see page 19). These different discourses
operate alongside and against each other to create the terrain of
‘development theory’.
The range of theories illustrates that that there is no single answer to
how economies might be structured to bring about sustainable growth
and reduce poverty and inequality. The answers depend, in part at least,
upon what assumptions we make in the first place. And they involve
ethical considerations about how people should live together in a
shared world.
Whatever approach we take, the questions remain: Is it possible to
improve the conditions of life of all of the world’s people? Is development
possible for all according to the existing terms of economic growth and
social advancement? And what part might education play? Considering
theories of underdevelopment in Africa and current conditions of
globalisation, Stefan Andreasson (2005) suggests four alternative
positions:

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Position 1:
Continue to insist that development is a possibility for all – this is the
orthodox neoliberal position.

Position 2:
Suggest that although equality can’t be attained for all,
improvement of living conditions is possible – this is a ‘third way’
position.

Position 3:
Attempt to maintain the status quo, hoping that the dream of
opportunities for all will be enough to maintain things as they are –
this is what Andreasson calls a cynical, ‘realpolitik’ position.

Position 4:
In Andreasson’s words: ‘Acknowledge that the current world order
and its attendant development discourse is not sustainable in any
form (economically, politically, socially or ecologically) and therefore
not morally or ethically justifiable either – moving “beyond
development’’ ’ (2005:980).

Clearly, there is room for much debate.

From this brief overview of different approaches and theories, it is

apparent that ‘development’ is not easy to define or achieve. Though the
term is problematic, the issues that it addresses are important ones for all
governments to engage with: issues of economic growth, institutional
frameworks, political arrangements and cultural identities. It is clear,
though, that development is not an automatically unfolding process. It
entails difficult ethical and political choices, and it requires decisions and
strategies on many fronts simultaneously. And in current times, nation state
development requires engagement with both local and global conditions.
In terms of the divides between rich and poor in South Africa (as referred
to in Thabo Mbeki’s speech at the beginning of this chapter), debates
on development suggest that these are not likely to shift without specific
interventions. And even then, development cannot be assured, particularly
in the fast-moving, complex and exclusionary flows of current globalisation.
The first part of this chapter has scanned the very broad field of
development theories. But how is South Africa positioned in relation to
these different discourses of development? Let’s now turn to this question.

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2 South Africa’s development choices

Historically, the liberation movements were committed to racial equality
and economic redistribution. In 1955, the Freedom Charter promised that
‘The people shall govern’, and that ‘The national wealth of our country,
the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people’. But
what could this mean in the global and local circumstances of 1994? The
new government inherited a struggling economy, distorted by segregation,
with a limited skills base, unequal infrastructure, and many people living
in poverty. The need for growth, reconstruction and development was
obvious. But – as the different discourses of development have indicated –
these processes are open to different interpretations, and they are not easy
to secure.
Globally: South Africa’s political transition to democracy took place at a
time when the world’s economies were almost all capitalist, and neoliberal
ideology was paramount. The global climate was not sympathetic to an
agenda of redistribution. Global and local capitalist interests warned that
investment in South Africa depended crucially on political and economic
stability as well as the safety of persons and property. They vigilantly
monitored any possible signs of nationalisation.
Locally: the new government was formed on the basis of a negotiated
settlement with the apartheid state. A Government of National Unity
(GNU) was led by the ANC with its alliance partners, the South African
Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade
Unions (COSATU), the former National Party government and other
political groupings. The GNU brought together people of different views,
and its emphasis was on compromise and reconciliation.
Under these global and local conditions, visions of transformation held
by the liberation movements were soon narrowed down.
What development choices were made and how did these affect
education? We can trace South Africa’s framework for development
through the development agendas set out in the Reconstruction and
Development Programme (RDP), the Growth, Employment and
Redistribution (GEAR) strategy and the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD). These development agendas provide a framework
for understanding Mbeki’s ‘two nations’ comment. They also provide a
basis for understanding educational provision in South Africa, and for
assessing the performance of South Africa’s education system in terms of
conventional development indicators.

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RDP, GEAR and NEPAD

Initially, it was assumed that South Africa’s approach to development
would be ‘people-centred’ and based on the principle of ‘growth
through redistribution’ in a mixed economy. In 1994, the government
introduced the RDP as an integrated and coherent strategy for growth
and development. The RDP White Paper opened with the commitment
from President Nelson Mandela quoted at the start of this chapter:
that the government would ‘address the problems of poverty and
the gross inequality evident in almost all aspects of South African
society’ (1994:2).

The White Paper continued as follows:

The GNU inherited an economy characterised by a number of

structural problems … The challenge is to correct those problems
and regenerate economic growth and a more equitable distribution
of the benefits of such growth. The RDP provides a strategic
framework to address these problems. It recognises the simultaneous
necessity of meeting basic needs, developing human resources,
building the economy and democratising the State and society
… Reconstruction and development will be achieved through the
leading and enabling role of the State, a thriving private sector and
active involvement by all sectors of civil society. (1994:20)

However, by the end of 1996, this redistributive agenda had faded away,
and the programme for transformation had shifted. In the global climate
of neoliberal capitalism, the ANC-led government made the political
choice to attune its macroeconomic policy to market-led economic growth
and integration into the global economy. In place of the RDP, the ANC
introduced its Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy.
In spite of its name, GEAR is a neoliberal macroeconomic programme of
deregulation, privatisation and fiscal restraint – similar to the structural
adjustment programmes advocated by the World Bank and the IMF.
In adopting this approach, the ANC-led government distanced itself
from Marxist ideology, socialism and nationalisation, and oriented itself
towards domestic and international capitalism. Whereas the RDP had
intended to stimulate economic growth in ways that would lead to the
reduction of poverty and inequality, GEAR focused on economic growth

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along the lines that would be attractive to international and domestic

investment. The government justified its decisions by stressing that this
approach was necessary if economic growth was to be achieved, and that
building global markets was an important strategy for achieving growth
(see Chisholm, 1997; Marais, 2001; Weber, 2002).
In 2000, the government took a further step in this direction through
NEPAD, an agreement spearheaded by the leaders of South Africa,
Algeria and Nigeria. NEPAD committed itself to African development
through integration in the global capitalist economy and partnerships with
the international community and highly industrialised countries.
There is much debate about the reasons for the policy shift from the RDP
to GEAR and NEPAD. The government insisted that it had no choice but
to fall in with neoliberal globalisation and its economic directions. But
politics always involves choices and preferences – in spite of claims made
by governments throughout history that their (chosen) way is the only
option. History is always formed in the interplay of structure (the existing
opportunities and constraints of what already exists) and the actions taken
by people (human agency).
Whatever the reasons, there can be no doubt that the government
endorsed a neoliberal global framework – though this framework has
no track record of reducing poverty and inequality. Is this development
approach the best under the circumstances? What other choices were
possible? This is a matter for robust debate, as reflected, for example, in the
work of Stephen Gelb, Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Nattrass, Patrick Bond
and others. In any event, as Manuel Castells points out, engaging with
globalisation is a difficult challenge. He states: ‘The real problem for South
Africa is how to avoid being pushed aside itself from the harsh competition
in the new global economy, once its economy is open’ (2000:126).
In short, the development model that was adopted for post-apartheid
South Africa was a particular form of non-racial capitalism. As Gelb points
out, it represented an accommodation between the ANC and big business,
and rested on policies to promote globalisation and black economic
empowerment (2003:41). Redistribution and redress were to be ‘detached’
from economic growth. They were to be attended to separately through
policies for social services and meeting basic needs such as land reform,
social infrastructure, housing, and labour market reform, as well as through
age pensions, child grants and disability grants.
How successful was this development strategy in the first 10 years of the
new government? Thinking back to Mandela’s introduction to the RDP
White Paper, did the country manage to achieve high and sustainable
growth as a basis for addressing problems of poverty and inequality?

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On the positive side, the government’s austere economic approach

did manage to stabilise the macroeconomic environment. It managed
to reduce the budget deficit and lower inflation. More services were
provided for poor people, particularly in terms of housing, water,
electricity and schools.
On the negative side, economic development in the period 1996 to
2001 did not bring about the anticipated levels of growth. Nor did
it produce enough jobs to keep pace with the growth in population
(Statistics South Africa, 2005:63). Patterns of poverty and inequality
remained much the same as they were. A small but prominent number
of black people increased their wealth and moved into the middle
classes. Overall, however, the apartheid racial and class profiles of
wealth and poverty were still evident.
Per capita income by race group

Source: van der Berg & Louw 2003:11; Business Report 25.02.04

It is perhaps too soon to judge the strategy overall, especially since 2007
figures show that unemployment levels have dropped. It is possible
that South Africa might look to other development options or alter its
policies in new or different ways. Transformation of economy, society and
government are extremely complex to achieve, and it is important not to
make simplistic judgements about success and failure. Nonetheless, looking
at the first 10 years of change, the overall development approach did not
achieve the high and sustainable growth that was hoped for as a basis for
redressing poverty and inequality. Nor did it reduce the very high rates
of unemployment.
Let’s now return to the argument that there are ‘two nations’ in South
Africa and examine it more closely.

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3 Two nations? Economic growth,

poverty and inequality in South
Africa
The following extract from the World Bank’s country summary of South Africa
(November, 2005) paints a similar picture to Thabo Mbeki’s ‘two nations’:

Economy

With GNI per capita of $3,630 (2004, World Bank Atlas method),
South Africa is one of the few African countries to have joined
the group of upper middle income countries. Its economy is larger
than that of Malaysia, and is by far the largest in sub-Saharan
Africa, about 35 percent of total sub-Saharan African GDP, exerting
major influence on total output, trade, and investment flows of
the African continent. It dominates the southern African region,
where it plays a vital role in the regional economic institutions, such
as Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and Southern African
Development Community (SADC), and continental fora such as the
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

However, the lacklustre growth, averaging only three percent per year
over the past decade, has not been able to reduce high unemployment
(26 percent according to the narrow definition, or 41 percent when
discouraged workers are included), poverty, and inequality.

Services now account for most of South Africa’s economy, surpassing

the abundant mineral and energy resources that formed the core
of the country’s economic activity. Much of manufacturing is based
on mining, and platinum has now overtaken gold and diamond
exports. In the post-apartheid era the government has focused on
controlling the deficit while striving to step up spending on social
programmes to combat inequality. The Central Bank has used tight
macroeconomic policies to control inflation.

South Africa’s income aggregates hide extreme differences in

incomes and wealth between the white (similar to OECD average
of GNI per capita of about US$26,000) and non-white populations
(similar to many low-income African countries, with GNI per capita
under US$825). 13 percent of the population lives in “first world”

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conditions, while at the other extreme, about 22 million people

[about 50% of the population] live in “third world” conditions.
In this latter group only one quarter of households have access
to electricity and running water; only half have a primary school
education; and over a third of the children suffer from
chronic malnutrition.

This picture describes income, wealth and living conditions. To probe

this further, it is useful to look more closely at the concepts of poverty and
inequality, and the forms they take in South Africa.

Poverty and inequality

South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world, as measured
by the Gini Coefficient (a commonly used measure of the inequality of
distribution of income). South Africa also has high levels of poverty.
Indeed, estimates suggest that about 40% of the population live in poverty
(which is very high by any measure). Why is this so?
To understand poverty and inequality, a useful starting point is to recognise
that they are not the same thing. It is possible for a society to be unequal,
yet have no one living in poverty. Conversely, it is possible for a society
to be fairly equal, with most people living in poverty. Economic growth is
an important factor in reducing poverty, but it does not necessarily reduce
inequality. In fact, inequality may increase with economic growth.
There is a difference between economic growth, and how the benefits of
growth are distributed. Distribution of wealth and poverty involve political
as well as economic factors. And they involve ethical considerations
about how people should live together. As with theories of development
more generally, there is no single answer as to how economies might
be structured to bring about sustainable growth and reduce poverty
and inequality.

Who is poor, and what counts as poverty?

There is much debate internationally and in South Africa about how
to define and measure poverty. Though there is no official definition of
poverty in South Africa, there is broad agreement about its profile. A group
of South African economists, Bhorat, Leibbrant, Maziya, van der Berg and
Woolard, provide the following sketch:

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The poor are more likely to be African and to live in rural areas
… The poor also have low levels of education, lack access to wage
employment, and are also more likely to be found in female-headed
households. The poor also lack access to basic services and to
transport. Given all of the above, it is not surprising that the poor
are more vulnerable to illness and to stunted growth. Such physical
and human capital deprivation are important in perpetuating a cycle
of poverty. (2001:72)

The researchers Barbarin and Richter, in their study Mandela’s Children,

flesh out the experiences of poverty from a child’s perspective:

To be poor and South African usually means to be unemployed

with no dependable means of support, to live with a single mother
or grandmother, and to survive primarily on the grandmother’s
pension. To be poor is to experience hunger frequently, to live on
a diet of bread and tea without milk or sugar and be grateful to
have cabbage soup at night. It means living in a one-room shack
without electricity, heat, a refrigerator, or a television, and relying
on candles for light at night. It means having to rely on taxis for
transportation when you can afford it, and to go places by foot
when there is no money…. Poverty means insufficient money for
school fees and books, and having to stay out of school for several
weeks until funds can be found to purchase shoes and school
uniforms… Poverty means children being left at home by parents
who must leave for work before they wake up, with the children
getting themselves up on their own and out to school without
breakfast. (2001:173–4)

Poverty involves much more than income poverty. Poverty touches on

people’s sense of well-being and self-esteem, their sense of agency in the
world, and what they can and cannot do. Poor people often experience
powerlessness and disregard. Emerging Voices (2005), which looks at rural
poverty and education in South Africa, points out that the Zulu language
has eight different expressions for poverty, including ‘degrees of poverty, its
visibility, the form that it takes and the emotions and sense of self-worth
associated with it’ (2005:30).

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What are the patterns of poverty in South Africa?

Poverty in South Africa has particular features. Much of it is ‘endemic’, which
means that it is regularly found among the same people. And it is ‘chronic’
rather than ‘transient’, meaning that people spend a long time in poverty –
sometimes all their lives – rather than moving in and out of poverty.
Three sets of figures are useful in illustrating poverty in South Africa.
Figure 1 shows population numbers in millions, with provinces ranked
from largest to smallest. Figure 2 illustrates the percentages of people living
in poverty in the different provinces of South Africa. Figure 3 shows
unemployment by province.
Population by province

Source: Statistics South Africa, 2007

Figure 1: Population numbers per province, 2007

Poverty by province

Source: Census, 2001

Figure 2: Percentages of those living in poverty by province, 2000

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Gauteng and Western Cape, which have the lowest percentages of poverty,
are the most urbanised provinces. Neither of them includes a former
homeland. They are also the provinces with the highest percentages of
employed people, as Figure 3 illustrates.
Unemployment by province

Source: Census, 2001

Figure 3: Percentages for unemployment by province, 2001

Figure 3 compares unemployment statistics gathered in two ways:

through the Census and through the Labour Force Survey carried out by
Statistics South Africa. It is interesting to note that the statistics differ. For
example, the Labour Force Survey says that over 40% of the population is
unemployed, but the Census shows 30%. This suggests that the definitions
we use and how we gather information make a difference to the results we
get. For example: What counts as ‘employment’? Should beggars, who work
for their living, be included among the employed or the unemployed? What
about people who work for a couple of hours a week? Or those who have
jobs, but do not earn enough to live on? Questions like these always arise
when definitions are drawn up and statistics gathered for measurement.
Leaving these questions aside, what all of the figures show is that South
Africa has very high rates of unemployment. This has a central place in
understanding poverty and inequality.
Patterns of poverty and inequality in South Africa can be traced back
to the history of apartheid and segregation before that. Segregation and
apartheid brought, among other things, dispossession of land, inequalities
in ownership of assets, lack of access to resources, a distorted labour
market, and poor social services for the majority of the population. They
also impacted on unequal gender relations. All of these historical patterns
form the basis of current poverty in South Africa.

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What are the features of poverty in South Africa?

Employment is a big factor in determining poverty levels in South
Africa. People without jobs are more likely to live in poverty.
However, in some cases people’s wages are so low that they live in
poverty, even though they are working. Farm workers and domestic
workers are examples of this.
As we’ve seen, there is more poverty in the rural provinces than in
more urbanised and industrialised provinces. It is no coincidence that
the poorest parts of South Africa are the rural areas of the former
homelands. These rural provinces also have the largest population
sizes. That said, there is also poverty in urban areas.
Gender is a significant factor in poverty. More women live in poverty
than men, internationally as well as in South Africa. There are
persistent gender inequalities in wages and labour market access, and
in ownership of assets. This means that female-headed households are
more vulnerable to poverty.
Education makes a difference to patterns of employment and poverty.
People with little or no education usually earn the least. More
education brings more access to jobs and higher earnings. However,
this formula doesn’t always work neatly. In South Africa, racial
discrimination under apartheid influenced people’s access to the
labour market, as well as the education they received. Labour markets
are now more open in terms of race and gender, but old patterns
are still evident. Education plays a key role in influencing people’s
opportunities, but education itself does not create jobs. In South
Africa, there are more people looking for work than there are jobs, and
unemployed people do not necessarily have the skills that the labour
market requires.
Youth unemployment is a particular problem in South Africa.
Between 1996 and 2001, more people between 20 and 34 were
unemployed and looking for work than any other age group. Many of
them had completed secondary schooling.
HIV/AIDS has an enormous impact on poverty, particularly when
breadwinners become ill or die. South Africa has one of the highest
proportions of people with HIV/AIDS in the world, and estimates are
that the pandemic is not yet at its worst.
In South Africa, large numbers of children live in poverty. Benjamin
Roberts suggests that 40% of those aged 14 or under live on less than
$1 a day (2005:490).

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How does poverty affect schooling?

A ‘two nations’ description may be applied to schooling, as is seen in the
following statement made at the Public Hearing on the Right to Basic
Education, held by the South African Human Rights Commission in 2005:

The research clearly shows that if you are black – particularly if you
are rural and poor – schooling and education does not work for you.
For 60–80% of our children, education reinforces marginalisation,
trapped in a second economy of unemployment and survival with
few ways out. It may even be said that there exist ‘two education
systems’ in South Africa, mirroring the problems of two economies.
(SA Human Rights Commission, 2006:18)

Decades of research in many countries have documented the adverse

effects of poverty on children’s experiences of schooling and on their
learning outcomes. Put briefly:

If children are poor, they may not be able to afford to go to school.

Schooling involves direct costs such as fees, uniforms, textbooks and
stationery. It also involves indirect costs such as not being able to earn
money or contribute to the household. Across the world, there are
many children who are out of school because of poverty.
Poor children often go to school hungry, poorly nourished, unwell,
without adequate clothing, and so on. These conditions have an
impact upon them as they go to class, and influence the benefits they
receive from schooling, including their learning.
Children from households where there are no school-related resources
such as books (and adults who read to them) are at a disadvantage
when they start school. The same also applies when the languages
of home and school are different, and there are no resources to
supplement language. Schools seldom help these students to catch
up; in fact, they are in danger of falling further behind their more
privileged counterparts.
Sometimes, children have to fit school around work or household
chores or caring for relatives. They may miss school, or drop out and
in again. All of this is likely to impact upon their experiences of
school. Broken attendance patterns, dropping in and out of school
and missing school days are all associated with children in poverty.
Interruptions in learning disadvantage students and make it harder for
them to keep up with their class.

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Opportunities to work may also influence demand for schooling. For

example, people may leave school to look for work – and this may
be different for boys and girls. The networks of opportunities that
are available for poor people – particularly poor rural people – also
influence the choices people make.
Poverty makes people more vulnerable if things go wrong. If a
breadwinner becomes ill or dies, children may have to interrupt their
schooling, or drop out altogether. There are fewer ‘cushions’ or ‘shock
absorbers’ for poor people. Poor people have to make decisions about
schooling in times of crisis that people with more resources don’t
necessarily have to make. In some cases, poor children who experience
‘shocks’ in their lives may drop out of school altogether. In other cases,
they may interrupt their schooling and return to their studies later. In
all cases, children who are poor are more vulnerable.
Poverty touches people’s consciousness as well as their material well-
being. Poor people are often rendered powerless by their structural
conditions – and as a result, they may feel powerless to act. Their
points of view are often overlooked, their voices not heard, and this
influences their sense of agency in the world. The emotional effects of
poverty can be profound.

Many of these points focus on how poverty affects individuals. But it is

important to recognise that schools in poor and disadvantaged communities
are seldom as well resourced as schools in wealthier communities. Their
teaching resources and facilities are often less good, and there is often
a high turnover of teachers and principals. These are often the least
supported schools in the system – although they are recognised as some
of the most difficult in which to teach. There are issues of quality to be
addressed. In short, it is important to recognise that the schooling that
governments provide for poor children and poor communities may often
contribute to their disadvantage, rather than remedy it.

How might poverty and inequality be addressed in

South Africa?
The situation in South Africa is a complex picture of large-scale, chronic
and endemic poverty, and long-standing inequality. How accurate, or
useful, is it to think of this in terms of ‘two nations’?
The idea of two nations provides a picture of poverty alongside wealth in
South Africa, and it relates inequalities to race. While there is truth to this,

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it is not the whole picture, nor is it completely accurate.What it does not

show is that patterns of race and class are shifting as the economy develops
in particular ways. Race remains a key factor in poverty and inequality. But
neoliberal growth strategies have increased the size and wealth of the black
middle classes, so that inequalities among black people are growing. An
adequate picture of inequality needs to consider class and gender as well as
race. It needs to look at structural patterns of distribution and how they are
changing – or not changing. It also needs to acknowledge the role of public
policies in addressing unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Nattrass (2005) are among a number of scholars
who provide an alternative analysis to ‘two nations’. They trace the historical
patterns of growth and distribution in South Africa, which have privileged
some groups and excluded others. They call this South Africa’s ‘distributional
regime’. Historical patterns of economic activity have been deracialised
by the post-apartheid government. But they have not been fundamentally
transformed. Gelb, Seekings and Nattrass stress the important part played by
unemployment in terms of poverty and inequality in South Africa. Scholars
argue that class, rather than race, is currently the main driver of inequality.
The study undertaken by Seekings and Nattrass clearly shows that post-
apartheid public policies – decisions made by the government – improved
the opportunities of some black people, but not of others. The post-
apartheid growth path benefits the black middle class through deracialisation
and affirmative action. Workers who belong to unions – the industrial
working class – benefit from policies that raise wages and improve working
conditions. But the unemployed, and particularly the rural unemployed,
experience continuing disadvantage and have few opportunities to improve
their circumstances. Although redistribution takes place through pensions
and grants, and through social services such as education, the growth path
is not pro-poor. The poor, particularly the rural poor, are marginalised and
their voices are largely ignored. Seekings and Nattrass clearly show that
post-apartheid public policies improved the opportunities of some black
people, but not of others. Tracing the development of public policies in the
decade after 1994, they conclude that these policies caused unemployment
to increase, rather than decrease. In their words:

Overall, … key public policies were reformed rather than transformed

after 1994, with the result that there was further deracialisation at
the top end of the income distribution but no or limited change in the
position of the people at the bottom end. It is crucial to realise that
public policies exacerbated [made worse] rather than mitigated [made
better] the problem of unemployment. (2005:341)

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Clearly, issues of growth, development, poverty and inequality are

extremely complex to work with and change.
An international perspective on poverty and inequality is provided by
the reports of the UNDP. The Human Development Report (2005), for
example, notes that while economic growth is important for reducing
poverty, it is not enough. Some parts of the world, such as sub-Saharan
Africa, have stagnating economies. Other parts, such as India, have
achieved growth through integration into global markets, but poverty
and inequality still remain. The UNDP Report suggests that deeper
structural changes are needed along with economic growth, if poverty is
to be reduced:

Changing this picture will require public policies that address deep-
rooted inequalities between rich and poor people, between men
and women, and between more prosperous and less prosperous
regions. These inequalities are rooted in power differences – and
they are perpetuated by public policy choices. (2005:30)

The UNDP’s Poverty Report (2000) recognises the difficulties of developing

pro-poor policies within the constraints of neoliberalism. However, it
suggests that this is possible, drawing on its research in 23 countries. It
suggests that countries need to develop economic strategies that have
poverty reduction as their central focus, and that they need to involve the
poor in drawing up these strategies.
South Africa does not measure up well in terms of the UNDP Poverty
Report, at least for the first 10 years of its democracy. It does not have
anti-poverty plans with targets, funding and co-ordination. It has a two-
track approach, with policies for economic growth being supplemented by
policies for providing services to the poor. This is not the same as attacking
poverty in a pro-poor economic and political strategy. The pro-poor logic
of the Poverty Report suggests that addressing poverty and inequality in
South Africa would require more radical and imaginative strategies than
were put in place in the first 10 years. This could entail developing pro-
poor strategies within or alongside a neoliberal development framework.
Or it could entail a completely different development approach.
Of course, the logic and recommendations of the UNDP Poverty Report
may be debated. What they do show, however, is that alternative thinking
is possible, even within a neoliberal development framework. Similarly,
the work of Seekings and Nattrass challenges the sense of inevitability and
lack of choice that governments often rely upon to justify their actions.

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To sum up …
This section has argued that ‘two nations’ thinking does not provide an
adequate analysis of poverty and inequality in South Africa. Without
this, change becomes hard to envisage. A more robust understanding of
social structures and policy choices is needed to challenge the seeming
inevitability of what exists and build a more just and equal society. This
is not a simple task, but it is not an impossible one either. There are no
easy answers and a lot is at stake. But as human beings we have the task of
building our own history in the conditions in which we find ourselves. This
is an ethical responsibility that we cannot sidestep.
That concludes our discussion of South Africa’s development choices,
and growth, poverty and inequality in South Africa. Let’s now return to
issues of education and development.

4 Education and development:

opening the doors of learning?
As we have discussed in this chapter, poverty and inequality are deeply
entrenched in South Africa. Under such conditions, what part might
education play in national development? Reflecting on the issues and
discussions raised in this chapter, a number of points are worth making.

Master narratives of development

In this chapter, development theories have been set out in the form of
‘master narratives’ – as overarching accounts that offer explanations of
the ‘big picture’, highlighting power relations and different logics of cause
and effect. Master narratives have their place, but they are not adequate
by themselves. Theories such as these provide tools for social analysis, but
there is always the danger that they may distort our understanding of social
complexity. They do not tell us about the texture of everyday life with its
contradictions, struggles, confusions and achievements. They do not tell us
about the many actions and decisions taken by governments and ordinary
people that make up the texture of human history. The events of history
are not inevitable, and the future does not lie predictably before us –
however appealing a master narrative might seem.
Development strategies involve complex economic, social and political
decisions, and these necessarily entail technical knowledge of all sorts.

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This specialised knowledge is not always within the expertise of

educationists. That said, knowledge is not neutral, particularly when it is
put to use in social programmes such as development. Social programmes
require consideration of ‘what ought to be’ as well as ‘what is’. Running
through all of this are ethical considerations – what counts as a good life
and how we might best live together in the world we share. These are
concerns that involve educationists.
We, as educationists, have our own perspectives, experiences and
knowledge to add to debates on development. Thus it is important that we
engage in the debates with these perspectives. The perspectives of education
involve, above all, consideration of formalised teaching and learning, of social
cohesion, of the world of work, and of individual development. Development
debates tend to address the social and economic purposes of education. But
the purposes of teaching and learning, and of individual development,
need to be integrally considered in development debates as well.

Market narratives and social justice

Neoliberal master narratives are particularly compelling at this time in
history, when capitalism is the dominant economic system across the globe.
It may seem as if there are no alternatives to neoliberalism, even if conditions
are less than ideal. Yet neoliberal narratives are incomplete in the context
of change in South Africa. They cannot perform all that is required. In their
current forms, they are narratives of markets, efficiencies and individual
choice. While they may be able to address the government’s goals of
economic growth, they are not able to address its commitment to redressing
poverty and inequality. More needs to be done outside of neoliberal frames if
these commitments are to be met. The market offers equal choices to all, but
it does not address the fact that people do not come to the market with equal
resources to make their choices. Some have many choices; others have none.
The market itself does not address existing social inequalities. It does not
operate with a justice of redress. If the goal is to redress historical inequalities,
it is necessary to look beyond market approaches.

Schooling and inequality

As mentioned earlier, the social development agenda that is supported
by global bodies such as UNESCO and the EFA initiative has set targets
for education that are monitored regularly. More is known than ever

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before about the state of schooling in countries across the world. There
is information on almost all measurable aspects of education systems: on
enrolments and provision of schooling, on participation and completion
rates, on gender differences, on performance in literacy and numeracy
and comparative test rates, on teacher qualifications, the impact of HIV/
AIDS and measures to improve this. The following trends in access and
participation in schooling are, by now, well known (see Christie, Dieltiens
and Lewin, 2006):

Levels of wealth and poverty have a clear influence on the resources

available for education, and this in turn is a major influence on access,
participation and keeping students in schools. Political economy affects
the supply of education, and it also affects people’s demand for education.
What resources are available to schools may have an effect on learning
outcomes. Although additional resources may have little effect in well-
established schooling systems, they do have an effect in poorer countries.
Cultural practices, particularly around gender, have predictable effects
on both supply of and demand for schooling.
Opportunities for economic activity and how these link to education
affect the supply of schools, the value placed on schooling and on demand.
Where there are populations or subgroups with particular or specific
needs, the standardised approaches of schooling systems – particularly
the inflexibility of school arrangements and their geographical fixity –
affect access, participation and retention. This is evident in countries
with mobile populations such as nomads, travellers, migrant workers
and refugees. Minority languages often require special consideration.
Disabilities of various sorts – intellectual, physical, psychiatric, etc –
require specific interventions. This broad range of specialised needs
interacts in particular ways with system resources and capacity, and
influences access, participation and retention.
The living conditions of children have well-documented effects on
participation and success in schooling. Most notably, children’s health
and nutrition affect their learning. HIV/AIDS has multiple effects,
actual and anticipated, on both students and teachers. Work has
adverse effects on children’s school attendance and how well they do.
Conditions of violence and social conflict are disruptive to schooling.
(See Christie, Dieltiens and Lewin, 2006)

In short, many of the variables which affect access, participation and

retention are well known to researchers and policy makers. However,

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remedying these well-known problems is not straightforward. One reason is

that education systems cannot be understood separately from the societies
in which they operate – their economic, political, social and cultural
contexts. In spite of their apparently universal forms, education systems
do not stand apart from their societies, and they are not amenable to
interventions that treat them as if they did.
If we look across the countries of the world, what emerges is a picture
of historical inequalities between and within countries which is shifting
slowly, and in some cases not at all. Changing these inequalities is not as
straightforward as early modernisation theorists might have assumed. The
experience of decades shows that poorer countries have found it extremely
difficult to build schooling systems that provide access to quality education
for all their young people. Schooling is not a simple instrument for
achieving equality or social justice, either between or within societies. This
applies to South Africa as well.
Nonetheless, countries across the world consider schooling an important
indicator of a modern state, as pointed out in Chapter Two. Schooling is
so entrenched as a world institution that it is hard to imagine a modern
state that decided not to invest in schooling – a point which Bruce Fuller
makes in Growing-Up Modern: the western state builds third-world schools
(1991). Schooling has enormous symbolic significance. It acts as ‘the
norm’ for education, even when it is unable to deliver what it promises:
formal teaching and learning for young people. Attempts to educate people
outside of schools, for example in non-formal education programmes or
adult basic education programmes, tend always to operate on a second
track to schooling, which remains the symbolic ideal.
Schooling, like the market, attracts people of all backgrounds. If it treats
everyone as if they had equal resources, the outcomes will certainly be
unequal. And if the schools that are provided for different communities
are unequal, it should be no surprise if the outcomes tend to be unequal. If
schooling is to play a part in achieving a more equitable society, it is necessary
to imagine, and put in place, more radical measures than currently exist.

Schooling and development

The development experiences of the past five decades show that we
cannot assume that quality schooling systems will grow organically as
part of an unfolding process of development. Schooling systems have
been built over time and tend to reflect the development patterns of
their contexts.

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Few developing countries have schooling systems that match those

of Europe and North America on indicators of provision and quality.
Moreover, the experience of the Asian developmental states suggests
that if schooling is to contribute to economic growth, it is important for
governments and societies to invest in schooling – materially, politically
and symbolically. Developmental states provide schooling for all at basic
and post-basic levels; their systems are well run with adequate funding
from both state and private sources; and they have high expectations of
teachers and students.
In South Africa’s case, a schooling system of equal quality for all is
not likely to unfold without deliberate efforts to bridge the historical
divisions. Building a quality schooling system for all is likely to require
political will and strong interventions, backed by targeted resources. It will
require an ethical commitment to improve the conditions of the poor and
marginalised in ways that enable their active participation in building a
system that meets their needs. And it will take time.

5 conclusion
After more than 50 years of theory and research on education and
national development, it is clear that there are no simple solutions. Both
development and education are expressions of power relations that are not
easy to understand or shift. Yet they need to be worked with in one way or
another if we hope to improve the conditions and experiences of all people.
Development is a complex and multi-dimensional issue. For
governments, development entails working with economic, political and
social visions and practicalities, which are sometimes competing. It means
addressing historical legacies, engaging with local conditions and global
forces, and imagining and implementing strategies to improve people’s
conditions of life. Education is integral to development, however this is
defined. But there is no simple, functional relationship between education
and development. There are no straightforward solutions to problems of
poverty, inequality and economic growth. There are judgements and trade-
offs to be made, with ethical and political implications. There is difficult
and sometimes unrewarding work to be done. Much has been achieved, yet
much remains to be done.
How might poverty and inequality be reduced and economic growth
achieved in South Africa? This is the challenge facing all South Africans.
The debates of this chapter have explored different assumptions and
approaches to this question. The goal has been to push the boundaries of

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what is taken for granted from a particular value position: a position which
supports opening the doors of learning for all.
The French philosopher Foucault states the importance of critical thinking
as follows (and he is only one among many to advocate critical thinking):

A critique is not a matter of saying that things are not right as they
are. It is a matter of pointing out “what kind of assumptions, what
kinds of familiar, unchallenged, unconsidered modes of thought, the
practices that we accept rest [upon]”. Criticism is a matter of flushing
out that thought and trying to change it: to show that things are
not as self-evident as we believed, to see that what is accepted as
self-evident will no longer be accepted as such. Practising criticism is
a matter of making facile [comfortable and uncomplicated] gestures
difficult. (1988:154)

If we take Foucault’s challenge of not accepting what seems to be self-

evident, development for a more just and equitable society requires
different thinking and action to what we take for granted. Action is not
something to be postponed for the future – when the transition is over –
but something to be lived now. As Paolo Freire says, we build the future
through the actions we take in the present. In his words, we make the
path through walking it. If we are to build a sense of common purpose and
common interest across the historic divides and inequalities in South
Africa, then it is important that we do not perpetuate these divides. ‘Two
nations’ will not become ‘one nation’ without significant actions to change
the continuing social divisions. The doors of learning will not swing open
at a touch. It will take intention and effort to achieve this. Instead of
accepting the current situation as self-evident and inevitable, the task is to
challenge our unconsidered assumptions and practices and to try to change
them. To use Foucault’s words, facile gestures should not be acceptable.

Moving forward…
On the shifting terrain of development strategies, governments make
education policies to give expression to their social visions. So let’s gather
up the development discourses of this chapter and take them with us
into the next chapter, where we change scale again as we explore the
policy approaches adopted by the South African government to eradicate
apartheid and set in place an education system for the good of all.

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Global comparisons of development

indicators
One of the spin-offs of globalisation and the spread of information
technologies is that global comparisons are possible. Global organisations
such as the World Bank and the UN gather information on countries in
order to measure and compare their performance against each other.
The comparative statistics they produce are discourses like any other:
they are selections of knowledge, guided by assumptions about what is
valuable and ‘true’; about what information is useful and how it might be
gathered and analysed; and what an ‘ideal’ profile would look like on the
selected indicators. These statistics – like all others – need to be read
with care. Statistics cannot ‘speak for themselves’. They always need
to be interpreted. They illustrate particular perspectives, rather than
complete truths.
In interpreting indicators, it is always important to locate them within
their particular contexts and historical legacies. In each case, there are
questions about what produced the outcomes registered on the indicators.
Under what circumstances is an outcome reached? What particular social
structure and what forms of agency have produced it? With what costs,
benefits, and trade-offs was it achieved? Without further information and
interpretation, indicators cannot tell us about historical circumstances,
ethical choices, or contextual consequences – and these may be crucial.
That said, if indicators are used with care, they do provide a particular
picture of comparative conditions in the world.
An important comparative index is the UNDP’s Human Development
Index (HDI) which is based on statistics on life expectancy, education,
and adjusted real income. How does South Africa perform on this index
and its component parts?

In 2005, South Africa ranked 120 out of 175 countries on the HDI –
and its ranking has fallen since 1994.
South Africa is classified by the World Bank as one of 40 upper-
middle-income countries, along with countries like Malaysia, Mexico,
Chile and Poland.
It has high levels of inequality compared with other countries of the
world, along with countries like Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Paraguay.
It has a middle ranking for poverty, along with Egypt, Congo, India
and Sudan.
It is one of 87 countries ranked as ‘medium’ on the HDI, along with
Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia and India.

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As mentioned earlier, comparative statistics need to be interpreted with

care. Obviously, the accuracy of statistics depends upon how accurately the
data collection processes have been. It also depends on what definitions are
used. Indicators provide a selection of information, not a complete picture.
That said, they do illustrate patterns of differences, and when measured
over a number of years, they are able to illustrate trends.
The trends shown in the Human Development Reports over many years
confirm the patterns of inequality between the developed and developing
countries, discussed earlier in this chapter. They also confirm that
inequalities are not shifting under conditions of neoliberal globalisation, as
discussed in Chapter 3.

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 chapter 5
Education policy
This chapter moves from the scale of the global order and
the scale of nation state development to that of policy-
making, which is a form of decision-making in modern
states. The chapter looks at how policy thinking became
the order of the day as apartheid gave way to a modernist
state with a democratic government and rights to equal
citizenship for all. The first part of the chapter looks
at the nature of policy and the policy process – which
is important because policy discourses have become so
prominent in education in South Africa. The second part
of the chapter turns to education policy in South Africa,
and explains the particular approach taken to policy
and the frameworks that resulted from this. The chapter
then narrows its focus to look at policies for equity,
and the potential contradiction between these and
the funding framework adopted by the government.
Although it is easy to assume that policy makers and
governments ‘get what they want’, the chapter points
out that policy implementation is a complex process
and policies seldom turn out as envisaged. Drawing
on insights from policy implementation studies, the
chapter weighs up South Africa’s policy choices. Finally,
the chapter considers South Africa’s education policies
in the light of opening the doors of learning for all,
concluding that achievements have been limited.

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Preamble Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996

We, the people of South Africa,
Recognise the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country;
and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in
our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this
Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to –
Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on
democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which
government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is
equally protected by law;
Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of
each person; and
Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful
place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.
May God protect our people.
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Morena boloka setjaba sa heso.
God seën Suid Afrika. God bless South Africa.
Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afrika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.

The Constitution of South Africa, adopted in 1996, signalled an end

to apartheid and the birth of a new political and social order. South
Africa would have the hallmarks of a modern liberal state: democratic
government, human rights, equal citizenship and the rule of law. It would
take its place as a sovereign state in the global order.
As the Constitution was being drafted in the dying days of apartheid,
educators, activists and interested parties turned their energies to thinking
about what the education system might look like in a post-apartheid South
Africa. What principles should underpin the new system? How should
it be governed? How should it be funded? Who should have access to
what education? What should be taught, to whom, by whom, under what
arrangements? Questions of this kind framed the educational debates of
this period in terms of ‘policy’.
Policy is a key concept when thinking about educational change in a
modern state. It is particularly useful in providing systemic perspectives on
education, and in highlighting steps that governments take in the sphere

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of education. As this chapter will show, policy has an important role in

educational change, but it cannot address everything that educational
change entails. Policy is crucial, but it has its limits.
The chapter begins by unpacking the concepts of policy and the
policy process. It then sets out some of the policy changes in education
in post-apartheid South Africa, looking at what steps were taken, by
whom, and with what effects. On this basis, it considers more carefully
what policy can and can’t achieve – its possibilities and limitations – in
terms of educational change. The chapter concludes by weighing up the
contribution of policy to educational change in South Africa, particularly
in relation to equity and opening the doors of learning to all.
Let’s turn to the question: What is policy, and what perspectives does it
provide in thinking about educational change?

1 Policy: discourses, concepts

and theories
What is policy?
As used here, ‘policy’ is shorthand for ‘public policy’ and refers mainly
to the sphere of government. Policy is one of the ways in which the
governments of modern states envisage what they would like, and how
they intend to ‘make things happen’. The Australian theorists, Janice
Dudley and Lesley Vidovich (1995), define policy as follows:

Policy may be regarded as collective social decision-making. It

is collective and social because the decisions made concern the
whole of society rather than individuals alone, and second because
participants in the decision making process are considered to be the
legitimate decision makers for society … The values or preferences
integral to policy reflect not only different goals, but also different
means of achieving goals. (1995:15)

There are many definitions of policy, ranging from the very broad to the
precise and specific. Some features of policy are:

It is a form of decision making that has goals and purposes.

It is a values-driven activity, based on what people would like a society
to look like.

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It often involves a vision of some ideal state of affairs.

It usually involves attempts to ‘make things better’ or prevent
‘something bad from happening’ (and what counts as ‘better’ or ‘worse’
clearly depends on your point of view).
It typically involves allocating resources on the basis of interests.
It may involve decisions not to act, as well as decisions to act.
It often is the outcome of compromises between different interests
and groups.
Its results are not always predictable, and may take time to play out.
It may be difficult to implement as intended.

Understanding policy means understanding how governments, as

legitimate decision-makers in societies, act to achieve goals in their
particular political, social and economic contexts. Policy is part of the cut-
and-thrust of politics, as groups and individuals with competing interests
strive to decide how society should be organised and what actions should
be taken ‘in the best interests of all’. To understand the complex terrain of
policy, it is useful to look more closely at how political discourses operate,
and some of the key concepts in these discourses.

Concepts in policy discourse

In his classical study on The Terms of Political Discourse, the political
scientist William Connolly (1974) points out that the language we use
channels our thoughts and actions in certain directions. Language is a
structured set of meanings and concepts, and the words we use may easily
limit our perceptions without us realising it. Connolly urges us to reflect
critically on the terms of political discourse, in order to explore alternative,
more radical, perspectives.
Connolly suggests that there are many concepts in politics whose
meanings are less certain than they appear to be. He suggests that concepts
like democracy, freedom, legitimacy, violence and tolerance are open to
endless disputes about their meaning. These disputes, he suggests, are
not likely to be resolved. Reasoned argument is possible, but agreement
is unlikely because people hold different beliefs about what they mean.
Connolly uses the term ‘essentially contested concepts’ (from the
philosopher WG Gallie) and suggests that the meanings of these concepts
need to be continually probed, rather than taken for granted. (We might
note in passing that ‘education’ has all the features of an ‘essentially
contested concept’!)

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Discussions of policy inevitably touch on concepts of the state,

government, civil society and power. These are complex concepts, and
there are vigorous debates about their meanings. Without going into these
debates, let’s draw on some working definitions of these key terms.

The Routledge Dictionary of Politics (Robertson, 2004) provides the

following working definitions of the state, civil society and government.

The state:
The state means, essentially, the whole fixed political system, the
set-up of authoritative and legitimately powerful roles by which we
are finally controlled, ordered and organised. Thus the police, the
army and the civil service are aspects of the state, as is parliament
and perhaps local authorities. But many institutions with a great
deal of actual power, trade unions, for example, are not part of
the state, because they are voluntary organisations which could, at
least hypothetically, be dispensed with, and especially because they
directly represent one section of society against another … Political
parties are not part of the state …, and governments formed and
supported by them are not quite part of the state. The offices of, for
example, the prime minister or president, however, which depend
entirely on parties for their filling and operation, are state offices…

Civil society:
… the whole range of organised and permanent institutions and
behavioural practices, like the economy, churches, schools and family
patterns, that make up our ordinary life under the ultimate control
of the coercive force of politics. (Robertson, 2004:457)

Government:
This term is used in two different ways in English-derived political
systems. It refers both to ‘the body that has authority in a given unit –
whether national, regional or local – and the whole constitutional
system’ (2004:201). American English talks of ‘administration’ to
refer to a particular government, while European languages talk of
‘the state’ when referring to the general sense of government.

Another important concept that has many definitions and

applications is the concept of power. The South African sociologist,
Ran Greenstein, sums up power as follows:

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Power:
Power is defined as a set of practices and discourses that govern the
interactions between social actors… Power has several dimensions,
of which three are of importance. These are:

Social power (access by individuals and groups to resources and

control over their allocation),

Institutional power (strategies employed by groups and institutions

in exercising administrative and legal authority) and

Discursive power (shaping social, political, and cultural agendas

through contestations over meanings). (2003:1)

As the chapter unfolds, we’ll see these terms in use.

As the political scientist PG Cerny points out in his book, The Changing
Architecture of Politics (1990), the nation state is the most common
political unit in the world today. But this is a fairly recent political
phenomenon. Nation states developed during the last 300 years, and
came to prevail over other political forms such as kingdoms, empires,
chieftaincies and clans. It is important to remember that states are not
‘natural’ formations (like landscapes or continents). They are social
constructions, made by human activity in the course of history. States are
always in the process of formation, change and potential decay. The state,
argues Cerny, is partly a product of historical accident and coincidence,
and partly a product of design and intention. Once the structural patterns
of a state are established, they become hard to shift. However, these
structural patterns are ever-changing, not least because of the intentional
and unintentional actions of agents. The combination of structure, agency
and history, already covered in previous chapters, is also useful in analysing
the nation state and its forms of government.
Joel Migdal (2001) offers a useful contribution by warning against
‘mystifying’ the state by viewing it as all-powerful and always able to do
whatever it likes. Certainly, states may try to create uniformity and impose
rules of behaviour within their borders, but the state is not the only source
of authority in society. There are other social organisations that also
have authority in respect of how people live their lives (for example,
different religious organisations, or cultural practices, or ethnic identities).
The state does not always prevail over these other sources of authority.

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Migdal invites us to think of states and societies as mutually influencing

each other, and sometimes in conflict with each other. He writes:

States are in conflict with a heterogenous flock of other social

organisations that do not share the rules of the state. Whether
and to what degree states can successfully triumph in their conflict
with such organisations varies. … The specific types of order and
change in a society are the outcomes of the struggles … among
social organisations, including … the state. How that struggle has
developed and how it will proceed depend not only on domestic
factors but on important historical and contemporary actions and
alliances originating in the larger world system. (2001:230)

Why then do people voluntarily obey the state above other social
organisations? Of course, there are laws, police, courts, and punishments
that ensure compliance. But overall, most people conform voluntarily.
Migdal suggests that the state has come to provide a framework within
which we, as individuals, actively live our lives. The state provides us with
a framework of rules and regulations, services and guarantees, out of which
we forge our own ‘strategies for survival’:

State rules have … protected the water one drinks, assured the
terms for receiving credit, provided schools as a means of mobility
for one’s children, and much more. …. States offer a large chunk
of the strategies of survival that people construct for themselves.
Obedience and conformity, then, have been trade-offs accepted by
individuals who see the state as a large piece of their personal life
puzzles. (2001:252)

To sum up …
Engaging with ‘policy’ requires critical reflection on a number of concepts
that are complex and ‘essentially contested’. Concepts of the state,
government, civil society, and power are endlessly debated and
open to different interpretations. Nonetheless, working definitions
are necessary because the idea of ‘policy’ makes little sense outside of
these concepts.
In dealing with political concepts, it is important to bear in mind that
alternative ideas and practices are always possible. Power operates through
all political discourses and activities, as people strive to influence and
change the societies they live in.

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Different kinds of policy

The argument so far is that policy is an important activity of governments
in modern states. In democracies, elected governments have the authority
– the legitimate power – to develop policies to give direction across the
wide range of activities that make up public life.
Policies always engage with what already exists, either to change it or to
preserve it. Policy seldom begins ‘from scratch’, or is written ‘on a clean
slate’ in ideal circumstances. Because of this, it often involves compromises
between what is possible and what is desirable. Policy is not neutral; it always
pursues particular values or ideals. It often involves reaching agreements
– sometimes called ‘settlements’ – among competing views and interests.
Policies seldom operate in isolation. Rather, policies in one field interact
with policies in other fields to produce a complex web. Education policies,
for example, are affected by health policies, by social welfare policies, by
immigration and settlement policies, and so on. Often, policies cut across
each other, or contradict each other. Policies always have unexpected
consequences. In current times in which globalisation is so dominant,
policies are borrowed from other countries and contexts, and adapted
locally – often with unexpected outcomes. In short, policy matters are
always complex, even if they appear simple at first.

Policies serve a number of purposes and therefore take different forms:

Policies may guide actions through laws and regulations, or set out
procedures for doing things. (They are termed regulatory or procedural.)
An example is the National Education Policy Act of 1996, which sets
out the structures of decision-making in the education system, including
relationships between the national department and the provinces.
Some policies are about distribution or redistribution of resources. (They
are termed distributive or redistributive.) An example is South Africa’s
Equitable Shares Policy, which was developed in 1998 in order to
distribute education funding to provinces according to their level of need.
Some policies set out ideals that cannot necessarily be achieved in
practice. These may be understood as symbolic policies. For example,
the Constitution states that everyone has the right to education, but
the state does not actually provide this. Symbolic policies play an
important role in marking out ideals and values and, in some ways, all
policies are partly symbolic. Symbolic policies may be important in
opening spaces for legitimate struggle. But they may also be frustrating
in appearing to promise what they do not deliver.

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Policies that are intended to be implemented are sometimes referred

to as substantive or material policies. The South African Schools Act of
1996 is an example of substantive policy.

In education, policy approaches are indispensable for understanding how the

system works. For example, the goals and principles underpinning the system
are part of policy. Regulations for admission to school and the payment
of fees are policy decisions. What should be taught in the curriculum is a
matter of policy. The required qualifications for teachers and their conditions of
work are set out in policy. The duties and responsibilities of principals, and the
constitution and functions of governing bodies, are set out in policy regulations.
All matters that relate to governance of the system are policy matters.
However, as this chapter will argue, education is a complex process, and
it involves more than policy discourses can cover. Not all of the goals and
purposes that were considered in Chapter 1 can be set out, or achieved, in
policy terms. For example, the core activities of teaching and learning are
framed by curriculum policy documents and there are policies for monitoring
teachers. But the day-to-day practices that make up the texture of classrooms
are hard to reach through policy mandates. Culture, meaning, emotions,
creativity, ways of thinking – these and many other crucial dimensions of
education lie tantalisingly beyond the reach of policy mandates, as we shall see.

How are policies made?

How do policies come into being? There are many debates about the ‘policy
process’ and how it works. These debates are important because they help
us to understand what can be expected of policy, and where the policy
process ‘goes wrong’. Let’s look at some ways to approach policy:

Rational approaches assume that the policy process is best understood as a

sequence of steps, and takes place in a linear progression or in cycles.
T he starting point of a policy is an issue that requires attention, or
a problem that needs to be addressed.
 olicy makers – those in governments and bureaucracies – decide
P
how to deal with the issue. They ‘decide how to decide’ (for
example, through an act of parliament, or a set of new procedures
under an existing act, or a commission of inquiry, or public
consultation, and so on).
They investigate different options, drawing on expert knowledge
and taking into account the views of different interest groups.

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T hey then decide what option to take, and formulate policies

accordingly. Often (but not always) these are written policies.
They allocate resources and draw up regulations and procedures.
They then implement the policies, monitor the results, and adjust
the policies to ensure that they meet their goals.
Then the cycle begins again.

Theorists like Carley (1980) argue that even if the policy process is not as
neat as this description suggests, there is still value in defining its different
stages and activities in a rational way. The rational approach is particularly
useful in analysing how to intervene in the policy process, or improve it.

Rational theories of policy often see policy formulation and policy

implementation as two separate steps in the process. The challenge,
in terms of these theories, is to move smoothly from one step to the
next, recognising that the process may get stuck along the way.

Critical approaches to policy assume that the policy process cannot be

put into a neat sequence. In fact, trying to impose a rational approach
is likely to distort our understanding of what actually happens in
the policy process. The world of policy is complex and messy. Issues
don’t simply present themselves as ‘problems’ to be ‘solved’. Rather,
those in power decide what issues they will address in terms of their
values and interests. Setting the policy agenda is more political than
rational. Policy makers don’t always have full knowledge of the issues
they address. Nor are they necessarily able to get what they want.
Competing interests inside and outside of government may influence
decisions in ways that are not necessarily ‘in the best interests of
all’. Policies are often patched-up compromises and temporary
agreements rather than clear, long-term decisions or solutions. Policy
implementation is often confused. In particular, confusion arises
if policy implementation is viewed as a separate step from policy
formulation instead of an integral part of it.

According to these analysts, policy-making is not necessarily a step-by-

step linear or cyclical process. It’s a mix of simultaneous activities, often at
cross purposes. The complexity of policy processes, they argue, cannot be
understood in terms of sequential steps. Nor can it be understood without
taking into account the competing interests and power of social actors.
(The theorist Stephen Ball has done important work within this approach
to policy.)

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HK Colebatch (2002) proposes a policy model that captures something of

both of these approaches. He suggests that policy may be understood as a mix
of two intersecting dimensions: vertical and horizontal sets of activities.
The vertical dimension covers the rational, top-down work of policy.
Colebatch writes:

The vertical dimension sees policy as rule: it is concerned with the

transmission downwards of authorised decisions. The authorised
decision-makers [e.g. the government of the day] select courses
of action which will maximise the values they hold, and transmit
these to subordinate officials to implement.… This is a dimension
which stresses instrumental action, rational choice and the force of
legitimate authority. It is concerned about the ability or capacity
of subordinate officials to give effect to these decisions (the
‘implementation problem’) and with ways of structuring the process
of government so as to achieve this compliance. (2002:23)

The horizontal dimension of policy covers the activities of a broad range

of people, both inside government and in other outside organisations,
who are participants in the policy process. Negotiation and consensus
are important so that these individuals and groups share the same
understandings of the policy thrust. Their actions need to be brought in
line, or ‘structured’ into, the policy process. In other words, there are many
different participants (or ‘agents’, or ‘actors’) in the policy process, not only
the authorised decision-makers. Colebatch writes:

The horizontal dimension sees policy in terms of structuring of

action. It is concerned with relationships among policy participants
in different organisations – that is, outside of the line of hierarchical
authority. It recognises that policy work takes place across
organisational boundaries as well as within them … It is concerned
with the nature of these linkages across organisations, with how they
are formed and sustained, with the interpretive frameworks with
which participants understand policy questions, and the institutional
formations within which these are mobilised. (2002:23–24)

In Colebatch’s model, the policy process involves both dimensions

simultaneously, in a complex and unpredictable mix. He provides a
diagram to illustrate his model (2002:24).

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Vertical

Authorised
decision-maker

Other agencies Participants outside

government

Subordinates
implementing policy Horizontal

Other levels of International

government participants

Figure 5.1: The vertical and horizontal dimensions of policy

To sum up so far …
Policy – including education policy – is concerned with decision-making
that is directed towards achieving goals and values. Policy activity involves
planned procedures and careful choices, but it also involves hasty moves
made in the heat of the game. Policies are often compromise positions that
are stitched together with the goal of bringing about, or maintaining, some
desired state of affairs. From one perspective, policies are about ideals and
visions. From another perspective, they are about the practicalities of what
can be achieved under the circumstances.
Policy offers important perspectives on education. In particular, policy
discourses are helpful in thinking about how education systems are run in

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modern states. Policy studies alert us to the complexity of achieving policy

goals and to the dynamic contexts of policy implementation. In addition,
we need to bear in mind that important dimensions of education cannot
easily be captured in policy terms – something we explore more fully later
in the chapter.
The next section provides a particular analysis of the new policy
framework and policy process of the post-apartheid government in South
Africa. There is no shortage of good writing on the policies of this period.
(See, in particular, Alexander, 2002; Fiske and Ladd, 2004; Fleisch, 2002;
Chisholm, 2004; Chisholm, Motala and Vally, 2003; Kraak and Young,
2001; Motala and Pampallis, 2001; Sayed and Jansen, 2001). Instead of
summarising these analyses, the next section tells the story in its own
way, using the concepts outlined in this chapter so far. It does not attempt
to set out a detailed picture of the policies and their effects. Rather, the
next section aims to provide an analytical framework for interpreting the
approach to education policy in South Africa after 1994.

2 The ‘policy turn’ in South African

education
As mentioned earlier, most of the debates on educational change in South
Africa after 1994 were framed in terms of policy. How did the government
approach its task of policy development? What policy framework was put
in place? And what policies were adopted? We’ll look briefly at these issues,
as well as some of the key policies to achieve equity and redress.

The 1994 government and its policy approach

The government that came to power in South Africa in 1994 was the
product of a negotiated settlement between the liberation movements and
the apartheid state. The Government of National Unity brought together
former enemies to run the state on behalf of all of its people. Obviously
this involved major compromises on all sides. The principles of the
Constitution, which was in the process of being adopted, formed the basis
for the new government. Equality and human rights would be the guiding
principles, and there would be a place for the politicians and bureaucrats
of the apartheid state to work alongside the ANC Alliance and other
political groupings to build a new South Africa. In the 1990s, many of the

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‘old guard’ stayed on in government, to be joined by the ‘new guard’ who

had little or no experience of running a government.
Arguably, ‘the state’ was not ‘overthrown’ in South Africa, though power
was transferred to a different group of people. The architecture of the state,
as envisaged in the 1996 Constitution, followed the broad design template
of a modern, western-style democracy. The Constitution was intended to
provide a state-of-the-art version of conventional government, rather than
a redesign of its principles. The goal of the government was to run the state
and simultaneously to change it, based on the principles of equality and
human rights instead of apartheid racial divisions. Common citizenship
rather than racial difference was to be the basis of identity. And the
approach taken to policy development, as we shall see, fell in line with the
conventions of modern governance – parliamentary, cabinet and legislative
procedures, together with a structure of separate government departments.
Policy development was a strong priority for the government. New
policies were needed both to undo apartheid laws and practices, and to
establish non-racial, rights-oriented laws and practices. A new vision for
education was urgently required, as well as steps to change the obviously
unequal apartheid education system. Policy-making had a double task: to
dismantle the past and to put in place foundations for the future.
From 1990 onwards, with the unbanning of political organisations,
there was a flurry of activity around possibilities for change. Activists
and academics, trade unions and the business sector, members of NGOs
and civil society groupings of all sorts were mobilised to think about
alternatives in terms of policy – in terms of actions that a government
might take. In place of the radical slogans of the liberation struggle, such as
‘People’s Education for People’s Power’ and ‘Liberation before Education’,
policy thinking (that is, thinking about actions government might take)
became the order of the day. At this time, a loose grouping of people in
the broad democratic movement gathered to form the National Education
Policy Investigation (NEPI). This was followed by the ANC’s Implementation
Plans for Education and Training. The National Training Strategy Initiative,
led by the National Training Board, brought government, business, labour
and civil society groupings together to think about future possibilities for
education. At the same time, the outgoing apartheid government had
also issued its own policy vision in the Education Renewal Strategy and A
Curriculum Model for South Africa. Discussions of educational change were
dominated by thinking about what an incoming government might do.
Policy discourses were the order of the day.
During this period of policy exploration, the broad democratic movement
envisaged the integration of education and training in a system of lifelong

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learning that would articulate adult basic education and training, formal
schooling, and learning programmes for out-of-school children and youth.
Structures representing civil society stakeholder interests would ensure
accountability and participation at all levels of the integrated system. A
national qualification framework (NQF) would plot equivalences or equal
values between qualifications to maximise horizontal and vertical mobility.
New policies would articulate changes across the whole of the existing
education and training system.
When the government was formed in 1994, however, much of this
‘horizontal’ work (to use Colebatch’s model) was set aside. A ‘vertical’
approach came to the fore, with the new ‘authorised decision-makers’ keen to
establish the stamp of their rule. Some of the pre-1994 ideas were lost, such as
the proposed integration of education and training into a single department.
Others, such as the National Qualifications Framework, took different forms
as they moved from the sketchy ideas of pre-1994 to the codified systems
that the new government favoured. Structures for civil society stakeholder
involvement were not included in the new designs. The government’s
moderate politics of compromise tempered the more radical pre-election
ideals. Conventional approaches were favoured over experimentation.

Meeting the policy challenges

How did the 1994 government, in particular the education department,
approach the policy challenges before it? The approach taken by the
education ministry and department was to work with established
procedures for parliamentary governance – white papers and national
commissions, parliamentary debates and portfolio committees, legislation
and regulations, bureaucracies and departments with line functions
and appointed personnel. These processes were not fundamentally
redesigned. Rather, they were reshaped to reflect the principles of the 1996
Constitution. Reflecting the times of globalisation, the government also
‘borrowed’ policy ideas from other countries, drawing on practices that
were globally fashionable (such as financing education through markets
and fees; decentralising governance through school-based management;
and adopting an outcomes-based curriculum). The task was to run the
existing system and, at the same time, to change it.
Faced with the enormous task of reforming the education system
from top to bottom, the government gave immediate priority to its own
structures. An early task was to dismantle the 19 separate apartheid
departments of education, and to restructure them into nine provincially-

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based departments and a national department. Early on, a mapping process

was begun to see what schools existed and what their level of provision was
(this was the Schools Register of Needs, published in 1996). A commission
was set up to investigate higher education, and another to recommend
policy for the governance and funding of schools. International expertise
was brought in to address technical complexities, such as funding. (These
are examples of horizontal policy activities, initiated by the government.)
In 1995, the first White Paper on Education and Training was published.
It set out the governing principles for the system, and outlined a broad
sweep of development initiatives that the government intended to take.
These were subsequently turned into legislation or investigated in later
white papers. White Paper One was a visionary document, which assumed
the top-down, ‘vertical’ logic of government, with little or no reference to
the ‘horizontal’ policy activities of the early 1990s.
Was this the only approach available to the government? The educationist
Francine de Clercq argues convincingly that the 1994 policy makers had
other choices available to them. In 1997, she wrote:

The Ministry of Education had several policy and strategy choices

available to start transforming the uneven and discriminatory
education system. It could have built on previous ANC policy work
and options of the pre-election era and moved into implementation
plans and strategies for action. It could have united the majority
of the provincial departments around common policy priorities
and plans for intervening in the education system. It could have
mobilised, through well-focused campaigns and pilot programmes,
educational communities around the worst inherited problem
areas. It could have worked in partnership with non-governmental
education organisations and other education interest groups to plan
and evaluate how to deliver better quality services and activities to
some traditionally disadvantaged communities. Above all, it could
have strategised and devised programmes to change the culture and
ethos, as well as build the managerial and leadership capacity, of its
own state bureaucrats … In reality, it did very little on these fronts.
(1997:136–37)

Whether or not de Clercq’s analysis is accurate, it is important in

illustrating that governments always have choices, even if they present
their choice as the only possible one. The policy approach favoured by
the government – a top-down, ‘vertical’ logic – resulted in a framework of
ideal-type policies for change, as the next section illustrates.

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The landscape of change

In terms of the Constitution, the National Department of Education was
given responsibility for developing norms and standards, frameworks and
national policies for the system as a whole. Provincial departments were
given responsibility for implementing these frameworks and delivering
services (for example, providing schools). Interpreting this in strict terms,
the National Department concentrated on developing policy frameworks
for the system as a whole. It developed a series of ideal-type policy
frameworks, without fully considering whether or how these could be
implemented by provinces. The major new policy frameworks included:

The National Education Policy Act of 1996: this set out national and
provincial powers in education, and the structures for decision-making
with the system (as described above).
The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA): this
was established in 1996 to set out the framework on which all
qualifications could be registered and articulated with each other.
The South Africa Schools Act (SASA) of 1996: this set out frameworks,
norms and standards for the governance of schools. It stipulated that
all schools should have democratically elected School Governing
Bodies (SGBs) on which parents would be the majority. SGBs were
given powers to determine admissions policy, language policy and
school fees. They also had powers to administer properties, and make
recommendations to provinces on hiring teachers. Section 20 gave basic
management powers to all schools, and schools that had the capacity to
manage their own budgets were given additional Section 21 powers.
The 1998 National Norms and Standards for School Funding (amended
in 2005): this set out the framework for funding provinces and schools.
It included a pro-poor funding formula for part of the education budget,
whereby more funds would be given to poorer provinces and schools.
A National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE): this provided
the basis for the Higher Education Act of 1997 and the redesign of
the higher education system. In terms of this act, colleges of education
were closed down or amalgamated with universities, and, in later
developments a number of universities were merged. Altogether,
101 colleges were incorporated into universities, and universities and
technikons were merged to form 24 higher education institutions.
Curriculum 2005: this introduced an outcomes-based curriculum for
general education. It was phased into schools from 1998, reviewed in
2000, and replaced by revised National Curriculum Statements.

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A National Committee on Further Education and Training (FET): this

presented its report in 1997, as the basis for the Further Education and
Training Act of 1998.
A White Paper on Early Childhood Development (ECD) in 2000: this
envisaged the introduction of a pre-school reception grade.
A National Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training:
this advocated ‘mainstreaming’ of learners with special educational
needs, and was followed by White Paper Six on Inclusive Education
(2001).
Frameworks for teacher employment were set out in the Education
Labour Relations Act (ELRA) of 1995. Conditions of work, codes
of conduct, and duties and responsibilities were agreed upon for
educators. All teachers were required to register with the South
African Council of Educators (SACE).
A series of policies were adopted to monitor and evaluate quality
in schools. The Development Appraisal System (1998) aimed
to improve the performance of individual teachers through peer
review. A Performance Measurement System (2003) was designed to
evaluate teachers for promotion and salary purposes. The National
Whole School Evaluation Policy (2001) looked at improving school
effectiveness more broadly. To address the confusions and overlaps
that arose between these different policies, the Integrated Quality
Management System (IQMS) was introduced in 2003.

Thus a particular policy architecture was developed in the first period of

government. As the implementation of these policies unfolded, the tasks of
policy monitoring, evaluation and revision became increasingly important.
In many ways, the policy documents developed by the 1994 government
were ‘state-of-the-art’. They specifically drew on what was judged to be
best international practice at the time, bringing global ideas into the local
context. They set out a vision of what an ideal education system might
look like in South Africa, based on two main sets of principles: equality
and human rights on the one hand, and human resource development on
the other. What they envisaged was a functioning education system,
linked to a high-skill economy and a fully-fledged democracy. They
envisaged a modern, non-racial, citizenry with equal rights, including
the rights to different languages and cultures in a shared social order. This
was enormously important in breaking with the past and giving a sense of
new possibilities and direction to the education system. But it was a far cry
from what actually existed in South Africa in terms of education, economy
and society.

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This approach to the policy process soon ran into difficulties. The
policies could not be implemented as envisaged. They were formulated
in terms of what would be ideal, rather than in terms of changing what
actually existed. They emphasised structural design, without giving
sufficient attention to implementation and the support that might be
required in different contexts. Funding was inadequate to meet the policy
designs, and the expertise and capacity of people working within the
system were even more inadequate. The policies had many unintended
consequences, as policy actors at the school level interpreted them in
ways which had not been anticipated by policy makers. The overall result
was that the deep inequalities did not shift substantially during the first
10 years of government (1994–2004) – a point we’ll return to later.

To sum up …
There are many policy examples that illustrate the difficulties of
educational change in South Africa. In fact, every policy intervention
across the system, from early childhood development to higher
education, proved to be more complex and contested than anticipated.
No educational practice is simple to change, not least because there are
competing views and vested interests on every issue: finance; governance;
curriculum; teachers’ conditions of work, qualifications and remuneration;
assessment and qualification systems; management systems; provisioning;
training; inclusion and special needs education; and so on. Many actors
influence a policy process.
Fundamental change of existing education systems is an extremely
difficult task, and it takes time. As the first part of this chapter showed,
policy and the policy process are essentially contested, and ‘the state’ or
‘the government’ are not always able to get what they want. Policies are
often compromises, and they involve chance and circumstantial choices
alongside well-considered decisions. Viewed in this light, South Africa
post-1994 provides an excellent case study in the difficulties of educational
change and the possibilities and limits of policy.
Looking across the many policy developments of the immediate post-
apartheid period, two main strands of logic created tensions between what
was desirable, and what was possible. These two logics both inspired and
constrained the changes that policies could achieve. The one, stemming
from the history of the liberation struggle, stressed justice, equity and
rights. The other, stemming from the influence of globalisation, stressed
neoliberal approaches to economic and social development. These two
strands of thinking were not always compatible, as the following
section illustrates.

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3 Funding policies to promote equity

For equity to be achieved, apartheid’s legacy of inequality needed to
be addressed. But this needed to be done within the limited budgetary
framework available to the government. A brief look at policies for funding
equity highlights the complexity of competing demands.

The vision of equity and the reality of inequality

The Constitution and White Paper One on education and training
made clear the vision that all would be equal in the new order, and that
discrimination would not be tolerated. All citizens would have equal
rights, and basic education would be a right for all. In the words of White
Paper One:

The paramount task is to build a just and equitable system which

provides good quality education and training to learners young and
old throughout the country. (1995:7)

White Paper One also made an optimistic claim about the benefits of
education (the kind of claim we questioned in Chapter 2):

Appropriate education and training can empower people to

participate effectively in all the processes of democratic society,
economic activity, cultural expression, and community life, and can
help citizens to build a nation free of race, gender and every other
form of discrimination. (1995:7)

This is an inspiring vision, but it is not a substantive policy statement. As

the earlier discussions on policy and the policy process indicated, policy
involves not only vision, but also goal-directed actions and the allocation
of resources. As this vision was put into policy, and implementation
unfolded, new challenges emerged at every turn.
The existing education system in the mid-1990s bore the marks of 40
years of apartheid. In many ways it was the opposite of an equitable and
just system. It had been designed to provide ‘world-class’ schooling for
the white minority, at the expense of other racial groups, who were the
vast majority of the population. This systemic discrimination produced

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highly unequal experiences and outcomes in schooling over many years.

The apartheid system had produced unequal infrastructure, resources and
capacity, and inequalities had deepened over the decades. In 1994, the
apartheid government was spending four times as much on the education
of a white child than a black child, while in the heyday of apartheid
as much as 12 times more was spent on white children than on black
children. Not surprisingly, white children received more years of schooling,
learnt in smaller classes in better provisioned schools. White children
were taught by better qualified teachers, had lower failure and repetition
rates, and performed much better in matriculation (Senior Certificate)
examinations. The system was flawed by its apartheid character, which
emphasised compliance in an authoritarian, prejudiced and distorted
society. Nevertheless, the white sector was the best performing part of
the system.
In contrast, the majority of schools were not equipped for success, and
many township schools were barely functioning. High repetition and
drop-out rates pointed to inefficiencies in the system. Poor results in
Senior Certificate examinations indicated that the system was not
providing education of sufficient quality for the majority of students.
The School Register of Needs, which was completed in 1996, showed
the stark deprivation of the majority of schools serving black students:
24% had no water within walking distance, 13% had no toilet facilities
at all, 57% had no electricity, 69% had no learning materials, 83% had
no library facilities, 6% were in such poor condition that they were not
suitable for education at all, and a further 11% were in serious need of
repair (see Bot, 1997). The greatest deprivation was in rural schools, and
consequently in provinces which were largely rural.

The challenge
The bar graphs below illustrate the dilemma faced by the government in
changing the distortions of apartheid school funding. Using 1989 figures
as an example, the bar graphs illustrate a funding pattern in which the
minority of the population (classified white) received the bulk of the
funding for schooling. The first graph shows the comparative sizes of the
four main population groups, and the second graph shows the scale of
expenditure for each of the groups.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

Population 1989 Per capita expenditure on education

Rands
Figure 5.2: Population 1989 Figure 5.3: Per capita expenditure on
education, 1989

These funding distortions presented a dilemma for policy makers in the

1994 government. How could they give effect to the principles of equity
and social justice?

On the one hand, given the differences in population size, if everyone

were to be given equal schooling at the level of white provision, this
would mean an enormous increase in state expenditure on education.
On the other hand, the former white schools functioned at the highest
level in the system. Dismantling their privileged position would cut
across powerful vested interests. It would also jeopardise strategies for
high-skill economic growth.

Faced with this dilemma, the government’s response was cautious. Its aim
was to expand and reform the existing system, rather than radically change
it. As Servaas van der Berg (2001) suggests, it focused its equity measures
on shifting resources, rather than changing educational outcomes.
In their book Elusive Equity, Edward Fiske and Helen Ladd (2004)
provide a useful discussion of the different forms that equity may take.
It may take the form of equal treatment, where, for example, there is no
discrimination on the basis of race and everyone is treated equally. Or
it may take the form of equal educational opportunity. This is a broader
standard and may involve affirmative action or redress to correct
inequalities within the system. Or it may take the form of educational
adequacy, which shifts attention to outcomes, and asks what minimum
provisions should be in place for everyone to have an adequate education.
An ‘adequate education’, they suggest, would be the education level
needed for people to participate fully in political and economic life.
Having analysed the financing reforms in post-apartheid South Africa,

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Fiske and Ladd concluded that the government took an ‘equal treatment’
approach to equity, rather than the broader approaches of equality of
opportunity or adequacy.
In short, the government’s equity policies aimed to provide more
resources to poorer schools, while ensuring that wealthier schools could
supplement their funding through charging fees. This approach to equity
was influenced by neoliberal thinking, as the next section illustrates.

The logic of neoliberalism and its effects on

school funding
As well as its equity goals, the government was powerfully influenced
by neoliberal thinking, which had become prominent across the world,
particularly with globalisation. As discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, the logic
of neoliberalism emphasises limited government spending, maximum
efficiency measures, a mix of public and private contributions to education
financing, and market choice. As policy development in South Africa
unfolded, these neoliberal ideas provided the overarching framework
within which equity policies were understood.
The idealism of the 1996 Constitution, and the simultaneous restrictions
of neoliberalism, created a complex and contradictory framework for
funding policies. Implementation did not always proceed as envisaged, and
this compounded the difficulties of competing goals.

Budgetary allocation
An early decision was taken that the funding allocation to education
in the national budget would not be significantly increased, in spite of
historical backlogs. The government argued that its spending on education
should be line with the spending patterns of similar countries, and that in
comparison with these South Africa’s expenditure on education was on the
high side. This meant that there would be no major additional resources to
fund equity measures. Instead of allocating increased funds to education,
the government aimed to use existing budgets more efficiently, and to bring
additional funds into the education system by charging school fees. Equity
would be achieved by redistributing resources from the rich to the poor.
For the first few years, from 1994 to 2001, education spending increased
slightly, but after that, it began to decline. The Education Department struggled
with the Treasury against its stringent budget allocations. In 2005, the Director-
General of the Department of Education commented as follows in response to a
Treasury publication, Provincial Budgets and Expenditure Review 2001/02–07/08: 

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The Treasury says that “South Africa’s spending on education as a

percentage of GDP shows a slight downward trend from 6,8% in
1995 to 5,2% in 2001 ...”

A drop from 6,8% to 5,2% of GDP is not a “slight downward trend”.

It is not “slight” by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it is a
massive cut. And we can take no satisfaction in the fact that, and
I quote, “the level is still above other countries at similar levels of
development” (p. 24) or even that our average of 5,8% over the
period 1995 to 2003 is, and I quote, “high relative to comparable
countries”(p. 11). …..

I have to emphasise that a decline in percentage share over six years

of 6% is of concern. This is not a gradual decline. This is not an
acceptable decline. This is a sharp decline and it is a decline that we
simply cannot afford. (DoE, Press Release: 2005)

As a result: In the context of limited spending, it was simply not possible

to fundamentally redress historical imbalances in schooling. Improvements
were certainly made to poor schools, but they remained under-resourced,
particularly in comparison to former white schools. And this meant
that racial inequalities in schooling persisted, since most black children
attended the poorer schools in the system – and achieved lower pass rates
in Senior Certificate examinations.

Equitable shares funding formula

To promote equity, and to encourage all provinces to spend the same
amount on education for each learner, the national government drew up
a formula for weighted funding for provinces. Each province would be
given an ‘equitable share’ of national revenue to provide public services
in the sectors of education, health and welfare. The equitable shares
formula was designed to ensure that every province could spend the same
amount of money per student. Thus the poorer provinces were allocated
comparatively more funding. This was a major step away from apartheid’s
pro-rich funding policy, towards pro-poor funding.
However, funds were allocated to provinces in block grants, and the
national government could not force provinces to spend their allocations
for education. Provinces did not always spend their funds as the national
department intended – to its continuing frustration. In some cases, provinces
did not have the capacity to spend their allocations as intended. And in
other cases, provinces had different priorities from the national department.

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As a result: The structural divisions between national and provincial

government hampered the implementation of funding policies. Lack of capacity
within government at national and provincial levels also hampered policy
implementation. One consequence of provincial differences is that the amount
spent on education per learner differs from province to province. In 2006, the
educational planners Martin Gustafsson and Firoz Patel estimated that:

On average, the Free State and Northern Cape learner is funded

around 20% more than the KwaZulu-Natal or Eastern Cape learner.
(2006:70)

National funding norms

As another equity measure, the 1998 National Norms and Standards for
School Funding of 1998 provided for redirecting a small part of the budget
(about 5%) from rich schools to poor schools.
Provinces were required to rank their schools according to a poverty
index. If, for example, a province had 5 000 schools, it listed them from
the poorest to the least poor. It then divided the list into five equal groups
each with 20% of the schools (these are known as ‘quintiles’). Funding
was divided up according to quintiles with more money being given to the
poorest quintile. The poorest quintile was given 35% of the funding, while
the least poor (or the richest) received only 5%. In 2005, this system was
amended, and national quintiles were drawn up to take into account the
different poverty levels of provinces.
As a result: This is a clear equity policy, but its impact has been limited,
mainly because the overall amount that is redistributed from this source
is comparatively small. There are also big differences between provinces
in terms of how this funding is distributed to schools, so that the poorest
schools do not always benefit equally. Another unexpected outcome is that
poorer schools have not always used funds to improve their facilities, in
case this would move them up in the quintiles, in which case they would
receive less funding!

Public contributions through fees

To increase the overall funding available for education, the government
took the decision to charge fees for schooling. Fee levels would be
determined by school governing bodies (SGBs), who were responsible for
running the finances of each school. No upper limit (or ‘cap’) was set on
what fees could be charged. Schools were able to use the fees they raised to
supplement state funding. In particular, they were able to hire additional
teachers using these fees.

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One reason for adopting a partnership approach between the state and
parents was to encourage the middle classes to keep their children in state
schools, rather than moving them to private schools. This measure was
intended to maintain quality education within the public sector. It was
envisaged that state funding would provide a basic resource allocation to
all schools, and that wealthier communities could supplement this funding
with additional resources. To encourage wealthier schools to accept poorer
students, the national department developed a fee exemptions policy.
However, the department did not provide additional funding to cover costs
to the schools when students were granted exemptions.
In terms of equity, this policy had a negative effect that had not been
anticipated: it increased inequalities within the education system. Schools
in wealthier communities, mainly former white schools, were able to
charge fees of thousands of rands, while schools in poor communities were
barely able to collect fees at all. Through charging high fees, privileged
schools were selective on the basis of class. Patterns of privilege and
disadvantage were carried forward into the post-apartheid system, this
time driven by wealth rather than race. Most of the former white schools
became racially mixed, and most white children attended former white
schools. But because of population size and location, most black schools
remained segregated. And the poor schools remained poor.
In spite of fee exemption policies, many poor children could not afford
fees and were excluded from schooling. High fee schools remained beyond
the reach of most poor children. Although it was against the law to turn
away children who could not pay, schools often did so. Principals used
several methods to force parents to pay fees, including withholding results
– even though this was explicitly against government policy.
In 2007, the government adjusted this policy to introduce a number of
fee-free schools and to increase exemptions. But the principle of charging
fees remains in place, although the government has discussed possibilities
of changing this, and of compensating schools for exemptions. Fee-free
schools are schools for the poor, at the edge of the system. And inequalities
within the system are entrenched.
As a result: Private fees brought additional funding into the system, but
the policy counteracted the equity measures that were introduced. The result
was that deep inequalities remained in the system. The fee policy benefited
wealthier schools by enabling them to raise additional funding, but it brought
no direct benefits for the poorest schools. Parents, SGBs and principals were
able to act in ways not anticipated by policy makers – including not complying
with regulations. The fee policy brought hardship for poor communities and
cut across the constitutional rights of children to education.

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On the other hand, Gustafsson and Patel (2006) argue that overall, the
expenditure on education is more equitable than it was before 1994. They
point out that the government is spending less per white child than it was
under apartheid, without detrimental effects on quality, and it is spending
much more per black child. The additional money brought into the system
through fees thus enables equity measures to operate without quality being
diminished. (Quality is an issue we return to later.)

Clearly, there are arguments to be made on both sides of the issue.

Personnel costs and teacher deployment

In education budgets, personnel costs make up the bulk of expenditure. The
government needed to equalise teacher salaries and working conditions for
equity reasons, but at the same time it also wanted to bring down the overall
personnel costs. These costs were high – up to 90% of some provincial
budgets – and this left little money over for other educational expenses. In
1997, teacher salary scales were made equal for all races. To bring overall
costs down and to equalise learner – educator ratios within and between
provinces, the government introduced measures to ‘rightsize’ and ‘redeploy’
the teaching force. But the process was poorly managed, and was met with
resistance from teacher organisations and in some cases school governing
bodies. Teachers were offered voluntary severance packages, which many
took. The result was that teachers left the system at their own choice, instead
of in a planned way, and at greater cost than the government had anticipated.
Many teachers with scarce skills, such as mathematics and science teachers,
were lost to the system. Moreover, the government’s redeployment policies
were challenged in court, and its powers were weakened.
As a result: The personnel situation took some time to stabilise.
In 1998, agreements were reached with unions allowing for different
class sizes, and new national ‘post provisioning’ norms were set out for
provinces. By 2005, personnel expenditure was reduced to 82% of the
budget. However, the government’s capacity to redeploy teachers and thus
to control the personnel budget was limited by court decisions. Groups
outside of government have been able to act against the government in
unforeseen ways to secure their own interests.

School-based management and markets in education

School-based management takes different forms in different countries.
The new policy dispensation in South Africa gave considerable financial
and management powers to individual schools. Under conditions of
market competition, schools become responsible for looking after their

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own individual interests. In the logic of market individualism, each school

takes care of itself and its client group (the school community), without
considering the needs of other schools or the system as a whole. Equity and
equality are not part of market logic. In fact, schools may come to view
equity and equality as luxuries they cannot afford.
School-based management gives powers to schools without necessarily
ensuring that they have the capacity to use these properly. It tends to
favour schools with parent bodies that have resources over those that do
not. Some schools have powerful SGBs which are able to muster resources
to the school’s benefit. Others have SGBs whose members are too poor to
afford the transport to attend meetings.
As a result: A competitive individualism at the school level tends to
work against building a common system of good quality education for
all. And in practice it draws schools further apart in their capacities to
function.

Other examples
The examples given have focused on the framework of policies for school
funding, but there are many other examples of contradictory effects and
unintended consequences of the policies that were outlined earlier. Some
of these are listed below:

Curriculum 2005 was put in place as a new outcomes-based

curriculum, but syllabuses and workplans were not developed to
accompany the outcomes statements. Well-trained and well-resourced
teachers were able to take advantage of the freedom and flexibility this
offered them. While less well-trained teachers were under-resourced
for teaching the new curriculum. There were insufficient libraries
and other materials to support teachers, and in-service training was
inadequate. The unintended consequence was to strengthen the
most privileged parts of the system, and further disadvantage the least
privileged. (This is discussed further in Chapter 6.)
Policies were developed to mainstream learners with special education
needs. But there were inadequate resources for schools and teachers
to support these students in mainstream schools. This leaves learners
with special education needs in a potentially more vulnerable position
than before.
I n an attempt to raise the quality of teaching and learning in
schools throughout the country – as well as the quality of education
system in general – two teacher monitoring systems were drawn up:

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Developmental Appraisal (DA), which was intended as a form of peer

review to improve performance; and Performance Measurement (PM),
which was intended to evaluate teachers for promotion and salary
increases. For schools, a Whole School Evaluation (WSE) system was
developed, which was intended to evaluate the overall effectiveness of
schools – including teaching and learning.
However, there were major problems in the conceptualisation and
implementation of these systems. The three initiatives overlapped and
proved to be confusing. In particular, there was confusion between the
requirements of teacher development/improvement (DA) and teacher
performance measurement (PM). These two approaches were
in tension, pulling in contradictory directions. In many cases, DA
and PM were not actually carried out, but simply ‘signed off’. In
effect, many schools and classrooms were not adequately monitored
for quality.
In a move to bring greater coherence and reduce logjams, these
three initiatives were brought together in the Integrated Quality
Management System (IQMS) in 2003. This was a formal agreement
between the Education Department and teacher organisations reached
in the Education Labour Relations Council – which makes it hard
to adjust when problems become evident. The IQMS is a complex
set of procedures. It is by no means certain that it will be able to
resolve the contradictions or to bring effective monitoring into the
system. Moreover, as the educationist Everard Weber (2005) notes,
accountability is directed at schools and teachers – but what about the
accountability of the Education Department?

The supply and deployment of teachers has proved to be a difficult

task. Policy makers had anticipated that teachers would need to move
from former white schools to overcrowded township schools. However,
they did not anticipate that parents would exercise their choice to
take their children out of poorly performing township schools and
send them to schools they thought were better, either in townships
or in suburbs. It was not anticipated that there would be empty
township schools, alongside overcrowded township schools. Initial
calculations of an oversupply of teachers gave way to calculations of
teacher shortages.

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Is the right to education only

‘symbolic’?
The right to education was affirmed in the Constitution of 1996 and
repeated in White Paper One, which stated:

Everyone shall have the right: (a) to basic education, including adult
education; and (b) to further education, which the state, through
reasonable measures, must make progressively available and
accessible.

As well as these rights, the White Paper stated the right of equal access to
educational institutions, protection from unfair discrimination, and rights
to language, culture and religion.
In practice, however, the right to education turned out to be a symbolic
policy, rather than a substantive one. The government did not provide
free, basic education for all. Instead, the policy that everyone should
pay fees or apply for fee exemptions resulted in children being excluded
from schooling, and thereby denied their rights. Moreover, although the
policy of equal rights means that discrimination on the basis of race is
not allowed, it is mainly black children who are denied their rights to
education. Thus, ‘equal rights’ masks the fact that discrimination continues
in a racial form.
What this illustrates is that statements of rights do not, in themselves,
deliver rights in practice. In fact, declarations of equality and rights have
a poor record of delivery in many modern states. As the sociologist Bryan
Turner (1986) has pointed out, modern states profess to support equality,
but they remain places of profound social and economic inequalities. These
inequalities are widespread and very difficult to shift.
And in times of globalisation, these inequalities are increasing, not
decreasing.
In other words, statements of rights are not what they seem initially.
In fact, it is necessary to go beyond statements of rights to achieve social
change. Modernist discourses of rights and citizenship seem to imply
certainty. But on closer examination, their certainty fades, and they
turn into ‘essentially contested concepts’ which do not have single, set
meanings. They are not as straightforward as they appear.
Rather than assuming that declarations actually provide rights, it may be
more useful to view them as providing frameworks for action. Declarations

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of rights open up spaces for legitimate struggle to achieve them. Rights are
won (and lost) through human agency in historical contests as structures
form and change.

To sum up …
This section has illustrated the contested nature of the policy process,
and the difficulties in driving changes from the top. Competing logics,
such as political equity versus financial self-reliance, produced unforeseen
results. In the implementation of policies, ‘vertical activities’ of interest
groups (such as parent bodies and teacher unions) were able to influence
outcomes. These mixed results suggest that while policy holds many
possibilities for change, it also has its limits.

4 Weighing up the achievements of

the first 10 years
In judging the policy achievements and failures of the first 10 years of
democratic government, it is important to acknowledge at the outset that
system change is cumbersome and takes time. It would be unrealistic to
expect that policy could achieve the miracle of undoing the profoundly
unequal apartheid system and replacing it with a high quality, equitable
system in a matter of 10 years.
So, what did policies achieve during this period?
First, they provided the vision and plans for a redesigned education
system. The policies erased the racial and ethnic identities that apartheid
had enshrined in law. Instead, all people would share the common identity
of a modern citizen, vested with rights in a constitutional state. Education
would be non-racial and there would be rights to basic education, language
and culture. These rights were, in the first instance, more symbolic than
material, but they changed the ground rules for what people could claim
and work towards.
Second, new policies provided a more equal distribution of government
resources for schools, which was a major achievement. The poorest schools
received attention in terms of facilities. Comparing the situation between
1996 (when the Schools Register of Needs was compiled) with the
situation four years later, big strides had been made, as the following table
shows. However, enormous backlogs of provisioning still remained.

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Province Telephone Water Electricity Toilets Schools with

classroom
shortages
1996 2000 1996 2000 1996 2000 1996 2000 1996 2000
Eastern Cape 19 59 57 59 22 40 75 81 65 47
Free State 26 59 61 68 42 54 83 87 24 16
Gauteng 91 96 94 97 86 93 98 99 26 26
KwaZulu-Natal 35 68 65 68 38 43 90 94 61 48
Mpumalanga 39 52 73 62 51 51 88 93 50 55
Northern Cape 76 92 90 97 81 88 98 98 16 10
Limpopo 38 49 34 63 21 51 91 93 66 49
North West 37 57 82 89 45 64 95 92 42 28
Western Cape 94 98 94 98 88 95 100 100 16 17
National 40 64 65 71 42 55 88 91 50 40
Source: DoE, 2004:11
Percentage of schools with telephones, water, electricity and classrooms.

Third, new policies brought more children into school. In comparing 1996
with 2001, Statistics South Africa (2005) points to a number of findings:

Enrolment rates increased between 1996 and 2001.

The majority of students aged seven to 15 were in school in 2001.
Primary school enrolments were almost complete.
Secondary school enrolments had increased, but enrolments were
dropping off in later years.

However, Statistics South Africa also noted persistent inequalities within

the system. In its words:

In general, the quality of teaching in schools in different areas of the

country requires further examination. As would be expected, children
are moving through the education system at differing rates, which
vary noticeably by population group. In particular, some black African
children in the more rural provinces are moving through the system
rather slowly. Some coloured children are also moving rather slowly
through the system. The quality of education in schools, especially
those in the former homelands, requires further research. (2005:62)

Most former white schools became desegregated – but the same did not
hold true for former black schools, particularly in rural areas.
Fourth, in terms of quality, policies brought mixed results. This is
particularly clear in terms of South African students’ performance in
comparative international tests as well as national tests. For example:

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In the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science

Study (TIMSS), testing maths and science proficiency at Grade 8
level, South Africa came last of the 50 participating countries. Top
performers were Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Moreover, in the TIMMS test, the best South African performances
were only equal to average Singaporean performances. In the 1999
TIMSS test, South Africa came last of 39 countries. Less than 0.5% of
South Africa’s students reached the top 10% international benchmark.
(Howie, 2001)
On tests administered by the Southern African Consortium for
Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ) in 2005, South Africa
scored ninth out of 14 countries in the region. Top performers were
Seychelles, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. South Africa’s results
were worse than those of Swaziland, Botswana and Mozambique, but
better than Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia and Malawi. Yet many of the
countries that performed better than South Africa spent less on their
education systems.
In the UNESCO Monitoring Learner Assessment (MLA) tests for
Grade 4 in 1999, South Africa’s numeracy score was 30%, a lower
score than Mauritius, Senegal and Malawi (Reddy, 2005).
The National Education Policy Act also provides for South Africa
to undertake ‘systemic evaluations’ on a regular basis at key points
(Grades 3, 6 and 9). The Grade 3 Systemic Evaluation (2001) found
low achievements across all provinces in literacy and numeracy
(Kanjee, 2007). The Grade 6 Systemic Evaluation (2004) also
pointed to low levels of performance across Language of Learning
and Teaching (LOLT), maths and science. It found a big difference
in performance between urban and rural students, and between those
whose LOLT was the same as their home language, and those for
whom the LOLT was different.

A major problem is that on closer analysis, overall test results fall clearly
into two groups. The best results are achieved by historically privileged
schools, and there is a big gap between these and historically disadvantaged
schools. This suggests that while South Africa has improved access to
schooling, it has not provided access to quality schooling for the majority
of the population. It suggests that ‘quality schooling’ is provided for a
minority of the population – and even here, the quality of achievements
does not measure well against international benchmarks.

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Based on statistical analysis of 1993 survey data, the researchers

Servaas van der Berg, Louise Wood and Neil le Roux (2002) noted that
inequalities in black education remained profound. In their words:

The problem does not lie in the performance of black learners from
better socio-economic backgrounds, which was still not particularly
good compared with children of other race groups. Rather, it lies
in the abysmal performance of the largest part of the former black
school system and its failure to improve educational outcomes
rapidly among the poor so as to overcome the legacies of the past.
Policy makers appear to be insufficiently aware of this. (2002:305,
emphasis added)

The issue of quality is one of the most pressing concerns on South Africa’s
education policy agenda. Accountability, testing and evaluation are key
policy activities now that the policy framework is in place.

5 The possibilities and limits of

policy change in education
This chapter began by looking at theories of policy and the policy process.
It suggested that policy is a form of governance that is characteristic
of modern states. As South Africa took on the hallmarks of modernity
through its 1996 Constitution, it used conventional policy processes to
bring about changes in its education system.
It is tempting to assume that policy processes in modern states operate
rationally, and that governments are able to bring about the changes they
envisage through following appropriate policy steps. This is partly true, but
partly misleading. To recap on some points about implementing policy:

Governments are not the only social actors who influence outcomes,
even if they are, at least in theory, the most powerful. Other social
actors play a powerful role in shaping policy outcomes.
The policy process is not a smooth, rational, unfolding sequence.
Policy makers may have limited knowledge and capacity, or competing
values and priorities. Policies may bring unanticipated consequences,
and they may unintentionally hamper change.
Policies – particularly one-size-fits-all policies – may not match contexts
of implementation. Contexts of implementation have a great influence

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on policy practice, and contexts themselves vary greatly. (The significance

of different contexts is well highlighted by the differences in test
performances, particularly in terms of historically disadvantaged schools.)
Policies that work in one context may fail in another.
There are many layers in education systems, and policies pass through
many hands as they are implemented. Policy ideals are always changed in
practice by people’s actions. In the policy narrative provided above, there
are a number of examples of human agents acting ‘unpredictably’.
Richard Elmore (1996) talks of policy as ‘additive’, ‘layered’ and
‘filtered’, words that capture the sense that policies are never pure and
undiluted as they are implemented. Policies are not put in place on
clean slates, and they always interact with other policies. Economic,
political and social influences shape policy ideas in unpredictable ways
as they move into practice.
Policies need to be continually monitored and changed as new issues
and priorities emerge. Whereas the immediate priorities of the post-
apartheid government were to expand access as a means to achieve
equity, a priority that subsequently emerged was improving quality.

Considering the limitations of policy, educationists such as Michael Fullan

(1993) and Milbrey McLaughlin (1987) make the following point:

‘Policy cannot mandate what matters.’

In other words, policy cannot command or order that quality teaching and
learning will happen in schools and classrooms.
This is not to say that policy is not important. On the contrary, public
policies are an indispensable part of all government education systems.
Policies provide the regulatory framework on which education systems
depend. They are master narratives that provide visions and principles,
rules and regulations, frameworks for funding, governance, curriculum and
assessment, qualifications, and conditions of work for teachers. Without
policies on these matters, it is hard to imagine how the education system of
a modern state would function.
Policies are important, but they are not all-powerful. Policies offer
possibilities for educational change, but these have limits. They often turn
out to be blunt tools which cannot bring fine-tuned results. There are
many reasons for this.
Importantly, policy outcomes depend on the actions of human beings,
who interpret them in different ways, and respond in ways that make sense
to them. Though policy makers may prefer to emphasise structural changes,
they cannot sidestep human agency and its influence on policy outcomes.

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Ultimately, education policies reflect the broad social, economic and

political contexts in which they are formed. It is unrealistic to imagine
that education policies could change the overall structures of state and
society. Yet these structures often depend on education policies for their
maintenance or change. The policies that were formulated in the 1990s –
the post-apartheid period – need to be understood as part of the dynamics
and parameters of the government and society of the times.
The challenge is to understand the limitations as well as the possibilities
of policy in bringing about change in education systems. Policy studies
over many decades have generated useful knowledge about policy, policy
implementation and educational change. Let’s now look briefly at some of
these insights from experience, and consider the situation in South Africa
in the light of these insights.

Insights from experience

A number of significant research studies provide insights that assist in
assessing where policies have succeeded as levers of change, and where
they have not succeeded. What follows are examples of insights generated
by research over recent decades:

Insight 1: Committed governments and consistent policy

make a difference
UNESCO’s Global Monitoring Report of 2005 provides useful pointers about
the difference that policy is able to make. It compares four countries
that have achieved Education For All (EFA) goals, with seven countries
that have not, but that are committed to achieving them.

Countries that perform well on EFA have three common characteristics:

They have a teaching profession held in high esteem, with high
expectations of quality and well-developed pre-service and in-
service training.
There is continuity of policy over time.
There is a high level of public commitment to education,
emanating from a strong political vision.
Countries that are trying to, but have not yet reached EFA targets,
appear to show the following:
Concerns with achieving access are attended to before concerns
for quality. Concerns for quality appear to come after efforts to

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expand access. These countries show more progress on indicators

of gender and resource provision than on indicators of student
learning outcomes.
Governments appear to play less of a leading role in providing a
long-term vision for education.
The supply of well-supported and motivated teachers seems less
well established.

The UNESCO findings suggest that government commitment and

leadership is crucial for education policy success. Given the differences
between countries, the EFA Report concludes that there is unlikely to be a
single general theory of successful educational change. However, it is clear
that vision, consistent policy and leadership from governments make a
difference to educational outcomes.

How does South Africa fare in relation to this insight?

This is a matter of debate. Supporters of government policy might
argue that it fits the first scenario above (performing well), in that the
government is working towards all of these points. However, critics would
find ample evidence that it fits the second scenario better. Deciding which
is correct is a matter of weighing arguments and evidence – and it is also a
matter of perspective and judgement.

Insight 2: It is very difficult to change the ‘core’ activities of

schooling, particularly through policy
Several theorists, including Elmore, have pointed out that it is extremely
difficult to change classroom practices and the structures that support these.
Elmore (1996) calls this the ‘core’ of educational practice, defined as:

how teachers understand the nature of knowledge

how teachers understand the students’ role in learning
how these ideas about knowledge and learning are put into practice in
teaching and classwork
the structural arrangements that support teaching and learning, such
as the physical layout of classrooms, teachers’ responsibilities for
groups of students, processes for assessing student learning, and so on.

These core activities are very hard to change, particularly by government action.
Elmore (1995) also points out that it is easier to change school
governance arrangements than it is to change classroom practices.

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Structural changes, he suggests, have high symbolic value and are relatively
easy to make. They give the appearance of change, without actually
bringing changes to teaching and learning practices.
Though Elmore does not say this, the same may be true of elaborate
reporting and accountability procedures such as those used for quality
monitoring. They may give the appearance of tackling quality issues,
without actually changing conditions in schools and classrooms. They
may consume time and energy which would be better spent on actual
classroom activities.
Changing what teachers do in classrooms involves not only policy
change. It also involves teachers learning how to do things differently. This
means providing support to teachers, and also holding them accountable
(a point we discuss in Chapter 6).

How does South Africa fare in relation to this insight?

Again, this is a matter of debate. Certainly, the government has favoured
structural changes with high symbolic value. It has introduced many
regulations in attempting to solve problems. And available evidence shows
that classroom quality has not improved to the desired extent. In fact,
it would be fair to say that the government has not managed to change
‘the core’ activities of education through its policies. And the core
activities reflect deep inequalities in students’ experiences of schooling,
and their achievements.

Insight 3: Policy implementation needs to be anticipated –

policy implementers always influence policy outcomes
In her article entitled ‘Learning from experience: lessons from policy
implementation’, Milbrey McLaughlin (1987) suggests a number of lessons
that can be learnt from past experience:

The first lesson is that policy implementation is extremely difficult.

In her words: ‘It is incredibly hard to make something happen, most
especially across layers of government and institutions’ (1987:172).
Policy makers need to anticipate difficulties and blockages, rather than
be surprised by them.
The second lesson is that policy implementation depends partly
on people’s ability to do what is required (McLaughlin terms this
‘capacity’). It also depends partly on people’s motivation (McLaughlin
terms this ‘will’). It is easier to build capacity (for example, through
training) than it is to persuade people to support new policies.

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The third lesson is that policy implementation requires a strategic

balance of pressure and support. Pressure may be used to achieve
changes in behaviour (for example, a rule that staff and students must
come to school on time). But pressure seldom changes people’s beliefs
and values (for example, whether staff and students are enthusiastic
about coming to school). Pressure is important in focusing attention
on what is required, but it needs to be accompanied by support.
Support may be used to build capacity and will (motivation). But
experience shows that support alone is not enough to change people’s
practices. According to McLaughlin, a combination of pressure and
support is essential for policy change.
The fourth lesson, according to McLaughlin, is that ‘change is
ultimately a matter of the smallest unit’ (1987:174). It is individuals,
not institutions, who implement policies. Individuals are not
motivated only by institutional incentives, but by their personal and
professional beliefs. McLaughlin also suggests that teachers’ ‘resistance’
to new policies may, in some cases, reflect their professional judgement
that new policies are no better than what already exists.
The fifth lesson is that policy effects are always indirect, and policies
are always transformed by ‘the implementing unit’. This leads
McLaughlin and others to suggest that bargaining and negotiation
are inevitable activities in the policy process. This is very similar to
Colebatch’s notion of ‘horizontal’ policy activity – that negotiation
and consensus-building are important so that participants share the
same understandings of policy. It is also compatible with Fataar’s
(2006) approach which shows how networks of human activity
shape policy and its outcomes. Policy implementation is not about
‘transmission’ but about participation and negotiation.

McLaughlin points out that discourse at the macro-level of the system is

different from discourse at the micro-level of the classroom. She suggests
that the discourses of policy makers tend to engage with macro-analyses
of the system as a whole, and emphasise organisational processes and
structures. However, the discourses of schools and teachers often engage
with micro-level, individual concerns, such as the day-to-day activities of
schools. These two discourses emphasise different logics and perspectives,
and both are necessary for policy to work. It is not a matter of choosing one
over the other. It is a matter of engaging with both.

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How does South Africa fare in relation to these insights?

Again, the answer to this is debatable. What has been suggested so far,
though, is that the government has favoured top-down rather than
participative policy approaches. It has not viewed policy implementation
as a matter of bargaining or negotiation.
Critics might argue that the government has assumed that ‘policy
can mandate what matters’. Of course, supporters would disagree, and
might point to the importance of the new policy design as a basis for
implementing change.
Again, this is a matter to be weighed up. Argument, evidence,
perspective and judgement come into play.

Insight 4: ‘Backward mapping’ is a useful analytic approach to

policy change
Richard Elmore (1979/80) provides a powerful analytical tool for
addressing the differences between top-down, macro-level approaches to
change, and bottom-up, micro-level approaches. He describes the first as
‘forward mapping’ and the second as ‘backward mapping’.
Policy makers usually use a ‘forward mapping’ approach. This approach –

…begins at the top of the process, with as clear a statement as

possible of the policymaker’s intent, and proceeds through a
sequence of increasingly more specific steps to define what is
expected of implementers at each level. At the bottom of the
process one states, again with as much precision as possible, the
original statement of intent. (1979/80:602)

Elmore argues, however, that it is a myth to think that implementation

is controlled from the top. In practice, he argues for the opposite process
– thinking backwards from the point of change (the smallest unit) and
analysing what would be required for this unit to change. ‘Backward
mapping’, he says:

…begins not at the top of the implementation process but at the last
possible stage [the smallest unit]… It begins not with a statement of
intent, but with a statement of the specific behaviour at the lowest
level of the implementation process that generates the need for a
policy … Having described a relatively precise target at the lowest

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level of the system, the analysis backs up through the structure of

implementing agencies, asking at each level two questions: What
is the ability of this unit to affect the behaviour that is the target
of the policy? And what resources does this unit require in order to
have that effect? (1979/80:604)

Forward mapping, suggests Elmore, is an analytic solution that stresses

formal organisational structures, rules and regulations, and favours ‘formal
devices of command and control’ such as organisational structures, rules
and regulations, and lines of authority. Backward mapping, in contrast, is
an analytic solution that focuses attention on factors that influence lower-
level implementers: their knowledge and problem-solving abilities, and
what motivates them. These are what McLaughlin would term ‘capacity
and will’.

How does South Africa fare in relation to this insight?

It would be hard to find evidence of backward mapping in the development
of education policy in South Africa. A backward mapping approach, for
example, would start with existing conditions in schools, and work out
how to change them.
Supporters of the government’s policy approach are likely to say that
backward mapping is not a practical approach for policy makers. Critics
might respond, using McLauglin’s points, that policy makers need to use
both the macro-logic of systems and the micro-logic of classrooms.

To sum up so far …
One of the themes running across the examples of research findings above is
that policies provide a framework within which a range of implementation
activities take place. Rather than trying to control implementation, and
failing, it may be more useful for policy makers to plan for implementers to
bargain and change policies to suit their own circumstances.
This is partly based on the recognition that the smallest units of
education policy change – teachers and students in classrooms – are far
away from bureaucrats in education departments. And they operate with
logics that are tantalisingly out of reach of policy mandates. (It is these
logics that will be the focus of the next chapter.)

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5 Conclusion: policies for

educational change in South Africa
This chapter has used the framework of policy to explore educational
change in South Africa. Policy operates on the scale of the nation state
as a form of goal-directed decision-making. Policy and policy discourses
contribute an indispensable approach to understanding educational
change, but it is important to recognise that policy and policy discourses
are not as straightforward as they may seem.
As Connolly (1974) has pointed out, political concepts may appear to be
clear, but in practice most of them are essentially contested concepts. The
policy process may appear to be rational and sequential, but in practice it is
contested and sometimes confused. Policies for schooling may appear to be
logical and authoritative, but in practice they are implemented beyond the
direct reach of policy mandates.
Policies for equity in education in South Africa reflect all of these
complexities. They also reflect the possibilities and limitations of their context –
South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy. Education policy change
in South Africa cannot be understood apart from this context, which sets the
foundations and parameters for educational change. The overriding feature
of the new order is that it was the product of negotiation and compromise.
What was achieved was the establishment of a modern constitutional state: a
parliamentary democracy with equal rights and common citizenship. The new
state was a capitalist state which aimed to participate in neoliberal globalisation.
As mentioned earlier, a modernist democracy and a market economy are
not fundamentally transformative in terms of redistribution or equity, and this is
reflected in the education policies of this period.
This chapter has suggested that the South African government adopted
conventional ways of thinking about education, the policy process and the
nature of change. The education system it designed reflected ideas drawn
from advanced western democracies rather than ideas designed to engage
with actual conditions in schools and classrooms. The policy process it
used emphasised parliamentary conventions and ‘vertical’ logic, rather
than capacity building and ‘horizontal’ engagement. And the changes it
achieved were additive rather than transformative.

‘Thinking like a government’

One way of understanding what was entailed in the political transition
is provided by Foucault’s concept of ‘governmentality’. Put briefly,

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governmentality means thinking and acting like the government of a

modern state. Governments in modern states have particular procedures
and techniques of power (which Foucault terms ‘regimes of practices’)
and draw on complex domains of knowledge (which Foucault terms
‘savoirs’). Policy is part of this governmentality; Foucault refers to policy
as a ‘rational art of governing’ (1991:70). Put simply, a governmentality
approach suggests that the nature of being in government in a modern
state entails engaging with particular practices and ways of thinking.
These tend to influence thought and action in certain ways. They
‘normalise’ what people in government can and cannot say through their
regimes of practices and their savoirs, and these tend to rule out radical
speech and action. These practices and ways of thinking do not operate
deterministically. Rather, they set the boundaries of ‘common sense’ so that
social actors who come into government start to ‘think like a government’.
A good example is provided by Blade Nzimande, leader of the South
African Communist Party and head of the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee at the time of White Paper One and the South African
Schools Act. Nzimande (who left parliament shortly afterwards to work in
civil society) wrote as follows about White Paper One:

It is important to understand that, from the perspective of the ANC

and the Portfolio Committee, this was the first White Paper on
Education and Training. We saw it as a crucial document that would
formally collapse the apartheid edifice in education. We wanted a
triumphalist White Paper that celebrated in formal policy terms the
victory of education struggles. For this reason, the first draft of the
White Paper, released as a discussion document, generated intense
resistance and defiance among National Party politicians. They
attacked what they saw as the document’s militant language. The
matter was so contentious that it actually brought Mandela and de
Klerk together for serious bilateral discussions ….

We decided that the language of the White Paper could be

changed and made more acceptable to these groups without giving
ground on the actual goals we wanted to achieve through the new
education policy. We therefore changed the language of policy
without losing ground….

It is important to understand our actions as ANC parliamentarians

in the context of the times. Remember these were the days of the
Government of National Unity (GNU). It was important at that time

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to secure the transition. The situation was explosive and we were

on the brink of civil war. Our policies were therefore crafted in a
context where ensuring a smooth transition was as important as
developing policies for social transformation…. (2001:41)

Opening the doors of learning?

An important achievement of the post-apartheid government was its
ability to keep the schooling system functioning at a time of enormous
changes. A new template for the system was set in place. Under the
new education policies, the system was expanded, modernised, and de-
racialised. Access was increased. After 10 years, most children were in
school, and participation rates were improving. A degree of stability was
achieved. Yet in terms of quality, the system confronts major problems.
Old and new patterns of inequality run deeply through the education
system, impacting on the quality of the system overall. Schools serving
poor communities are very different to those serving the wealthy, and
racial inequalities still saturate the system. Equity measures have been
limited and have not been adequate to the task of providing quality
education for all. Equity and quality were part of the vision for the post-
apartheid system, but policy achievements in this regard were limited.
Certainly, the government did not redesign the education system to open
the doors of learning to all in the short term. Its approach has been more
cautious and incremental than that.
Has the new policy template provided an adequate grounding for an
education system in which the doors of learning might be opened to all in
the future? The answer remains to be seen.
Within the framework of policy set in place by the post-apartheid
government, the next chapter moves to another scale to examine the
smallest and most important units of education systems: teachers and
students in schools and classrooms.

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LEGISLATIVE MANDATE
Since 1994, a number of policies have been implemented and 6. A whole spectrum of legislation, including the Employment of
legislation promulgated to create a framework for transformation Educators Act (1998), to regulate the professional, moral and
in education and training. A summary of key policies and legislation ethical responsibilities of educators, as well as the competency
follows: requirements for teachers. The historically divided teaching force
is now governed by one Act of Parliament and one professional
1. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) which council – the South African Council of Educators (SACE).
requires education to be transformed and democratized in
accordance with the values of human dignity, equality, human 7. The Adult Basic Education and Training Act (ABET) (2000) provides
rights and freedom, non-racism and non-sexism. It guarantees for the establishment of public and private adult learning centres,
access to basic education for all, with the provision that everyone funding for ABET, the governance of public centres, as well as
has the right to basic education, including adult basic education. quality assurance mechanisms for this sector.
The fundamental policy framework of the Ministry of Education is
stated in the Ministry’s first White Paper: Education and Training 8. The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Act (1995)
in a Democratic South Africa: First Steps to Develop a New System provides for the establishment of the National Qualifications
February (1995). This document adopted as its point of departure Framework (NQF), which forms the scaffolding for a national
the 1994 education policy framework of the African National learning system that integrates education and training at all levels.
Congress. After extensive consultation, negotiations and revision, The joint launch of the Human Resources Development Strategy by
it was approved by Cabinet and has served as a fundamental the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Education on 23 April
reference for subsequent policy and legislative development. 2001 reinforces the resolve to establish an integrated education,
training and development strategy that will harness the potential of
2. The National Education Policy Act (NEPA) (1996) was designed to our adult learners.
inscribe in law the policies, as well as the legislative and monitoring
responsibilities, of the Minister of Education and to formalise the 9. The National Curriculum Statement (NCS) (Grades R-12) embodies
relations between national and provincial authorities. It laid the the vision for general education to move away from a racist,
foundation for the establishment of the Council of Education Ministers apartheid, rote model of learning and teaching, to a liberating, and
(CEM), as well as the Heads of Education Departments Committee nation-building and learner-centred outcomes-based initiative. In line
(HEDCOM), as intergovernmental forums to collaborate in developing with training strategies, the reformulation is intended to allow greater
a new education system. As such, it provides for the formulation of mobility between different levels and between institutional sites, as
national policies in general and further education and training for, inter well as to promote the integration of knowledge and skills through
alia, curriculum, assessment and language policy, as well as quality learning pathways. Its assessment, qualifications, competency and
assurance. NEPA embodies the principle of co-operative governance, skills-based framework encourage the development of curriculum
elaborated upon in Schedule Three of the Constitution. models that are aligned to the NQF in theory and practice.

3. The South African Schools Act (SASA) (1996) promotes access, 10. The Education White Paper on Early Childhood Development
quality and democratic governance in the schooling system. It (2000) provides for the expansion and full participation of 5-year-
ensures that all learners have right of access to access to quality olds in pre-school reception grade education by 2010 as well as
education without discrimination, and makes schooling compulsory for an improvement in the quality of programmes, curricula and
for children aged 7 to 14. It provides for two types of schools – teacher development for 0 to 4-year-olds, and 6 to 9-year-olds.
independent schools and public schools. The provision in the Act for
democratic school governance through school governing bodies, 11. The Education White Paper 6 on Inclusive Education, 2001, explains
is now in place in public schools country-wide. The school funding the intention of the Department of Education to implement inclusive
norms, outlined in SASA, prioritise redress and target poverty with education at all levels in the system by 2020. Such an inclusive
regard to the allocation of funds for the public schooling system. system will allow for the inclusion of vulnerable learners and reduce
SASA has been amended by Education Laws Amendment Act 24 the barriers to learning by means of targeted support structures
of 2005 so as to authorise the declaration of schools in poverty and mechanisms. This, in turn, will improve the participation and
stricken areas as “no fee schools”. retention levels of learners in the education system, particularly with
regard to those learners who are prone to dropping out.
4. The Further Education and Training Act (1998), Education White
Paper 4 on Further Education and Training (1998), and the National 12. The General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance
Strategy for Further Education and Training (1999-2001). The latter Act, Act 58 of 2001, provides for the establishment of Umalusi,
provides the basis for the development of a nationally co-ordinated which is charged with the provision of quality assurance in general
further education and training system, comprising the senior and further education and training, the issuing of certificates
secondary component of schooling and Further Education and at the various exit points, control over norms and standards
Training (FET) colleges. It requires the FET institutions, established of curricula and assessment, as well conducting the actual
in terms of the new legislation, to develop institutional plans, while assessment.
making provision for programme-based funding and a national
curriculum for learning and teaching. 13. The National Financial Aid Scheme Act, Act 56 of 1999, provides
for the granting of loans and bursaries to eligible students at
5. The Higher Education Act (1997) provides for a unified and public higher education institutions, as well as the administration
nationally planned system of higher education. It furthermore gave of such loans and bursaries.
the green light for a statutory Council on Higher Education (CHE),
which advises the Minister while being responsible for quality 14. The Further Education and Training Colleges Act, 2006 (Act 16 of
assurance and promotion. The Higher Education Act and Education 2006) provides for the regulation of further education and training,
White Paper 3: A Programme for the Transformation of Higher the establishment of governance and funding of public further
Education (1999) formed the basis for the transformation of the education and training colleges, in Further Education and Training,
higher education sector, with implementation being informed by the the registration of private further education and training colleges,
National Plan for Higher Education (2001). and the promotion of quality in further education and training.
Source: Extract from the Department of Education’s Annual Report, 2006/07

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Elmore, R (1979–80) Backward mapping: implementation research and

policy decisions. Political Science Quarterly. Vol 94 No 4 (601–16).
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Fullan, M (1993), Change Forces: probing the depths of educational reform.
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Greenstein, R (2003) State, Civil Society and the Reconfiguration of Power in
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 chapter 6
Schools and classrooms as
places of learning
This chapter uses the scale of schools and classrooms to
explore how the doors of learning might be opened to all
students. Education policy making, which operates on the
scale of state and civil society, and deals with government
intention and action, often struggles ‘to mandate what
matters’ on the terrain of schools and classrooms. This
chapter answers the question: ‘What will make a difference
to the learning outcomes and experiences of different
students at school?’ It provides answers in terms of what
students bring with them from their homes and families;
which schools they attend; how well their schools function
and how effective their teachers are; and what happens
inside the classroom in terms of teaching, learning and
assessment. The chapter makes a case for schools to teach
formal knowledge codes to all students, and proposes a
pedagogy that provides for structured and active teaching
as well as more open approaches. It provides an example
of the ‘Productive Pedagogies’ model. The challenge is
for South Africa to offer schooling experiences to all its
students, that meet the goals explored earlier in this book:
systematic teaching and learning; active participation in
the world; and individual development. In terms of social
justice, both recognition and redistribution are needed.
No less than this is required if the doors of learning are to
be opened for all.
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What will make a difference to the

learning experiences and outcomes
of different students at school?
Each school is a place of its own. It has its own ‘feel’, and its students have
their own distinctive experiences, even though they share a common place
called ‘school’. Some of their most important experiences will be about
other students – friends, or people that they don’t like. Everyone will
remember one or two teachers who have made an impact on them – good
or bad. Everyone will remember something they liked or didn’t like about
learning in school.
Some students will succeed at school, and others won’t. For some
students, school will be a stepping stone to further education, or a job.
Others will repeat grades, fail, or drop out. What makes the difference?
While it is true that every student’s experience is unique, it is also the
case that there are shared patterns of experiences and outcomes. To
use C Wright Mills’s analysis, each person lives their own biography
within shared social structures (such as schools). To understand our
individual lives, we need to understand the times in which we live and
the circumstances of other people like ourselves. Sometimes, success
and failure is mainly a personal matter, but sometimes it is more about
structural opportunities.
Research on schools in South Africa and elsewhere over many decades
shows that there are patterns to success and failure in schooling. In very
broad terms, we know the answer to the question of ‘What will make a
difference to the learning experiences and outcomes of different students at
school?’ In broad terms, what makes a difference are:

What students bring with them to school from their homes and
families
Which schools they attend
How well their schools function and how effective their teachers are
What happens inside the classroom, in terms of teaching, learning
and assessment.

Let’s look at each of these in turn. And at the same time, let’s also consider
what can be done about them.

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 Schools and classrooms as places of learning

1 What students bring to school

from their homes and families
For many decades, researchers, educators and policy makers have
recognised that schools do not produce equal outcomes for all students.
They have tried to understand why this is so. Over the years, different
theories have offered different explanations for the unequal outcomes of
schooling. Different theories and discourses make different assumptions
about why this is so and what may be done (what ‘the problem’ is and what
its ‘solutions’ are). Implicit in each theory or discourse are assumptions
about structure, agency and social power.
Let’s look at a few of these.

Individual ability and ‘meritocracy’

Theories which focus on individual students and their abilities have an
enduring appeal. We tend to assume that unequal outcomes are a reflection of
unequal abilities. Success at school is the result of individual merit. Those who
did well at school and rise to the top are those with most ability and merit.
However, the theory of ‘meritocracy’ cannot explain why success and
failure in school are not random. They reflect broader social patterns. Closer
analysis of students’ performance at school shows that it relates to their social
backgrounds. Middle class students tend to do better than their working class
counterparts. Wealth and poverty make a difference. Whether or not the
culture of the home matches the culture of the school makes a difference.
Gender also makes a difference. In other words, schools generally mirror the
patterns of privilege and disadvantage of the broader society, rather than
remedy them – though there are always individual exceptions.

The Coleman Report: the school’s failure to equalise

opportunities
One of the most notable studies to link school performance with
students’ social backgrounds was the 1966 Coleman Report on Equality of
Educational Opportunity. This was a major research study, commissioned
by the US Congress to investigate why public schools were not offering
equal educational opportunities to all individuals. In particular, it was
concerned about why African American (then called ‘Negro’) students

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were performing poorly in school achievement tests. The Coleman Report

was an enormous study: it tested 570 000 students and surveyed 60 000
teachers in 4 000 schools across the United States of America.
The expectation was that the research would identify problems with
the schools that African American students attended. Instead, the
Coleman Report found disturbing results: it was not schools, but students’
personal and family characteristics that had the most influence on their
performance. In the words of the report:

The inequalities imposed on children by their home, neighbourhood

and peer environment are carried along to become the inequalities
with which they confront adult life at the end of school. (Coleman et
al., 1966:325)

This was a controversial finding, because it appeared to place the

responsibility for poor results onto students and their families – or,
perhaps, onto the wider social structure. Neither reason was welcome to
those who assumed that inequality could be remedied through schooling.
In other words, if ‘the problem’ lay with individual families, or with the
social structure, schooling would not be ‘the solution’. The implication
that schooling made little difference to students’ life chances was not
palatable for many people. The report was widely criticised, and remains
controversial to this day. It has been criticised for its methodology, for the
definitions and indicators it used to measure equality of opportunity, and
for the ways it interpreted its findings. Nevertheless, it remains a study of
great significance.
A closer reading of the findings of the Coleman Report provides many
interesting insights into schooling and social inequality. In particular, it
throws light on some of the taken-for-granted assumptions about schooling
and its consequences.
First: In looking at students’ achievement in school, Coleman and his
colleagues made a key point about achievement tests and schooling. They
noted that there are links between what schools teach, what tests measure,
and what the workplace requires for success. Schools, they noted, ‘teach
certain intellectual skills such as reading, writing, calculating, and problem
solving’ (1966:20). These are the skills that are measured by standard
achievement tests – and they are the skills that are rewarded in the
workplace. Importantly, Coleman and colleagues pointed out, these skills
are not neutral nor culture free. Talking of achievement tests, the Coleman
Report stated:

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 Schools and classrooms as places of learning

These tests do not measure intelligence, nor attitudes, nor qualities

of character. Furthermore, they are not, nor are they intended to be,
“culture free”. Quite the reverse: they are culture bound. What they
measure are the skills which are among the most important in our
society for getting a good job and moving up to a better one, and
for full participation in an increasingly technical world…

In other words, achievement tests and the intellectual skills on which

they are based already reflect cultural assumptions. And the cultural
assumptions they reflect are linked to social power and social success.
Second: The report pointed out that schooling did not help
disadvantaged students to catch up with others. It did not help them to
overcome their initial disadvantage. Instead, these inequalities widened
as students moved through school. They tended to perform poorly, lagged
behind their more privileged counterparts, and often dropped out. The
report noted the following:

Whatever may be the combination of nonschool factors – poverty,

community attitudes, low educational level of parents – which put
minority children at a disadvantage in verbal and nonverbal skills
when they enter the first grade, the fact is the schools have not
overcome it. (Coleman et al., 1966:22)

For educators, this raised the question of whether different forms of

classroom instruction might help to build the skills of children who come
to school without them – a point we’ll return to later in the chapter.
Third: The report showed without doubt that students’ personal and
family characteristics were more influential than schools in affecting
students’ life chances. But having established this as the overriding effect,
the report also found that schooling had differential effects. It made the
most difference for low achieving students and for those who came to
school least prepared in terms of what schooling demanded. Facilities,
curriculum and particularly teachers had a greater effect on these students.
The Report concluded, therefore, that:

It is for the most disadvantaged children that improvements in

school quality will make the most difference in achievement.
(1966:22)

Furthermore, the feature of schooling found to have the most significant

effect on achievement for all students was good teachers. Again, their

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effect was greatest on children whose backgrounds were most educationally

disadvantaged. Again, the report stated a clear implication:

A given investment in upgrading teacher quality will have the most

effect on achievement in underprivileged areas. (1966:317)

In other words, the Coleman Report found that schools did make a
difference for disadvantaged students, although this was not an overriding
difference. It suggested that provision of good teachers and upgrading
of teacher quality would be likely to improve student achievement in
disadvantaged areas. And education systems could make a difference
through supplying well-prepared teachers to disadvantaged schools and
supporting them to do their work.
Fourth: Two other findings of the Coleman Report are worth mentioning:

The report found that ‘the extent to which an individual feels that
he [or she] has some control over his [or her] own destiny’ (1966:23)
made more of a difference than all of the school factors put together.
(This is what we call ‘agency’ in this book.)

When disadvantaged students possessed a sense of control or agency, this

worked powerfully to their advantage:

Minority pupils have far less conviction than whites that they can
affect their own environments and their futures. When they do,
however, their achievement is higher than that of whites who lack
that conviction. (1966:321)

The report found that peers had a strong influence on students’

attitudes and achievements:

Finally, it appears that a pupil’s achievement is strongly related to

the educational backgrounds and aspirations of other students in
the school. (1966:22)

The Coleman Report was contentious at the time, and its findings are still
disputed today. We need to take care when research findings are translated
from one context to another, and cannot assume that the findings apply
in a different time or place. Nonetheless, the Coleman Report provides an
important set of research findings that have been widely debated, and have
generated further research. Also, the report gives some ideas about how to

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improve the school experiences of disadvantaged students – particularly

in terms of teachers. These ideas may be well worth investigating in the
South African context.

Culture of poverty
Let’s turn to another theory of how home backgrounds influence student
achievement. A theory that became prominent in the 1950s and 1960s
(and is still used today) is that poor people live in a ‘culture of poverty’.
The logic of this theory is that a culture of poverty traps poor people into
cycles of low achievement and low expectations which are passed on from
generation to generation. Poor school achievement is part of this cycle.
Social inequality is the result.
In short, this theory sees ‘the problem’ as a cultural one, related to
individuals and their families, and its ‘solution’ lies in compensating
students for their ‘deficits’.
However, as critics point out, this approach does not explain why poor
people are poor in the first place, or why a society produces poverty.
‘Culture’ is not a concept that explains social and economic conditions –
though it may help to explain the beliefs people have or the meanings they
make of their situations.
An explanation such as this implies that poor people have themselves to
blame for their circumstances. It suggests that the reasons for poverty are
to be found in the attitudes and behaviour of the poor themselves, who are
seen as ‘deficient’ or ‘lacking in capacity’. Poverty is portrayed as a problem
experienced by individuals, to which they and their families contribute.
However, when poverty is widespread, an alternative approach (in Mills’s
terms) would be to view it as a social problem, not simply a personal
one. Poverty as a social problem relates to the structure of opportunities
available to people. It cannot be understood or solved at the level of
individual psychology or capacity. An approach that ‘blames the victim’
is ultimately unhelpful. It does not help people to address the causes
and possible remedies for their condition, and thus may disempower
them further.
Applied to education, the culture of poverty is a deficit model, which
sees children as requiring ‘compensation’ for their ‘deficient’ backgrounds.
It runs the danger of stereotyping and stigmatising children, and devaluing
what they do have and what they bring to school. This is not to deny
that poor children may need food, clothing and health services to be
provided for them through the schooling system to improve their chances

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of successful learning. They may also need specific teaching to assist their
chances of success. But the reasons for this are not due to their personal
qualities or deficiencies; the reasons lie in social conditions beyond
their making.

Theories of structural reproduction and post-structural

power/knowledge
An alternative set of theories highlights social structure rather than
individual behaviour. In this approach, inequalities stem from the structures
of society. Under capitalism, the inequalities of ownership result in unequal
class relations. According to reproduction theories, schools reproduce,
rather than change, the class inequalities of capitalism. Famous reproduction
theorists like Althusser (1971) and Bowles and Gintis (1976) argued that
middle and upper class children stayed on at school longer, to be prepared for
white collar and professional work. Working class children dropped out of
school sooner, to be left with unskilled work or unemployment. A significant
study by Willis (1977) showed how working class ‘lads’ left school willingly
to embrace their fate as their choice. Other structuralist theories showed that
schooling perpetuates social inequalities of race and gender.
Structuralist theories such as these move the focus away from individuals
and emphasise social structures as the cause of inequalities. However, as
critics point out, there is a danger that these theories may over-emphasise
structure (thus being deterministic), and give too little space for human
agency. By locating ‘the problem’ and its ‘solution’ squarely in broader
social structures, they leave little or no role for individuals or schools
to improve conditions. The implication is that little can be done about
schooling until broader social relations are changed – a position that could
lead to pessimism and inactivity.
Poststructuralist theories have favoured less ‘totalising’ accounts of
schools and inequality. Instead, they argue that different discourses operate
to create different subject positions and power/knowledge relationships.
Language functions to construct what is ‘normal’, and to position people
as subjects in unequal relationships to others. Discourses are always partial
accounts, and it is always possible to work against them. Discourses have
cracks and weak points, which offer possibilities for change. Discourses
of inequalities work in particular ways to construct ‘problems’ and offer
‘solutions’. We have seen, for example, how different discourses approach
the issue of student performance. By highlighting the ways in which
discourses relate to power and knowledge, poststructuralist theorists try to

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open spaces and to rupture ‘common sense’ understandings. In these cracks

and ruptures, it is possible to work for something different.

Summing up so far …
Different theories look at and understand inequality in different ways.
Whatever theories are used, there is, by now, little room to deny that
there is a link between schooling outcomes in general, and the patterns
of privilege and disadvantage in societies. The question is how best to
understand this link and work ethically towards greater social justice. This
requires multiple approaches and actions.
How may critical educators work with structural inequalities in schooling?
There is no single answer. In terms of debates on structure and agency, it
is important to remember that social patterns do change through human
action over time. On the one hand, it is important not to view individuals
and whole groups as having no choice but to live out their predetermined
social fates. On the other hand, it is important not to assume that individuals
have the power to change the conditions of their lives simply because they
would like to. We need to recognise that individuals and their actions are
able to make a difference, and at the same time recognise that social patterns
are entrenched in ways that limit free choice. Both positions need to be held
in tension in working for social justice.
At this point, it is useful to look at concepts of social justice alongside
concepts of structure and agency. The work of the US feminist philosopher,
Nancy Fraser, offers particular insights on the forms and possible remedies
of injustice.

Redistribution and recognition

Fraser (1995) proposes that there are two major forms of injustice in society,
though the two very often intertwine. These two forms of injustice stem
from different sources, and call for different remedies:

The first is socioeconomic injustice. Examples are exploitation, economic

marginalisation and deprivation or poverty. These injustices stem from the
political and economic framework of society. The remedy for socioeconomic
injustice is redistribution. This may take moderate (or ‘affirmative’) forms
such as welfare measures, which do not change the underlying political
and economic framework. Or it may take a radical form, where the
underlying framework of economic structures is transformed.

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The second is cultural or symbolic injustice. Examples are cultural

domination, non-recognition or disrespect. These injustices stem from
social patterns of representation or status. The remedy for cultural
or symbolic injustice is recognition. This may take either a moderate
(‘affirmative’) form, such as multiculturalism, which recognises or
values cultural difference without attempting to change the social
framework; or it may take a transformative form that would change
the whole framework of identity. An example of this is South Africa’s
shift from the splintered apartheid identities based on race, to the
common identity of equal citizenship with a bill of rights.

Although these two forms of injustice very often go together, it is

nonetheless useful to identify which is at work, and in what ways. This
serves as a basis for understanding what remedies might be applied.

In terms of schooling …
Schooling systems may easily reflect both forms of injustice.
Socioeconomic injustices are evident where differences of wealth and
poverty affect the resources that are available to students in their social
networks, and the quality of schools they attend. Cultural injustices are
evident in race and gender discrimination, or when home languages are
devalued. Fraser’s point is that the remedies of recognition will not help if
the injustices are socioeconomic. And the remedies of redistribution will
not be appropriate if the injustices are about cultural disrespect. This is
well illustrated in South Africa where the recognition of equal rights to
education does not mean the redistribution of sufficient resources to give
education to all. Similarly, a ‘multicultural’ approach (recognition) does
not remedy injustices that stem from poverty; these require remedies of
redistribution. In other words, recognition and redistribution are different
remedies for different injustices. In very many cases, both injustices are
evident, and both remedies are necessary. However, conceptual clarity
enables remedies to be better targeted.
Generally, however, schooling offers few remedies to social problems,
unless specific efforts are made. And it is more likely to offer more
moderate (or ‘affirmative’) remedies than ‘transformative’ ones. Broader
social inequalities ripple through schools in complex ways – inequalities of
poverty, class, race, gender and region – and schooling tends to perpetuate
both forms of injustice if they are features of the broader society. In fact,

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the most effective way for schooling to do this is to act as if these injustices
did not exist by treating everyone the same. However, it needs to be
remembered that schools and particularly teachers can, and do, make a
difference – even if transformation is unlikely.

Working with and against inequality

There is no simple way to work with the tensions between individual and
social inequalities, between determinism and people’s capacity to change
their circumstances, between redistribution and recognition. Instead
of attempting to resolve these tensions, the approach taken here is to
recognise the power of both positions, to hold both, and to work within
these spaces towards greater equity and justice.
The French theorist, Pierre Bourdieu, captures this ‘space of tension’
well. Bourdieu, a well-known reproduction theorist, developed the
concept of ‘cultural capital’ as a means of analysing class-based inequalities.
This concept brings together socioeconomic and symbolic power.
Unlike ‘culture of poverty’ explanations, it focuses on social structure
and individual effects. In using Bourdieu, the challenge is to work against
the determinism of reproduction and to explore spaces for intervention
for change.
Bourdieu argues that middle class students come to school with cultural
resources of all sorts that give them advantages at school. These include
what he calls ‘crude’ privileges: ‘having the right contacts, help with
studies, extra teaching, information on the education system and job
outlets’ (1976:110). They also possess, from their home backgrounds,
a particular ‘cultural capital’: particular values, attitudes and tastes, an
ethos of social mobility, and a range of cultural artefacts such as books,
musical instruments and so on. Schools draw heavily on the cultural
capital and ethos of the middle classes, so that for these students,
there are continuities between home and school. These students are
able to turn their social advantage into educational advantage, as their
social heritage becomes scholastic achievement. In Bourdieu’s words,
the ‘social gift’ of cultural heritage appears to be the ‘natural gift’ of
ability or intelligence (1976:110). In contrast, for students who do not
have these advantages, failure to achieve is often interpreted as ‘lack
of ability’. That said, schools do provide the possibility that some of
these students may, with effort, acquire what others are given by their
home backgrounds.

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For Bourdieu, all social groups possess cultural capital in terms of

internalised values, attitudes and dispositions. But the cultural capital
of dominant social groups is associated with power and regarded as the
most valuable. It is their symbolic systems and cultural practices that
are imposed through schooling. Bourdieu terms this cultural imposition
‘symbolic violence’.
However, he does not suggest that schools should be dismantled to
end this symbolic violence. Rather, he calls for this to be recognised and
worked with. He points out that the simplest way for schools to perpetuate
inequalities would be to ignore initial inequalities and treat everyone as
equals. If the teaching and assessment methods of schools treat everyone
as equal, they automatically produce unequal results which perpetuate
inequalities. In contrast, a ‘really universal pedagogy’, Bourdieu argues,
would ‘take nothing for granted’, and would be ‘organised with the explicit
aim of providing all with the means of acquiring that which … is only
given to the children of the educated classes’ (1976:113). (These are points
we’ll return to later in the chapter.)
Of course, Bourdieu was writing about social class in France, and this
cannot automatically be mapped onto all forms of inequality everywhere
else. In particular, it should not simply be mapped onto racial inequality in
South Africa without careful thought. Nonetheless, Bourdieu’s analysis of
cultural capital and the symbolic violence of structural inequalities provide
useful concepts to work with. It is also worth being alert to his point that
inequalities are most easily perpetuated when they are not recognised
to exist.
That said, it is important to work critically and reflectively with all
theories. While Bourdieu was an important reproduction theorist, it would
be incorrect to read his work as simply determinist without recognising
the possibilities for change that he offers. In this regard, it is worth
remembering that his later scholarship, in particular, worked against what
he saw as the inhumane effects of a neoliberal political economy.
The various theorists we have mentioned so far give different explanations
of educational inequality. What they have in common is the recognition
that schools as they stand do not remedy inequality. Bourdieu and the
Coleman Report show particularly clearly that if schools are left as they
are, they will certainly perpetuate inequalities under the guise of equal
treatment and meritocracy. But both suggest that it is possible to work
against what seems inevitable. In particular, there are spaces to work with
in relation to teaching and learning.

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The case of South Africa

It is clear that apartheid imposed racially-based inequalities in schooling,
and the system also produced inequalities of social class, gender and
region. Apartheid education, in this sense, was a special case of structural
inequality and symbolic violence – as well as a coercive social system. Its
injustices required remedies of both redistribution and recognition.
After apartheid, schooling was deracialised and simultaneously opened
up to choice and the market. The tight link between race and class was
severed. With this, inequalities shifted in nature to emphasise social class.
Recognition rights were won, on a formal level at least if not in daily
practice. On the one hand, this means that middle class black children
are able to enter formerly white schools. This opens up questions of whose
‘cultural capital’ is dominant, and what ‘symbolic violence’ is carried out
(bearing in mind that the social context is different to Bourdieu’s, and the
situation is a historically changing one). On the other hand, large numbers
of children (mainly black) continue to live in poverty, which illustrates
that redistribution has not taken place. The extent of poverty and
inequality raises questions about whether inequalities in schooling could
ever be reduced without substantial measures for redistribution.
In terms of schooling itself, there are questions of what teachers are able
to achieve under these different circumstances, and what adjustments
would be required for ‘a really universal pedagogy’ that ‘took nothing for
granted’. For, as the educationist Basil Bernstein succinctly stated in the
1970s, ‘Education cannot compensate for society’, and schools, if left alone,
are likely to perpetuate inequalities under the guise of treating everyone
the same.

Summing up so far …
What children bring with them to school from their homes makes a
difference to their experiences and performance at school. Having
recognised this, it is important to find ways of working against patterns of
disadvantage that do not stereotype and stigmatise, thereby disempowering
schools, teachers and students. Indeed, having low expectations of students
in disadvantaged communities is a sure way of contributing to poor
outcomes for these students.
In considering what children bring with them to school from homes and
families, a group of researchers working in rural South Africa usefully talk
of ‘the constellation of social relationships’ that children are part of. In
the words of these researchers, Nicholas Townsend, Sangeetha Madhavan,
Stephen Tollman, Michel Garenne and Kathleen Kahn:

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The well-being of children and adults is affected in important

ways by the constellation of social relationships within which they
live. These relationships govern their access to physical, social, and
cultural resources as diverse as food and shelter, employers, land
and productive goods, direct care, information and education.
Some of the most important of these relationships are the mutually
supportive ones of residential household or domestic unit….
However, many familial determinants of children’s education are
ultimately linked to poverty. (2002:215–16)

The social relationships within which children live are important in

terms of their material conditions. They are also important in terms of the
networks that children are able to link into and the opportunities that are,
and aren’t, available to them. Children’s access to schooling is influenced
by these networks. This includes the initiatives that are taken – or not
taken – around choosing schools.
This leads to the second answer proposed to the question of ‘What will make
a difference to the learning experiences and outcomes of different students
at school?’ The answer is: The school they attend is likely to make some
difference to the experiences they have, and the outcomes they achieve.

2 Which schools students attend

In the past, when there were fewer schools and even fewer secondary
schools, simply attending school meant that students were placed at a
social advantage. Now, in industrialised countries with mass schooling, the
situation has changed. Schools themselves are more differentiated, with
some producing better results than others in fairly predictable patterns.
This means that it makes a big difference ‘which school’ a student attends.
The Australian researchers, Richard Teese and John Polesel (2003), argue
that there are consistent differences between schools serving rich and poor
communities. Their book, Undemocratic Schooling: equity and quality in mass
secondary education in Australia, illustrates how schools themselves have
become part of structural inequalities in a democracy. These researchers are
able to show that schools serving rich communities have concentrations of
material and symbolic advantage as they face the demands of the curriculum.
They term these schools ‘fortified sites’. Schools serving poor communities
have few advantages in facing the demands of the curriculum and are, in
contrast, ‘exposed sites’. Teese and Polesel put this as follows:

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Fortified sites: Parents of high economic status will choose schools to

maximise the advantage for their children. They will move suburbs, or
pay high fees, in order for their children to attend particular schools. The
schools they choose generally have well-trained teachers, particularly
in mathematics and physics. The strategy used by these parents is to
‘pool their resources’ in schools such as these, in order to maximise the
individual advantages of their children. Through the pooled material and
symbolic resources of parent communities, these schools are ‘fortified’
against the demands of the academic curriculum. As Teese and Polesel
point out, these schools ‘employ highly qualified and experienced staff,
have well-stocked libraries and extensive electronic data resources; they
employ remedial teachers and counsellors, train their students in exam
techniques, provide smaller classes, filter and stream their intakes, and
offer optimum teaching conditions’ (2003:197).

Teese and Polesel argue that there is no parallel strategy in working class
communities to these ‘fortified sites’ with their pooled resources.

Exposed sites: Schools serving working class and poor communities are
‘exposed sites’ in terms of the academic curriculum.

In these schools, there are high concentrations of learners who

struggle with the curriculum. It is not cultural advantage that is
pooled at these sites, but multiple disadvantage – poor language
skills, fragmented family lives, poverty, low levels of parental
education, lack of facilities, leisure that is distracting rather than
supportive of school. These are indeed ‘exposed sites’ in which
effective learning depends very largely on the capacity of teachers
to make up for the gap between what the academic curriculum
assumes about students and who students really are. (Teese and
Polesel, 2003:123)

By carefully studying the results of each school in their study, Teese and
Polesel are able to draw up a grid which plots socioeconomic status against
achievement. They call this ‘the institutional geography of schools’. On the
grid, schools serving rich and poor communities are widely set apart in terms
of both social level and academic achievement. Schools’ positions on the grid
are generally predictable and largely stable. Of course, single schools may jump
out of line in terms of student achievement, thus breaking the pattern of their
institutional geography, but this is unlikely to happen on a large scale. And it is
unlikely to lead to systemic changes in broader patterns of social inequality.

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The consequences of these differences between schools in terms of

institutional geography (where they are predictably located in relation to
other schools) are considerable. As Teese and Polesel go on to argue:

Where a school fits into the institutional geography of the school

system is a major issue for the morale of the teachers, their
expectations of students, the kind of support they receive from
parents, and the economic inducements they can offer students to
work hard. Where favourable conditions are met, staff cohesion and
purposive leadership are much more likely to occur. Where, on the
other hand, there are concentrations of disadvantage, the tensions
experienced by both teaching staff and students as they grapple
with the curriculum may weaken cohesion and shared sense of
purpose, depress expectations, and lead to persistent behavioural
problems … In general, the lower the level of attainment in a
school, the lower the level of student motivation and the weaker the
rapport between students and teachers. (2003:188)

Teese and Polesel point out that schools serving poor communities are
more likely to be able to provide supportive social environments than high
achievement on the academic curriculum. Their response is to advocate
strong equity measures in terms of redistribution to achieve greater social
justice. They argue that schools should be resourced on the basis of
children’s educational needs. In their words:

The total resources available to a child at school should be relative

to the educational effort which must be made on behalf of the child.
Where more teaching is needed, more resources should be provided.
(2003:218)

This, they suggest, is an easier equity measure than tackling the curriculum
itself.

The case of South Africa

Under apartheid, the institutional geography of schools was determined
by racial classification. Racially based departments provided different
resources for schooling, different levels of teacher qualification, and
different learning outcomes.
With the end of apartheid, and the opening of schools to all races, many
black parents with resources sought out ‘fortified schools’ with pooled

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resources to maximise the individual chances of their children. Formerly

white schools – most of them already fortified sites – were able to take in
black students with resources, thus maintaining a privileged status (there
were some exceptions to this). Fees have allowed these schools to pool
resources, reflecting the relative wealth of their communities. A small
number of black schools have managed to rise on the grid. For all that, the
institutional geography is by now likely to be reasonably stable.
The schools serving poor communities – the ‘exposed sites’ – received some
improvements from the government, particularly in terms of basic services
such as electricity and toilets. The Equitable Shares Model directed additional
funding to them – a pro-poor step, although related only to the non-personnel
budget. As argued in Chapter 5, the redistribution of funds from rich to poor
provinces and schools has not worked powerfully enough to make up for
initial differences between schools. In the main, formerly black schools remain
‘exposed sites’ in relation to the academic demands of schooling.
These ‘exposed sites’ are not only the poorest of the poor in the bottom
quintile, but schools in higher quintiles too. In fact, the economist Servaas
van der Berg estimates the scale of the problem as follows:

Educational quality in historically black schools – which constitute

80% of enrolment and are thus central to educational progress – has
not improved significantly since political transition. (2005:1)

Van der Berg’s research shows that school results in South Africa are
‘bimodal’, namely, there are two patterns of scores on the graph,
one for ‘affluent schools’ (fortified sites) and one for ‘the resource-
scarce black schooling system’ (exposed sites) (2005:2). Clearly, it
makes a difference which schools children are able to attend.

The consequences of having such a high percentage of ‘exposed’

schools become evident in the next section.

Summing up so far …
Schools are woven into broader social patterns of inequality in historically
changing ways. Schools themselves are not equal to each other, and do not
offer the same learning experiences to the communities they serve. Which
school students attend makes a difference to their learning experiences.
This is partly the result of actions taken by people to achieve social
advantage for their children through schooling. It is also the result of
government policies, including policies for school funding and resourcing,
and for teacher provisioning.

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There is a tension here that needs to be worked with. On the one hand,
schools and teachers cannot be expected to change large-scale social
patterns, or remedy social situations that are beyond their control. On
the other hand, it is not possible to predetermine the success or failure
of individual schools, teachers and students. Social groups are able to use
schools in their own networks of identity and meaning. And what happens
inside schools, especially in terms of teaching and learning, may make the
most difference for disadvantaged students.
In terms of the central mandate of schools – to be places of teaching
and learning – it could be argued that meeting this mandate is even more
important for students who do not have privileged cultural capital from their
homes. Maintaining a focus on teaching and learning – albeit under unequal
social circumstances – is a central goal for teachers and students to work
towards. There are steps that schools and teachers can take to achieve this,
and it is important for education departments to support them in doing so.
The examples in this chapter suggest steps that are worth considering.

The advice of the Coleman Report would be to support disadvantaged

schools by supplying them with well-prepared teachers.
Bourdieu’s advice would be to work for a ‘really universal pedagogy’
which ‘took nothing for granted’ and was geared towards giving all
students the access that currently only some students have.
Teese and Polesel’s advice would be that governments that are concerned
with social justice should redistribute resources on a scale that meets
the needs of children to learn. To repeat their words: ‘the total resources
available to a child at school should be relative to the educational effort
which must be made on behalf of the child’ (2003:218).
And, in overall terms, Fraser’s advice would be that measures for both
redistribution and recognition are necessary to redress different sources
of social injustice. Such measures may be affirmative or transformative.

Ultimately, the government has a responsibility to provide a sound policy

framework and adequate resources for all schools to operate as places of
learning. This is essential both to achieve the constitutional right of all
children to education, and to achieve ethical goals of equity in schooling.
And principals, teachers and students have a responsibility to ensure that
schools are places of learning.
This leads to the third answer proposed to the question of ‘What will
make a difference to the learning experiences and outcomes of different
students at school?’ The answer is: How well the school is run and how
effective the teachers are.

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3 Functioning schools and effective

teachers
Following the Coleman Report, a number of researchers in different
countries tried to refute the findings that school effects were less important
than family background in determining students’ life chances. Researchers
in the ‘school effectiveness’ movement compared schools and attempted to
define what the features were of schools that were more ‘effective’ in terms
of student achievement. (For a summary of these studies and debates see
McBeath and Mortimore, 2001, and Thrupp, 1999.) Numerous research
studies came up with a largely common set of features for ‘effective schools’:

strong leadership with a curriculum focus

clear goals and high expectations of staff and students
an emphasis on quality of teaching and learning
a supportive school environment
a culture of monitoring and evaluation
parental involvement and support.

Research in the school effectiveness tradition highlighted differences

between developing and industrialised countries. They found, for example,
that schools have greater effects in developing countries (Heneveld and
Craig, 1996). In addition to the list of factors identified in richer countries,
studies in developing countries identified the importance of adequate
material resourcing and pedagogical support, language of instruction, and
health of students. Also added to the list was the will of communities to
provide education for their children (Lockheed and Verspoor, 1991).
The effective schools approach drew many critics, who were not
convinced of its worth. The list of features held no surprises and seemed
like ‘common sense’. And the research gave no suggestions about how
these features might be developed in schools that did not possess them.
Most of all, however, effective schools research was criticised for turning a
blind eye to the fact that the overriding effects were not due to schools but
to the unequal social structures of the broader society.
In reply, supporters of the effective schools tradition argued that there
could be no doubt that some schools were more effective than others.
Knowing more about this would assist in improving quality of schooling.
They also pointed out that it was undeniably better for students to attend
effective, rather than ineffective schools.
Over time, these researchers developed more sophisticated analyses
of ‘school effects’. Over time, studies consistently showed that schools

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do have an effect, but it is not large; classrooms have a greater effect,

while individual teachers have the greatest effects – but these are not the
determining effects in terms of student achievement.
An accompanying, but different, strand of research on schools is ‘school
improvement research’ carried out by educationists like Michael Fullan
(1993, 2001), Andy Hargreaves (1994, 2003), David Hopkins (1994,
2001), Louise Stoll and Dean Fink (1996). This research addresses the
complexities of day-to-day activities in schools and how schools might
be improved.
One implication of this research is that we need a closer analysis of
individual schools and their needs if we are to understand and improve
their patterns of performance. It is likely that different treatment would
be required for different circumstances, rather than one-size-fits-all
approaches. This is a point we return to later.

The case of South Africa

Again, under apartheid, the effects of schooling were over-determined
by apartheid structures. It was assumed that the effectiveness of schools
reflected their racial ranking: with white schools being most effective,
followed by Indian, Coloured and African schools. In the dying days of
apartheid, many township schools were barely functioning, particularly
urban secondary schools. However, little research in the effectiveness or
improvement traditions was carried out until the last days of apartheid.
As the South African system changed, questions of effectiveness and
efficiency assumed greater importance. A central question was: how could
the schooling system be changed so that it worked well for all its students?
Apart from the new policy framework, what interventions might improve
the functioning of schools? Several studies have been carried out in the
effectiveness and improvement traditions, particularly with attempts to
improve poorly performing schools, mostly formerly African schools. These
are well reviewed by Nick Taylor, Johan Muller and Penny Vinjevold
(2003) in their study Getting Schools Working.
It has now become clear, particularly with international tests and
comparisons such as TIMSS, that South African schooling is not
particularly effective in terms of the student results it achieves (as we saw
in Chapter 5). Even the best performing parts of the system are no more
than average in comparison with the world’s top performers. And overall,
South Africa performs less well than most of its neighbours, who spend less
on their education systems. These are major concerns for policy makers
and educationists.

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Reviewing mathematics results in 2006, Nick Taylor judged that at most

20% of South Africa’s schools were functioning adequately. The other 80%
of schools – schools serving poor African communities – were, in Taylor’s
view, ‘essentially dysfunctional’. This led him to conclude that South
Africa faced a serious problem: ‘the inability of most schools to provide
young people with the attitudes and intellectual skills required to build a
modern state’ (2006:2).
Research carried out by Taylor and his project team suggests five major
factors that optimise learning, and which could be used to improve school
results if applied more broadly:

Home factors, including language. When schools teach in the language

of the home, especially in early years, learning is improved. Learning is
also improved when children read at home and do their homework.
Time management. Many teaching hours are lost through absenteeism,
lack of punctuality, and the scheduling of activities such as choir and
sports competitions. Increasing teaching hours would bring notable
improvements.
Curriculum leadership. This entails the principal or heads of
departments ensuring that the curriculum is covered, monitoring
student assessment and undertaking quality assurance measures, as
well as managing books and stationery. Sound curriculum leadership
would improve the functioning of schools.
The teaching of reading. Taylor’s project also highlighted the importance
of teaching reading. In many cases, confusion over curriculum
requirements meant that teachers were not actually teaching basic
reading and writing.
Teacher knowledge. Taylor’s research suggests that teachers need
stronger content knowledge, as well as the knowledge of how to teach
particular subjects.

As with effectiveness studies elsewhere, it is clear that the overriding

effects of schools are linked to broader social patterns of advantage and
disadvantage. Whether or not Taylor’s pessimism is accurate, his findings
support those of other scholars (such as Reddy, 2006; Howie, 2001; van der
Berg, 2005; and Case and Deaton, 1999) that a large proportion of schools
are not performing according to expectations. This suggests that South
Africa faces a schooling crisis of major proportions.
It is important to take all possible measures to support schools.
However, correcting dysfunction on this scale lies beyond the capacity of
effectiveness interventions, and is government’s responsibility.

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Summing up so far …
Evidence continues to illustrate the overwhelming influence of social
context on learning outcomes. However, a number of studies have confirmed
that practices within schools may have considerable effects on student
learning outcomes. As a result of this research, a lot more is known about
different dimensions of schools that influence student achievement – as well
as the limitations of schools in achieving improved student outcomes.
This is important, particularly for policy makers, in that it identifies
points for intervention to improve schools. However, as we have noted
before, schools are notoriously difficult to change, and change takes time.
Nonetheless, the schooling crisis in South Africa is so deep that it is
unlikely to be reduced without imaginative interventions by government.
In particular, these are likely to require the redistribution of resources, and
building of expertise, including pedagogical and management expertise, to
improve the quality of learning.
This leads us to the fourth answer proposed to the question of ‘What will
make a difference to the learning experiences and outcomes of different
students at school?’ The answer is: The difference lies in what happens
inside the classroom, in terms of teaching, learning and assessment.

4 Classroom practices: teaching,

learning and assessment
Let’s now move inside the classroom, to ask what makes a difference to
students’ learning outcomes. Students have very different experiences of
learning in classrooms in South Africa. In some classrooms, there is active
instruction by teachers who have strong content knowledge and a range of
pedagogical skills and resources. At the other extreme, there are classrooms
where teachers are absent and students copy notes from the board and from
each other, in routines that have very little substance or content. What
then makes a difference to students’ learning outcomes? The answers lie in
the interactions between students and teachers with materials, the learning
activities they undertake, and how they use their time.

The ‘message systems’ of schooling

Basil Bernstein (1971b) famously referred to curriculum, pedagogy and
assessment as the ‘three message systems’ of schooling:

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Curriculum refers to the selection of knowledge to be taught and to

whom it is taught.
Pedagogy refers to the activities of teaching and learning.
Assessment refers to the evaluation of what has been learnt.

It is the particular task of teachers to work with these three message

systems in the context of classrooms, and for schools to support them to
do so. The core issues in providing quality education are what to teach to
whom, how to teach, and how to assess.
Ideally, the message systems should be ‘aligned’: teaching methods should
suit the content of what is being taught, and assessment should test what is
learnt. However, this is often not the case. It is quite possible for a lesson to
have worthwhile subject matter which is poorly taught, or good teaching
methods with incorrect facts in the subject matter. Assessment systems
are often misaligned, as, for example, when a curriculum that aims to
encourage critical thinking is assessed in ways that test only memorisation.
As well as these three message systems and their alignment, there
is another issue to consider: the context. Curriculum, pedagogy and
assessment take place in schools in very different contexts, and as we have
seen in this chapter this makes a difference to students’ experiences. This
applies not only to South African schools but also on an international
scale, as Robin Alexander (2000) shows in his major study, Culture and
Pedagogy, which looks at schools and classrooms in six different countries.
Given these many differences, what sorts of classroom practices may
provide worthwhile learning experiences that prepare all students for their
lives beyond school?
One way to come to grips with the many questions of curriculum, pedagogy
and assessment, is to relate them to the goals and purposes of schooling.

Classroom practices to meet the goals of schooling

In earlier chapters of this book, we summed up the goals and purposes of
schooling as follows:

systematic teaching and learning

active participation in the world
individual development.

Let’s look at each of these in relation to the school curriculum and

classroom practices.

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Systematic teaching and learning

A theme we have returned to several times in this book is the mandate of
schools to be places of systematic teaching and learning for young people.
Of course, people learn much of what they know outside of schools. Even
in schools, a lot of learning happens informally, outside of classrooms, and
with peer groups. Nonetheless, schools should be places of learning, rather
than places which simply look after children, or ‘warehouse’ them.
Western schooling follows a particular model – a single adult teaching,
in recognisable ways, to a group of similar-age students. This has become a
symbol of modernity. However, it is quite possible for schools to have the
same outward forms, with classrooms with students and teachers inside, but
this does not necessarily mean that learning is taking place. What happens
inside schools and classrooms may simply be an empty mimicry of what it
should be. Bruce Fuller (1991) shows this well in his study of schools in
Malawi, entitled Growing-Up Modern: the western state builds third-world
schools. Fuller shows that schools have the outward forms of modernity,
but inside, they do not teach in the same ways, or to the same standards,
as western schools. Heather Jacklin’s (2004) study of classroom pedagogy
in Cape Town entitled Repetition and Difference, also shows that students
may mimic the outward patterns of what classroom teaching looks like,
even when the teacher is not present. And even when teachers are
present, it may be the case that very little teaching and learning is
actually taking place.
School knowledge is by no means the only knowledge a society possesses.
It is, in fact, simply a selection of all the knowledge that is available. As
we have seen in earlier chapters (particularly Chapters 2 and 3), school
knowledge tends to be structured in particular ways: sorted and sequenced;
made abstract and formal; and directed towards particular ways of thinking
and problem-solving. Schools transmit the formal symbol systems of
culture – reading, writing and number systems – and they do so in
recognisable formats and relationships.
How does the selection of knowledge for the curriculum happen?
Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are partly a matter of tradition.
But they are also matters of social power and policy. The selection of
curriculum knowledge is not a neutral or technical process; it is deeply
immersed in social perspectives and values. And, as we have seen,
curriculum knowledge is not equally available to everyone. In similar vein
to Bourdieu, the US educator, Lisa Delpit, makes the following comment
in terms of race:

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The upper and middle classes send their children to school with all
the accoutrements [attire and trappings] of the culture of power;
children from other kinds of families operate within perfectly
wonderful and viable cultures but not cultures that carry the codes
of power. (1995:25)

Delpit points out that schools teach other people’s knowledge to other
people’s children. Often, teachers seem unaware of this.
Language of instruction poses similar dilemmas (as we mentioned in
Chapter 3). It is well known that students learn best in their mother
tongue, at least in the early years of schooling. But this is not always what
communities want. Some languages have more social power than others,
and children who speak those languages are at an advantage. This is a
complex problem which remains unresolved in South Africa.
In short, the content knowledge and language of the school curriculum
are tied to social power, and this cannot be easily sidestepped. What may
be done about this? There are different answers to this question:

One answer is to ensure that the codes of powerful knowledge are

taught to all students.
Another answer is to teach students knowledge that they will find
useful in their various social settings (such as rural knowledge for
rural children).
Another answer is to provide strong vocational pathways as
alternatives to academic pathways.
And, of course, some combination of options is possible.

There is no single solution to the dilemma of power/knowledge, valid

for all times and places. Several scholars, including Delpit and Bourdieu,
support the teaching of formal codes of knowledge. Bourdieu, for example,
has defended the powers of abstract thinking that the traditional French
curriculum made available. In writing about the curriculum, he stated that
he thought it was ‘absolutely necessary’ to ensure that certain ‘fundamental
processes’ are taught: ‘the deductive, the experimental, the historical as
well as the critical and reflective’ (1990:309). (These fundamental ways
of thinking are often associated with knowledge disciplines.) Bourdieu
went on to propose the methodical transmission of ‘the technology of
intellectual enquiry’, giving as examples the use of dictionaries, the
rhetoric of communication, the preparation of a manuscript, and the
reading of numerical and graphical tables. In his words,

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If all pupils were given the technology of intellectual enquiry, and

if in general they were given rational ways of working (such as the
art of choosing between compulsory tasks and of spreading them
over time), then an important way of reducing inequalities based on
cultural inheritance would have been achieved. (1990:309)

In other words, the school curriculum, encompasses bodies of knowledge

(such as disciplines), as well as forms of thinking and techniques of
working with knowledge. If students are to have access to the codes of
western power/knowledge, they need to be exposed to this knowledge,
forms of thinking, and techniques of working with knowledge. And, as
suggested in Chapter 3, participation in global technologies requires
multiliteracies as well as the basic building blocks of established
knowledge. However, this position comes at a cost.
The formal curriculum of schooling is open to criticism, as we have seen
in earlier chapters. For example:

De-schoolers and radical critics argue that it prevents people from

thinking freely, or thinking for themselves.
Postcolonial thinkers criticise the curriculum for suppressing
indigenous knowledge and languages.
Other social critics argue that it damages self-esteem and life chances
of those who fail, while devaluing the options that are open to them.

Bearing these strong criticisms in mind, we take the position that schools
should focus on formal teaching and learning as their main goal. They
should be responsible for teaching formal knowledge codes to all students,
while recognising the diversity of students, schools and social contexts.
Acknowledging that some students are advantaged over others in relation
to these codes, schools should nonetheless find ways of ensuring that this
knowledge and modes of thinking are made accessible to all. Bourdieu,
Delpit and others suggest that this is likely to require explicit instruction
(a point we’ll return to). As Bourdieu recognises, this approach may
well involve symbolic violence in relation to some students’ cultural and
linguistic capital. However, if schools do not give all students access to the
dominant capital which some students have by virtue of social privilege,
they perpetuate a fundamental form of inequality. As far as possible,
schools need to give students access to the symbol systems, imaginaries
and identities for participating in both their local worlds, and in global
knowledge societies. Participation, in this sense, involves the capacity to

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critically engage with these worlds as active agents, and to shape them.
Arguably, if schools operate on the basis of these knowledge systems, but
fail to open access to them to all students, they commit a second act of
symbolic violence.
The position advocated here should not be confused with simple
assimilationism, which assumes that all students should fit the existing
curriculum and its power relations. Rather, it is a position where the power
relations of knowledge need to be explicitly acknowledged and worked
with. It opens for consideration the social basis of all knowledge and the
dominance that this makes possible for some, with the specific goal of
working against this by giving access to powerful knowledge to all. (This
position is illustrated more fully in the Productive Pedagogies Model,
which is presented later in this chapter.)
Given the breadth of debates in the curriculum field, there are many
positions to take. What is important in deciding on a position is the
strength of intellectual argument that can be made for the position, and
its ethical implications. This book encourages exploration across the broad
field, while making its own position clear.
The same applies to the second goal mentioned above:

Active participation in the world

A second goal of schooling, which may be related to Bernstein’s three
message systems, is that of active participation in the institutions of public
life, including the world of work. In terms of public life, it is important for
schooling to contribute towards building an active democracy, as well as a
shared public identity and sense of common purpose.
What does this entail in terms of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment?
The French theorist Etienne Balibar uses Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic
violence in discussing the role of schooling in citizenship and public
life. Balibar argues that the school holds a particular ‘place of transition’
between private life and public life. One of the functions of the school is
to prepare students for entering the public sphere of citizenship. Students
need to step aside from their primary identities as private individuals, to
assume a secondary identity as citizens of the modern state. For all students
in modern states, schools are part of a major shift in identity from personal
to public, which may involve symbolic violence (although, drawing on
Bourdieu’s analysis, Balibar suggests that this is less disruptive for some
than for others). Balibar writes that the school

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has to virtually detach individuals from their primary identities

(which is in fact a very violent process – a sort of dismemberment, a
separation from their identities, but which then ideally allows these
identities to be claimed, though from the “distance” implied by the
primacy of the second, common political identity). (2004:358)

Preparation for citizenship in a common public life means access to

dominant codes and ways of thinking. What happens to other cultural and
linguistic capital? This is a complex issue that keeps raising its head. South
Africa’s modernist constitution gives equal rights to language and culture
to everyone – rights of recognition. But these rights do not automatically
translate into equal treatment. In some cases, students learn in their home
language at school. In other cases, there is almost no written material in
students’ home language, and students learn in a second or third language.
To support these languages would require additional resources (in other
words, redistribution of resources). There is little doubt that this lack of
written resources impedes students’ learning, particularly in the early years.
Though South Africa offers rich possibilities for multilingual learning,
multilingual classrooms are not emphasised in policy terms. Instead, in
many classrooms students and teachers switch between languages, or
use the mother tongue of the students, regardless of the formal medium
of instruction.
It could be argued that the ability to ‘code-switch’ – to operate in
more than one code – is a major advantage in a multilingual society and
cosmopolitan, global world. But the danger is that students could find
themselves with inadequate capacity in both codes, unless school codes
are well taught and other cultural codes are sufficiently supported. What
is clear, is that Balibar’s ‘second, common, political identity’ must be built
for all South Africans, regardless of their language and cultural capital.
Without this, the common project of social cohesion will suffer – the sense
of common purpose and shared future.
In terms of the world of work, an abiding concern of curriculum theorists
is the relationship between ‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ knowledge. Again,
the position taken here is to be wary of dichotomies – and to acknowledge
that these are matters of debate, without entering the debates further.
Suffice it to say that a legitimate goal of schooling – alongside other goals –
is preparation for the world of work, and what this might mean in terms of
knowledge is an important consideration for the curriculum.
Let’s look briefly at our third goal:

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Individual development
Ideally, schools build rhythms of learning and teaching, both formal and
informal, structured and unstructured. Formal, structured learning is the
object of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Recognising that students
come unequally into the shared space of the classroom requires the effort
to build a pedagogy that is inclusive, ‘that takes nothing for granted’, and
that commits itself to achieving high quality learning for all students as
individuals and the identity groups they are part of.
The common space of the classroom is an important one for shaping
individual identity in relation to others. It offers opportunities to engage
with the ethical question of how individuals might best live with others,
particularly those whose languages and cultures are different to their own.
In this regard, it offers opportunities to understand economic and cultural/
symbolic power relations, and work towards recognition and redistribution.
(This is a point we return to in Chapter 7.)
As mentioned in earlier chapters, people possess the creative capacity to
change the world and themselves through their actions. Ideally, the school
curriculum should help people to understand themselves in relation to
the cultural and natural worlds in which they live, and to act to change
those worlds in ethical ways. This sense of agency links to one of the
findings of the Coleman Report, discussed earlier in this chapter. The
Report found that when students had a sense that they could influence
their environments and their futures – that they had some control over
their own destinies – this made more of a difference to their results than
all of the school factors put together. This may in turn be linked to the
‘sociological imagination’, discussed in Chapter 1. As C Wright Mills
expressed, the sociological imagination brings an understanding of how
individual lives (biographies) interact with social structures in time and
place. Ideally, the school curriculum should offer opportunities to
build this imagination, as well as the accompanying sense of agency and
being able to act in the world. At the very least, the curriculum should
not stifle this.

Classroom practices that support student learning

What classroom practices best support student learning?
Many years of research on teaching suggest that there is no ‘one right
way’ or ‘one general theory’ of teaching or pedagogy. There are many such
theories, some supporting each other, some in contradiction. However,
across the theories there is general agreement that good classroom practice

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is about the interactions of students with teachers, resources and time. As

David Hopkins puts it:

Teaching is more than just presenting material, it is about infusing

curriculum content with appropriate instructional strategies that are
selected in order to achieve the learning goals the teacher has for
her students. (2001:73)

The educationist Martial Dembélé (2005), writing for the Association

for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), usefully sets out
a spectrum of different approaches to pedagogy. At the one end of the
spectrum are those pedagogies that support ‘open-ended teaching’, at the
other end are those that support ‘structured instruction’.

Open-ended teaching is associated with terms like ‘constructivism’

(where students are induced to construct knowledge for themselves
through intensive enquiry), ‘active learning’ (where students are
involved in discovering knowledge themselves rather than passively
receiving it from teachers), and ‘situated cognition’ (learning from
real-life situations). Other terms associated with open-ended teaching
are ‘problem-solving’ approaches, ‘child-centred’ learning, ‘discovery
learning’ and ‘adventurous pedagogy’. Open-ended teaching places
student activities at the centre of classroom practices, with the teacher
as facilitator of student learning. Clearly, this requires well-prepared,
knowledgeable teachers, who understand how students learn and how
to prepare tasks for them to learn as independently as possible.
Structured instruction (at the opposite end of the spectrum) is
associated with approaches such as ‘direct instruction’, ‘mastery
learning’ and ‘explicit teaching’. These approaches favour structured
learning activities which are actively directed by teachers. Structured
instruction requires consistent teacher practices such as checking
homework to see what students have learnt; presentation of content
and skills in sequenced steps; teachers modelling good practice;
students undertaking guided practice followed by independent
practice; and teachers giving corrective feedback.

Some advocates of structured instruction aim to explicitly teach the

cognitive processes that are involved in doing a particular task or using a
particular skill. They argue that instruction of this sort benefits students
who are disadvantaged in relation to school knowledge (see Dembélé,
2005:173).

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There is much debate about whether ‘open-ended teaching’ or ‘structured

instruction’ is more powerful for student learning. Dembélé’s position is
that we should not see these two extreme positions as dichotomies. Rather,
he says, there should be room for both student-centredness and teacher
directivity in classroom practices. This is a position supported by others as
well. The New Zealander, Stuart McNaughton (2002), for example, argues
for a wide curriculum which enables students to share experiences that
build on their home and community resources, as well as explicit teaching
of the knowledge and skills that students need to gain access to curriculum
knowledge, and standard English.

The case for explicit teaching

As mentioned earlier, a number of educationists have argued that explicit
teaching is important for providing equitable access to school knowledge
to students from diverse backgrounds. Explicit teaching involves
presenting lessons so that purposes are clear to students, as well as the
nature of the tasks they are required to undertake. It opens the language
of required tasks, including the meanings of instructional words, content
words and performance words. It specifically teaches skills such as reading,
summarising, interpreting diagrams, building arguments, sequencing
ideas, and so on. It provides a sequential programme of instruction with
systematic opportunities for self-reflection and assessment.
For example, the Australian literacy teacher, Christine Edwards-Groves
(2003), provides a framework for explicit instruction for literacy lessons:
She argues strongly that explicit instruction should not to be confused
with lock-step, narrow, teacher-dominated instruction. Instead, she argues,
explicit teaching is ‘a key aspect of social constructivism’ (2003:18).
Focused and explicit instructional talk and scaffolding open up learning
situations in ways that give more power to students to know what they are
doing, how to do it, and why.
In classrooms where students speak different languages and come
from different educational backgrounds, explicit instruction is a means
of addressing what the learning requirements are and what successful
completion of tasks entails. These strategies can be used in whole group
instruction, combined with small needs-based groups. Such strategies also
assist in building classroom interactions which focus on learning.

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A Framework for Explicit Instruction Focused Literacy Lessons

 Maintenance of the specific literacy learning focus
Introduction Elaboration Practice Review
       
Brief Lesson Linking new to Independent practice Summary, Review
Orientation known concepts; re- Skills, knowledge and Reflection of
Setting up focused teaching if necessary and use of aspects specific literacy
lessons in terms of Clarifying of literacy learning (oral and /or
specific aspects of Demonstration and Application of new written)
literacy modelling learning Student
Overview of new Guided Instruction reformulation and
learning using Guided articulation of
Purposes of reading/writing, learning
assessment tasks are Reciprocal Teaching
made clear or Co-operative
Review of relevant Reading
prior learning Guided Student
Practice
 Formative assessment through monitoring of the talk is
ongoing across the phases of the lesson 

A Framework for explicit instruction focused literacy lessons (Edwards-Groves, 2003)

James Paul Gee (2004) provides a simple and convincing set of statements
about the need for explicit language teaching in his book Situated Language
and Learning. Gee points out that learning in academic contexts requires
academic varieties of language that are linked to ways of thinking. These
need to be explicitly taught by schools – yet very often they are not. Gee
argues as follows:
1. What is hard about school is not learning to read, but learning to read and
learn in academic contexts such as mathematics, social studies and science.
2. What is hard about learning in academic content areas is that
each area is tied to academic specialist varieties of language (and
other specialised symbol systems) that are complex, technical and
initially alienating to many learners…These varieties of language are
significantly different from people’s everyday varieties of language.
3. Privileged children (children from well-off, educated homes) often get
an important head start before school, at home, on the acquisition of
such academic varieties of language; whereas less privileged children
often do not.
4. Schools do a very poor job at teaching children academic varieties of
language. Indeed, many schools are barely aware they exist, that they
have to be learned, and that the acquisition process must start early.
(2004:3-4, adapted excerpts)

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Gee goes on to make the point that all children can easily learn specialist
varieties of language and ways of thinking when these are part of popular
culture. Children exhibit these sorts of skills when they play video games
and computer games. In fact, he argues, these games often teach children
more effectively than teachers in classrooms do – and teachers have a lot
to learn about learning from them!
Elsewhere, Gee (1998) sets out a ‘Bill of Rights’ for children who find
schools to be ‘risky places’. Children have the right to:

extensive participation in authentic and meaningful social practices

involving talk, texts, tools, and technologies and that these practices
should not denigrate their own experiences from outside school
overt instruction that provides them with guidance in, and scaffolding
for, classroom practices
awareness of the make-up of classroom tasks and how their own
knowledge fits with what is expected in the performance of these tasks
development of expertise in classroom activities that they can
transform in ways that offer them the power to innovate for their own
social, cultural, and political purposes.

Summing up …
Debates on pedagogy such as these are important for teachers to consider
and work with in their different classroom settings. Whether or not the
curriculum is outcomes-based, learner- or teacher-centred, disciplinary or
interdisciplinary, and whether or not the pedagogies are structured or open,
the task of the classroom teacher is the same. The task of the classroom
teacher is, as Hopkins (2001) put it, to infuse curriculum content with
appropriate teaching strategies to achieve the intended learning goals.

‘Productive pedagogies’ as an example of classroom

practice
Australian research on ‘Productive Pedagogies’ provides an example of
classroom practices that focus on improving learning outcomes for all
students (see Hayes, Mills, Christie and Lingard, 2006). This research
highlights four dimensions of classroom practice that have made a
difference to students’ learning. Each of the dimensions shows examples
of different sorts of pedagogies, both open and explicit. Briefly, the four
dimensions may be described as follows:

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Intellectual quality
Lessons that are high in intellectual quality engage students actively and
critically with knowledge, including disciplinary knowledge and problem-
solving approaches. They provide students with opportunities to learn
about important concepts and processes in depth rather than superficially,
and to use these in ways that shift their meaning (rather than simply
reciting them). Contrasting and potentially conflicting forms of knowledge
are presented. Students and teachers engage in substantive conversations.
Some of these are conversations about how language works.

Supportive classroom environments

Where pedagogy is supportive, students feel safe to take intellectual risks.
They are able to regulate their own behaviour and stay on task. The
teacher and students are respectful of others.

Engagement with difference

Pedagogy which engages with difference draws on the beliefs, languages and
ways of knowing of different cultures. There are deliberate attempts to increase
the participation of different students, and to build inclusive classrooms.

Connectedness to the world beyond the classroom

Pedagogies link to students’ background knowledge and to events beyond
the classroom. In doing this, however, they move to significant knowledge
and concepts, and do not stay on the level of the everyday.

The next section shows the questions that guided classroom observations in
the Productive Pedagogies research. The researchers argued that all students
benefited from classroom practices that scored highly on all four dimensions.

Productive pedagogies
Intellectual quality

When observing for the Intellectual Quality items researchers asked the
following questions:

Higher order thinking – Are students required to manipulate

information and ideas to arrive at new meanings? Is critical analysis
occurring? Are students required to combine facts and ideas in order
to synthesise, generalise, explain, hypothesise or arrive at some
conclusion or interpretation?

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Deep knowledge – Does the lesson cover central ideas and concepts
of the discipline or field in any depth? Are students able to develop
relatively systematic, integrated or holistic understanding of concepts,
or are they only able to recite fragmented pieces of information?
Deep understanding – Do the work and responses of students provide
evidence of depth of understanding of concepts or ideas? Are students
discovering relationships, solving problems, constructing explanations,
and drawing conclusions?
Knowledge problematic – Are multiple, contrasting and potentially
conflicting forms of knowledge represented, or is knowledge
represented as facts or a body of truth to be acquired by students?
Substantive conversation – Is the classroom interaction reciprocal, and
does it promote coherent shared understanding? Does classroom talk
break out of the initiation/ response/ evaluation pattern and lead to
sustained dialogue between students, and between teachers and students?
Metalanguage – Are there high levels of talk about talk and writing,
about how written and spoken texts work, about specific technical
vocabulary and words, about how sentences work or don’t work
(syntax/grammar), about meaning structures and text structures
(semantics/genre), and about issues of how discourses and ideologies
work in speech and writing?

Supportive classroom environment

When observing for the Supportive Classroom Environment items
researchers asked the following questions:
Engagement – Are students engaged and on task? Are they attentive,
doing the assigned work, raising questions, contributing to group tasks
and helping peers? Or are they sleeping, day-dreaming, making a noise
or otherwise disrupting the class?
Student self-regulation – Are students regulating their own behaviour, or
is the teacher involved in giving directions on student behaviour?
Student direction of activities – Do students have any say in the pace,
direction or outcomes of the lesson?
Social support – Is the classroom a socially supportive and positive
environment? Does the teacher convey high expectations for all
students, including the expectation that they take intellectual risks
and try to master challenging academic work? Is there a climate of
mutual respect?
Explicit criteria – Are the criteria for judging student performances
made explicit?

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Engagement with difference

When observing for the Engagement with Difference elements researchers
asked the following questions:
Cultural knowledge – Are there explicit attempts to bring in beliefs,
languages, practices and ways of knowing of non-dominant cultures?
(e.g. In terms of gender, ethnicity, race, religion, economic status,
sexuality or youth)
Inclusivity – Are there deliberate attempts to increase the participation
of students of different backgrounds?
Narrative – Is the style of teaching principally narrative, or is it
expository?
Group identities in a learning community – Does the teaching build
a sense of community and identity for different groups within the
classroom?
Citizenship – Are attempts made to foster active citizenship?

Connectedness to the world beyond the classroom

When observing for the Connectedness elements researchers asked the

following questions:
Knowledge integration – Are there explicit attempts to connect
knowledge from different subject areas? Are there themes that
integrate subject knowledge?
Background knowledge – Are there opportunities for students to make
connections between their daily experiences, culture and language,
and the activities of the class? Are there attempts to explore students’
prior knowledge?
Connectedness to the world – Do the lesson and the assigned work have
any resemblance or connection to real-life contexts?
Problem-based curriculum – Is there a focus on identifying and solving
intellectual and/or real world problems, that have no specified correct
solution? (Compiled from Hayes et al., 2006, Chapter 2.)

The Productive Pedagogies research provides one approach to working

with pedagogy as part of the teaching-learning process. There are others
that may be used to good effect. What is important is that they are
discourses of classroom practice. Thus they provide a means of talking
about different activities that make a difference to student learning
outcomes. They provide a language of practice.

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The case of South Africa

The story of curriculum change in South Africa is a complex one, and
only a short sketch will be provided here (see Fataar, 2006, for an account
of the process).
Immediately after the 1994 election, the new government involved the
stakeholder body, the National Education and Training Forum, to ‘cleanse’
the apartheid curriculum, removing the overtly racist language and other
obvious problems.
In 1997, the new National Department of Education launched Curriculum
2005. This was an outcomes-based curriculum of mixed origins, which was
hastily implemented on the basis of short inservice courses for teachers.
Curriculum 2005 generated much comment. Jonathan Jansen, a major South
African scholar and public intellectual, was harshly critical of Curriculum
2005 and its OBE link, arguing that the policy was symbolic, did not engage
with actual classroom conditions, and was bound to fail. A range of other
scholars engaged with the knowledge basis of the new curriculum – as
constructivist and learner-centred – and they argued for or against these
approaches (see Michelson, 2004; Muller, 2000; Taylor and Vinjevold, 1999).
The curriculum development process which underpinned Curriculum
2005, and the wide range of terminology it used, suggest that it was not
well conceived theoretically. There is little evidence that its designers
engaged in any deep way with curriculum debates around constructivism,
interdisciplinarity, learner-centredness, and so on. Whereas the original
design concept of OBE was derived from Australian debates, the new
designers consulted William Spady whose concept of OBE was very different.
A major problem was that the curriculum documents provided outcome
statements, but no specified content or pedagogy. The framework was complex
and full of difficult terminology – but gave no guidance on what to teach, or
how. Public statements and documentation talked about changes in pedagogy
and assessment, but gave no real guidance on either aspect. Teachers were
provided with short and inadequate in-service courses in preparation for a
completely different classroom practice (see Jansen and Christie, 1999).
The curriculum failed to include elements of redress in the curriculum.
There were no materials for teaching against racism or sexism, and there
was no recognition of the very different circumstances in which teachers
would be implementing the new curriculum. The result was that well-
trained and well-resourced teachers were able to use the freedom given by
the curriculum to introduce innovations – or to teach in the same ways
as before. Poorly trained and poorly resourced teachers were not given
enough support to provide lessons of high quality. A lot of confusion
resulted (see Harley and Wedekind, 2004).

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In 2000, Curriculum 2005 was reviewed in a process led by educationist

and scholar, Linda Chisholm; and the Revised National Curriculum
Statement was issued in 2002. This curriculum has been revised and
amended and is the current basis of South Africa’s National Curriculum
Statements (see Chisholm, 2005a and 2005b).
What this brief outline illustrates is that changes to curriculum and
pedagogy have been complex in South Africa, and the results have been
uneven. Research on post-apartheid classrooms in poorer schools reveals
major weaknesses in curriculum and pedagogy. (This is well captured
in the work of Heather Jacklin, 2004; Ursula Hoadley, 2005; Lorraine
Marneweck, 2002; and Cheryl Reeves, 2005.) In a nutshell, what is
evident is classroom practice that does not engage students in work of
intellectual quality, that would achieve low scores on almost every element
of a scale such as Productive Pedagogies.
These studies suggest that the inequalities of post-apartheid education
filter through into classroom practices in South Africa’s poorly resourced
schools. It is here that inequalities take their firmest effect, for, as Elmore
and others have argued, this is the core of educational practice which is
hardest to change. The education system fails the students who need it
most: where students learn mainly by rote, or have no teachers present;
where teachers do not know the subject matter or how to teach it; where
codes of power/knowledge are not taught. This situation is reflected in the
studies of van der Berg and Taylor referred to earlier.
This leaves us with the question: How might classroom practices be
strengthened, to provide a more powerful learning experience for students?

What might be required for powerful classroom

practices?
The suggestions here are brief, and warrant a fuller exploration than is
possible here. (School reform needs another book of its own, as does
student experiences of school!)
One way to approach thinking about answering the question from ‘the
bottom’ is to adopt a backward mapping approach (drawing particularly on
the ideas of Elmore and McLaughlin). This approach begins by looking at
the smallest unit, namely teachers and students in classrooms. What sorts
of changes are required, and how might they be supported at classroom and
school level? Continuing to think backwards, what support might schools
need from education departments in order to support the work of teachers
and students? And what support might education departments need from

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governments so that they are able to support desired outcomes at the

smallest unit of the system, namely students and teachers in classrooms?
The following chain of backward mapping provides an example:

Students
Although this chapter has said almost nothing directly from the
perspectives of students, they are the smallest unit of a schooling system,
together with teachers in classrooms. An important starting point in a
backward mapping approach is to consider the particular students in any
classroom and what their educational backgrounds might require:

Who are the students? What constellations of social relationships do

they live in? What are their particular circumstances and learning
needs? (Consider, for example: community characteristics; networks
of support; health, nutrition, wellness, HIV/AIDS effects; culture and
language; distance from school and means of travel and so on). In
terms of achieving social justice, what remedies of recognition or
redistribution are required in particular instances?

Teachers
Studies since the Coleman Report have pointed to the importance
of teachers, and the difference they are able to make, particularly for
individual students, and students in disadvantaged contexts. What is
required of teachers to put powerful classroom practices in place?

Teacher knowledge
What knowledge is necessary for good teaching? A group of US theorists
have usefully addressed this question and specified a number of knowledge
requirements (these theorists include Shulman, 1987; Darling-Hammond, 2006;
and Talbert and McLaughlin, 2001) Their suggestions for teacher knowledge are:

subject content knowledge

pedagogic content knowledge, that is, knowledge about how to teach
particular subjects
a repertoire of pedagogical skills that teachers are able to use and adapt
knowledge of assessment
knowledge of how students learn and different theories of learning
knowledge of educational aims and purposes
knowledge of educational contexts.

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In the South African context, additional knowledge would be: how to

work with cultural and linguistic diversity; how to teach students with
different educational levels in the same classroom; how to deal with
the complexities of HIV and AIDS; how to understand (and change)
the challenges of recognition and redistribution in the complex South
African context. The challenges of teaching for diversity are well set out
in the work of of Relebohile Moletsane, Crispin Hemson and Anabanithi
Mutukrishna (2004) on school integration.
Writing for ADEA in the African context, Martial Dembélé provides a
list of what is required of effective teachers:

Effective teachers understand how children learn, are attuned to

student thinking and learning, have high expectations for and care
about all of their students, create and sustain an effective learning
environment and community, plan regularly for instruction, use
instructional time optimally, seek the active participation of students
in learning, encourage them to share responsibility for their own
learning and help them to do so, give frequent homework, carry out
classroom assessment frequently and provide feedback, and reflect
on their teaching. Most importantly, they try to build bridges
between their sophisticated understanding of subject matter and
their students’ developing understanding and adapt instruction
to the variations in ability and background presented by their
students. (2005:175)

The requirements seem endless!

Teacher education
Ideally, teachers need good pre-service preparation which provides a
foundation of the different knowledges for effective practice. They also
need good in-service professional development, particularly as ‘lifelong
learners’ in a knowledge age. Support for teacher learning and professional
development brings benefits – provided this is targeted and focused on
teacher needs and teacher knowledges. In part, this is about constructing
a professional practice. But it is also about constructing a professional
identity. Opportunities for professional discussions with other teachers –
teacher professional learning communities – make a difference to teachers’
professional practice, as the work of Karen Louis and colleagues has shown
(1996). Teachers also need to be accountable for their practice – although,
from what we have discussed in this chapter, this needs to be related to the
contexts in which they work.

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 Schools and classrooms as places of learning

Much more could be said about teacher education, teacher identity,

teacher status and morale, teacher recruitment and retention, and so on.

Stable and functioning schools

What institutional supports are required to support the work of teachers
and students in classrooms? For powerful classroom practices to be
sustained, well-functioning schools are required. These provide the
conditions under which teachers can be motivated to do their work well,
and be held accountable for doing so. This includes providing safe and
secure environments, predictable rhythms of learning, adequate resourcing,
learning materials, structures for time on task, effective leadership and
management, sound governance, relationships across the boundaries
of the school to allow for outside influences and resources, and so on
(see Christie, 2001 and 1998). It also requires districts and government
departments to play their role in supporting schools – and holding them
accountable for their practices.

External support
What can education departments and governments best do to support the
work of schools and teachers in providing quality learning experiences
for students? It is worth recalling the findings of the UNESCO Global
Monitoring Report of 2005, which identified the following characteristics of
education in countries which achieve well on EFA goals:

a teaching profession held in high esteem, with high expectations of

quality and well-developed pre-service and in-service training
continuity of policy over time
a high level of public commitment to education, emanating from a
strong political vision.

Michael Fullan’s (2000) article, ‘The three stories of educational reform’,

sums up the requirements for good school and classroom practice as three
interwoven processes, all of which need to be present:

Fullan’s first story is about what happens inside schools. This story
emphasises a culture of shared professionalism around pedagogy
and assessment.
The second story is about the external demands which bombard schools.
Schools need to make sense of a range of external demands and engage
with them if they are to perform well. These include the demands of

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new technologies, of communities and parents, of business and labour

markets. How schools engage with external demands, and relate to their
communities and contexts, is the second story.
And the third story is about what governments and external
agencies might do to support schools so that the first two stories
work well. Fullan’s view is that governments should devolve as much
responsibility as possible to schools – and then hold them strictly
accountable for their performance.

That, in a nutshell, provides a brief answer to the question: How might

good classroom practices be supported and spread, to ensure powerful
learning experiences for all students?

5 Concluding comments
This chapter has addressed the question: ‘What will make a difference to
the learning outcomes and experiences of different students at school?’
The chapter places the scale of schools and classrooms alongside other
scales of analysis: global change; national development; and educational
policy. It has shown that a number of answers are possible to the question:
‘What makes a difference?’ There is the broader social structure and its
patterns of inequalities to consider. Within this, are networks of opportunity
that parents and students engage with. Schools themselves are not equal and
there is an institutional geography which is fairly stable. How well schools
function and, ultimately, what happens in classroom practice, will make a
difference to students’ experiences and learning outcomes.
These answers may be easy to predict, but they are hard to change. As
the various chapters of this book have shown, the quality of schooling
in post-apartheid South African schooling is mixed – and in very many
cases, it is poor. Nonetheless, this chapter has suggested at every point
that interventions are possible. The challenge is for South Africa to offer
schooling experiences of quality to all its students, that meet the goals
explored earlier in this book: systematic teaching and learning; active
participation in the world; and individual development. Achieving social
justice in schooling requires engaging actively with the demands of both
recognition and redistribution.
No less than this is required if the doors of learning are to be opened for all.

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 Schools and classrooms as places of learning

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 chapter 7
Facing the challenges:
a framework of ethics
This book has foregrounded three broad goals and
purposes for education. Each of these may be framed
in terms of an ethical commitment for educational
practice and change. This chapter provides an ethical
framework to guide educators in approaching the
task of improving teaching and learning outcomes for
all students.

Systematic teaching and learning may be framed

in terms of an ethics of commitment to intellectual
rigour.
Active participation in the world may be framed
in terms of an ethics of civility in building the
conditions for a democratic public space.
Individual development may be framed in terms of
an ethics of care for self, for others, and the world
we share.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

Using different scales of analysis – global, nation state development,

government policy, and schools and classrooms – the book has argued
that schooling is a complex social activity. It has multiple, sometimes
contradictory, goals. And change is hard to achieve. All of the chapters
have shown that inequalities in South African education will not easily
shift. These inequalities are part of broader social patterns that education,
alone, cannot remedy. A more just and equitable education system will not
emerge without difficult decisions and sustained effort.

On a global scale, inequalities are increasing, and the jagged lines

of access to internet technologies are dividing the world in new and
unstable ways. Inequalities in South Africa are linked to global trends
as well as local contexts. Castells argues that globalisation is taking
place on the back of information and communication technologies,
and those without access to networks and technologies are in
danger of being radically excluded from global action. According
to Appadurai, the changes being brought about by changing global
flows and shifting landscapes call for a new imagination and different
ways of thinking. Clearly, these global changes pose new challenges
for education to address. At the same time, however, South Africa’s
transition to democracy occurred in a period when neoliberal
capitalism was dominant on a global scale. Neoliberal capitalism is
not sympathetic to redress measures, and favours market approaches
in education. South Africa faces the challenge of meeting demands
for equity in education, within a competitive market framework.
The current state of play on the global scale is not favourable towards
additional spending on education to open doors of learning.

On the scale of national development, much is known about

educational inequalities. Yet targets to meet improvements in
education, health and other areas of social life are not being met.
A history of development theories shows that education is linked to
development, but not in simple functionalist ways. Where education
prospers, as in the Asian developmental states, there is strong support
from government and civil society; there are also strong expectations
that principals, teachers and students will perform. South Africa’s
development policies in the first 10 years of change did not reduce
poverty and inequality as hoped, and inequalities in education remain
profound. The result is that we can identify ‘two education systems’, one
serving a largely non-racial middle class, the other, almost exclusively
black schools, serving the poor. While we need to recognise that

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development is a complex challenge, we cannot sit back and wait for a

more just and equitable society to emerge. Development history shows
us that there will be no simple ‘unfolding’ of educational improvements
towards greater equality on this scale.

On the scale of nation state policies, what is evident is that South

Africa has modelled its policy process on the practices of a modernist,
democratic state, promoting the identity of common citizenship in
place of apartheid’s racial and ethnic identities. Framework policies
are enlightened on paper, but many have proven impossible to
implement with current levels of resources and capacity. In particular,
policies for equity have been hampered by fiscal restraint. ‘Acting like
a government’ has resulted in compromises which have allowed the
education system to continue to function in the old ways at a time
of massive change. Measures to reduce inequalities have been put in
place, but they have not been powerful enough to shift the legacy of the
past in major ways. New policies set a basis for a better future, but the
situation is still a long way from the vision of the Freedom Charter.

On the scale of schools and classrooms, South Africa follows

international patterns, where the inequalities that children bring to
school tend to remain with them to affect their overall life chances.
In schools serving richer communities, parents tend to pool their
resources to strengthen their schools, for example by employing
specialist teachers. These schools are ‘fortified’ for the demands of the
academic curriculum. In contrast, schools serving poor communities
do not have these additional benefits. They are ‘exposed sites’ in
terms of the demands of the curriculum, and their students struggle to
achieve academically. Studies of school performance in South Africa
paint a depressing picture of poor quality in the majority of schools.
Effectiveness studies suggest ways in which school performance may
be improved, but the challenge remains of how to actually bring about
changes. Classroom practice makes a crucial contribution to students’
learning outcomes, and needs to be constantly strengthened. Attempts
to change classroom practices through Curriculum 2005 initially
brought mixed results, but these are being continually addressed.
However, as things currently stand, in most of South Africa’s schools,
teaching and learning struggle to meet the high quality necessary
to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to
participate in the global world.

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

Viewed in this way, while much has been achieved, much remains to be
done. The logics and rationalities of government may well suggest that
what exists is the best that can be done. But for educators concerned to
provide meaningful learning to young people, this answer cannot be taken
as good enough.
This book has argued for the importance of working continually for
schools to be places of learning for all students. In the face of the apparent
determinism of social structures, the book has argued that schools
can make a difference, and that individuals and social groups can act
ethically for change. The logics of governments – and global theorists
and development theorists – are not the only logics available to critical
intellectuals and educationists. Alternative logics need to be explored.

Ethical challenges
This book has foregrounded three broad goals and purposes for education.
Each of these may be framed in terms of an ethical commitment for
educational practice and change. What follows is an ethical framework
to guide educators in approaching the task of improving teaching and
learning outcomes for all students.

Systematic teaching and learning may be framed in terms of an ethics of

commitment to intellectual rigour.
Active participation in the world may be framed in terms of an ethics of
civility in building the conditions for a democratic public space.
Individual development may be framed in terms of an ethics of care for
self, for others, and for the world we share.

Each of these will be explored in turn.

An ethics of intellectual rigour

One of the goals of schooling is to provide systematic teaching and
learning to young people. What might this look like in ethical terms?
The US educator, Ted Sizer, states that schools should help students ‘to
use their minds well’. This is a misleadingly simple but profound statement.
One meaning is that education needs to develop habits of mind (and
heart) that strive for intellectual rigour.

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 Facing the challenges: a framework of ethics

An ethics of intellectual rigour challenges students and teachers to build

practices of learning and enquiry as habits and dispositions. It challenges them
to strive always to be informed and aware, to weigh up evidence and argument,
to engage with difficult and complex issues and emotions, to develop their own
views in thoughtful ways, and to change them when appropriate.
This is not to argue for a particular political or theoretical position.
Rather it is to argue for intellectual vigilance and integrity in addressing
issues of power and knowledge. A commitment to intellectual rigour means
a continuing willingness to recognise that human knowledge is partial,
and its perspectives are limited – without surrendering to an irresponsible
relativism where anything counts as knowledge. It entails continually
pushing the boundaries of what we know, questioning the certainties, and
exploring different worlds of experience. It entails building on existing
scholarship, correcting ourselves when we make mistakes, and working to
conceptualise possible futures.
An ethics of intellectual rigour goes some way towards understanding
why it has been so hard to reduce educational inequalities in South Africa,
without accepting easy answers, or allowing things to rest as they are.

An ethics of civility
One of the goals of education is to prepare young people for participation
in public life. This raises the ethical question: How might we best live
together in a shared public realm? The public realm cannot simply be
taken for granted. It needs to be continually built and maintained.
Building and maintaining the conditions for participation in public affairs
is a central task for democracy. Etienne Balibar (2001) terms this ‘civility’
and warns that it is fragile and requires nurturing. Nurturing civility is a
task that education rightly addresses.
Whereas an ethics of intellectual rigour may be an individual endeavour,
an ethics of civility entails engaging in a shared public life. The political
philosopher Hannah Arendt puts this well when she says that public life
requires us to ‘think in the presence of others’ (2001:22). For Arendt, this
is not about trying to put oneself in the position of another, or showing
empathy. Rather, it is about acknowledging that there are standpoints
other than one’s own in a public realm. We need to engage with other
standpoints in order to communicate and come to agreement.
An ethics of civility challenges South Africans to give attention to
what is shared and common in a country with a divided history. South
Africa is a country where there are people of many languages and cultures

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living side-by-side, in greatly different conditions of wealth and poverty.

An ethics of civility is concerned with building and maintaining a shared
public realm under these conditions. It suggests the need to continually
reflect on the nature of the shared society and its relations of power, and to
build a common public sphere and identity with respect for difference.
This position on difference is not to be confused with a simple
‘multiculturalism’, which runs the danger of assigning static identities
to people and freezing groups and their cultures. A focus on culture
easily takes attention away from the power relations and socioeconomic
inequalities that so often accompany difference. In Fraser’s terms, social
injustices need to be analysed and redressed in terms of both recognition
and redistribution.
Education for an ethics of civility is not about ‘politicising’ teachers
and students. Rather, it is about requiring them to be familiar with the
practices, rights and responsibilities of democracy and active citizenship.
It is about developing the capacity to ‘think in the presence of others’.
Actively building the conditions for a shared public space – for civility –
is an important task for an ethics of engagement in education.

An ethics of care
The previous ethical frameworks we have considered are concerned with
an education which builds a disposition of enquiry and which supports
thoughtful engagement in public life. The third ethical framework put
forward here is to consider the individual human being, living with others
in a shared world.
What is it to be human? This is a topic of much philosophical debate.
Philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and his followers assume that there
exists a common, universal human subject (see McIntyre, 1998/1966). This
human subject (or person) is autonomous and capable of rational thought
and action. Others, such as Judith Butler (a ‘post-foundationalist’ theorist)
argue against assuming that there is a universally shared human nature
which is essentially the same (1995). (She does go on to say, however, that
certain experiences may bring us together as human beings, specifically,
‘our vulnerability to loss and the task of mourning that follows’ [2004:19]).
Whatever our position, it is clear that human experience is shaped in
engagement with others; it is not a matter of the individual being alone.
The relationship of self to other is integral to human experience.
How, then, might we understand the other? Iris Marion Young, the
US feminist philosopher, usefully argues that in engaging with others,

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we should not assume that we are able to stand inside their world
and think like them. Engagement with others requires recognition of
their separateness as ‘irreducible and irreversible’ (2001:216). This
requires a moral humility which recognises that there is ‘much that I
do not understand about the other person’s experience and perspective’
(2001:219). An ethical relation with others, she suggests, ‘is structured,
not by a willingness to reverse positions with others, but by respectful
distancing from and approach towards them’ (2001:217).
Again, this is not about simple multiculturalism. Rather, it is about an
acceptance that ‘difference’ is part of the human experience. We are all
‘others’ to somebody.
The Talmudic philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas (who survived the
Holocaust), makes a radical statement about what it is to be human. He
argues that it entails the ethical responsibility to care for others. He makes
the point that as human beings, we have the capacity to comprehend
‘being’. We also have the capacity to recognise another human being (‘the
face of the other’), and the ethical response to this encounter, says Levinas,
is one of responsibility. Even before we know or understand the other,
we recognise a human face, and ethically, we cannot be indifferent. For
Levinas, the shattering of indifference and having a sense of responsibility
for another is the defining interhuman ethic.
Levinas argues that responsibility for the other comes before any
judgement, or expectation of what they might do for us in return. He goes
as far as to say that in the relationship of Face to Face: ‘at the outset I hardly
care what the other is with respect to me, that is his [her] own business;
for me, he [she] is above all the one I am responsible for’ (1998:105). In
short, being human is expressed in the care of one for the other. In refusing
to acknowledge the face of the other, or to care for the other as our first
response, we deny ourselves the very basis of what it is to be human. Picking
up on Levinas’s work, Judith Butler says:

To respond to the face, to understand its meaning, means to

be awake to what is precarious in another life or, rather, the
precariousness of life itself. (2004:134)

What does an ethics such as this mean for education? What is being
proposed here is a radical ethics of care, not a simple one. It is an
ethics that calls for deep reflection about living with others – who are
different, always. It means valuing and nurturing a concern for a common
humanness, expressed in care and responsibility for the other. To shatter

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indifference to suffering, and to care for the other, are primary ethical tasks
for all individuals. And they are ethical tasks for education.
An ethics of care such as this, is one of the ways in which human beings
may come to understand themselves in a shared world, and to work to
change the world and themselves.
What might this mean for the challenge of achieving greater equity in
education in South Africa?

The task of critical educationists in

opening the doors of learning
As with other social activities, education contributes towards actively building
the world we wish to live in, albeit in circumstances not of our own choosing.
This book suggests that the role of critical intellectuals in education is to
continue to question, probe and explore what exists. The challenge is not to
view what exists as inevitable and unchanging – and not to underestimate the
task of changing what exists. The task is to keep envisaging alternatives, to
keep challenging with new ideas, and to keep pressing against the boundaries
of common sense towards something better. The task is always to hold an
ethical position on education, which entails a commitment to continuously
thinking about how we may best live with others in the world we share. As
educators, our task is to enrich debates from within educational discourses. We
need to work with governments without ‘thinking like them’; to work with
teachers and students; to explore the outermost edges of understanding;
and to face rather than deny or accommodate what is in front of us.
To change schooling in South Africa, more radical measures are needed
to reduce social injustices and work towards greater equity. We need more
resources and support directed towards poor schools. We need support for
teachers and principals to work towards building professionalism based on
capacity as well as accountability. We need to acknowledge the power of
the formal codes of knowledge, and to work to make them accessible to all
students. We need to acknowledge other languages and ways of knowing.
We need always to uphold an ethics of education as part of speaking truth
to power, and speaking truth about power.
We need to expect that solutions will be hard, not easy. They will always
be provisional, always ‘in the making’, as people create their own histories
but not in circumstances of their own choosing.

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 Facing the challenges: a framework of ethics

References
Arendt, H (2001) The crisis in culture: its social and political significance.
In R Beiner and J Nedelsky (eds.). Judgement, Imagination and Politics:
themes for Kant and Arendt. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
(3–26).
Balibar, E (2005) Difference, otherness, exclusion. Parallax. Vol 11 No 1
(9–34).
Balibar, E (2001) Outlines of a topography of cruelty: Citizenship and
civility in the era of global violence, Constellations. Vol 8 No 1 (5–29).
Butler, J (2004) Precarious Lives: the powers of mourning and violence.
London and New York: Verso.
Butler, J (1995) Contingent foundations. In S Benhabib, J Butler, D
Cornell and N Fraser, Feminist Contentions: a philosophical exchange. New
York and London: Routledge (35–57).
Levinas, E (1998) Entre nous: on thinking-of-the-other (trans. MB Smith and
B Harshav) London: Athlone Press.
McIntyre, A (1966/1998) A Short History of Ethics. London and New York:
Routledge.
Sizer, T (1992) Horace’s School: redesigning the American high school. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin.
Young, IM (2001) Asymmetrical reciprocity: On moral respect, wonder
and enlarged thought. In R Beiner and J Nedelsky (eds.). Judgement,
Imagination and Politics: themes for Kant and Arendt. Lanham: Rowman
and Littlefield Publishers (205–28).

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

List of Acronyms

ADEA Association for the Development of Education in Africa

COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions

DoE Department of Education

ECD Early Childhood Development

EFA Education for All

ELRA Education Labour Relations Act

FET Further Education and Training

GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution

GNI Gross National Income

GNU Government of National Unity

HDI Human Development Index

ILO International Labour Organisation

IQMS Integrated Quality Management System

IMF International Monetary Fund

LOLT Language of Learning and Teaching

NCHE National Commission on Higher Education

NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development

NIES Newly Industrialised Economies

OBE Outcomes-Based Education

218

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 LIST OF ACRONYMS

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PM Performance Measurement

RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme

SACP South African Communist Party

SACE South African Council of Educators

SACMEQ  Southern African Consortium for Monitoring

Education Quality

SACU Southern African Customs Union

SADC Southern African Development Community

SAQA South African Qualifications Authority

SASA South Africa Schools Act

SGBs School Governing Bodies

UN United Nations

UNESCO  United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural

Organisation

WSE Whole School Evaluation

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

Index
Entries are listed in letter-by-letter alphabetical sequence. Anagrams and
abbreviations are listed at the beginning of each letter sequence.

A Alexander, Robin 185

ABET (adult basic education and allocation of resources 118
training) 129 Althusser, L 170
ADEA (Association for the Amin, Samir 77
Development of Education in Andreasson, Stefan 88–89
Africa) 192 anti-globalisation 47
ANC 90 antinomies 37, 43, 60
ability and change 152 apartheid
academic and patterns of poverty 98
knowledge 190 capitalism 77
language 194–195 curriculum 199
access to technology 44–45, 49 education policies 32–33,
accountability of schools and 62–63, 175
teachers 143 effectiveness of schools under 182
achievement tests 166–167 internal colonialism 77
active institutional geography of schools
learning 192 under 178–179
participation in the world 64–65, school funding 135–136
189–190, 209 Appadurai, Arjun 49, 52–54, 57, 210
Adams, Don 78–79 Arendt, Hannah 213
additive policy 149 Asian developmental states/‘tigers’
adequate education 136 78–79
adult basic education and training assessment as message system 185, 189
(ABET) 129 Association for the Development of
advancement, schools as avenues Education in Africa (ADEA)
of 26 192
adventurous pedagogy 192 authority, sources of 120–121
African
development 92 B
states, nation-building background knowledge 198
approaches of 30–31 backward mapping 154–155, 200–204
agency 165, 168, 170, 191 Balibar, Etienne 189, 213
structure and 6–7, 92 Ball, Stephen 124
aid banking model of education 77
new architecture of 81 Bantu Education Act 62
preconditions for 80 bargaining in policy process 153
agreement on effects of Becker, Gary 75
globalisation 44–45 Bernstein, Basil 175, 184–185, 189

220

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 Index

Bill of Rights Chisholm, Linda 200

for children (Gee) 195 choices
South African Constitution 32 enlarging 82
bimodal school results 179 in 1994 education policy 130
black Christie, Frances 38
holes of informational age 50 chronic poverty 97
middle class 102 citizenship 30, 69
Blair, Tony 35 preparation for 189, 190, 198
Bond, Patrick 92 civility, ethics of 209, 213–214
Bourdieu, Pierre 173–174, 180, 186, civil society 119
187–188, 189 class and inequality in South
Bowles, S 170 Africa 102
Bretton Woods Institutions 79, 80 classroom environment, supportive
Bruner, Jerome 37, 43, 60 196, 197
budgetary allocation 137–138 classroom practice
building blocks of learning 58, 59, 60 changing 151–152
bureaucratic school systems 66, 67 effect 182
Business Trust 27 four dimensions of 195–196
Butler, Judith 214–215 influence on outcomes 184
Productive pedagogies as example
C of 195–199
CEM (Council of Education requirements for powerful
Ministers) 159 200–204
CHE (Council on Higher supporting student learning
Education) 159 191–200
COSATU (Congress of South classrooms
African Trade Unions) 90 as places of learning 164–204
capabilities, human 82–83 inequalities on scale of 211–212
capacity for change 152, 155, 173 code-switch, ability to 190
capitalism 45, 47, 105 cognition, school-based forms of
and inequality 77, 170 16–17
apartheid 77 Colebatch, HK 125–126, 129, 153
care, ethics of 209, 214–216 Coleman Report 165–169, 180, 191
Carley, M 124 Cole, Mike 17–18, 30, 59, 63
Castells, Manuel 49–52, 57, 92, 210 colonialism 86–87
Cerny, PG 120 commitment to intellectual rigour,
change ethics of 209, 212–213
education, scale and 4–5 common sense 25
social, and schooling 2–10 communication technologies 44–45
time of 2–4 comparisons of development
child-centred learning 192 indicators 110–111
children compromise 118, 122, 126, 156
and poverty 99 conceptual frameworks for
Bill of Rights for (Gee) 195 educational change 6–10

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

Congress of South African Trade development process 199

Unions (COSATU) 90 global-local antinomy 61–62
connectedness to world beyond selection of knowledge for
classroom 196, 198 186–188, 191
Connolly, William 118, 156 Curriculum 2005 131, 142, 199,
consensus-building 153 200, 211
Constitution of the Republic of Curriculum Model for South
South Africa, 1996 32, 116, Africa 128
122, 127, 128, 131, 134, 137, cynical, ‘realpolitik’ position 89
148, 159
Bill of Rights 32 D
constellation of social relationships DA (Development Appraisal)
175–176 132, 143
constructivism 192 Dakar Framework for Action 84
context 185 decision-making 117, 126
contexts of implementation 148–149 de Clercq, Francine 130
core deep
countries of 76 democracy 54
of educational practice 151 knowledge/understanding 197
Council of Education Ministers deglobalisation 47
(CEM) 159 degrowth 47
Council on Higher Education Delors Report 68–69
(CHE) 159 Delpit, Lisa 186–187
criminal economy, global 51 Dembélé Martial 192, 193
critical Department of Education 131, 199
approaches to policy 124 Annual Report 2006–207 159
educationists, role in opening Report of the Working Group on
doors of learning 216 Values in Education 31–32
thinking 109 dependency discourses 75–78, 86, 87
cultural deployment of teachers 143
assumptions 167 deregulation 91
capital 173–174, 175, 188, 190 de-schooling 23, 67, 188
changes, result of globalisation 45 destabilisation of theory 20
injustice 172 determinism 173
knowledge 198 development 73
mediation 16, 19 alternative position on 88–89
culture and World Bank and IMF 28–29
global-local antinomy 61–62 approaches 74
of poverty 169–170 choices for South Africa 90–93
cultures, marginalised 87, 88 discourses 74–89
curriculum education and 104–109
as message system 185, 189 framework for 73
assessments 159 goals 81, 86
changes 200 indicators 110–111

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 Index

master narratives of 104 economic

moving beyond 89 austerity in South Africa 93
of individual 24, 33–34, 65–66, discourses 24–29, 34
191, 209 redistribution 90
of nation state 73 roles of schools 14–15
people-centred approach, South economic growth 75
Africa 91 in South Africa 90, 92, 93
schooling and 107–108 schools and 26–28
targets for 105–106 economy, schools and 24
theories of 74–89 education
Development Appraisal (DA) agenda, setting 124
132, 143 and knowledge economy 55–57
digital divide 46 and poverty 99
direct instruction 192 Asian developmental states and
direction of activities, student 197 78–79
disagreement on effects of capabilities approach to 83
globalisation 45–48 dependency theories and 72–78
discourses developments 104–109
development 74–89 markets in 141–142
economic 4–29, 34 modernisation theories and
educational 18–34 75–76
need for multiplicity of 59 need in global economy 52
of globalisation 49 postcolonial approaches to 88
of inequalities 170 postdevelopmental approaches
discovery learning 192 to 88
discrimination in education right to 4, 84
134–135, 144 social development agenda and
discursive power 120 84–86
dismantling of schooling systems 67 Washington Consensus and
distributional regime 102 79–80
distributive policies 122 Education for All (EFA) 15, 84,
Dudley, Janice 117 105, 150–151, 203
Global Monitoring Reports
E 84–85, 203
ECD (Early Childhood targets for education 105–106
Development), White Paper Education Labour Relations Act
on 132, 159 (ELRA) 132
EFA (Education for All) 15, 84, education policy in South Africa
150–151, 203 126–158
Global Monitoring Reports achievements 145–148
84–85, 203 addressing inequality 133,
targets for education 105–106 147–148
ELRA (Education Labour Relations capacity 132
Act) 132 for change 156–159

223223

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

framework 131–132 of commitment to intellectual

funding 132, 134–143 rigour 209, 212–21
implementation 131, 132, 137 ethnoscapes 53
possibilities and limits of changes European Union 80–81
in 148–156 everyday life in schools 22–23
Education Renewal Strategy 128 exclusion from global economy 46
educational experiences, shared patterns of 164
adequacy 136 explicit
change 4–10 criteria 197
opportunity, equal 136 instruction/teaching 188, 192,
practice, core of 151 193–195
reform, three stories of 203–204 exposed sites 176–177, 179, 211
systems 24, 27 external support for schools 203
Edwards-Groves, Christine 193–194
effectiveness of schools 181–184 F
Eiselen Commission 62 FET (Further Education and
elites 77 Training)
Elmore, Richard 149, 151, 200 Act, 1998 132, 159
employment and poverty levels in Colleges Act, 2006 159
South Africa 99 General and, Quality Assurance
Employment of Educators Act 159 Act 159
endemic poverty 97 National Committee on 132
engagement, 196, 197, 198 Face to Face relationship 215
enrolment rates 146 failure, schools as avenues of 26
equal Fataar, A 153, 199
distribution of government fee exemptions policy 140
resources 145–146 fee-free schools 140
educational opportunity 136 filtered policy 149
rights in education 144 financescapes 53
treatment 136–137 fiscal restraint 91
equality 9–10, 35–36, 127 Fiske, Edward 136
of opportunity 25, 31 flexible labour 50
equitable shares funding formula flexibility of jobs 56, 64
138–139 flows 53, 57, 60
Equitable Shares Policy 122, 179 formal
equity 9–10, 63, 134–143 codes and symbol systems 59, 60,
Escobar, Arturo 87 186, 187, 188
essentially contested concepts curriculum 188
118, 144 teaching and learning 188, 191
ethical ways of living together 57 fortified sites 176–177, 178–179, 211
ethics 9 forward mapping 154
framework of 209–216 Foucault, Michel 19, 20, 88, 109,
of care 209, 214–216 156–157
of civility 209, 213–214 four pillars of learning 68–69

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 Index

Frank, André Gunder 77 gender 76

Fraser, Nancy 171–172, 180, 214 and poverty 99
freedom, development as 82 discrimination 172
Freedom Charter 4 General and Further Education and
Freire, Paolo 77–78, 109 Training Quality Assurance
Freud Sigmund 36 Act 159
Fullan, Michael 203–204 generic labour 52, 56
Fuller, Bruce 30, 186 genres 38
functional Gintis, H 170
functionalist literacy 17 global
narrative 14–15, 34 change 43
relationship between schools climate of South Africa’s
and economy 57 transition 90
fundamentalist movements 51 comparisons of development
funding indicators 110–111
contradictory effects of 142–143 criminal economy 51
distortions under apartheid cultural exchange 60
135–136 flows 53
effects of neoliberalism on 137 governance, lack of 46
of educational systems 24 imbalances 48
policies, South African education justice 47
134–143 knowledge 59, 60–64
public contributions to 139–141 scale of inequalities 5, 210
unintended consequences of social movements 47
142–143 social cohesion, lack of 46
Further Education and Training globalisation 44–49
Act, 1998 132, 159 from below 54
Colleges Act, 2006 159 inequalities of 46–47, 48, 64
General and, Quality Assurance points of agreement/disagreement
Act 159 44–48
National Committee on 132 theories of 49–59
future, schools for the 66–69 understanding 49–57
goals, development 81, 86
G goals of schooling 13–38
G8 80 active participation in the world
GEAR (Growth, Employment and 64–65, 189–190, 209
Redistribution) 90, 91–92 individual learning and
GNU (Government of National development 65–66, 191, 209
Unity) 90, 91, 127 systematic teaching 58–64,
Gallie, WG 118 185–189, 209
Garenne, Michel 175 good sense 25
Gee, James Paul 194 government
Gelb, Stephen 92 definition of 119
‘thinking like’ 156–158, 211

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

governmentality 156 Human Development

Government of National Unity Index 81, 110
(GNU) 90, 91, 127 Reports 82, 103, 111
Gramsci, Antonio 25, 61
grand narratives 20, 36, 49 I
Greenstein, Ran 119–120 ILO (International Labour
group identities in learning Organisation) 47
community 198 IMF (International Monetary Fund)
growth 28–29, 45, 75, 79
need for in South Africa 90 IQMS (Integrated Quality
through redistribution 91 Management System) 132
Growth, Employment and ideal
Redistribution (GEAR) 90, education system, South
91–92 Africa 132
Gustafsson, Martin 139, 141 state of affairs, policy as 118,
126, 132
H identity, issues of 87, 88
HEDCOM (Heads of Education ideoscapes 53
Departments Committee) 159 Illich, Ivan 23
HIV/Aids 83–86 implementation
Harvey, David 44–45, 47 contexts of 148–149
Heads of Education Departments of policy 124, 128, 131, 152–154
Committee (HEDCOM) 159 Implementation Plans for Education
Heynemann, Stephen 30–31 and Training 128
Higher Education Act 159 impossible professions (Freud) 36
higher order thinking 196 inclusivity 198
historically privileged/ indicators of development 110–111
disadvantaged schools 147 individual
home ability 164
influence on schooling outcomes development 24, 33–34, 65–66,
164–176, 183 191, 209
language instruction 61, 187, 189 learning 65–66, 191, 209
Hopkins, David 192 indoctrination 32
horizontal dimension of policy inequality 9–10, 73, 76, 158
126–127, 129, 153, 156 ability of schooling to reduce
human 35–36
agency 6–7 addressing in South Africa
capabilities, fulfilling 82 101–104
capital theory 26–27, 31, 75, 76, 77 and class 102
development 82–84 and race 101–102
learning, discourses of 19 discourses of 170
rights in South Africa 127 failure to reduce 82
global scale of 210

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 Index

individual 173 J
in South Africa 95–104 Jacklin, Heather 186
in South African educational Jansen, Jonathan 199
system 133, 134–137, 144–145, jobs and amount of schooling 25–26
147–148, 200 Jomtien Declaration 84
of capitalism 170 justice, social 9–10
of globalisation 46–47, 48, 64
of outcomes 165–173 K
persistent, in educational Kahn, Kathleen 175
system 146 Kant, Immanuel 214
perpetuation of 174, 175 King, Kenneth 81
racially based 172 knowledge
reducing 57 academic 190
scale of 210–212 as source of value 45
schooling and 105–107 background 198
social 173 content 187
theories of 165–170 deep 197
structural 174, 175–178 economy 54–57
working with and against integration 198
173–175 problematic 197
information school 16–17, 23, 186
age 50–52 selection for curriculum 186–188
technologies 44–45, 59–60 society 57, 68
injustice, sources of 171–172 teacher 183, 201–202
insights into policy 150–155 vocational 190
institutional workers 57
geography of schools 177–178 Kyoto agreement 46
power 120
Integrated Quality Management L
System (IQMS) 132 LOLT (Language of Learning and
intellectual Teaching) 147
quality 196–197 labour
rigour, ethics of 209, 212–213 flexible 50
internal colonialism 77 generic 50, 56
International Labour Organisation market, schools and 25–26
(ILO) 47 Ladd, Helen 136
International Monetary Fund (IMF) landscapes, of the global imaginary
28–29, 45, 75, 79 53, 57, 60
internet 50–57 language
-based economy, development academic and specialist 194–195
of 51 and culture 16
and global-local antinomy 61
as limit to perception 118

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

construction of ‘the normal’ 170 MLA (Monitoring Learner

devaluation of 172 Assessment) 147
factors optimising learning 183 Madhavan, Sangeetha 175
linked to ways of thinking 194–195 mainstreaming children with
of instruction 31, 187 special needs 132, 142
patterns of (discourses) 18–19, 170 Mandela, Nelson 73
teaching, explicit 194 marginalisation 64, 82, 87
variables and academic market
performance 28 model, extending 67
Language of Learning and Teaching narratives 105
(LOLT) 147 principles and education 80
languages, marginalised 87, 88 markets in education 141–142
layered policy 149 Marxist theories 15
learning master narratives 104, 149
classroom practices supporting mastery learning 192
191–200 material policies 123
four patterns of 68–69 Mbeki, Thabo 73, 89
individual 65–66 McGrath, Simon 81
lifelong 55–57, 64, 67, 68, 129, 202 McLaughlin, Milbrey 152–153,
mastery 192 155, 200
networks 67 McNaughton, Stuart 193
society 67 mediascapes 53
to live together 68 meltdown scenario 66
to know/do/be 69 meritocracy 165
Learning: the treasure within 68–69 message systems of schooling
le Roux, Neil 148 184–185, 189
Levinas, Emmanuel 215 metalanguage 197
lifelong learning 55–57, 64, 67, 68, Michelson, E 199
129, 202 Migdal, Joel 120–121
Lifelong Learning in the Global Millennium Development Goals
Knowledge Society World Bank (MDGs) 81
Report 55–57 Mills, C Wright 7–8, 26, 33, 65,
linguistic capital 188, 190 164, 191
literacy 17, 18, 38, 193–194 mind, discourses of 19
local modern state 29–31, 116
background to South Africa’s modernisation discourses 75–76,
transition 90 86, 87
contexts 59 Monitoring Learner Assessment
knowledge 59, 60–64 (MLA) 147
monitoring of policy 132, 149
M mother-tongue instruction 61,
MDGs (Millennium Development 187, 189
Goals) 81 motivation for change 152

228

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 Index

moving beyond development 89 Education and Training Forum 199

Muller, Johan 182, 199 Education Policy Act 122,
multiculturalism 172, 214, 215 131, 147
multilingualism 61 Education Policy Investigation
multiliteracies 59 (NEPI) 128, 159
multiplicity of discourses, need Financial Aid Scheme Act 159
for 59 Norms and Standards for School
multinational corporations 45 Funding 131, 139
multiple human development Plan for Higher Education 159
reversals 83–84 Training Strategy Initiative 128
mystifying the state 120 Whole School Evaluation
Policy 132
N Nattrass, Nicoli 92, 102
NCHE (National Commission on negotiation in policy process
Higher Education) 131 153, 156
NEPAD (New Partnership for neocolonialism 76
Africa’s Development) 90, neoliberal
92, 94 economics 45–46, 57
NIEs (newly industrialised master narratives 105
economies) 78–79 structural adjustment 80
NQF (national qualifications neoliberalism 79–80, 82, 86, 89
framework) 129, 159 effects on school funding 137–143
narratives network technologies 46, 57, 58, 60
master 104, 149 number systems 59, 186
of schooling 14–20 new architecture of aid 81
narrative style of teaching 198 New London Group 59
nation 120 newly industrialised economies
-building approaches 30–31 (NIEs) 78–79
state 5, 73, 211 New Partnership for Africa’s
national Development (NEPAD) 90,
development, inequality on the 92, 94
scale of 210–211 new technologies 44–45
funding norms 139 Nussbaum, Martha 82–83
qualifications framework Nzimande, Blade 157–158
(NQF) 129
National O
Commission on Higher OBE (outcomes-based education)
Education (NCHE) 131 199
Commission on Special Needs in OECD (Organisation for
Education and Training 132 Economic Co-operation and
Committee on Further Education Development 66–68, 80
and Training (FET) 132 open-ended teaching 192, 193
Curriculum Statements 131, opening the doors of learning 36,
159, 200 42, 158–160, 216

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

opportunities available, structure framework, South Africa 131–132

of 169 implementation of 124, 128, 131,
opportunity, equal educational 136 148–149, 152–154
Organisation for Economic Co- indirect effects of 153
operation and Development insights into 150–155
(OECD) 66–68, 80 kinds of 122–123
outcomes layered 149
-based curriculum 131, 142, 199 limitations of 148–149
-based education (OBE) 199 model 125–126
shared 165 monitoring 132, 149
out-of-school children and youth 129 possibilities 148–149
process 123–127
P purposes of 122–123
PM (Performance Measurement) revision 132
132, 143 political
parents’ funding contributions 140 cohesion, schooling and 29–31
Patel, Firoz 139, 141 discourses 29–31, 34
Paterson, Andrew 27–28 pooling
patterns to success and failure 164 of disadvantage 177
pedagogy of resources 177, 179, 211
as message system 185, 189, population figures, South Africa 97
191, 200 post-apartheid
of dialogues and conscientisation education system 116
77–78 policy framework 127–133
universal 175 postcolonial discourses 86–89, 188
Performance Measurement (PM) postdevelopment discourses 87–89
132, 143 post-structural power/knowledge
periphery, countries of the 76 170–171
personal troubles 7–8 ‘post’ theories 20, 86
personnel costs 141 poverty 43, 46, 73, 82, 87
perspectivalist position 19 as social problem 169
Polesel, John 176–178, 180 culture of 169–170
policy defining 95–96
additive 149 poverty in South Africa 95–104
approaches 122–123 addressing 101–104
change, possibilities and limits of effect on schooling 100–101
148–156 features of 97–99
definition of 117–118 patterns of 97–99
development of in South Africa 128 race and 101–102
discourse, concepts in 118–121 Poverty Report, UNDP 103
evaluating 132 power 119–120, 165, 186–188
features of 117–118 power/knowledge
for change in South Africa 156–159 dilemma 187, 188
formulation of 124 link 33

230

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 Index

practice, ethics as 9 rational approaches to policy

preamble to Constitution 116 123–124
preparation for work, schools as reading
14–15 as formal symbol system of
pressure and support, balance of 153 culture 59, 186
principles, ethics as 9 teaching of, to optimise
privatisation 91 learning 183
problem recognition 172, 173, 175, 214
-based curriculum 198 reconstruction and development,
-solving approaches 192 need for 90
procedural policies 122 Reconstruction and Development
Productive Pedagogies model 189, Programme (RDP) 73, 90
195–199, 200 redeployment of teachers 141
Provincial Departments of redistribution 90, 91, 92, 171, 172,
Education 131 173, 175, 178, 179, 214
psychological narrative of schooling redistributive policies 122
16–18, 20 regulatory policies 122, 149
public contributions to school remedies for injustice 171–173
funding 139–141 re-schooling 67
purposes resistance to change 153
of schools 21–34 resources
of schooling 3–38 allocation of 118
distribution of 122
Q pooling of 177, 179, 211
quality redistribution of 122
in schools, monitoring and Revised National Curriculum
evaluating 132 Statement 200
intellectual 196–197 right to education 4, 35, 122, 144–145
of South African education Rist, Gilbert 87
146–147, 158 Rostow, WW 75
of teaching 149 Rubinson, Richard 30
schooling 147 rusty, school knowledge becoming
Quality Learning Project 27 17, 25
quintiles 139, 179
S
R SACE (South African Council of
RDP (Reconstruction and Education) 132
Development Programme) SACMEQ (Southern African
73, 90 Consortium for Monitoring
race Education Quality)
and inequality in South Africa SACP (South African Communist
101–102 Party) 90
discrimination 172 SADC (Southern African
racial inequality 9 Development Community) 94

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SAQA (South African scenarios for 66–68

Qualifications Authority) 131 structure/agency 8
Act 159 trends in access and
SASA (South African Schools participation 106
Act) 131, 159 schools
SGBs (School Governing Bodies) and economic growth 26–27
131, 139–140 and the economy 74
Said, Edward 20 and the labour market 25–26
scale as core social centres 67
and educational change 4–5 as focused learning organisations 67
of inequality 210–211 as part of structured inequality
scapes 53, 57, 60 176–178
school as places of learning 164–204
and classroom scale of 5 everyday life in 22–23
as place of transition 189 for the future 66–69
attended, influence on inequality functioning 181–184
176–180 goals of 57
-based forms of thinking 16–17 in backward mapping chain
-based management 141–142 203–204
effects 181–182 inequalities on scale of 211–212
fees 139–141 purposes served by 21–34
funding see funding reasons for having 14–20
improvement research 182 teaching and learning in 21–34
knowledge 16–17, 23, 186 Schools Register of Needs 130,
results, bimodal 179 135, 145
-society relationships 64–65 Seekings, Jeremy 92, 102
School Governing Bodies (SGBs) self-regulation, student 197
131, 139–140 Sen, Amartya 82
schooling settlements 122
and development 107–108 shifting identities 60
and inequality 105–107 Simkins, Charles 27–28
and political cohesion 29–31 single
and values 31–33 economy worldwide 45
effect of poverty on 100–101 time unit 45
expectations from 35–38 situated cognition 192
goals of 21–23, 58–66, 185–191 Sizer, Ted 212
in global times, agenda for 58–66 smallest unit in change 153
injustice and 172–173 social
message systems of 184–185 advancement, use of schools for 15
narratives of 14–19 background and school
patterns of causation around performance 165–169
35–36 change and schooling 2–10
purposes of 13–38 change, result of globalisation 45
role in citizenship 189 cohesion 15, 30, 64

232

7-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 232 1/25/08 10:03:58 AM

 Index

critics 188 Schools Act (SASA) 131, 159

development agenda 80–86, 87, Southern African
105 Consortium for Monitoring
function/cohesion discourses of Education Quality
15, 19, 30, 31 (SACMEQ) 147
issues 7–8 Development Community
justice 9–10, 171–172 (SADC) 94
power 120, 165, 186–188 space for tension 173
problem, poverty as 169 Spady, William 199
relationships, constellation of specialist language 194–195
175–176 stability of jobs 56
roles of schools 14–15 stable and functioning schools
structure 6–7 203–204
support 197 state
socialisation authority 120–121
schools as agents of 11–12 definition of 119
discourses of 19 education departments 29
sociocultural psychology narrative modern, building of 29–31
16–18, 34 status quo, maintaining 66, 67, 89
socioeconomic Stiglitz, Joseph 29
injustice 171, 172 stories of educational reform 203–204
power 173 structural
sociological adjustment 80, 86
imagination 7–8, 18, 26, 33, 191 inequalities 174, 175
narrative of schooling 14–15 reproduction 170–171
South Africa structuralist narratives 49
curriculum change in 199–200 structure/agency debate 6–7
development choices for 90–93 structured instruction/teaching 58,
development framework 90–93 192, 193
economy 94–95 structures of opportunities 7–8
educational inequality in 175 student self-regulation/direction of
effectiveness of schooling 132 activities 197
two nations in 73, 89, 90, 93, students, backward mapping
94–104 from 201
World Bank summary 94–95 substantive
South African conversation 197
Communist Party (SACP) 90 policies 123, 144
Constitution 32, 116, 122, 127, supply of teachers 143
128, 131, 134, 137, 148, 159 sustainability of current lifestyles
Council of Education (SACE) 132 46–47
Customs Union 94 sustainable futures, building 57
Qualifications Authority symbolic
(SAQA) 131 advantage 176
Act 159 injustice 172

233

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 Opening the Doors of Learning

policies 122, 199 terrorism 51

power 173 theory, working with 19–20
right to education 144–145 thinking
value of structural changes 152 like a government 156–158
violence 170, 175, 188, 189 school-based forms of 16–17
systematic teaching and learning third way position on development
as goal of schooling 58–64 89
classroom practices to meet goals Third World 75
of 185–189 time
ethical framework for 209 management 183
systemic evaluations 147 -space compression 45, 57, 60
Todoric-Bebic, S 30–31
T Tollman, Stephen 175
TIMSS (Trends in International Townsend, Nicholas 175
Mathematics and Science transient poverty 97
Study) 147, 182 transition, school as place
Taylor, Nick 182, 183, 199, 200 of 189
teacher Trends in International
development 143 Mathematics and Science
education 202–203 Study (TIMSS) 147, 182
effect 182 Turner, Bryan 144
employment 132 two educations (in South Africa) 210
exodus 66 two nations (South Africa as) 73,
knowledge 183, 201–202 89, 90, 93, 94–104
monitoring systems 142–143
performance measurement 143 U
redeployment 141 UNDP (United Nations
resistance to change 153 Development Programme) 81,
shortages 143 84, 103, 110
supply and deployment 143 UNESCO
upgrading quality of 168 Global Monitoring Report 150
teachers Monitoring Learner Assessment
backward mapping chain (MLA) 147
201–203 Monitoring Report 2005 203
effective 181–184 Report: Learning: the treasure
Teese, Richard 176–178, 180 within 68–69
technological literacy 52 targets for education 105–106
technology UPE (Universal Primary Education)
access to 44–45, 49 analysis, World Bank 85–86
of intellectual enquiry 187–188 underdevelopment 76, 88
technoscapes 53 unemployment 7, 26, 93, 98, 99
teaching and learning unexpected consequences of
discourses 21–24 educational policies
for a knowledge society 60 142–143, 148

234

7-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 234 1/25/08 10:03:59 AM

 Index

United Nations 46 on Early Childhood

Development Programme Development (ECD) 132, 159
(UNDP) 81, 84, 103, 110 Six on Inclusive Education
social development agenda 80–86 132, 159
Universal Primary Education (UPE) Three on A Programme for the
analysis, World Bank 85–86 Transformation of Higher
universal truths, questioning of 20 Education 159
unpredictability 149 Whole School Evaluation (WSE)
Unterhalter, Elaine 83 143
will for change 152, 155
V Willis, P 170
values Wolpe, Harold 77
-driven activity, policy as 117 Wood, Louise 148
schooling and 31–33 World Bank
van der Berg, Servaas 136, 148, 179, aid programmes 75
200 and development 28–29
vertical dimension of policy country summary of South
125–126, 129, 130, 156 Africa 94
Verwoerd, Hendrik 62 rates of return on education 76
Vidovich, Lesley 117 Report: Lifelong Learning in
Vinjevold, Penny 182, 199 the Global Knowledge Society
vision of redesigned educational 55–57
system 145 Universal Primary Education
vocational knowledge 190 (UPE) analysis 85–86
world of work, education as
W preparation for 189, 190
WSE (Whole School Evaluation) world systems theory 77
143 World Trade Organisation (WTO)
WTO (World Trade Organisation) 45, 79
45, 79 writing
Walker, Melanie 83 as cultural mediation 16, 186
Wallerstein, Emmanuel 77 as formal symbol system of
war 7 culture 59, 186
warehousing children 52, 186 teaching of 59
Washington Consensus 79–80,
82, 87 Y
Weber, Everard 143 Yeatman, Anna 9, 19
White Paper Young, Iris Marion 214–215
One on Education and Training youth unemployment in South
130, 134, 144, 157–158 Africa 99

235

7-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 235 1/25/08 10:03:59 AM

7-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 236 1/25/08 10:03:59 AM
Module SAE3701
Year of Publication 1999

Title of Publication The classroom struggle. policy and resistance in South Afnca. 1940 1990 I
J. Hyslop
Edition
Publisher University of Natal Press
Chapter number 3
Chapter title Bantu Educat1on /lcJ Hyslop
Page 51 -64

This material has been reproduced in thee -

Reserves on behalf of the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH
AFRICA {UNISA)

The material may be subject to copyright under

the Copyright Act no . 98 of 1978. Any further
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 CHAPTER THREE

Bantu Education

The Late 50s and Early 60s

State educatio n policy in the period from 1955 to 1962 shows the
features of a policy forged under the pressure of the urban crisis.
Fir t, the state created a much larger education system than had ever
exi ted before. This all owed it to draw the bulk of urban working-class
youth into the school s. Education was set on a firmer footing than
before, as an agency of socialisation.
Second, the state developed fi nanci al mechanisms. These allowed it
to base its new ed ucation system on exceptionally low levels of
expenditure. Thus, it overcame the economic obstacles to educational
expan ion .
Third, the re-organisation of education provided a new articulation
between the labour needs of industry and the school. In this, the
requirements of industry for semi-skilled labour were far more ad-
equately met th an had previously been the case.
Fourth, the NP governm ent used education in its attempts to create a
new hegemonic social order. It tried to lure black parents into the
school system through the establishment of school boards and commit-
tees. It tried to generate divisive ethnic identification with African
cu ltural and lingui sti c groups, by emphasising the use of African
languages in the schools. The aim of such practices was to create a
political con ciousness that would accord with the ethnically divided
bantustan ystem.
Yet the state was not forced to act in a way that was functional to
capital. Verwoerdian bureaucrats on the one hand, and predominantly
Anglophone industri alists on the other, had distinct ideologies and
interests. However, the specific circumstances of the 50s induced the
former to act in a way that did not conflict with the needs of the latter.
The depth of the urban crisis, the scope of political mass mobilisation,
and the delicate state of the economy forced the state to address the
urban issues most urge ntly. It refrained from major attempts to uproot
the urban workforce. The consequent urban restructuring was in line
with capital 's needs. In the end, this relationship was to break down.
52 The Classroom Struggle

The NP's Response to Urban Crisis

Crisis, originating in the collapse of reserve agriculture, secondary
industrialisation and rapid urbanisation, threatened the social order in
fundamental ways. On the one hand, slum housing, crime, inadequate
schooling facilities and poverty threatened the very reproduction of
the working class as a workforce with the appropriate level of skills,
work discipline, and physical capacity required by urban employers.
On the other hand, the community movements, trade unions, and
African nationalist political campaigns that arose in response to
these conditions posed direct political challenges to the dominant
classes.
The urgency of the situation dictated that the policies of the period
before about 1962 were driven by considerations of social control and
labour reproduction. The long-term NP ideological vi ion of the estab-
lishment of autonomous black political entities and of a purely migrant
black workforce in white areas played a lesser role. The 50s did see the
setting up of the legal and administrative equipment necessary to the
achievement of Verwoerd 's 'Grand Apartheid ' dreams. However, the
state could not fully use this apparatus until it bad resolved the existing
urban crisis. The NP realised it could not wish away the existing black
working class.
To provide minimal conditions of social rep'roduction within the
urban areas, the NP permitted major expansion in urban housing and
education. It also followed a largely pragmatic policy in relation to
urban employers' utilisation of black labour. It deviated considerably
from its formal commitment to migrant labour and the relegation of
blacks to unskilled work in the urban areas. Simultaneously, it tried to
destroy popular and working-class political resistance, crushing the
ANC, the PAC and trade unions in the early 60s. There was little
indication of outright subordination of the labour needs of urban
industry to the NP 's long-term ideological goals.
Bantu Education policy did, in the short term, achieve success in
stabilising the education system. However, it eventually created new
problems for the state that would generate a greater crisis by the 70s.
The low level of expenditure on black education ensured material
inequality would continue to be a major grievance. The attempt to
establish a new hegemony assisted in creating some social forces
willing to work with the government. It also generated new sources of
resentment by damaging the education system. It was, in the end,
incapable of winning the allegiance of the mass of the people. Govern-
ment 's insistence on emphasising primary education, with the policy
of job reservation, was to generate chronic shortages of skilled labour.
The creation of a mass education system was eventually to turn school
 Bantu Education 53

students into a powerful social force with a common identity. The

victory of Bantu Education wa decisive, but temporary.

Schools and Social Reproduction

Bantu Education did address a task that wide sections of the dominant
classes wanted resolved. As shown earlier, there was widespread
agreement between NP, UP and liberal political forces that a state-
directed restructuring of education was a priority.
The ideological approach that entered into the formation of NP
education policy differed from the education policies advocated by the
UP and liberal circles. The NP 's Sauer Report of 1947 advocated a
strongly restrictive attitude towards black urbanisation. The migrant
~bour system was to be reinforced and the black..middle c a s was to
grow i n t]J~ reserves, which were to be the centres of black develop-
ment. This reflected, in part, the weight of agricultural interests within
the NP. Their access to supplies of plentiful cheap labour was threat-
ened by the drift to the towns. The UP 's Fagan Commission of 1948,
on the other hand, advocated a gradual and controlled move toward a
permanently urbanised labour force, and toward fostering an urban
black middle class. Fagan's findings reflect the need of industrial
capital for a permanent, ' stabilised ' urban workforce. In practice, the
NP 's policies during the 50s did not conflict with the needs of industry
to anything like the degree that these ideological differences might
suggest. The NP did show clear recognition that it could not sweep
away the urban working class. The NP leadership accepted the black
urban proletariat would stay in place for the future.
In key areas, government policy harmonised with the need of capital
to secure the reproduction of a permanent urban proletariat. The state
was obliged to impose its solution to the problems of the urban areas
before it could move on to grandiose social engineering.
Mass housing chemes were developed during the 50s in Soweto,
Kwazakhele (Port Elizabeth), Duncan Village Extension (East Lon-
don) and Nyanga (Cape Town), to name only the most important. The
brunt of this was borne by the communities, and by employers, through
taxation. This massive growth in housing was accompanied by a
growing differentiation in the types of housing provided in the town-
ships. Migrants were placed in hostels and residents in houses. In-
creasingly, different types of houses were provided for different eco-
nomic strata. Thus, housing policy clearly played a central role in the
reorganising of the reproductive process of urban workers.
The establishment of the Bantu Education system was a turning
point. The mission chool system had manifestly been unable to
provide an education system that could exert social control over black
54 The Classroom Struggle

youth. The introduction of Bantu Education meant the establishment of

a mass education system embracing the bulk of working class youth.
The first year of the implementation of the measures provided for in
the Bantu Education Act (No. 47 of 1953) was 1955. In the following
decade, the numbers of African students in school doubled, from about
one miJiion to about two million.
The 50s saw this educational restructuring focused on the urban
areas. For example, school student numbers in the urban Southern
Transvaal grew faster in the period 1957 to 1962 than tho e in mainly
rural Northern Transvaal (see Figure 1). Thus the late 50s marked a
dramatic adaptation in the education system to the task of containing
and controlling urban youth.

AFRICAN PUPIL NUMBERS

(Rural) (Urban)
Year Northern Transvaal Southern Transvaal

1957 243 688 231 143

1962 299 144 310 784

Figure 1: Growth of African school student population in the

urban Southern Transvaal outstrips growth in the rural Northern
Transvaal (DBE Annual Report, 1962)

Education policy unfolded in a way not centrally at odds with the

needs of employers for a stable, permanently urban and semi- killed
workforce. Though the NP's educational blueprint projected a rural-
based future for black education, thjs thrust was not rigidly imple-
mented. The new form of education met the criticisms put forward
earlier, by both the NP and the UP, of the ineffectiveness of the
missionary-dominated schools. By bringing the bulk of urban African
youth into a few years of basic schooling, Bantu Education provided a
mechanism of social control, wltich could be used to fight crime and
political militancy. Also, it generated a semi-skilled workforce. To a
large extent, the Eiselen Report met liberal educational demands.
Opposition politicians like the liberal Margaret Ballinger and D.L.
Smit and liberal administrators like J. Dugard welcomed the Eiselen
Report. They supported Eiselen's call for central government control
of African education, while disputing whether this should be under the
control of the NAD. Nor did they object to the commission 's advocacy
of vernacular languages in primary school, as this was already regular
/

Bantu Education 55

practice up to Standard 4. The white opposition, whether liberal or

main tream UP, agreed with the NP on a ' basic elementary education '
for all children as rapidl y as possible. Only whe n it became clear how
linked to apartheid policy and how under-financed Bantu Education
wou ld be, did white poJjticians on the left of government became critical
of state education policy.
The racist and inegalitarian character of the new system should not
obscure importa nt parallels between Bantu Education and mass school-
ing in industrialising societies elsewhere. If one examines the growth
of mass schooling in late 19th-century Europe and North America, for
example, one sees noteworthy similarities to the South Af rican situa-
tion. There too schooling was seen by domin ant social groups as a
respon e to the need for social control over working class youth. It was
also a means of producing appropriately trained labour, and for politi-
cal social isation of youth.
Bantu Ed ucation was unique in its racial ideology. It was far from
unique in its role of providing an educational structure appropriate to
ind ustria lisation.

The Financing of Bantu Education

The NP government of the 50s was constrained from providing ad-
eq uate finance for black education by several factors.
rts own racist base and ideology generated strong political pressures
against expenditure on black education. Employers were unwilling to
pay, through taxes, for social services for their employ ees. The South
African economy was less robust than in either the preceding o r the
ubsequent decades. The new policy enabled the state to reconcile its
need for a new mass education system with its unwilJingness to pay for
it. It did thi largely by transferring the economic burden onto the
boulders of black communities, thereby enabling the state to institute
cheap ed uca tional reorgani sation.
The NP built Bantu Education on a shallow foundation , character-
i ed by rigid ca h limits . In 1945, J.H. Hofmeyr, as the UP's Minister
of Native Affairs, bad decoupled expenditure on black education from
the income from black taxation. The two were previously linked.
Black ed ucation became a charge on the general revenue.
The Bantu Education Act of 1953 ruled that all expansion of ex-
penditure on African education had to come from expansion in the
level of African taxation revenues. In 1955 the statutory contribution
of the state was pegged at R13 million, a level at which it was to
remain until 1972. Four-fifths of taxes received from Africans
we re to be channelled toward education. Dugard suggests, interest-
ingly, that thi was Verwoerd 's concession to the most extreme wing of
56 The Classroom Struggle

the NP. They were opposed to any ubstantial pending on black

education.
The policy put an enormous financial strain on there ources of the
education system. Per capita expenditure on African education fell
from the equivalent of R17,08 in 1953 to R12,46 in 1960. The conse-
quence was a grossly inadequate level of material provision in the
education ystem. A teacher comments:
It got wor e in that the population of school-going children increased
and fund s were tied. So the material progre s did not match the human
population that wa coming in.
The concrete breeze-block buildings thrown up in the township of
thi period provided cheap school accommodation at the expense of
any modicum of comfort. In the words of a teacher:
. . . when it became too hot the children tended to fall asleep and no
amount of motivation would make them alert, and in the winter [it]
would be too cold o they were more concerned in trying to keep
themselves warm.
Another teacher comments that whereas mission school clas rooms
Looked like classrooms, once one entered a Bantu Education.school ' it
took time to acclimatise to a place that look like a stable.
Because of government educational financing policies, pupil teacher
ratios wor ened from 42,3 to 1 in 1946 to 54,7 to 1 in 1960. Some-
time , says a former pupil, ' teachers . . . had to teach classes of up to
65 or 70 per session.'
As a further cost-saving device, the government introduced th e
concept of double session teaching. Primary school teacher took two
eparate cia es a day in shifts. Thi had severe and deleteriou conse-
quence for the quality of the education provided. The same student
remarks:
The teachers would be too tired to teac:t in the afternoon . They would
find it boring teaching the arne subject. The pupils who would come in
the ·afternoon wouldn 't be as alert a pupils who came in the morning.
The morning group up to 11.30, they were all right. Now when those
coming in the afternoon ... it was impractical. They didn 't learn much.
The children came. They played a bit, became tired.
By 1958, 70 per cent of primary schools were teaching double
session , and there are report of instances where teachers had to take
three sessions a day.
The approach of the tate to th~ financin~ of bl~c~ _educati?n
harmoni ed with the desire of capttal to avotd substdtsmg soctal
service through taxation. Maximal effort was exerted to make the
 Bantu Education 57

wages of African workers, rather than taxation of employer , provide

the basis for the reproduction process in the townships. The state
ought, for example, to avoid any expenditure on the care of pre-
school urban children. When Ekutuleni Mission, the only Nursery
School Teacher ' Training College for African women was closed in
1958, a NAD spokesperson commented: 'We would be glad if Bantu
parents would take more re ponsibility for thi type of thing.'
The state also sought to extricate itself from any responsibility for
the maintenance of student . It aimed to replace boarding schools with
day chools and to reduce expenditure on school feeding from R893 000
in 1955 to R50 000 in 1964.
The consequences of government refusal to spend adequately on
education combined with its attempt to use education to further the
bantustan ystem , led to a growing demoralisation among teachers. As
one put it:
I think the mission schools provided a better type of education since they
prepared the child for a higher .. . calling. They also prepared the child
for a meaningful role in life. Bantu Education on the other hand appar-
entl y deprives the child of his elf of his per onality and of his realisa-
tion.
Such feelings resulted in the decision of many experienced teachers
to resign from the new education system. As one teacher remembers:
.. . The older teachers knew the differences and implication between
Bantu Education and the old system, the Transvaal Education Depart-
ment. So they resigned.
These resignation affected the quality of the educational services.
With the imultaneous development of larger scale, low-grade teacher
training programmes, there was a decline in the average level of
teacher qualification.
Though in the 50s such educational horrors occasioned little com-
ment from business, by the end of the next decade official parsimony
in education spending would become a serious issue. Industry became
aware of the gross deficiencies of uch an educational order in provid-
ing skilled labour and social stability. In the 50s such considerations
did not disturb the mooth meshing of industrial needs and state
educational policy.

Educational Re-organisation and Industry

There is usuaJiy, in educational policy formation, a battle between
different dominant class interests bureaucratic interests and mass
pressures from below, which all go into deciding the outcome. How-
ever, as suggested earlier, in the 50s the tate was not yet attempting to
58 The Classroom Struggle

uproot the industrial working class (as it would try to do in the 60s). It
was willing to accommodate industry's immediate need for urban
semi-skilJed labour. In monopoly industry, automation increasingly
eliminates the split between unskilled hands and artisans which marks
small, competitive industry. As the skills of the artisan are increasingly
replaced by machinery, the high-grade technician who can repair and
set up factory machines is in demand. On the other hand, to draw on
the argument of H. Braverman, (Labour and Monopoly Capital: The
Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century), the machine operator
emerges as a new kind of labourer: the semi-skilled worker who
requires skills of literacy and numeracy and an internalised work
discipline.
The generation of such semi-skilled labour was an important part of
the new education system's early aims. State officials believed four
years of schooling was sufficient to provide basic literacy, some
knowledge of English and Afrikaans, and a basis for further education.
Thus these first four years were deemed capable of providing a level of
education appropriate to semi-skilled work.
A flexibility was shown by the state in reconciling its formal
commitment to job reservation with industry 's need for semi-skilled
labour. The utilisation of black labour in these semi-skilled positions,
rather than in artisan positions, was really at issue. Potential conflict
between government and industry was largely averted via the device of
the 'floating colour bar ' . White workers were upgraded and blacks
moved into the positions they vacated.
Clearly there were differences of long-term interest between indu -
trialists and government, especially around whether blacks would
ultimately provide urban artisans. It was becoming increasingly clear
that white labour could not provide a larger number of artisans.
Demand for black skilled and clerical labour hardly existed during the
50s, compared with that for semi-skilled labour. Conflict was further
postponed by the slow growth resulting from the slump of the late 50s.
For the time being government policy on labour did not present major
obstacles to urban industrial employers.
Bantu Education was not an exception to the complementarity that
existed between the NP's policies of the 50s, and the skill needs of
industry. The NP's educational policy in the mid-50s concentrated on
building up the first four years of primary education as its main initial
objective. Dugard, a regional director of Bantu Education at this time,
says of his role: 'Our first aim was to promote literacy by making it
possible for as many children as possible to complete the first four
years of school. ' The basis of this four-year emphasis was explained
by the Minister of Bantu Education, W.A. Maree, in 1964. He asserted
 Bantu Education 59

in a parlia mentary debate that a Standard 2 (or four-year) education

gave a child an ability to read and write in hi s own language. He
claimed it provided a child with a reasonable knowledge of the two
fficia l languages, and a ba is fo r further education.
In the urban area thi emphas is was encouraged by state policy.
This made it possible for white municipalities to finance the building
of African lower primary chools. Higher primary and secondary
chools could only be estab lished where community-based school
boards paid half the co ·t. This priority was even built into the physical
tructure of the townships. Plans for township expansion in thi era
included space for new lower primary schools, but old buildings had to
be u ed for hig her primary and secondary schools.
Racist ideology triumphed over capitalist 'rationality ' in the field of
technical training. The number of training places for blacks sharply
declined. T hi was not a major issue for employers. They showed little
intere t in the tra ining of black artisans. The state also showed a
wi llingness to assist industrialists in obtaining suitable employees. It
ystematica ll y channelled people with appropriate abilities into differ-
ent levels of the school sy tern and toward different levels of the
labour market. During the 50s, the Nation al Bureau of Education and
ocial Research embarked on a project to develop intelligence test for
use in African schools.

Education and the NP Bid for Hegemony

Yerwoerd and hi s cohorts did aim to create mechanisms for the incor-
poration of blacks within their new political order. The hom elands
wou ld provide th e arena within which black political advancement and
ed ucationa l development would take place. The NP government there-
fore soug ht to estab lish a mea ns to secure the allegiance of sectors of
the black population to a conception of their future in the homelands.
In order to do this structure would have to be set up to create the
illu ion of self-determin ation.
Yerwoerd quite explicitl y outlined his aims in education in these
term s in hi 1953 speeches to Parliament on Bantu Education. He
ca lled for a form of black participation in black educational adminis-
tration
... which will make him [ ' the Bantu ] feel he is co-responsible for his
education but that he is also ass isted by the guardian [ ' the European ' ] in
so far as he is incapable of a . uming co-responsibility for it ...

The sc hool boards and committees were the means chosen for this
purpo e. They would play the e sential ideological rol e of winning
parents ' all egiance to Bantu Education. They would also provide a
60 The Classroom Struggle

means of queezing black communitie financially, in order to subsidi e

the kind of cheap mass education at which the NP was aiming.
Verwoerd argued black parents should be made co-responsible for
their children's education and that
. .. that co-responsibility is two-fold- it is co-responsibility for control ,
but associated with that is co-responsibility in re peer of finances.

In this sense contemporary Marxist analyses such as E.N. Mathonsi 's

Black Matriculation Results: A Mechanism of Social Control, which
ee the system as purely about the creation of black labour power at
low level of skill, fall short of the mark. Verwoerd was a sufficiently
shrewd political actor to understand he could not rely exclusively on
force to dominate a ubject population, with any chance of success.
Nor was he sufficiently foolish to believe it would be possible to
maintain black subordination while holding the barriers to career
advancement at 'certain forms of labour ' . Verwoerd made several
notorious, but widely misinterpreted orations on Black education from
1953 to 1954. It is clear from his words he intended to impose strict
limits on black educational and career advancement in white areas.
However, he held out on, the other hand, a new hegemonic vision to co-
optable sections of blacks. Verwoerd proposed homeland structures as
a key part of the material underpinning of black acquiescence. Discus-
sions of Bantu Education often treat Verwoerd ' strictures on black
career advancement as if they were new features of political discourse.
Of course they were not. ' Civilized labour ' had a long and broadly based
history in white politics. What was new was Verwoerd's aim of opening
new structures of black incorporation through the homelands.
Accordingly, the Bantu Education Act gave the responsible Minister
sweeping powers. He could provide for black participation in educa-
tional administration by establishing ' such regional, local, and dome tic
councils, boards, or other bodies as he may deem expedient' . He could
place any government school under bodie such as the ' Bantu Authori-
ties ' .
Regulations laid down that the school committees, which were
immediately responsible for a particular school, would be partly elected
by the parents. In both rural and urban areas, four to six of the
committee members could be elected by parents; clearly this was
aimed at drawing local communities into the new system. In order to
strengthen the strata participating in homeland structures the local
authority was given the right to nominate six committee members.
However, these nominations were subject to approval by Pretoria, and
the Secretary of Native Affairs could appoint a further two members of
the committees. In the urban areas, the remainder of school committee
 Bantu Education 61

member , compri ing a majority, were direct appointees of the NAD or

the Local Native Commissioner.
The committees were to be the key link to the community, control-
ling chool funds, erecting new buildings, and advising the school
boards. What real power was embodied in the system subsisted, how-
ever, in the school boards. These were wholly appointed bodies, with
one chool board controlling a group of school committees. In the
urban areas all the members were appointed by the NAD. In the rural
area the members were nominated by the NAD and by the Bantu
Authority ' . Horrell argues that as the homeland system developed, the
proportion of homeland authority appointees was allowed to increase.
The board had considerable powers over local schools and teachers.
From 1955 all African teachers ' salaries were paid as subsidies to
the chool boards. This meant the boards effectively controlled hiring
and firing (although the NAD could force the board to sack a teacher
by withdrawing hi or her sub idy).
From this brief description some of the inherent weaknesses of the
y tern ought to be apparent. The hegemonic aims of the school
committee structure were undermined by the NAD 's reluctance to
concede real control to parents, by insisting on a majority of appoint-
ee . The NAD wanted parental participation without giving up real
control. The boards did omething to strengthen the power of home-
land authorities. Their appointee-dominated structure, their control of
the school committees, and the fact that they were not responsible to
the parent of local students also undermined their legitimacy. This
structure tended to encourage the emergence of tyrannical school
boards ubservient to the NAD and resented by local parents and
teachers.
Despite the e inherent weakne ses and fierce organised oppo ilion
from popular movements, the establishment of the boards went for-
ward with a degree of success for government. This was especially so
in the le s politically volatile rural areas. By 1956, 4 000 committees
and 300 boards had been e tablished. This did not constitute a particu-
larly effective social base for Bantu Education. It did demonstrate
there were substantial social groupings that Verwoerd could rally
around the new system.
Another dimension of Verwoerd 's attempt to develop a new he-
gemony was the greater emphasis given to African language in school-
ing. Under the mission education order, English (or sometimes
Afrikaan ) was u ed as a medium of instruction within the primary
pha e of education. Sometimes this began from the earliest years of
schooling. However, Verwoerd 's attempts to emphasise ethnic diver-
sity among so-called ' tribal ' group led to a reversal of this policy. Now
62 The Classroom Struggle

African languages would be the sole means of instruction in primary

school. English or Afrikaan would only be used a the medium of
instruction in secondary education. Teachers who experienced both
systems perceive the result a having been a sharp drop in the standard
of English among secondary school pupils, and even university stu-
dents. For teachers this policy was a destructive one. It sought to
increase Linguistic differentiation among black . It also made it so much
more difficult for pupils to succeed at the secondary school s. Here are
the views of three teacher :
Before Bantu Education wa introduced it was so ea y to teach stu-
dents, man. You find that .. . those children ca n write Engli h, speak
English, official languages, easily, easily, easi ly . .. It s different now,
teaching in a high school is difficult.
Now you talk of a mine where gold and the rest are dug. The trouble is
now this child has been taught for about eigh t years in mother tongue.
Now merely spelling of a mine, you find that it 's writing m-a-n-e.
When they go to unive rsities they ca n't even ex pres them elves flu-
ently, because they are used to an African language .. .
Teachers resented this policy. Man y fe lt Afr ican language often
lacked the vocabulary for so me of the concept they were req uired to
teach. Says a teacher:
.. . we had such a di fficulty in fo r instance the teaching of Arithmetic in
the vernacular. Take a thing like Geography in the vernacular. When you
come to something like the ' Roaring Forties, ' what do you say in Zulu or
Xhosa?
This problem could eve n affect the task of ex plaining co ncepts to
secondary school students who had a weak background in English. As
another teacher put it:
You can't teach a student in matric some of the very difficult words u ed
to explain a simple name that can be given in Engli h. You haven 't got it.
It makes it so difficult for the teacher and wor e for the chi ld to gra. p
those new terminologies.
As the teachers' comments suggest, Verwoerd's strategies were
inherently flawed as tools for building hege mony. The authoritarian
manner in which his policies were imposed meant that any gains the
regime might make would be undermined by new and deep re ent-
ments.
 Bantu Education 63

Bibliography

Oral History
Interviews with Teachers. Nos 1, 4, 6--8, 11 , 13- 14, 18-19.
Interview with G.M. Pitje (Manson, A.). SAIRR Oral History Archive, Acces-
sion No.3.
Archi ves
Cory Library manuscri pts. Series MS 16 598/5.
Univers ity of the Witwatersrand Arc hives. Johannesburg. Series AD 410,
1953.
Official publications
Statutes of the Union of South Af rica. Act No. 47 of 1953. Pretoria, Union
Government , 1953 .
Native Affai rs Departm ent. Bantu Education Bulletin 1957. Pretoria, Union
Governm ent, 1957.
Depa rtment of Bantu Educati on. Annu al Report for the Calendar Year 1962.
Pretori a, Government Printer, 1963.
Department of Education and Training . Annu al Report 1986. Pretoria, Gov-
ernment Printer, 1987.
Hansard. Vols 82-83. Col. 358 1, 1953.
Newspapers and Periodicals
Fighting Ta lk. Jul y 1956.
Rand Da ily Ma il. 3 June 1964,22 Octobe r 1964.
SAJRR Race Relations Survey: 1955-1956. Johannesburg, SAIRR, 1956.
Th e Star. 23 May 1966.
The Torch. 25 January 1955, 12 April 1955, 7 January 1958, 4 February 1958.
Theses and Papers
Hindson D . ' The Pass System and Di ffe renti ated Labour Power ' . Law Soci-
ety Seminar Paper, Univers ity of the Witwatersrand, 1985.
Posel, D. ' Interests, Conflict and Power: The Relationship Between the State
and Business in South Africa during the 1950s' . Association for Sociol-
ogy in outhern Africa Confe rence Paper, Cape Town, 1985.
The 196 1 Education Panel. ' Education and the South African Economy ' .
(Second report). Johannesburg, Witwatersrand Unjvcrsity Press, 1966.
Publications
Brandei-Syrier, M. Reeftown Elite: A Study of Social Mobility in a Modern
African Community on the Reef London, RKP, 1971.
Braverm an, H. Labour and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in
the Twentieth Century. New York, Monthl y Review Press, 1974.
Christie, P. a nd Collins, C. ' Bantu Education : Apartheid Ideology and Labour
Reprod uction' in Kall away, P. (ed). Apartheid and Education: The
Education of Black South Africans. Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1984.
Dale, R. and E land , G. Mass Schooling. Milton Keynes, The Open Univer-
sit y Press, 1977.
64 The Classroom Struggle

Davenport, T.R.H . South Africa: A Modem History. Johannesburg, MacMillan,

1981.
Dugard, J. Fragments of My Fleece. Pietermaritzburg, Kendall and Strachan
1985.
Hlope, S.S. ' The Crisis of Urban Living Under Apartheid Conditions: A
Socio-Economic Analysis of Soweto ' in Murray, M.J. (ed). South Afri-
can Capitalism and Black Political Opposition. Cambridge, Ma s.,
Schenkman, 1982.
Kane- Berman, J. South Africa: The Method in the Madness. London, Pluto,
1979.
Lewis, J. Industrialisation and Trade Union Organis'ation in South Africa,
1924-55. Cambridge, Cambridge Univers ity Pre s, 1984.
Mathonsi, E.N. Black Matriculation Results: A Mechanism of Social Con-
trol. Johannesburg Skotaville, 1988.
Module SAE3701
Year of Publication 1999

Title of Publication The classroom struggle policy and resistance in South Afnca . 1940 1990 I
J Hyslop
Edition
Publisher Umverstty of Natal Press
Chapter number 8
Chapter title Student Revolt 1972 to 1976 /lcJ Hyslop
Page 150 - 165

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AFRICA (UNISA)

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 CHAPTER EIGHT

Student Revolt: 1972 to 1976

This chapter sets out to explain the origins of the school student
uprising o 976.
ht"changes in education policy described in the previous chapter
created conditions that sharpened school students' sense of common
identity and grievance. The period leading to the 1976 revolt saw
significant changes in urban black youth sub-culture. \.Th se changes
helped produce a new political culture among young people .• This
provided the basis for a potentially transformative challenge to Bantu
Education .
•The slate, by rapidly expanding the urban secondary school popula-
tion from 1972, inadvertently caused the growth of a highly politically
combustible social force . This was intensified by a badly managed re-
organisation of schools' year-structure from the beginning of 1976.
These changes created intensified discontent between urban pupils
and teachers.
,his structurally overstretched school system began to encounter a
rising ideological challenge from the youth.
Important political influence was Black Consciousness (BC),
w ich emerged out of black university campuses in the late 60s. BC ~
pread into the schools through young teachers, providing school
students with new political ideas. ~ud nts were receptive to these
influences for sev r-al reasons. There was discontent over school over-
crowding. changing political situation made the state look more
threatened than it had in the 60s. There was growi g economic uncer-
tainty as the boom of the 60s tailed off. 1sing influence of BC
reduced the political influence of conservative black elites in the
ed1.1_cat~l sphere.
~evehts that triggered the uprising of 1976 were another effect of
the restructuring in education. Conservatives within the BED reacted
against the pragmatic policies of the 70s. einfttempt to enforce the
teaching of Mrikaans was a reaction against what this wing of the
bureaucracy saw as a dilution of apartheid policy. The BED refused to
 Student Revolt:1972 to 1976 151

take any notice of the opposition that the language policy aroused from
its own creatures, the school boards.
, In 1976, the determination of a reactionary inspectorate to enforce
this policy collided with the radical aspirations of a new generation of
school students.

The Impact of Educational Restructuring

The most important result of th e ed ucation policy turnabout of 1972
was the rapid expansion of the number of students in secondary
schools. Previous policies had led to almost total negl ect of thi s sector.
By 1965, there were a mere 67 000 African secondary school pupils.
Largely bantustan-based growth had allowed this figure to rise to
122 000 by 1970. With the new policy, secondary school enrolment
soared to 389 000 by 1976. By squeezing larger numbers of older pupils
into an under- resourced school system, the state generated an environ-
ment in which rebellion might grow.
Moreover, the higher level of state expenditure also allowed the
continued expansion of primary education. In 1955 only 10 per cent of
the African population had been school students. By 1975,21 per cent
of all African people were school students.
The injection of larger numbers of students into an educational
system of limited resources led to declining educational standards.
Two teachers ex plai n thei r demoralisation and disaffection:
. .. . fro m the beginning of the '70s ... when our classrooms in the
secondary chools were becoming overcrowded ... I noticed that there
had been a remarkable change. Now, in the methods of teaching applied
by the teachers in the schoo ls ... no longer do you find teachers mark-
ing the individual student 's books or scripts. Students are told to ex-
change books and mark their own books ... if you are not satisfied with
that type of thing, and you still fee l that you want to pile yourself with
books to mark . . . you become very unpopular in the schools .
. . . it was now obv ious classes were too big ... The teacher himself was
now sick of the set up.
The strains of overcrowding and lack of resources also encouraged
the use by teachers of harsh methods of corporal punjshment. The
resulting student resentment led to what one student described as a
' deadlock' between pupils and staff.
Part of the re-organisation of Bantu Education after 1972 was a
fa teful decision to change the year-structure of black schooling. The
structure had traditionally comprised an eight-year primary course and
a five-year secondary school course. The 1972 decision was that there
was now to be a six-year primary course and a six-year secondary
course. Implementation was planned for the beginning of 1976. This
152 The Classroom Struggle

affected both those who had passed Standard 5 in 1975 and those who
had passed Standard 6 in 1975; both groups would go into secondary
school. The 1976 first-year secondary class would be at least twice the
size of the class in the previous year. Applied on a small scale, and on
an experimental basis, the new structure had been tried out in Soweto
schools. Headmasters had found it an educational success.
However, the implementation of the policy on a mass scale would
be a different story. The expansion of school building in Soweto from
1972 had taken some pressure off the schooling system. More build-
ings allowed the top secondary schools to specialise in teaching only
the upper levels of students (Forms 4 and 5).
When the ill-planned measure of 'doubling up ' was carried out at
the beginning of 1976, the result was chaotic overcrowding and
overstrained facilities. A teacher recalls:
It brought about absolute confusion . .. although [the government]
planned it, but they had not prepared for it . .. they didn 't have ready
grants for teachers to be able to cope with those oumbers .. . they did
not have accommodation ...
Teachers found the change a strain because the younger classes of
children promoted from primary school were not equipped to cope
with secondary school work. One teacher comments: 'It had a bad
effect because the kids were not ready to go to secondary school.'
There were unbearable strains on an impoverished and debilitated
educational service. The bad conditions produced further disaffection
among teachers and kindled a greater level of resentment among
school students. Paradoxically, it was the youth's common experience
of a poor quality mass schooling system that created a common sense
of identity and grievance. As one teacher memorably put it: ' Bantu
Education made us black.' Yet it is unlikely that this student resent-
ment would have been sufficient to generate the basis for the 1976
uprising. More important, these developments interacted with the
growth of a new political culture among urban youth.

The New Political Culture of Urban Youth

The expansion of secondary education brought a new generation into
the schools. It was not just a new chronological generation, but what C.
Bundy, drawing on K. Mannheim, calls a sociological generation. This
is a group with its own generational consciousness. As H. Lunn has
shown, the period saw the growth of a distinctively urban youth culture.
Youths became relatively educated and totally urbanised. They were
sympathetic to statements of black political identity. They began to
differentiate out from the previously dominant, 'gangster ' sub-culture
 Student Revolt:1972 to 1976 153

of the ' mapantsula ' . From the early 70s, historical process was rapidly
reshaping the consciousness of this generation.
The changing internal and externa l situation of the regime had the
effects of creating the conditions for a new outlook. The 1973 strike
wave presented the state with the first oppos itional mass mobilisation
fo r more than a decade. Labour 's discontent made an impact on
students. A teacher comments that students:

... listened to their parents talking and li stened to how their parents are
treated by their employers, and became awa re that their parents are
underpaid and therefore are unab le to afford the bare necess ities that the
ch ildren require. I think that's one of the most important things that
influence the children politically.

The period also saw the fall of Portuguese colonialism in Angola

and Mozambique. South African military intervention in Angola had
fa il ed. Th e re was guerrilla warfare in Zimbabwe and Namibia. These
events placed the South African state, which had seemed so invulner-
able in the 60s, under pressure. It was iso lated and could be chal-
lenged.
The political thinking of urban school students about their own
ab ility to affect the course of events began to change. One student
wrote in a study conducted by·L. Maree at a Soweto High School in
Apri l 1975: ' Riots are now going to occur. We are going to event things
fo r ourselves [sic].'
The rapid expansion of the job market that bad taken place in the
60s slowed very considerably in the 70s. Rapid educational expansion
is likely to ge nerate unrest if, as was the case in the 70s, employment
opportunities do not increase at a similar rate. Yet while the overall
number of jobs was growing slowly, many more blacks th an in the past
w ere being taken on in clerical, technical , skilled and supervisory jobs.
This created a volatile compound of ambition, frustration and eco-
nomic fea r among students. Particularly intense was the anguish of
those students who had entered secondary school, but were not able to
pursue their education far enough to secure the jobs they desired.
These stud ents found themselves, as a teacher puts it, ' too educated to
sweep floors, but too uneducated to join management '.
The common experiences of youth provided the basis for a new
outlook. These included, centra ll y, the experience of a segregated and
infe rior school system, which was increasingly resented. Economic
developments created new aspirations and new fears.
These experiences created a generationa l consciousness. This was
transformed into a political culture largely by the influence of a new
ideology.
154 The Classroom Struggle

The political calm of the 60s ended with the emergence in 1969 of
the university-based South African Students' Organisation (SASO). It
spearheaded a new political current- Black Consciousness. BC stressed
the need for blacks to reject liberal white tutelage. It called for the
assertion of a black cultural identity, psychological liberation from
notions of inferiority, and the unity of all blacks including ' Coloureds'
and 'Indians'.
BC was weak in the organisational sphere. From 1972, its school
student arm, the South African Students' Movement (SASM) was
active in the schools, but it never developed really strong structures.
However, the ideological content of BC had a pervasive influence on
urban youth. BC views were prevalent at the time among younger
teachers, especially those who had passed through the separate black
universities established during the 60s. These teachers passed on their
political ideas to their pupils. A teacher who graduated from the
University of Zululaod in the early 70s and taught on the Rand in the
period from 1972 recalls how he tried to raise the political conscious-
ness of his pupils:
A student that got through varsity during the SASO era was so
conscientised that you just get into class and really be prepared to
conscientise. When the very same students reached Standards 9 or 10,
they were already conscientised ...
Another teacher who was in the profession in the early 70s recalls:
' the staff were divided into young and old- they called us [the young
teachers] SASO. ' Older teachers agreed in interviews that the newer
generation of teachers had a powerful impact on their students:

Children came to understand through these young men, that the battle for
political rights had started long ago. Young teachers started to talk freely
about the black leaders . .. it was the young teachers, and I must say,
particularly from Fort Hare that brought about the revival of the political
history of our people .
. . . at that time the Black Consciousness movement was already strong
and the teachers were from the universities, and in a way they did
influence the children by making them aware of ... the fact they were
being given an inferior type of education, so certainly they played an
important role in making the children conscious.

BC activists also influenced school students through publications.

Members of the BC organisations wrote the texts of the magazines
disseminated by SASM.
Increasingly, the influence of conservative black political groups
such as ASSECA and TUATA was reduced. On the other hand, town-
ship elites became more critical in their stance toward the BED. In
 Student Revolt:1972 to 1976 155

early 1971, ASSECA met with representatives of SASO and five other
bodies to discuss the setting up of a BC organisation. The leaders of
the BC current were at this time still groping towards a definition of
their role. Their emphasis tended to be on the need for blacks to
transform their attitudes towards themselves, and on community ac-
tion, rather than on overtly political activity. It was this lack of politi-
cal emphasis and stress on ' practical ' projects that enabled ASSECA
to co-operate with them. At a follow-up conference in August 1971, a
committee was established, chaired by M .T. Moerane, to draw up a
constitution for the projected organisation. However, at a third confer-
ence in Decembe r, it became clear the strata of youth and intelligentsia
grouped around SASO wanted a political movement. The ASSECA
delegation resisted this. Nevertheless, the majority of the other del-
egates backed SASO . When the Black Consciousness Movement
(BCM) was founded in July 1972, it was on SASO 's terms.
A s imilar estrangement developed between BC activists and the
ATASA teachers ' organisations. Conservative teacher groups increas-
ingly lost the initiative to the young radicals. In the Transvaal, TUATA
proved unable to respond to the challenge of BC. During 1972, SASO
subj ected the teaching profession to a stern critique for its lack of
political militancy. TUATA responded defensively, declaring in a
magazine editorial:

We are not going to prejudice our case and course in order to please
SASO 's generals by being militant ... We shall always criticise the
Department of Bantu Education, and the Government of the day, as we
always do, in a manner suitable to us, and in our own responsible
way . .. SASO's attitude is bound to lead to head-on collisions ... Why
can 't SASO live and let live?

TUATA was infuriated by the radicals ' criticisms of the way in

which it worked with the BED. It saw these attacks as undermining its
status and that of the educational system. Among teachers, the influ-
ence of a younger and more radical generation began to undermine the
prestige of the ATASA organisations. One of its former members
comments:
Many teachers lost confidence in the provincial organisations like TUATA
as a result of the ideas of the young teachers who came into the field.
This process in turn led to conflicts between teachers and principals
about how to handle the new political awareness in the schools. As one
teacher puts it:
Principals feared the spirit of Black Consciousness .. . whereas it was
something exciting to the students . . . you found there was polarity
156 The Classroom Struggle

between the teachers and the principaJ, because the principal feared if
this would come out there would be trouble ...

A shift in urban politici:tl attitudes was taking place, especially in

urban black politics. This lessened the impact of the conservative
currents which had flourished in the different circumstances of the
60s.
Conversely, those elements of the urban elite who wanted to be
more politically assertive were strengthened. The school board system
provides a case in point. In the early 70s, school boards and commit-
tees in urban areas became foci of protest against aspects of state
educational policy.
With the rise of new oppositional politics, there was an increasing
confidence on the part of urban black elites in their ability to assert
themselves. In some urban areas, especially on the Rand, there was
growing protest from school boards and committees about various
state policies from around 1971. This is not to suggest that the boards
and committees were simply transformed into some form of popular
leadership. However, in certain areas they began to articulate themes
contrary to those of state policy.
The first such issue around which conflict arose was the state 's
attempt in the early 70s to separate urban schools along ethnic or
'tribal' lines. The government wanted to establish similarly distinct
school boards for different ethnic groups. In late 1971, at a meeting
with BED officials, members of Soweto school boards expressed their
opposition to the state's plans to re-organise the boards. They said this
move would create administrative problems and generate conflict
between different groups. The following year, in March, a meeting of
Soweto school committee members and parents objected to the scheme
to establish ' tribal' schools. Parents threatened to withdraw their
children from the schools if the plan was imposed. In Alexandra
township in 1973, school committees and parents met and protested
about the ethnic separation of the schools. The Alexandra School
Board then withdrew its instructions to principals to pursue this policy.
There were also some incidents in which school boards came to the
defence of politically victimised teachers. There were two such inci-
dents in 1972. In one, the BED ordered that Abraham Tiro, the
Turfloop (University of the North) student leader (later to be assassi-
nated in Botswana), and Edward Kubayi, who had also been expelled
from Turfloop, be removed from the teaching posts they had taken in
Soweto. However, the responsible school boards both refused to carry
out the BED's decision. Thus by 1974 urban school boards, at any rate
on the Rand, had developed a degree of autonomy from the BED.
 Student Revolt:1972 to 1976 157

The changed social and political environment began to create a

student movement of a type never seen before. During 1974 student
activity displayed its traditional pattern. Transkei schools continued to
predominate as the main centres of action. There were also isolated
incidents in the Orange Free State and Natal and in the older rural
boarding schools. But the following year showed a striking change in
the geographical and spatial location of unrest. Student action spread
to the urban areas of the Eastern Cape and to urban areas outside the
Cape. A number of incidents also took place in Pretoria and Mafikeng.
The secondary and higher primary schools of the townships were
awakening politically, for the first time developing their own autono-
mous tradition and repertoire of action. This represented both a break
and a continuity with the history of the mission schools. A break
because it was marked by a new strength, political vision and coher-
ence of organisation. A continuity because the tradition of challenging
authority relations in education through the tactics of boycott and riot
were carried over into the new period.
The new-style struggles in urban day-schools were far more organ-
ised and more explicit in their aims than the actions that had been
mounted in the boarding schools. One school where these new currents
emerged was Thembalabantu High School at Zwelitsha. In October
1974, three students there were expelled for contributing to SASM's
magazine. In May 1975, pupils presented a list of grievances to the
head, who responded by expelling one of their number. The students
then called a strike and held a meeting to discuss the issue. The police
arrived and 140 students were arrested. A similar new combativeness
wa demonstrated by students at Morris Isaacson School in Soweto in
September 1975. When the Security Police returned to school a stu-
dent they had been interrogating, they found their way blocked by
protesting students.
Another incident took place at Nathaniel Nyaluza High School,
Grahamstown, during 1975. Here students clearly articulated and
ferociously fought for their demands. In May they staged boycotts and
demonstrations. They put forward serious complaints. The teachers,
they said, were poorly qualified, had drinking problems, sexually
harassed female pupils and punished students for exposing their mis-
deeds. There were also complaints about the conduct of the inspector,
disciplinary procedures, shortages of books and the poor quality of the
buildings. For the first time the serious and central problems which
students experienced within Bantu Education were being articulated
by them, and in action. Even more striking was the determined form of
action the students took. They occupied the school buildings for two
weeks. They held mass meetings to discuss progress. The teachers,
158 The Classroom Struggle

who were objects of much of the students ' wrath, fled the school,
fearing they would be attacked. Eventually 19 of them were sacked for
refusing to return to their posts. A new and tempestuous generation
had arrived.

sue of Afrikaans
1s new militancy was to be transformed into mass revolt by a
p'articular issue - that of enforced use of Afrikaans in the school
system. The BED had strongly carried out this policy from 1974. It
would seem at first glance that the language policy of the mid-70s
merely arose out of some reckless ideological drive to propagate
Afrikaans. However, it was a by-product of the internal struggle in the
NP. It was generated by a shift in the orientation of the NP leadership
in the early 70s.
The language policy represented part of a reaction by the NP 's right
wing, and its supporters within the state administration, against that
shift. The more extreme wing of the NP feared that the coming
together of the NP leadership with Anglophone .business interests
represented a sellout of Afrikaner interests. The promotion of the use
of Afrikaans was a symbol of national self-assertion. It was an attempt
to test government commitment to Afrikaner identity. The policy cut
across the need of students to prepare to sell their labour-power on the
labour market of urban centres dominated by English-speaking con-
cerns.
For most of the period from 1958 to 1976, the BED was quite ready
to subordinate the NP ideological drive toward the promotion of
Afrikaans to the needs of the labour market. The BED accepted the
reality that few black teachers were fluent in Afrikaans. From the start,
it formally subscribed to the policy that in secondary schools, half of
the exam subjects should be taught in English and half in Afrikaans-
the so-called ' fifty-fifty rule ' . However, this policy was not practica-
ble, given the small numbers of African teachers who spoke Afrikaans.
The BED introduced a system under which schools were given per-
mission to depart from the rules concerning equal use of language.
During the 50s, a majority of secondary schools were granted such
permission. The BED was willing to consider other factors than lack
of teachers with the right linguistic abilities (such as shortage of text-
books) as a basis for exemption. In 1959 there was an attempt to
tighten up on exemptions. The lack of teaching staff with the right
language aptitude was declared the only basis for exemption. This rule
seems to have been flexibly enforced. The language of local employ-
ers became the main determinant of which official language was used
in the classroom. J. Dugard, as a senior department official, found in
 Student Revolt:1972 to 1976 159

the 60s that African teachers in the Orange Free State and parts of the
Northern Transvaal had a good grasp of Afrikaans. Those in the Cape,
Natal and on the Rand did not.
In 1973, the BED moved to consolidate this tailoring of language
policy to the needs of the labour market. Departmental Circular No. 2
of that year laid down that exam subjects could now be taught either
purely in English or purely in Afrikaans. This policy was acceptable to
both parents and students as it enabled students to study in the lan-
guage that would be of most use to them in obtaining work. It reflected
the new element of pragmatism and accommodation with industry in
BED policy.
However, this relatively widely acceptable language policy was
soon to be dramatically reversed. In the early 70s there was a political
re-orientation by the NP leadership. While remaining close to the
traditional political ideology of apartheid, the NP attempted a greater
degree of detente with the needs of capital. This led to intensive
infighting between the ' verligte ' faction supporting the new orientation,
and the ' verkrampte ' group who represented traditional interests. In
1972, Gerrit Viljoen, a leading ' verligte ' , displaced the ' verkrampte '
Andries Treurnicht from the leadership of the Broederbond. Subse-
quently, in 1974, Viljoen beat off a challenge by Treurnicht to regain
the leadership. It seemed that the verligtes were clearly ascendant
within the NP. However, Treurnicht rapidly emerged as the leader of a
strong conservative group in the party. Prime Minister Vorster, in order
to contain the dissension in the ranks, began to tilt in his public
pronouncements towards the ' verkramptes ' , directly attacking the
' verligtes' in a 1974 speech.
In this context, right-wing NP members within the educational
apparatus came to see the role of Afrikaans as an issue of symbolic
political importance. The lack of assertiveness in BED policy on the
use of Afrikaans was seen as part of a pattern of weak commitment to
traditional NP values. This feeling emerged most clearly at the 1975
conference of the ' Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurverenigings' (Fed-
eration of Afrikaans Cultural Societies). The conference passed a
motion calling on the government to promote Afrikaans in all possible
ways to achieve its ' rightful position' in schools for blacks and Asians.
Proposing the motion, Professor J.H. Senekal said there was concern
about the position of Afrikaans as a language of use among black
people, especially in the black urban schools. For the continued exist-
ence of Afrikaans it was important that it should become 'a language
of use of the black man ' . Former Minister W.A. Maree supported the
motion.
The ' verkramptes ' within the BED had already launched an offen-
160 The Classroom Struggle

sive on the issue. A meeting of Transvaal inspectors in January 1974

resolved that arithmetic and social studies ought to be taught in
Afrikaans. Departmental Circular No.6 of 1974 re-asserted the need
to apply the fifty-fifty rule. The Afrikaans version of the circular
added the qualification ' where possible', but the English version did
not. The circular stressed the need for application to be made to the
secretary of the BED for any deviation from the fifty-fifty rule. It thus
represented a clear policy reversal. From late 1974, there was a stricter
application of the fifty-fifty rule, and a greater rate of refusal of
applications for exemption. This was especially the case in the South-
ern Transvaal. Regional Circular No. 2 of 1974 imposed the earlier
decision of the inspectors to force the teaching of maths and social
studies in Afrikaans. The circular failed to draw attention to the
possibility of obtaining exemption.
The policy of enforcing instruction in Afrikaans was almost univer-
sally unpopular in urban areas. Jt forced teachers to teach in a language
in which few of them were proficient. Few pupils understood it. Here
are a sample of teachers' views:
Almost all the African teachers were never taught through the Afrikaans
medium ... and therefore could not teach . .. children .
. . . only some of us understood Afrikaans and it was difficult for us to
express ourselves, then what about to teach? ... A lot of kids didn 't
even know what to do or how to write anything in Afrikaans.
ATASA was sufficiently antagonised by the policy to send a delega-
tion to Pretoria to complain about it.
The insistence on the new policy by elements of the white inspec-
torate generated immense friction between the BED on the one hand,
and teachers and students on the other. One headmaster speaks of:
... the intransigence of the inspectors who were predominantly Afrikaners
and who were not interested in the black child at all, but they were
interested in the black child being Afrikanerized.
He had found the inspectorate totally unsympathetic to the fact that
many teachers who had claimed to have been able to speak in Afrikaans,
in order to get a post, were unable to do so. Another principal, finding
that his students were making no headway ~n mathematics when using
Afrikaans, instructed his teachers to change to English. He lobbied the
BED through the school board for approval of this change. The
response of the inspectors was to have him summoned to the BED to
account for his deviation from departmental policy.
The new policy thus not only failed to strengthen the ideological
influence of Afrikaner nationalism on blacks, but also created a new
 Student Revolt:1972 to 1976 161

grievance in the educational sphere. This was strongly felt by teachers

and students alike.
Writings on the student uprising of 1976 have generally ignored the
role of the school boards in opposing the imposition of Afrikaans as a
teaching medium from 1974. Yet popular opposition to the policy first
manifested itself in the resistance of certain school boards. However,
throughout the period from 1974 to 1976, the BED showed no inclina-
tion to listen to these views. It responded to the boards ' opinions with
threats or disciplinary action. The authorities wanted the boards to
incorporate blacks into a sense of participation in the education sys-
tem, but they were not prepared to give them decision-making powers.
The BED wanted community participation in education, but only as
long as the community's views coincided with its own. This approach
guaranteed the failure of boards as a hegemonic structure.
Discontent about the Afrikaans policy resulted in a meeting of 91
delegates from school boards of the PWV and Western Transvaal
areas, held in Atteridgeville on 21 December 1974. The tone of the
meeting was relatively miJd. Nevertheless, it strongly opposed the use
of Afrikaans ~s a medium of instruction. A memorandum was drawn
up demanding an end to the policy. A deputation was chosen to meet
the BED on the matter. The views of the meeting were couched in
terms of support for the homeland leaders' views that secondary
education should be conducted in English. The meeting also supported
the idea of seeking a Supreme Court injunction if the BED proved to
be intractable. Some, however, did express more combative views. Mr
M. Peta, a member of Atteridgeville School Board, called for a school
boycott if the policy were not reversed. The very limited demand
of the school boards was met with implacable opposition from the BED.
A further meeting of school boards was held in January at which
' great dissatisfaction ' was expressed at the BED's refusal to compro-
mise with the boards. However, the BED was determined to repress
any opposition to its policies. A planned joint meeting of school
boards at Sebokeng was later banned by the circuit inspector of
Vereeniging. In Atteridgeville, the chair of the school board was
sacked for his opposition to the Afrikaans policy. This provoked a
school boycott. Circulars Nos 6 and 7 of 1975 were issued by the BED
to firm up its position. They reaffirmed the fifty-fifty English-Afrikaans
rule and forbade school boards to decide on the medium of instruction
in their schools. W.C. Ackermann, the Regional Director of Bantu
Education for the Southern Transvaal, told one school board, which
had instructed its teachers to use English, that its grants for teachers'
salaries would be cut off if it did not co-operate.
162 The Classroom Struggle

These strong-arm policies did not crack the school boards ' opposi-
tion to the Afrikaans medium of instruction policy. Several school
boards in Soweto persisted in instructing their teachers to use English
as the sole medium. Boards in the Port Elizabeth area also took up the
issue. School boards from townships there presented a joint memoran-
dum to the inspector in the area, calling for abandonment of the fifty-
fifty policy, in February 1975.
With the beginning of the 1976 school year, the conflict in Soweto
deepened. On 20 January, the Meadowlands Tswana School Board
met the local circuit inspector to discuss the issue. The inspector took
an approach characteristic of the BED. He argued that as all direct tax
paid by blacks went to homeland education, urban black education
was being paid for by whites. The BED therefore bad a duty to
'satisfy ' white tax payers. Not surprisingly, the board members were
unimpressed by this analysis. They voted unanimously for English as
the medium of instruction in schools under their control. Following
this, two members of the school board were dismissed by the BED.
The other seven members resigned in protest. •
The story of the period leading up to June 1976 is, in part, one of the
refusal of the BED to listen to its own school boards.
Despite the widespread evidence of the unpopularity of the policy
on Afrikaans, the NP government did not act in a way likely to reduce
tension on the issue. Rather, underestimating the potential of popular
opposition, it went in the opposite direction, playing to its rightist
constituency. To a considerable extent Vorster 's policy was one of
giving the NP's right wing their head in the cultural and social sphere,
while carrying out a slightly more pragmatic orientation in the eco-
nomic field. As part of his attempt to placate the 'verkramptes ',
Vorster reassigned the notably reformist Deputy Minister of Bantu
Administration and Development, Punt Janson, in 1976. He replaced
him as Deputy Minister of Bantu Education with the 'verkrampte '
leader, Andries Treurnicht. This clearly strengthened the hand of the
extreme right within the educational bureaucracy.
Treurnicht 's unshakable commitment to the hard line language
policy played an important role in triggering the uprising. He relent-
lessly pursued the fifty-fifty policy in secondary education, despite the
opposition of parents and teachers and rising student discontent. On 11
June 1976, he announced that applications to depart from the fifty-fifty
rule by five Soweto schools had been rejected. He took this position
even though these schools were on strike. During the parliamentary
discussion he protested ignorance of a violent incident at Naledi, on
which the Cillie Commission commented that it was ' hardly possible
 Student Revolt:1972 to 1976 163

that the [Deputy] Minister would not have received the correct and full
details ' .
The intransigence of the BED over the Afrikaans issue provided a
single political focus for the pent-up anger and frustration of school
students. The new political urban youth culture began to express itself
on a wider scale, and more forcefully. School students of Soweto
began to revolt against the BED 's policy from the beginning of 1976.
The BED had opened up a situation where the students could no longer
hope that mediation through township elites would resolve their prob-
lems.
The first indication of trouble in Soweto schools over the Afrikaans
issue took place on 24 February. Students at Mofolo Secondary School
argued with their headmaster, and he called in the police. During
March the Black Peoples ' Convention (BPC), SASO and SASM were
active in Soweto schools on the issue. In the next month, strikes took
place in schools around the sacking of three school principals by the
Tswana School Board in a row related to the Afrikaans issue. Orlando
West Junior School emerged as a storm centre of the crisis. On 30
April, students there went on strike against the Afrikaans medium of
instruction policy. On 17 May they held another boycott over the
dismissal of a member of the school board, bombarding the principal's
office with stones. They drew up and presented a memorandum of
their grievances to the head. By 16 May, a boycott over Afrikaans had
started in Phefeni Secondary School. It then spread to Belle Higher
Primary School, and on to Thulasizwe, Emthonjeni, Khulo Ngolawazi
Higher Primary Schools. The involvement of higher primaries is sig-
nificant because their highest form was affected by the BED 's Afrikaans
decree. The actions were of a militant character. They included a
demonstration at Thulasizwe and at Belle, the locking out of staff and
of boycott-breaking students by the militants. On 24 May, pupils
rejected a call to go back to school by the Orlando-Diepkloof School
Boards. The strike spread to Pimville Higher Primary. SASM moved
to consolidate the situation. It held a conference at Roodepoort at the
end of May that discussed the campaign against the enforced use of
Afrikaans.
The explosive anger of Soweto youth is suggested by two incidents
which occurred at this time. On 12 May, a woman teacher was walking
to school when she was stopped by two youths who intended to rob
her. She yelled for aid and more than 100 students from Orlando North
Secondary School rushed to help her. They pursued the robbers,
caught them and beat them to death. In another incident during May, a
teacher at Pimville was stabbed by a student. When police tried to
arrest the student, they were stoned by his colleagues. These events
164 The Classroom Struggle

suggest a rising willingness on the part of students to define what was

just for themselves, and a willingness to use force to back those
conceptions.
The intensity of the Afrikaans conflict continued to mount. In early
June there was fighting at Senoane Junior School and elsewhere
between boycotters and students trying to return to school. On 8 June
the Security Police arrived at Naledi High School and attempted to
arrest the secretary of the SASM branch. Students attacked and stoned
the police officers and burnt their car. The policemen had to be rescued
from the principal 's office by reinforcements. The next day police who
returned to the school were driven off by stone-throwing pupils. The
situation worsened as exams began. Students at several schools re-
fused to write. By this time collective action was being called for.
SASM convened the meetings of June, which founded the Soweto
Student Representative Council (SSRC). This body then organised a
mass student protest against the use of Afrikaans for 16 June.
When on that day, police and students met, the subsequent shoot-
ings by the police and the ensuing nationwide revolt by students turned
South African history in a new direction.

Bibliography

Oral History
Interviews with Teachers. Nos 1, 3, 5, 7- 8, 11, 13, 16-18.
Official publications
South African Statistics, 1978 and 1986. Central Statistical Services, Pretoria.
Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Riots at Soweto and Elsewhere
from the 16 June 1976 to 28 February 1977 (Chairman: CiJiie, J.).
Pretoria, Government Printer, 1980.
Department of Education and Training. Annual Report for 1981 and 1986.
Pretoria, Government Printer, 1982 and 1987.
Newspapers and Periodicals
Daily Dispatch. 25 October 1974, 27 February 1975, 17 May 1975.
Eastern Province Herald. 24 May 1975, 27 May 1975, 10 October 1974, 19
February 1975.
Journal of Southern African Studies. Vols 10 No. 2, April1984. (Charney, C.
' Class Conflict and the National Party Split'); 13 No. 3, April 1987.
(Bundy, C. 'Street Sociology and Pavement Politics: Aspects of Youth
and Student Resistance in Cape Town, 1985 ').
Natal Witness. 30 October 1972.
Pretoria News. 29 January 1975.
 Student Revolt:1972 to 1976 165

Rand Daily Mail. 11 February 1970,30 May 1972, 20 October 1972, 31 October
1972, 15 March 1973, 10 April1973, 6 July 1974, 23 December 1974, 13
January 1975, 29 January 1975, 15 May 1975,27 May 1975, 13 June 1975,
23 September 1975.
SA IRR Race Relations Survey . Johannesburg, SAIRR, 1974 and !976.
Sunday Times. 7 July 1974.
The Friend. 14 February 1975.
The Star. 2 November 1971, 11 October 1972, 23 December 1974.
Transvaler. 10 Jul y 1975.
TUATA. August 1972, May 1973, February 1975.
Weekend Post. 22 February 1975, 24 May 1975, 21 June 1975.
Theses and Papers
C has kalson, M. ' Apartheid with a Human Face: Punt Janson and the Origins
of Reform in Township Administration, 1972--6' . African Studies Insti-
tute Paper, University of the Witwate rsrand , Johannesburg, 1988.
Crankshaw, 0 . 'The Racial and Occupational Division of Labour in South
Africa, 1969-1985'. Second Biennial Labour Studies Workshop, 31
October to 1 November 1987, University of the Witwatersrand, Johan-
nesburg.
Lunn , H. ' Antecedents of the Music and Popular Culture of the African Post-
] 976 Generat ion'. MA Di ssertation, University of the Witwatersrand,
1986.
Publications
Dugard, J. Fragments ofMy Fleece. Pieterm aritzburg, Kendall and Strachan,
1985.
Gastrow, S. Who s Who in South African Politics. Johannesburg, Ravan
Press, 1985.
Gerhart, G. Black Power in South Africa: The Evolution of an Ideology.
Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1979.
Hirson, B. Year of Fire, Year of Ash. The Soweto Revolt: Roots of a Revolu-
tion. London, Zed Press, 1979.
Kane-Berman, J. South Africa: The Method in the Madness. London, Pluto,
1979.
Lodge, T. Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945. Johannesburg, Ravan
Press, 1983.
Maree, L. ' The Hearts and Minds of the People' in KaJlaway, P. (ed). Apart-
heid and Education: The Education of Black South Africans. Johannes-
burg, Rava n Press, 1984.
Montsitsi, S. 'Lessons from 1976' in NUSAS Beyond the Challenge of
Change. NUSAS , 1983.
SAIRR. South Africa in Travail: The Disturbances of 1976-7: Evidence
Presented to the Cillie Commission by the Institute of Race Relations.
Johannesburg, SAIRR, 1978.
Module SAE3701
Year of Publication 1991

Title of Publication The right to learn . the struggle for education 1n South Africa I P Christie
Edition
Publisher Ravan Press
Chapter number 3
Chapter title The Church and Education !JcP Christie
Page 67 - 100

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Chapter 3
The church
and education

The church has always been prominent in education in South Africa,

and e pecially in black education. Before 1953 mission schools provided
almost aJl of the education which was available for blacks. During the
1950s und er apartheid education, most of these schools had to close
down. But that hasn't meant the end of the church's involvement in
education. Today church schools- and especially Catholic schools- are
admitting black students into their private schools which up till now
had admi tted white students only. These are the so-called open schools.
The role of the church in South African history is not an easy one to
judge. Its role has been complicated and often contradictory. As a result,
there are different views about th e church's involvement. What follows
ar examples of three different views:

There's no doubt that the church has done a lot of good. Missionaries were
humane people who spread the Christian faith among the African tribes. And at
the same time, they brought education and Western medicine.
Missionaries were the main teachers of blacks in South Africa before Bantu
Education forced them to close the schools. Certainly, there were problems
with some of these schools. But without these mission schools, blacks would
have received no education. The mission schools educated many people. Most
of the really prominent black people went to mission schools.
The missionaries deserve praise for what they did.

Certainly, the missionaries provided education for blacks at a time when there
were few government schools. And maybe a lot of prominent people did go to
mission schools. But we still need to look critically at what the missionaries did.
I say that the missionaries actually helped in the conquest of the African
chiefdoms. They helped to break down African culture, and they imposed
Western culture and work patterns. They undermined the way of life of the

67
The rig ht to learn

African people. I think the Bible and the gun went together in the defeat of the
African chiefdoms.
You talk about education. Most black people didn't get to school at all. Those
who did get to school became an elite, privileged group. So mission education
actually divided people.
Overall, I think the missionaries have got a lot to answer for.

There is a big difference between intentions and actions.The missionaries might

have had good intentions. But this doesn't mean that what they did was always
good.
Often, they did work hand in hand with the colonial government which
wasn't necessarily to the good of the blacks.And often, they did think in racialist
terms, and practise exploitation themselves.
But how far were the missionaries themselves responsible for this? People
are very seldom aware of the role they are playing in history. Missionaries were
people of their time - as all people are. They reflected and promoted the
Western values of those times. Could we expect them to know differently?
And anyway, we are seldom aware of the role we are playing in history. The
missionaries were part of the unequal colonial society. That doesn 't mean they
chose it. Surely we should be trying to undehtand the past instead of praising
or blaming missionaries.

These three views show that there can be a wide range of opinion on
missionary education. In this chapter, we' re going to trace the story of
the church's involvement in education. We' ll look at:

• Mission education before 1953

• The response of the churches to Bantu Education

• The 'open schools' movement.

Then, you should be able to make up your own

mind about the role of the church in education.
You can judge the debates for yourself.
Let's start by looking at mission education
before 1953.

68
 The church a nd education

Mission education before 1953

Missionaries, merchants and magistrates

At the sa me time as w hite merchants, traders and farmers were moving
in and se ttling in So uth Nrica, th ere was also another very important
group of Europea ns in the colonies - the missionaries. Missionaries
came from Europe with th eir own purposes in mind. They wanted to
pread their Christia n fai th and way of life. But in South Nrica, as
elsewhere, missionary activity often went h and in hand with merchants
and trad ers, and the colonial governm ent. This isn' t to say that they
alway had the sa me aims; but they we re often wo rkin g closely
togeth er. As one writer noted in 1877:

There are close connections between the magistrate, missionary, school master
and t eacher in furthe ri ng the aims of the colonial government: to establish and
mai ntai n peace, to diffuse civilisation and Christianity, and to establish society on
the basis of ind ividual property and personal industry.
(Quoted in Trapido 1980:250)

So, the argumen t i th a t the magjstra te

(working for the colonial government), the
missio nary (working for God) and th e
merchant (workin g for profi t) were often
closely linked.
For a start, let's look at some of the links
between merch ants and missionaries.

In the 1800s, Euro pean merch ants and manu facturers were looking for
new marke ts in Nrica and th e rest of the world. This was the time of
merchant capitalism. Merchants and manufacturers often used moral or
Christian argu ments to justify taking over Nrica and other parts of the
world. For example, th ey argued that work on a min e or a p lan tation
was 'good' for people, and that it promoted 'Christian' values, like
diligence.

69
The right to lea rn

And the link be tween missionaries and

merchants went the other way as well.
Missionaries often p romoted ideas and
practices that fitted in with the ideas and
practices of the merchants.

Missionaries came to South Africa to spread the Gospel, and to teach

about Christianity. But they also had certain ideas about the way of life
that 'civilised' people should lead . Their Christian d octrine was
wrapped up in a whole set of Western attitudes and values. An d these
were often similar to the ideas of merchants, manu fac turers and the
colonial governm ent. For exa mple missionaries emphasised again and
again that Africans had to be ' tau ght to work'. And work, fo r them,
meant producing goods to sell, or earning wages in exchange for
labouring for a fixed number of hours 'a day. Here is w hat one
missionary said in 1851:

It is something to have changed the old kraal into a decent village - the old ka ross
into substantial European clothing - idleness into industry, ignorance into
intelligence, selfishness into benevolence, and heathenism into Christianity.
(Quoted in Trapido 1980:249)

And, as the historian Cook says:

The missiona ry came to South Africa to preach the Gospel and to dispel the
darkness of the heathen. But he taught elements of the same culture to wh ich the
trader, the magistrate, and the farmer belong. ( 1949:348)

So far, we've seen that there were certain

links between mission aries an d oth er groups
of colonists. Some people argue that the
mission aries were 'agents of colon ia lism',
and tha t the lin ks were strong. O ther people
argue th at the links were not very strong.
And others argue that amon gs t missionaries
there were different ideas and practices, so
we shouldn' t make general statements about
them.

70
 The church and education

We'll pick up on this theme late r, when we

look at the relationship between the colonial
government and the mission schools.
Let's now move on to look at missionary
activity, and the schools that were set up.

Mission schools
Missionaries came to South Africa from different Europea n countries-
among them Britain, Germany, Fra nce, Norway and Sweden- and also
from America. And they represented d ifferent church groups, or
denominations; there were Methodists, Roman Catholics,
Congregationists, Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and others. They
se t up mission stations first in the Cape and Natal, and then further
inland. In fact, by th e end of th e nineteenth century, there were more
missionaries in South Africa than almost anywhere else in the world!
Different missionary groups had different approaches towards their
missionary work among the people. But gen erally their aims were the
sa me: to establish themselves and their work, and to convert people to
Christianity.
Usually, missionaries se t up residential mission stations. Here is a
description of typical missionary activity elsewhere in Africa - which
applies to South Africa as well :

The initial years were mostly spent in building a church, a school and residential
houses for the European priests. The African Christians and their families lived in
areas not very far from the mission and regularly came to participate in the various
activities. They did the construction work and cleared the surrounding areas for
farm ing. Gradually a complex emerged in which activities like construction,
agriculture, evangelical work, literacy train ing and nursing sick patients were
carried on. Besides, the missionaries also visited nearby villages to extend
invitations to chiefs to come to the mission. (Hirji 1980: 195)

In the course of time mission stations were se t up around the country.

And where there were mission stations there were usually mission
sch ols. The missionaries saw ed ucation as a way of achieving their
own aims of converting people to Christianity, and of estab)jshing
themselves and their work.

71
The right to learn

There were different sorts of educational activities at mission school .

• Mostly, the missionaries taught basic reading and writing, along

with Christian doctrine. It was easier for literate people to absorb
religious ideas by reading the Bible and taking part in hymn-singing.
Basic education became an important means for conversion. A short
period of basic reading and writing, together with Christian
doctrine, was the most common education provided by mission
school .

• At the same time, manual work and practical training were also an
important part of mission education. We saw earlier how the
missionaries stressed the value of 'hard work' and believed that
people should be taught work discipline. Not only did they believe
in the value of work, the missionaries also needed work to be done
on the mission stations!
Some people did manual work and ' farming on the mission
stations as part of their education. Others were trained to be
carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, joiners, wagon builders, and so on.

• The missionaries also needed to train black people to help them with
their work of spreading the Gospel. They had to train catechists and
teachers, who could organise services, spread the Gospel among
their own people, and teach basic education in the mission schools.
And so, from early on, the mission schools also provided a higher
level of education - and especially teacher training - for a small
group of people. These people are often called the mission elite.

From this brief outline, we can see that

mission schools produced different sorts
of graduates. There were:
1 people with basic literacy;
2 workers, artisans and tradespeople;
3 an elite with higher levels of
education.
The education they provided was part of
their evangelising aims, so it was based in
Christian values and practices.

72
 The church and education

Different views on curriculum

Mission educators had different ideas about what black students should
learn, especially at secondary schools and teacher training schools.

• Some missionaries thought that blacks should be given exactly the

same academic education as whites - which meant, for example,
learning Latin and Greek. They believed there should be no
discrimination.

• Some missionaries thought that there should be an adapted

curriculum for black students. This curriculum should take local
conditions into account, and prepare black students for the local
society.

• Some missionaries thought that blacks were basically inferior, and

shouldn' t have too much academic education anyway. Thus, schools
should basically prepare people to be trained labourers.

Usually, the prominent mission schools taught a European-style

curriculum, but also included industrial training and manual work in
the curriculum.
But most mission schools did not emphasise secondary and higher
education. They provided mainly basic education, and some provided
enough higher education to meet their own needs for catechists and
teachers.

Different quality of schools

Mis ion schools varied greatly in the kind of education and the quality
of education they offered. In the course of time, a number of very
famous mission schools were established. Here is a list of some of them
and the date when they were established:

Lovedale Institution (1841)

Salem (1855)
St Matthew's (1855)
Healdtown (1857) Cape
Zonnebloem (1858)
St Cuthbert's (1882)
Mariazell (1899)

73
The right to learn

Adams College (1853)]

Inanda {1869) Natal
Mariannhill (1882)
St Hilda's (1907)

Kilnerton {1855)
Grace Dieu (1906)
Lemana (1906)
StPeter 's (1922)

These schools offered more than basic ed ucation. They were usual ly
boa rding schools, providing an academic educa ti on based on
European-type curricula. Most of them were teacher ttaining institutes
as well. They emphasised Christian values- and also included practical
work and technical training in their curricula. Some of these mission
schools were among the best in the country- and Loveda le was one of
these.
But as well as these famous schools, there were many many others,
often much less well known and much less successful. Most schools had
very little money, poor facilities and poorly trained teachers. They
usuaiJy offered two to three years of basic education -but attendance
was irregular, and their educational standards were doubtful .
Here is what the historian Horrell says of these schools:

In 1862, Dr Langham Dale, the Superintendent-General of education in the Cape,

went on a tour of inspection. He found that only 5% of the African pupils in these
schools had any useful knowledge of reading, writing, or arithmetic. Few of the
teachers had passed even Std IV. At outstations unqualified African assistants we re
in charge of so-called schools, with the nearest missionary some days' journey
away. No school books were available in the African languages.There was sufficient
school accommodation to admit only a very small fraction of the children of
school-going age, and those who did attend came irregularly.
( 1963: I 1- 12, adapted)

In 1882 the Inspector-General of the Cape said that Lovedale was

' probably the grea test educational establishmen t in South Nrica'. But
he said that half of the other mission schools 'could be closed without
loss to ed ucational advancement' (Horrell 1963:54).

74
 The church and education

So we shouldn't think only of successful

schools like Lovedale, Adams College and St
Peters when we think of mission schools. We
should remember the others as well. And we
should also remember that most people
didn' t go to school at all .
But this brings us to the overall
questions: How effective were mission
schools? What did they actually achieve?
How should we assess them?
To an wer these questions, let's start by
looking at African responses to mission
schools.

African responses to mission schools

1n the beginning, missionaries often found it difficult to gain converts
and educate them. African leaders sometimes accepted missionaries as
intermediarie , traders and healers. But they resisted any attempts to
break down their own value systems and authority structures. Here is
what the historian Etherington has to say:

Whole tribes (of Nguni) moved away from stations. Parents withdrew their
daughters from mission schools and rotated their sons so that they might earn
shirts and wages without risking conversion. Magic and medicines were
administered to individuals who seemed to be moving towards church
membership. In Zululand and Pondoland converts were isolated on mission
stations and ceased to be members of the nation.
( 1977:35, adapted)

Often, people who did come to mission stations had their own reasons
for doing so. Etherington argues that not many people came for purely
religious reasons. Many people came to look for work, or to seek refuge
from difficulties in their own communities.
Later on, when the independence of the chiefdoms was being
severely thr atened, leaders in some African groups allowed a few
people, particularly chiefs' sons, to attend school. They hoped that these
people could act as intermediaries between the colonial government
and the African chiefdoms.
It was only later, with the conquest of the chiefdoms and the growth
of the economy in South Africa, that people began to value mission
education as a way of advancement in the society.

75
The right to Jearn

In the earlier period, African people clidn' t always take

mission education seriously. They often had their own
aims for sending children to mission schools. lf they
didn' t particularly participate in the white-controlled
economy, they didn't necessarily see much value in
learning to read and write, or having a mission
education. It was only later, in the twentieth century,
that people began to demand more education.

New demand for education

By the end of the nineteenth century, the picture in South Nrica was
changing fa st. Nrican chiefdoms were defeated by white conquest, and
so authority structures changed. Economic activities also changed. As
most of the land was colonised, there was a steady movement of people
to towns to look for work. The discovery of minerals <fnd the expansion
of economic activities meant that more and more blacks were drawn
into wage labour. Most of the small peasants were squeezed off their
land.
In these changed conditions people's attitudes to education began to
change too. Education was seen more and more as a way into the
dominant economic and social system. And so, people began to demand
education.
Faced with this situation, missionaries continued to provide
schooling and to set up more schools. Some of the schools which were
established in this period offered a higher education, and there was also
emphasis on teacher training. But most of the schools still provided only
two or three years of education. And as people became more urbanised,
so the focus of missionary work also broadened. No longer were they
simply operating from mission stations. They now also worked in
compounds and locations.
And what about mission-educated people? Molteno and other
historians argue that these people were part of the breakdown of tribal
authority. According to Molteno (1984), there was a division between
Christian converts and people who held traclitional religious beliefs.
Schooled people were more likely to accept the new order. They helped
to spread a system of ideas, values and loyalties which fitted in with the
colonist ' interests, and which helped to undermine tribal resistance.
But at the same time, South African society was divided along lines
of colour. Black people - even educated black people- were not treated
as equals by the colonists. In the Cape, some black people did have the
vote. But in general blacks were in a subordinate position.

76
 The church and education

Even so, educated blacks were an elite group compared with other
blacks who had little or no education, and who could do only lower
levels of work.

From this we can see that missionaries and

their schools were part of the changes that
were happening in South Africa. Mission
education played its part in creating new
social groups- workers and the elite in a
society divided along lines of colour and
class.
But the important question is: To what
extent were the missionaries responsible
for these social changes? Certainly, they
were part of the processe of social change.
But how important was their part?
As part of our assessment of mission
schools, let's I ok at their relationship with
the government.

Relationship with the government

Generally peaki ng, for most of the nineteenth century missiOn
education operated without much government intervention. As
Molteno (1984) says, black schooling was not a high priority for the
colonial government. As we saw in Chapter Two, mission schools fell
under the authority of the Department of Education. Government
funding meant that it was possible for the government to exercise some
control over the schools. And in some cases they did attempt to
influence mis ion schools. People like Sir George Grey and Langham
Dale hoped to use mission education to control the eastern frontier. And
the government also encouraged and gave money for industrial
education in mission schools. But, generally, the government was
prepared to leave black education in the hands of the missionaries.
Gradually, black schooling did receive more government attention.
But black chooling was not made compulsory at the time when
compulsory chooling was introduced for whites. At the time of union
(1910), black education was left in the hands of the separate provinces.
Though the government gave funds for black education, money was
always very limited. School buildings were owned by missionaries, who
also had to pend considerable sums of money from their own funds to
run their schools.

77
The right to learn

So, before 1953, the mission schools provided almost all of the schooling
which was available for blacks. Along with mission schools, there were
a few government schools and a number of community schools. Mo t of
the mission schools were registered with the government, and received
government grants. Through registration and funding, the government
had a fair amount of influence over mission schools. In return for state
aid, the government laid down syllabuses, paid the teachers and
appointed managers to oversee the running of the schools.
The vast majority of African people didn't attend school at all. Most
of those who did attend had only two or three years of primary
schooling. Very few Africans had secondary schooling, and very very
few received a matric. Therefore we shouldn't overemphasise the direct
impact of mission education- it didn't reach very many people.
Nevertheless, mission education was very important for blacks.
Before 1953 it was almost the only education available to them.

And this is where we see a big contradiction.

On the one hand, the church was providin g,
and paying towards, education for blacks.
But on the other hand, we could argue that
mission schools were 'doing the
government's work for it' . They were
providing an education which wa s mainly
segregated, and which aimed at spreading
Western values, including work values.
Now let's look at three of the common
criticisms that are levelled against mi ssion
schools.

Some common criticisms

People u ually associate segregation and racism with Bantu Education
and apartheid. They tend to blame the Bantu Education system for a!J
the problems in today 's black education. But many of the patterns of
present-day black education were already present in missio n educati on .
Let's look at three aspects of mission education which are often
criticised:

• Industrial and manual education

• Racism and subordination
• Sexism and women' s subordination.

78
 The church and education

Industrial and manual education

Mission school usually included industrial ed ucation or manual labour
as part of the curriculum. This has been a controversial aspect of mission
ed ucation. This type of education partly reflects the missionaries' belief
in the value of hard work; and it was partly because they wanted to
train people to take up jobs of different sorts in the econo my. The
government also encouraged industrial training.
Critics argue that the industrial training offered by missions was not
of a high enough sta ndard to prepare people to take up skilled work.
Instead of being proper skills training, it was really just training people
to have the 'right attitudes' to work. And beca use there was so little
proper training, people were only prepared for lower-level jobs in the
economy.
It does seem that industrial education was not very systematically
carried out by the missions. The Cape Education Commission of 1891
gave four reasons for this:

• A lack of equipment, facilities and expertise

• Opposition on the part of some missionaries
• The fact that the colonial governm en t had n ot given the aid it
promised
• Opposition on the part of Africans.

And we could probably add a fifth reason :

• Opposition on the part of white settlers who often did not want
blacks to receive too much ed ucati on.

There is no doubt that some mission schools did provide proper

training. But it seems that others had token industrial centres, which did
not actually teach skills. Here is an extract of evidence given to the
South African Native Affairs Commission (1903-5):

Question: Have you been to the industrial schools?

Answer: No, I have not been there, but I have studied the result of industrial
schools.
Question: Where have you studied it?
Answer: Amongst the natives who have come from th ose places.
Question: Do you think that al l they learn is to knock two bits of wood together
with a nail ?
Answer: Yes, or to make a box or a table or such little things. But they know
noth ing about a trade. They do not become skilled workmen.

79
The right to learn

Here is a complaint made by D.D.T Jabavu in 1918:

In our schools 'manual labour' consists of sweeping yards, repairing roads, cracking
stones, and so on, and is done by boys only as so much task work enforced by a
time-keeper, and under threats of punishment.
(quoted in Molteno 1984:67)

A government commission report in 1936 admitted that the ' manual

work' in black schools was only trivial, and had no educative value.
D.D.I Jabavu claimed that one result of this kind of' education' was
that:

the boys grow to hate all manual work as humiliating, 'skulk' from it whenever they
can, and ever avoid it at home and in after life.
(quoted i51 Molteno 1984:67)

In other words, according to Jabavu, this industrial training achieved

exactly the opposite results to what it intended.
In addition to inadequate training, there were also problems of race
prejuctice which blacks faced in looking for jobs which recognised the
training they had received. In 1921, H. D. Tyamzashe wrote the
following:

Of many promising men thus trained, some can be traced to be more or less
usefully occupied; but, sad to relate, the majority are not employed in the trades
they learned. This is mainly due to the colour bar; there are no openings for native
tradesmen.

This gives us an idea of some of the problems

associated with industrial education.
What about problems of racism and
subordination?

Racism and subordination

It is true to say that mission schools were usually segregated on lines of
colour. And even where schools did admit whites and blacks together,
segregation was still practised . At Lovedale, for example, students slept
and played sports separately. Though they ate in one dining hall, they
ate at separate tables. They mixed together in the classroom and during
leisure time.

80
 The church and education

Missionary education usually had little respect for the local African
culture. Local culture and history were not included in the school
curriculum, and the curriculum was usually based on European
schools.
Mission education was rooted in Christian values, and attempted to
teach attitude like patience, humility, piety, discipline and the value of
hard work. Critics argue that these values helped to prepare black
people to accept a subordinate position in society.
The levels of education which people received also affected their
social position. Generally speaking, those blacks who attended school
received only two or three years of basic education. This meant that
they had limited social and economic opportunities. Critics argue that
low levels of schooling, together with missionary values, prepared
people for subordinate roles in society and in the workforce.

The general schooling pattern which mission

schools promoted was very important. By
offering segregated and lower-level education to
most of their students, mission education
certainly contributed to broader social inequality.
But racism and class differences were part of
the society in which the missionaries operated.
So the questions are: Were the missionaries
responsible for these practices? Could they have
done otherwise? And the position of women
raises the same questions.

Sexism and women's subordination

The missionaries also brought Western ideas about the place of women
in society. Basically, they believed that women should be trained for
domesticity - as wives, mothers or servants. Women should not be
directly involved in economic production or in politics. Missionary
education wa open to men and women, but higher levels of education
-for catechists and teachers- were aimed mainly at men. Thus, while
men were being ed ucated to play a fuller role, at least in the church, the
same did not apply to women. The sociologist Cock says:

The education of black women was largely aimed at socialisation into domestic
roles, both in their own homes and as servants in other people's homes.
( 1980:288, adapted)

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The right to learn

Sometimes, missionaries were openly sexist. Here is what the Abbot of

Mariannhill said in 1889:

Instruct only the Kaffir boys in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and train them to
manual labour. Do not teach the girls any English reading and very little Kaffir. Give
them as little education as possible. The system of cramming is too much for the
intellect of Kaffir girls. My experience is this: the more that Kaffir girls learn in
school, the less they are inclined to work, and the more insolent and dissatisfied
they are.
(quoted in Cock 1980:280)

Other missionaries were less prejudiced against women. But, even so,
they believed that the main aim in educating women was to prepare
them for a domestic life. The Principal of AJJ Saints School at Engcobo
sa w his task as ' educating Christian women among the natives to be
fitting wives for the native clergy and ca techists' . And anoth er educator
hoped that educated girls would answer ' the divine call to lives of
service as helpers at their homes, at mission schools, and at new mission
stations'. (Taylor 1928:448)
The missionaries had certain ideas about what girls should learn,
and they based these ideas on Western views about the role of women
in society. For exa mple, in the mission schools women were n ot taught
agriculture - though this had long been women's work in African
society. Industrial education for boys taught a variety of ta ks, for
example carpentry, wagon-building, ston e-masonry, blacksmithing,
printing, and so on. But industrial education for girls taugh t only
domestic skills, like cooking, laundrywork, dressmaking and home
nursing. As one training institution for girls stated:

Girls are carefully trained in domestic work - cooking, baking, sewing, ironing and
tailoring - in addition to the usual school instruction. The aim is to prepare the
girls to make good housewives and mothers, and to lift them and their fam ilies to
a higher plane of living. (Cock 1980:294)

So, from early on, domestic skill s were part of the girls' curriculum, and
sex discrimination was practised .
For those girls who did attend school, there was a second barrier:
they could not easily go on to higher levels of education. In fact, most
girls went only to primary sch ool. The total numbers of boys and girls
at school were often nearly the sa me, and sometimes there were more
girls than boys. But th e girls were mainly in lower classes; it was mainly

82
 The church and education

the boy who went on to secondary and higher education. And this, of
course, affected th e work women could do and the status they could
achieve. For some blacks mission education was a way to advancement
in the wider society. But this applied to very few women.
There were limHed occupations open to women . Domestic service
was the main employment possibility, and industrial mission education
certainly prepared women for this role. Those women who did have
higher ed ucation were still restricted in the work they could do.
Nursing and primary school teachin g were their best possibilities. And
both of these were also ' domestic' kind s of work - just as on a higher
level.
Cock (1980) argues that the education offered to women was
ambiguous. On the one h and , it gave them the mean s to ea rn an
independent living (eve n as domestic servants), and it freed them from
tribal subordinate positions. But on the other hand, it encouraged a new
set of valu es, and led them to Western-based roles of women's
subordination.

Cock' argumen t is an important one. It

haws us another of th e contradictions of
mission educa tion. Mission education freed
women from one kind of subordination, but
prepared them for anoth er.
In general, mission ed ucation did n ot trea t
women as equal to men, and it prepared
women for subordina te roles in society.
But, as with racism and class differences,
so exism was al so part of th e society in which
the mi sionaries operated. How far are the
mis ionaries themselves responsible?

To sum up these criticisms

These three criticisms show us dearly that many of the patterns of
present-day black education were already to be seen in mt sston
education. Generally spea king, mission education was segrega ted along
th e lines of colour. It offered limited schooling opportunities to most of
its tuden ts. It often provided work orientation rather than proper skills
training. And it discriminated against women. But at the sa me time,
mission were the only group who gave much attention to educating
blacks.

83
The right to learn

In many ways, mission education was far

from ideal. Bu t mission schools were part of
a society which discriminated against blacks
and against women in education, as well as
other aspects of life. And the question we've
been asking is: To what extent were the
missionaries responsible for this situation?
Perhaps it may help at this stage to look
back at the three views at the beginning of
the chapter, and see where you stand. Then
we can move on with our story of the
churches' involvement in education.

The response of the churches to Bantu Education

In 1948 the National Party came to power, and introduced the policy of
apartheid. The next year they appointed the Eiselen Commission to
make plans for 'the education of the natives as an independent race'.
This spelt the end of mission control over African education.
The Eiselen Commission was also critical of mission education. It
said that the aims of African schooling were vague and poorly
formulated. Instead of va luing African culture, the schools helped to
erode it. Nor did the schools realistically prepare Africans for the
positions they could hold in society. The Eiselen Commission also
criticised the churches' administration of African education. In
particular, it criticised rivalry between churches which, it said, Jed to
'was teful duplication' and an unsystematic provision of education.
The Commission recommended a radical reorganisa tion of African
education. It said that 'Bantu Education' should be brought under the
control of the government, and shou ld be used to rebuild and extend
'Bantu culture'. On the basis of cultural differences, people should be
separated in education and in other spheres of Life. Bantu Education
should also help to build up the reserves, so as to 'facilitate and
encourage the evolution of a progressive, modern and self-respecting
Ban tu order of life' . As the Commission put it:

The schools must give due regard to t he fact that o ut of school hours the young
Bant u chi ld develops and lives in a Bant u commu nity, and when he reaches
maturity he w ill be concerned with sharing and developing the life and culture of
that commun ity.
(quoted in Rose and Tun mer 1975:25 1)

84
 The chu rch and education

On the basis of the Eiselen Commission Report, the Bantu Education

Act was drawn up and passed in 1953. And so Bantu Education was
born, as a separate educatio n system for Africans, to meet th e
development plans of apartheid.

We know that many mission schools

closed down after the Ban tu Education
Act. But there's an interesting story
about how this happe ned.

Government control
The Bantu Education Act stipulated that African education should be
under government control, and it gave wide powers to the Minister of
ative Affairs. All schools had to be registered with th e government.
Three types of school were allowed:

• Bantu Community schools

• State-aided schools (including mission schools)
• Government schools.

The Bantu Education Act ctid not sta te diiectly that mission sch ools had
to close down. Instead, there were a number of measures which made
it e tremely difficult for them to remain open and independent.
First, pressure was placed on teacher training institutions (and, as we
saw, teacher training was an important activi ty of mission schools). The
govern ment stipulated that teacher train ing could only take place in
Department training centres. Teachers w ho trained elsewhere would
not have their qualifications recognised by the Department. The
rnis ions were given three alterna tives:

1 to rent or sell the school and hostel to the De paitment;

2 to rent or sell the school, and retain the hostel with a Department
ubsidy;
3 to close the teacher training section, and continue as a primary and
secondary school.

But the Department would only buy buildings inside the 'Native
Reserve '; and this was one way of ensuring that all teacher training
wou ld happen in the reserves.

85
The right to learn

You can see that the government was able to ge t

what it wanted by indirectly putting pressure on
mission schools. If the missions decided to
continue with teacher training themselves, their
graduates would not have proper certifica tes. l n
fact, they h ad no option but to h and their
teacher training schools over to the governm ent
(renting or selling), or to close them down.
Wh at about primary and secondary sch ools?

As regards primary and secondary schools, missions we re again given

three alte rnatives:

1 to remain open a priva te, unaided schools;

2 to keep control of sch ools, with a subsidy which was reduced to 75%
of teachers' salaries;
3 to rent or sell school buildings to Bantu Community O rgarusations.

The churchei had to decide w ha t to do - and

th ese were difficult decisions to make. Often, it's
easy for us to look back and know w hat they
should have done. But, a t th e time, it was not an
easy choice.

Difficult decisions
Other factors complica ted th e churches' decision. If a mission decided
to retain control with a subsidy from th e Departm ent (the second option
above), the Minister might later 'a t his discretio n' transfer the sch ool to
a Bantu Community Orga nisation. Schools in 'w hite areas' woul d also
be subj ect to the Group Areas Act, w hich meant that they would
probably be made to close dow n at a later date anyway. In 1955 the
government announced tha t subsidies would be phased out comple tely
by 1960. And later it indicated tha t w hen the subsidy ended, schools
would have to rea pply fo r registration.
And, of course, registration was an important mea ns fo r establishing
government control. Schools could only be registered if they met strict
conditi ons set out by the governme nt. The condi tions were:

86
 The church and ed uca tion

• they could not charge for tuition;

• the medium of instru ction had to be the same as the community
school;
• they would be subj ect to inspection by the Departme nt;
• th ey h ad to follow the Department curriculum, except in the case of
religious in struction;
• ch ildren of o th er d en ominati ons co uld only a ttend until an
altern ative school was available.

These cond itio ns brought schools into line with Bantu Education. In
effect, th ose schools which chose to stay open with a subsidy would
later find themselves without subsidies, and would be forced to carry
out almost all aspects of Bantu Education anyway.
A mission or church w hich chose to keep its school as a priva te,
un aided school (the firs t o ption above), would find it ex tremely difficult
to con tin ue. Money a nd staff would be sh ort. And if the school was in a
'white area', it could be closed at any time under the Group Areas Act.
This meant th at the mos t practical alternatives were either to hand
the school over to the 'Bantu Community' (the third option above), or
to close down altoge ther.

The churches' views on Bantu Education

Most of the churches (except for the Dutch Reformed Church) objected
to the Bantu Educati on Act and its implications for mission schools. So
they did not wish to support the new system. What were their views?
Firs tly, mos t of th e Protestant church es objected to Bantu Educa tion
beca use they believed that it was educa tion for subordination and that
it denied blacks the right to participa te as equals, in areas outside the
re erves. The Methodist Church expressed its dismay at a system which
'aimed a t co nditioning people to a prede termined position of
subordination'. Th e Church of Scotland objected to a policy 'whereby
the Bantu are trained for a life in the Reserves'. Mos t denominations
argued tha t Bantu Educa tion conflicted with Christian principles. The
Church of Scotland stated that:

We believe that Christian education policy must seek to prepare members of

every social group to assume their full share of adult responsibility in the service
of the country. (quoted in SA Outlook, April 1955)

87
The right to learn

Secondly, many of the other churches argued against Bantu Education

on purely religious grounds, rather than against Bantu Education a a
cornerstone of apartheid. The Catholic Church put forward this view
most strongly. In a stateme nt to SA Outlook (a church newspaper) it said:

We gravely fear that any Catholic institution entering the community school
system cannot retain its Catholic character nor provide the kind of education
which accords with our principles. (November 1954)

Some Protestant churches, notably the Anglicans, also expressed similar

views. For exa mple, the principal of Grace Dieu defended his decision
to keep his secondary school open by saying:

This will be the only Anglican boarding institution for Africans in South Africa.We
feel very strongly that there should be at least ONE school where our faith can
still be taught and practised. (Grace Dieu Papers)

Whatever their objections, politicaJ or religious,

the churches were faced with the problem of
what to do with their schools and teacher
training in.stitutions. Basically, they could either:
- hand over schools and teacher training
institutions to the governmen t;
- run priva te sch ools which carried out Bantu
Education anyway; or
- close their sch ools and teach er training
institutions altogether.
There was no easy solution . If they h anded over
their schools to the government, or implemented
Bantu Education themselves, they would be in
danger of losing the support of many blacks who
despised Bantu Education. They might also lose
the support of white liberals in South Africa and
overseas who funded them.
On the other hand, if schools closed d own,
many students would be without sch ool, and
many teachers would be out of work.
So what did the churches decide to do?

The churches' decisions

Different groups of churches took different decisions:

88
 The church and education

• Some of th e Protestant churches, such as th e Methodists,

Presbyterians, and Congrega tionalists, decided to rent their
buiJdings to community orga njsations. As the Methodist Church
stated:

In order to provide for the immediate educational needs of the African people,
the church feels compelled to rel inqu ish control of its schools to the state.
(SA Outlook, November 1954)

One of the most famous institutions which was handed over to the
state at this time was Lovedale.

• The Anglican Church took a somewh at stronger stand. In general, it

decided to close its schools rather than hand them over, though later
it gave some choice to different groups to act as they saw fit. A
church spokesperson said:

If the Minister of Bantu Education cannot entrust the training of African

teachers to Christian missions, we, as a Christian mission, cannot and will not
entrust our land or our buil<jings to him or his Department for educational
purposes.We are convinced that the true welfare of the African people is being
denied by a political theory.
(SA Outlook, November 1954, adapted)

One of the most famous Anglican second ary schools, St Peters,

Rosettenville, decided to dose once the present students had
completed their course. It was in a 'white area', and would probably
be closed anyway. One of its gradua tes, ]. A. Maimane, wrote in
Drum magazine about the dosing of the school:

For all the ex-students of this great pillar of learning the announcement that
their alma mater would close down in two years was a sad blow. A blow that
will bring back many memories of the diligent studying to keep up with the
school's high standard; of the easy, happy, disciplined life that prepared them to
meet the outside world, proudly and without any fear:
(Drum, October 1954)

Grace Dieu decided to close its teacher training section, but to

continue as an independent, private Anglican boarding sch ool for
blacks from Std 6 to Std 10. It asked white members of staff to accept
reduced salaries in order to provide funds for the school. In 1957,

89
The right to learn

with the announcement that subsidies would be terminated and that

schools would have to be registered, Grace Dieu closed down.

• The American Board Mission tried to find legal loopholes by which

it could retain control of Adams College. It registered the college a a
non-profit making company, which could therefore no t be handed
over to the government. But the government was able to block them
through the registration clause- the school was refused registration
after long delays. The buildings were handed over to the state on
condition that the name Adams College' was never u sed .

• The Catholic Church made a decision which separa ted it from all the
other churches. It decided to keep control of its schools as aided
schools. Though some of the bishops felt that they could not support
Bantu Education as part of apartheid, the majority felt that it was
important to preserve the Catholic faith and to continue Catholic
schools.
Almost immediately, the Catholic Church had problems in
financing its schools, as a result of the reduced subsidy. Teachers had
their salaries cut by 25%, without consultation, which caused some
bitterness. Many lay teachers left, and generally there was a decline
in academic standards and morale. The Catholic schools were forced
to carry out the provisions of Bantu Education in order to b
registered. So the Church found itself becoming a partner with the
government in implementing Bantu Education.
As the Catholic ed ucatiorust, Flanagan, argues:

The Bantu Education Act placed the bishops in a cruel dilemma. Whatever
decision they took was bound to have undesirable consequences. To close the
schools would incur government hostility and deprive many blacks of a catholic
education. To hand the schools over to the state system would almost certainly
mean the total loss of catholic influence in black education, and would deprive
blacks of anything remotely resembling an alternative to 'Bantu Education'.They
chose the course which they took to be the lesser of two evils. ( 1982:88)

But Flanagan also shows the dangers of this position:

However successful the bishops may have been in retaining their schools they
paid a price both in moral credibility and in worsened relations with the
government. ( 1982:88)

90
 The church and education

The Catholic Church made a religious

challenge to the government by keeping
control of its schools. But at the same time,
this meant a compromise with the
government, because they had to run their
schools on government lines, in order to stay
open .
To sum up, almost all the churches
condemned Bantu Education, but in practice
tried to make the best of a bad situation.
However they were not particularly
supportive of the ANC's boycott- as we'll go
on to see.

The churches and the 1955 schools boycott

One of the forms of African opposition to Bantu Education was a
schools boycott organised by the ANC in 1955. The ANC planned to
withdraw children from Bantu Education schools, and draw up
alternative educational and cultural activities. This was a direct
challenge to the state. But the campaign failed, partly because it did not
mobilise mass support, partly because it was disorganised and partly
because of state pressure.
The churches criticised the ANC for two main reasons. Firstly, they
disapproved of the boycott tactic as such - both in this case and in the
later case of boycotts at Fort Hare. Secondly, they criticised Congress for
taking decisions in the heat of the moment which it could not really
implement, and for not consulting with many blacks outside the urban
areas.

The churches' attitude to the boycott gives

an indication of their general stand: they did
not support Bantu Education, but they had
clear ideas about the 'correct' ways of
challenging the government. And some
people would say that the position they took
was quite a conservative one.
That ends thi section on the churches'
response to Bantu Education. We can now
turn to the final section of this chapter: the
'open schools' movement.

91
The right to learn

The 'open schools' movement

In recent years, a new theme ha s e merged in church education- the
opening of white priva te church sch ools to black students. This is the
so-called open sch ools movement, which started in 1976 and which
continues today.

As we' ll see, this reflects quite a change in church

school policy. To trace this change, Jet' s look at the
situation before open schools, and then see what
the policy of open schools actually means.

Private church schools

As well as mission schools for blacks, many churches also had white
private schools linked to them. Except for Catholic schools, these
schools were often small and expensive, and they were usually
attended by children of the white elite. These schools were linked to
churches 'in matters of doctrine, faith, and worship' only. In most other
ways they were independent. They ran their own administration,
appointed their own staff, had their own admission policies for pupil ,
and so on. This split - between matters of religion and matters of
education - m eant that the churches often had limited influence over
the schools.
Many of these white private schools were old, dating back to the end
of the nineteenth century. Over the years, it was generally accepted that
these schools were for whites only. And when questions were rai ed,
these schools managed to resist any a ttemp ts to make them integrated.

• For example, in 1947, when the question of integration was raised,

the Standing Committee of Associated Church Schools said that it
recognised ' the ultimate equality, in value, of all men before God,
irrespective of the colour of their skin'. But it was against having
black students admitted to these schools. It referred to the 'damage
that would be done by the disturbance and opposition which their
admission would undoubtedly provoke' .

• The Bantu Education Act also raised question s about the mission
schools and their relationship with apartheid. However, when the
Act was passed, there was almost no discu ssion about the position of

92
 The church and ed ucation

exclusive white church schools, which could actually have admitted

black pupils from places like St Peters, when they had to close down.
Nevertheless, the Bantu Education Act did open up the debate
about the social and political implications of the Gospel. Some of the
churches made concerned statements about segrega tion in church
societies, schools and hospitals. But this concern did not necessa rily
influence the sch ools. As we've seen, schools were independent
from churches in terms of education policy, including the admission
of studen ts. Some heads of schools pointed out that integration
wou ld be illegal, and used this as a reason for staying segrega ted. So,
in practice, the white church schools refu sed to confront the
question of Bantu Education.

• In 1965 the Anglican Synod (the policy-making body of the Anglican

Church ) called on Anglican sch ools not to exclude any children on
ground s of colour. But the schools ignored this. In two separate
incidents, prominent boys' private schools (StGeorge's and Bishops)
each refused to admit a 'coloured' boy. Again, it was clear that there
was a large gap between the churches' policy and the schools' policy.

To sum up, we can say that schools

generally argued that they could not
admit black children because this was
against the law. It seems they hid behind
th e law to avoid giving rea son s which
were dearly racist.
By stating that integra tion was against
th e law, the schools also indicated that
they were no t prepared to challenge th e
sta te.
The churches' attempts to challenge
apartheid fell flat because the schools
refu ed to follow their lead . The churches
could do no more than make well-
meaning statements.
But this situation changed by the end
of the 1960s. The elite white private
schools 'opened' their doors to black
students. In the next section we' ll see how
this happened.

93
The right to lea rn

The open schools

The movement towards integrating the private church schools was led
by the Catholic Church . In the 1960s the Catholic Church throughout
the world moved towards the 'social gospel'. By the social gospel it
meant:

The application of the gospel to social attitudes and conduct, and to political and
economic systems flowing from them and influencing them.
(Vatican //)

In South Africa this meant that Catholics were agai n called upon to
exa mine their attitudes to apartheid. In the field of education Bantu
Education was again condemned. But this time, the Catholic Church
took different action. In July 1968 the Catholic Church decided that it
could no longer co-operate in implementing Bantu Education, and it
handed over a number of Catholic schools to the governmen t. ln 1973 a
report on Catholic ed ucation showed that 70 % of the Church' s
educational resources were being spent on white schools, even though
they formed only 30% of the total Catholic schools. This unequ al
spending led the Catholics to look at the possibility of opening their
white schools to black students. (Flanagan 1982:90)
At the same time, the Anglican Archbishop declared that he was in
favour of opening sch ools. The Headmasters' Conference (which
represented the heads of Protestant schools) also showed •interest. In
1976 the South African Catholic Bishops' Conference passed a
resolution in favour of opening schools to all races.
The word to describe th ese schools was 'ope n' rather than
'integrated'. This implied that integration was not compulsory, but
simply ava ilable. Open schools did not foresee compulsory integra tion.
Instead, they emphasised the new freedom of parents to choose which
Catholic school their children would attend. In practice, the term
referred only to white Catholic schools, beca use black Catholic school
were overcrowded, understaffed and inconveniently loca ted for whites.
Once the commitment to open schools had been mad e, Catholk
schools bega n admitting small numbers of black stud en ts. This was
done quie tly to avoid political trouble. This remained Catholic policy: to
keep a low profile and avoid open confrontation with the state.
At the sa me time, the Headmasters' Conference issued a statement
which proposed removi ng 'aiJ restrictions to the admission of pupils
from different races to private schools in South Africa' .

94
 The chu rch and educa tion

In the open schools policy we see an

important new phase in the churches'
involvement fn education. In this move the
church es were actively challenging apartheid
educa tion.
But, of course, the open schools
movement applied to very few schools- the
white, private schools u nder church
influence.

Government attitude
The Cath olic and Anglica n schools held discussions with the
government. The government said the schools were breaking apartheid
laws by admitting black students. However, these students could stay if
the schools kept down their numbers of black students and consulted
provincial au thorities about admissions. Schools had to apply for
permission fo r each black student th ey wanted to admH. Students could
be admitted only if they were 'exceptional cases'.
In the Cape and Na tal, the Provin cial Administra tors were co-
operati ve. They asked th e schools to select black students carefully, and
they did not refu se many applications. But in the Tran svaal, things were
very different. The Provincial Administrator was opposed to open
schools and threatened to close them. He turned down almost all
applica tions. Some of the Ca tholic schools decided to admit students
without permission. These schools los t th eir government subsidies.
Nego tiations con tin ued between the governm ent and church school
representatives. It seems that the governme nt wanted to avoid public
confrontation on the issue. The open schools also continued to keep a
low profil e.
Later, the Cape and Na tal administrations tried to control the
numbers of black students in open schools by imposing 'quotas', or
limits, on the numbers of black students in each school. Again, many
Catholic open schools did not comply. More schools lost their subsidies.
Mos t of the o the r priva te schools did comply with provincial
regulations.
In 1986, open schools finally won their battle. The government
decided to make open schools legal and to give them subsidies. At first,
the government tried to tie subsidies to the racial composition of the
schools. It said that schools with fewer black students would get higher
subsidies. But the Ca tholic schools in particular opposed this strongly,
and the government backed d own. When the Private Schools Act was

95
The right to lea rn

passed, it did not mention the racial composition of schools. But there
were still two levels of subsidy. And most of the Catholic schools -
which h ave admitted more black stude nts - are fund ed a t the lower
level. Most of the elite and expensive pri va te schools receive a higher
level of subsidy.
Numbers of black students in open sch ools are generally not very
high. In 1986, Ca tholic open schools were 80% white ove rall - and these
schools had more black stude nts tha n other priva te schools. But there
are some Ca tholic open schools th at have ve ry high pe rcentages of
black students.
ln recent years, a small number of new priva te open schools have
been se t up, such as the New Era Schools Trust (NEST) and Leadership
Education Adva ncement Foundation (LEAF) schools. Th ese schools
have tried to admit higher numbers of black stude nts from th e start. For
example, NEST try to divide their schools' enrolments eq ually between
the fo ur population registration groups.

You ca n see that it was the church schools

that started the move towa rds desegregation
of schools. It's interes ting also that the
a
Cath olic schools were taking different line
from most other church sch ools, especially
in relation to the government.

I' ve heard some peo ple say th at open schools

are models for th e future. Do you think this
is true?

Well, I think about it fo r a minute. It's tru e

that open schools were the first to brea k
with racial segrega tion. And in that way,
perhaps they are mod els for the future. But
there are a few oth er points to think about.
Read on, and then make up your own mind .

96
 The chu rch and education

How 'open' are the open schools?

• Firstly, the open schools are private schools. This means that
students have to pay fees. This immediately limits entry to students
whose parents can afford to send them there or who can get
bursaries.
In fact, private schools cater for only 2% of the school-going
population in South Africa.

• Secondly, most open schools are still mainly white. Many open
schools have entrance exams, and the admission of students is based
on their results in these exams. Students from Bantu Education
backgrounds may not have a fair chance against students from white
(and often private) schools. So, in practice, they are not 'open' to
most black student .

• Thirdly, most of the open schools were previously white schools.

They have a history of being white which most of them have not
shaken off. In 1986, all of the open school principals were white, and
almost all of the teachers were white. Most of the black teachers in
open schools taught mainly black languages. Almost all of the open
schools are in white group areas.

• Fourthly, there is the question: who makes the adjustments - the

schools or the black students? Most of the open schools have not
made many changes to curricula and educational practices to
accommodate black students. They simply expect black students to
fit in with existing practices.
Some schools have introduced changes. A few schools are
developing new yllabuses, like Integrated Studies programmes.
Others are teaching African Studies. Some schools are making more
efforts to teach black languages, and to change biased syllabuses in
history and o th er ubj ects. Some schools are using different
setbooks.
But if most open schools are heavily oriented towards white
culture and society, can we really say they are 'open'?

Here is what Br Neil, Principal of Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg,

says about his school and other open schools:

If we really want something to happen to our schools then we are going to have
to admit more black students. Once a sufficient number of black students has been

97
The right to learn

admitted and when they legitimately begin to express their political and economic
grievances and their own nationalist aspirations, then the school faces an identity
crisis. Only then can it move into a new 'non-racial' consciousness.
( 1990:26-7, adapted)

New trends in open schools

Since open schools were made legal in 1986, there has been a number of
new developments. These developments may challenge open schools to
change further.

• In 1987, a new non-racial schools association was formed, called the

Southern African Association of Independent Schools (SAAlS). One
of the aims of the SMIS is 'to promote non-racial educational
opportunities throughout the southern African region, and to
promote educational opportunities for the poor and the oppressed
in both independent and public schools'. By 1989, about 100 private
and religious schools had joined the SMIS.

• A new examining body, the Independent Examinations Board (IEB),

has been established, and it hopes to replace the JMB, which
previously set exams for most of the private schools. The IEB's aims
are:
- to develop new curricula,
- to conduct examinations for candidates regardless of race, ethnic
identity, gender and belief, and
- to issue certificates.

These new steps may encourage open schools to develop further in the
direction of non-racialism.

As we'll see in Chapter Six, a number of white

government schools have opened their doors
and admitted black students. There is no doubt
that the experiences of the private open
schools have contributed to this move.
Before we end this discussion on open
schools, we need to consider how black
parents view them. Do black parents (who can
afford open schools) view them as an
alternative for their children?

98
 The ch urch and ed uca tion

Some black parents' views

Of course there are cultural differences. The child picks up the culture of the
school. His patterns change. I feel I have to talk English to him in the home so that
he isn't disadvantaged in comparison with white children in his class.
Once he asked to keep a rabbit for a pet in the house - I can't believe it! Can
you imagine an African person keeping a rabbit in the house!
Sure I expected a culture conflict, but I didn 't think it would be so bad. I
thought I'd be in control. One day he came home singing 'We are marching to
Pretoria.' I said 'Come, come,Vuyo, hold that one!'
Still, on balance, I think it's worth it to send him to the convent.

Where I'm staying in Soweto. we're black and typically black. I won't send my
children to these type of schools. I think it creates confusion for the children.They
become misfits . In some areas, most children are in white schools.When they play
together, they speak English. Other children tease them. They say 'By the way, you
are white'. I don 't think it's good for the children.

Look. what are the choices? The education for African children is inferior. There's
no question of that. These white schools offer something a bit better. I want my
child to be in a better position than I am. So I send him to a white school.

These open schools. People think they're going for a better education. They don't
think much furthe r. I can't believe they're the answer. I can't believe they're going
to make much difference .

Conclusion
That concludes our story of the church's involvement in education in
South Africa. As we said at the start of the chapter, the role of the church
has been different at different times, and it is not an easy one to judge.
Hopefully, this chapter has shown some of the complexities of the story.

References and further readings

Blakemore, K. and Cooksey, B. (1980) Sociology of Education for Africa,
Allen & Unwin, Lond on, chap. 2 'Colonial education in Africa'
Christie, P. (1990) Open Schools: Racially Mixed Catholic Schools in South
Africa, 1976-1986, Ravan Press, Johannesburg
Cock, ]. (1980) Maids and Madams: A Study of the Politics of Exploitation,
Ravan, Johannesburg
Collins, C.B. (1980) 'Black schooling in South Africa' Africa Perspective 17

99
The right to learn

Cook, P.A.W (1949) 'Non-European education' in E. Hellmann (ed)

Handbook on Race Relations in South Africa, OUP, Cape Town
Etherington, N. (1977) 'Social theory and the study of Christian missions
in Africa: A South African case study' Africa 47 (1)
Flanagan, B. (1982) 'Education: Policy and Practice' in A. Prior (ed)
Catholics in Apartheid Society, David Philip, Cape Town
Grace Dieu Papers, Church of the Province of South Africa Library,
University of the Witwatersrand
Hirji, K.F. (1980) 'Colonia] ideological apparatuses in Tanganyika under
the Germans' in M.H.Y. Kaniki (ed) Tanzania under Colonial Rule,
Longman, London
Horrell, M. (1963) African Education: Some Origins and Development until
1953, SAIRR, Johannesburg
Majeke, N . (1952) The Role of the Missionaries in Conquest, Society of
Young Africa, Cape Town
McGurk, N. (1990) I Write as a White, Heinemann, Johannesburg
Molteno, F. (1984) 'The evolution of educational policy' in P. Kallaway
(ed) Apartheid and Education, Ravan, Johannesburg.
Rose, B. and Tunmer, R. (1975) Documents in South African Education, Ad.
Danker, Johannesburg
South Africa: Official (1905-6) Reports of the South African Native Affairs
Commission 1903-5, Cape Town
Shepherd, R.H.W (1971) Lovedale, South Africa 1824-1955, Lovedale Press
Taylor, J.D. (ed) (1928) Christianity and the Natives of South Africa: A
Yearbook of SA Missions, Loveda1e Press
Trapido, S. (1980) "The friends of the natives" : Merchants, peasant , and
the political and ideological structure of Liberalism in the Cape, 1954-
1910' in S. Marks and A. Atmore (eds) Economy and' Society in Pre-
Industrial South Africa, Longman, London
Wilson, F. and Perrot, D. (1973) Outlook on a Century: South Africa 1870-
1970, Lovedale Press and SPROCAS

100
Module SAE3701
Year of Publicatio n 2016

Title of Publicatio n Education in a new South Africa : crisis and change I R. J. Balfour.
Edition
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Chapter number
Chapter title Schooling in South Africa flcR. J . Balfour
Page 1-36

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1 Schooling in South Africa

1.1 INTRODUCTION

South Africa celebrated 20 years of democracy in 2014. It was also the year in
which the founding statesman and first President, Nelson Mandela, passed
away. The new South Africa was founded on an idea of transformation as a
broad social, political, education and economic project in which the aspira-
tions of the Constitution of South Africa (1996) could be realised. It is with
a degree of pride that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) can claim
that 'Approximately one in every three people in South Africa is in the school
system'.
Education was positioned atop the hierarchy of transformation priorities
in 1994 (Chisholm & Petersen 1999; Harber & Brock 2013). But education had
also been key to the apartheid policies and strategies designed to encourage
segregation and a racial hierarchy that was profoundly damaging for com-
munities in South Africa. Motala notes that 'the strategic importance and
determining role of segregated and unequal education policy in disempow-
ering the majority population previously, was now employed as an equally
strategic instrument for equitable development of the population at large'
(Motala 2001). In the Constitution, access to education was framed as a basic
human right, and by implication, access to the support services and infra-
structure to enable such access was either to be put in place anew, or restruc-
tured to serve a unitary education system. The Constitution guarantees that
South Africans will not only enjoy equity of access to quality services (like
housing or education, justice or due process), but that all development will

1
2 Robert J. Balfour

seem and become commensurate with the State's aspirations to non-sexism,

non-racism, equal opportunity and dignity.
It was assumed by policy-makers, intellectuals, politicians and activists
alike that the systems that existed prior to 1994 were divisive, reactionary
and racist, favouring the race and class privileges of the apartheid regime,
and before that, of the colonial State. Prior to the demise of the apartheid
State there were 19 departments of education in South Africa; each province
had its own, each Bantustan (known also as homelands or 'native reserves';
see Thompson 2001) also had its own; and there were examining boards and
examinations set by each authority more or less independently of each other
even at the highest (pre-tertiary) level. Given that the structure of the edu-
cation system was designed along race categories, the perpetuation of this
system, with its structures, remained unacceptable at a political level, as well
as inequitable on material and other grounds.
The preparation work for the transformation project in South Africa
began with activists and intellectuals associated with progressive politics
in the 1980s (for example, the National Education Crisis Committee). A
number of political, academic, social and other movements emerged to re-
sist apartheid, not least of which were the African National Congress and
the United Democratic Front, both of which were linked to a variety of trade
unions and other movements, including religious and social organisations
(Chisholm, Motala & Vally 2003). The groundswell aimed at transformation
was thus made up of a broad alliance of organisations. This history of the
influence of these organisations in relation to thinking about education in
a post-apartheid South Africa is touched upon in Hartshorne's book Crisis
and Challenge: Black Education, 1910-1990 (1992). Certainly, the commit-
ment of the government to education development (schooling, further edu-
cation and training, vocational education and universities) has been clear
and unequivocal throughout all the administrations since 1995. In 2006 the
then Minister of Education, Dr. Naledi Pandor, ascribed deficiencies in the
system not to under-spending, but to the incapacity of the education system
to utilise allocations to 'support full transformation' (Pandor 2oosa). The evi-
dently generous allocation on education of 9.7% of the GOP on expenditure
for 2oos/2oo6-2oo8/2oo9 needs to be contextualised in terms of the systems
performance as elaborated in subsequent sections and chapters (National
Budget Review 2006, 18).
This chapter takes a broad look at schooling in terms of a range of themes:
the first section provides an overview of children in schools in South Africa
over the new democratic period (from the perspective of the Department of
Education (DoE), first in the Mandela and Mbeki administrations, and later
3 j Schooling in South Africa

the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in the Zuma administrations).

This section demonstrates substantial growth in schooling and good discip -
line in terms of children enroll ing for, and remaining in, schools. The second
section provides two overviews of learner performance in the 2o-year period
and suggests that while performance appears to be indicated, the analysis of
the categories has not remained stable over time and performance is under-
mined by routine under-performance in international comparative tests
and assessments. The third section describes the numbers of teachers in the
schools over the period and analyses some of the problems around the provi-
sion of teachers depending on loca lity, region and socio-economic class. This
is followed by the fourth section, in which school in frastructural needs are
described in terms of the DoE's (Department of Education or Department
of Basic Education) progress towards providing for basic teacher and learner
support, new schools and administrative support. The fifth section discusses
curriculum reform , policy and legislative frameworks.
While the first 10 years of Democracy provided an opportunity for a
series of reforms, both in higher education and schooling, that opportunity,
considering the impact of the changes envisaged in 1994, and mostly imple-
mented between 1995 and 2005, has on ly really become possible in these-
cond decade of democracy. It is only in the last 10 years that the impact of the
first 10 years' worth of change and reform in higher education and 20 years
in schooling can be assessed.

1.1.1 The state of education in 1994

• Matriculation pass rate of 53.4%

• Adult literacy rate below 70%
• 7.1% of the population had a tertiary education
• 99% of white teachers were qualified
• 93% of Indian teachers were qualified
• 71% of Coloured teachers, and
• 54% of African teachers

1.1.2 Professional staff in the higher education system comprised

• So% white people

• 12% African
• 4% Coloured and
• 4% Indian
(The Presidency 2014, 40)
4 Robert J. Balfour

1.2 POLICY AND THE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORKS FOR EDUCATION

Schweisfurth (2013) suggests that culture plays a part in the success of edu-
cation reform. South Africa's legislation, from the Constitution to various
acts of parliament, has been described as among the most progressive in
the world. In this section the purpose and the nature of education policy
are described. It can be difficult for people living in patriarchal, traditional
societies to meaningfully engage in democratic education if it does not fit
with local ways of understanding learning and relationships (Schweisfurth
2013). Naidoo (2014, 70) argues that ' democratic learner-centred education
was counterintuitive to teachers' previous methods and training, counter to
teachers' own school experience and cultural upbringing, counter to princi-
pal -educator management styles, counter to learner home environment and
counter to societies' expectations of what schooling entailed'. That there is
wide recognition by South African commentators about the gaps between
policy and outcomes goes without saying.
It is worthwhile providing the reader with some extracts from the Bill of
Rights, from which the South African School Act (1996) and other policies,
for example the Language in Education Policy (1996), are derived.

29. Education

1) Everyone has the right

(a) to a basic education, including adult basic education; and

(b) to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must
make progressively available and accessible.

(2) Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or lan-
guages of their choice in public educational institutions where that educa-
tion is reasonably practicable. In order to ensure the effective access to, and
implementation of, this right, the State must consider all reasonable educa-
tional alternatives, including single medium institutions, taking into account
equity; practicability; and the need to redress the results of past racially dis-
criminatory laws and practices.

(3) Everyone has the right to establish and maintain, at their own expense,
independent educational institutions that

(a) do not discriminate on the basis of race;

(b) are registered with the state; and

5 I Schooling in South Africa

(c) maintain standards that are not inferior to standards at comparable public
educational institutions.

(4 ) Subsection (3) does not preclude State subsidies for independent educational
institutions.

30. Language and culture

Everyone has the right to use the language and to participate in the cultural life
of their choice, but no one exercising these rights may do so in a manner incon -
sistent with any provision of the Bill of Rights.

3 1. Cultural, religious and linguistic communities

(I) Persons belonging to a cultural, religious or linguistic community may not be
denied the right, with other members of that community;

(a) to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and use their language; and

(b) to form , join and maintain cultural, religious and linguistic associations
and other organs of civil society.

(2) The rights in subsection (1) may not be exercised in a manner inconsistent
with any provision of the Bill of Rights.

A number of policy-makers have written about the scope and reach of policy
in relation to the lived experiences of teachers, schools, communities and
learners in South Africa (Vally & Dalamba 1999, Chisholm 2009, Naidoo
2014, Balfour 2009). Dadwig (1994) suggests that there are tensions inherent
between policy intent, advocacy and philosophical orientation. Naidoo (2014)
posits that such tensions ' make for a contradictory scenario of interpretation,
practice, and attendant outcomes at the point of teaching and learning. The
acknowledged disjuncture between policy objectives and praxis creates an
academic conundrum in as much as the a'g ents of interpretation of policy
and distilling of practices "on the ground" warrant the consideration of an
alternate yardstick for measuring policy effectiveness, per se'.
Naidoo surveys critical policy research approaches by Prunty (1985),
' policy sociology' (Ozga 1987), ' policy-scholarship' (Grace 1987), and 'policy
scien ces' (Deleon 1994). While several scholars have critiqued policy research
and teaching in South Africa (Chisholm 2009, and Christie 2006, among
others), thi s section describes education as it applies to schools and school-
ing. As noted earlier in South Africa , education is a cornerstone of the trans-
formation project. As the DoE noted , 'It should be a goal of education and
training policy to enable a democratic, free, equal, just and peaceful society
6 I Robert J. Balfour

to take root and prosper in our land, on the basis that all South Africans
without exception share the same inalienable rights, equal citizenship and
common destiny' (1995, 22). The cornerstone act for schools is the South
African Schools Act (SASA, Act 84, 1996). The act allows schools to govern
themselves, it defines types of schools (private and public with varieties on
these two types), and the power of schools concerning admissions, language
policy and maximum class sizes. The powers of schools were meant to pro-
vide a degree of autonomy in the system, and recognised that a degree of
differentiation given the plethora of official languages, religious and other
beliefs should be seen as part of the diversity to be celebrated in South Africa.
Despite these powers, there have been strong tendencies towards cultural
and other forms of exclusion in many schools, either on the basis oflanguage
or class and sometimes even ethnicity. According to Naidoo, the SASA (1996)
provision allowing school governing bodies (SGBs) to levy school fees , as a
means of 'topping-up', alleviates the limited State financial allocations. A sig-
nificant consequence of this provision was that formerly privileged schools
were able to levy higher fees, effectively commoditising education, thereby
maintaining learner enrolment drawn largely from advantaged backgrounds
(Jansen & Taylor 2003; Sayed et al. 2013).
Since coming to power in 1995, the State has also banned corporal pun-
ishment and from time to time cases in which teachers have been found
guilty (either by departmental hearings or through lawsuits) have formed
the substance for outrage as expressed in the popular media (see Appendix
2). This, in line with the RNCS (Revised National Curriculum Statement)
(2002, 8) 'making schools safe to learn ... with the expectation of ridding
schools of violence. Despite policy enactments forbidding violence of any
sort in schools, corporal punishment is still employed widely, particularly in
rural schools' (Maphosa & Shumba 2010; Vally, Porteus & Ruth 2001; Morrell
2006; Naidoo 2014, 44). Simply put, legislation at the national level about
schools has focused on the twin aspirations of access and redress with the ex-
plicit intention of developing one system of quality education accessible to all
people in South Africa, regardless of class or socio-economic capital. These
aspirations have been undercut by commentators who suggest that in time
South Africa has in fact developed two education systems: the first system is
state-controlled and consists mostly of working class children and commu-
nities in which post-provisioning, low-fee or no-fee State schools exist (Tikly
& Mabogoane 1997). The second system consists of well-funded private and
public schools that provide education to a largely middle class elite.
7 Schooling in South Africa

1.3 CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS

To be sure there is a wealth of information available from the DoE, the DBE
and the Department of Higher Education and Tra ining (DHET) concern-
ing the quantitative dimension of the changes implemented throughout the
education system. This overview of schooling thus considers the impact of
changes made to legislation, and the impact on the effectiveness of the system
itself. Typically, measuring impact is assessed in quantitative forms dealing
with, for example, teacher attrition rates, teacher supply and demand rates,
and learner throughput and learner success rates. However, in order to assess
the magnitude and scale of the changes a nticipated, it is useful to consider,
initially, the growth in education over the last twenty years.

Table 1.1: Girls' Enrolment 1995, 2005, 2013

Level of education 1995 '1004 '1013

Primary 3 028 826 3 627 63 1 3 639 2 11

I I igh School I 349 259 2 256 852 2 362 230

Table 1.2: Boys' En rolment 1995, 2005, 2013

Level of education 1995 '1 004 '1013

Primary 3 61 1 390 3 8 16 511 3639211

High School I 862 345 206 1 05 1 2 362 230

Or:
Table 1.3: Total learner enrolments by gender in primary, high school and tertiary education

Level of education 1995 '1004 '1013

Males Females Tota l Males Females Total Ma les Females Total

Primary 361 1390 3028826 66402 16 38 165 11 362763 1 744 414 2 36392 11 3424638 7063 849

I I igh School 1862345 1349259 32 11 604 206 105 I 2256852 4 3 17903 2362230 22) 1267 4593497

. Sou rces: DBE, School Realities 20 t3/School rea lities 2004/

Educati on stati stics in South Africa at a glance 2004

Enrolment in GradeR (a pre-school year at primary school) has more than

doubled , increasing from 300 ooo to 705 ooo between 2003 and 2011, nearly
8 I Robert J. Balfour

reaching the level of universal access. By 2012, 87.8% of learners in Grade 1

in public schools had attended GradeR (The Presidency, Twenty Year Review
1994-2014, 47).
In 1999 there were 123 138 991learners at ordinary schools in South Africa.
Over 56% of these learners were concentrated in three largely rural provinces
(the Northern Province, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal). However, in
1999 the teacher-learner ratio was lower than it had been in 2014 (almost 34
learners per educator in South Africa, according to Education Statistics SA)
and even lower in KwaZulu-Natal (30.1%), and yet those indicators cannot
be relied upon to have correlational value for the quality of education . ln
KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, despite lower teacher/learner ratios,
learner throughput and success rates are among the lowest in South Africa.
This can be explained by the fact that the majority of under-qualified and
non-qualified teachers in the system are concentrated in these two prov-
inces. It is therefore unsurprising that in addition to the above, the same
three low-performing provinces also have the highest rates of over-aged and
under-aged learners in the system. Thus, Education Statistics SA report that
the 'gross enrolment rate' for the Eastern Cape was 20.14%, to over wo% in
KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. Five years into a new democratic dispen -
sation, the system in these provinces had to be geared to address the chal -
lenges outlined above, and as might be expected, the turnaround needed
in such contexts would be unlikely to occur within the first decade of the
new dispensation. Simply put, teacher education, curriculum redesign and
teacher qualification upgrading, while being national priorities, would not be
felt at a provincial level with any urgency.
Ten years into the new democracy, the number of learners in the system
was lower, with little over 10 ooo ooo learners in the system (7 681 324 learn-
ers in primary schools and 3 828 705 learners in secondary schools) (see Table
1.3). Combined and intermediate schools accounted for 707 736 learners and
29 229 educators. How is the reduction in learner numbers to be viewed? On
the one hand, the reduction of schools regarded as unsustainable explains
also the reduction in student numbers. However, school dropout figures in
this period remain high. This is illustrated from the data concerning school
dropout and retention rates. According to Education Statistics of South
Africa (2005), 'Of every 100 learners in ordinary schools in South Africa,
more than 31 learners were in the Foundation Phase, slightly fewer than 24
were in the Intermediate Phase, slightly more than 24 were in the Senior
Phase, 20 were in the FET (Further Education and Training or secondary
school, Grades 10-12) band, and less than one was in the pre-Grade-R Phase
9 Schooling in South Africa

and 'other' combined. Roughly then, only a third of an initial cohort might
fini sh their schooling on time, and of this group, ten learners (i .e. 10% of the
cohort itself) would have exited school without completing'.
The introduction of Grade R and pre-Grade R means that families now
have the option of enrolling children into ECD centres in South Africa.
The most recent available data for 20 140 registered sites was supplied by
DSD for June 2012 and is given in Table 1.4. The largest numbers of sites are
located in Gauteng (3520), KwaZu lu-Natal (3398), Free State (3002) and the
Eastern Cape (2938) respectively (see Table 1.4).

Table .1.4: Number of registered ECD sites, subsidised children, total receiving services and
estimated number of practitioners

Province Registered Number of ch ildren Total number of children Estimated number

ECD sites receiving subsidy receiving ECD services ofECD practitioners
(registered sites)

Eastern Cape 2938 76000 83613 3741

Free State 3002 43 700 98 172 4739

Gautcng 3520 57473 16024 1 3354

KwaZu lu -Nata l 3398 7329 1 13 1260 5067

Limpopo 2442 56040 206728 2810

Mpuma la nga 1402 46 55R 109386 2404

North-West 1033 32890 66265 2600

Nort hern Cape 580 25976 30839 927

Western Cape 1825 7260 1 98020 4350

TOTAL 20 140 484 529 984 524 29992

Source: Nati o na l DSD EC D Statisti cs Ma rch 20 1 2. Provided by Lo uise Era smus Social Wo rk
Policy Manager: Pa rtial Ca re and EC D

The 2010 audit of unregistered sites (Biersteker & Hendricks 2012) found that
32% of principals and 58% of practitioners have no qualifications. Levels 1
and 4 qualifications are the most common levels of qualification achieved as
shown in Table 1.5.
10 Robert J. Balfour

Table 1.5: Percentage of Staff with ECD Qualifications in Unregistered ECD sites in the Western Cape

Level ECD Qualification Principals (%) Practitioners (%)

No ne 32 58

Levcl 1 Basic Certificate: EC D 16 13

Levcl4 Na tio na l Cer tifica te: EC D/FETC: ECD 21 13

Level 5 1-l igh e r Ce rti ficate: ECD II 4

Level 5 Na tio na l Diplo m a: EC D 4 2

O the r (e.g. N1 - 6, Diplo m a in Educat ion , Pre-p rima r y 16 9

Teachers' Ce rtificate, Nursery School Teach e rs'
Ce rti fica te)

Source: Biersteker and Hendricks (2012)

These figures need also to be understood in terms of a growing awareness

among communities and families of the qualitative dimensions of educa-
tion provision. The apartheid era was characterised by stringent population
movement controls which were linked also to schools. All groups were com -
pelled to access the schools in their immediate residential areas. Given the
differential spending associated with different groups in South Africa on edu-
cation (historically black children received the lowest proportion of govern-
ment spending on education when compared to Indian, coloured and white
children (see Hartshorne 1992; Gustafsson & Patel 2006), this meant that
children of black families could access only those schools located in the areas
in which they lived. In these urban and also rural areas (associated especially
with the Bantustans, rural and farm schools) the schools, thanks to the low
standards of education curricula, the low quality of teachers prepared for the
schools, and the low government spending on schools, were abysmal. With
the changes after 1995, the Group Areas Act was revoked, with the effec t
that parents could begin to consider access for their children in areas where
they did not reside. Obviously those most mobile (financially at least) were
able to take relative advantage of the better quality of education throughout
the apartheid era, as offered by private and mostly 'church ' schools (in other
words, those schools founded, supported and staffed by clerics or religious
staff). Between 1995 and 2014 the growth in private education institutions
and consortia of private schools and colleges has accelerated. In South Africa,
the Crawford Schools and the Curro Schools are all private for-profit organi-
sations offering salaries to teachers that are usually higher than State schools,
and a quality of education that is usually better than that offered in the public
education system. With greater choice and variety in the system has come a
11 I Sc ooling in South Africa

more differentiated market for schools. This has had a logical but odd effect
on the schooling system as it has begun to outgrow its apartheid past.
A report by Mafisa and Malingo (2014) shows that over the 2o-year period
in Gauteng, more than 250 schools have been closed down, while in the
Eastern Cape, 220 schools closed in the past three years alone. There has
been a similar trend in Limpopo Province, forcing many pupils to travel
long distances to schools outside their areas. The closures are confirmed by a
report released by the DBE in which it has been revealed that the number of
public schools had decreased from 25906 to 25826 nationally between 2009
and 201 2, even though the population of pupils and teachers increased dur-
ing the same period. The growth of private schools in this period cannot
be said to bear a direct relation to this phenomenon, but it certainly does
indirectly. In other words, as economic mobility has improved for the black
middle class in particular, so access to suburban areas and thus also sub-
urban schools has become possible. Invariably this has meant that the supply
of children to township and rural schools has decreased, while the demand
for better-quality schools and education has increased.' While it might not
be true to suggest that all schools located in rural areas or townships offer a
lower quality in education, it is almost certainly true that the teachers associ-
ated with suburban schools in South Africa are mostly better qualified and
better resourced than their counterparts in township or rural schools located
in impoverished areas. How and why is this the case? Hartshorne (1992) has
shown that there is a clear pattern of differentiated spending on education
in the period leading up to the 1994 elections. While this changed with al -
most immediate effect in 1995 with the creation of a single Department
of Education, the legacy of differential treatment is long-lived and solidly
entrenched. Better-quality schools (in other words, those historically advan -
taged in the apartheid period) were associated with former white suburban
areas in which a mostly already economically privileged race group (and
after 1995 a more racially diverse but nonetheless privileged middle class)
made up the majority. These schools have always been staffed mostly by well-
qualified and experienced teachers, and so the new South Africa continues
to perpetuate class privilege through a range of means, not least of which is
the class filter which limits admission to those able to afford school fees, or
limits access through the language policy of the school (thus retaining class
and race segregation in the case of Afrikaans medium schools). The rights to
levy fees on the basis of the needs of the families subscribing to the schools,
and those rights associated with the language policy or school admissions
policies, are defined in the Language in Education Policy (1997) and South
African Schools Act (SASA 1996).
12 I Robert J. Balfour

Thus, when the DoE reports that an estimated 2400 schools closed na-
tionally between 2000 and 2011, and further that Soweto schools are among
the worst affected, the unarticulated narrative here has much to do with the
newly-acquired mobility of the black middle class to access other areas of resi-
dence and thus an education also associated with area and class. In Soweto,
residents living in affected areas were reported by Mafisa and Malingo (2014)
to have said that 'the reason for the decreasing numbers of township schools
was the poor quality of education'.
The Twenty-Year Review 1994-2014 notes the problematic issue concern-
ing international measures of performance in relation to South African
children:

International comparisons through the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium

for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) confirm that South Africa
fares poorly in terms of learner performance in Grade 6 a·nd teacher content
knowledge when compared with countries that spend the same or less on edu-
cation per capita. In terms of the SACMEQ tests, South Africa experienced
no statistically significant change in performance between 2000 and 200 7. In
contrast, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zanzibar expe-
rienced improvements in both Mathematics and reading. The 2 011 Trends in
International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) points to improvements for
Grade 9 learners between 2002 and 2011 , especially for learners attending the
poorest schools. These improvements start on a very low base and South Africa
still has a low average in Mathematics and Science performance, well below the
level expected for Grade 9 learners, as indicated by the recent ANA test results.
(The Presidency 2014, 49 - 50).

Given that even the best schools in South Africa do not measure up par-
ticularly well in the international TIMSS and PIRLS measures, the percep-
tions of quality need to be mediated somewhat, as noted earlier, but remain
powerful determinants for the realisation of parents' aspirations for their
children. Furthermore, as the former townships have witnessed a migration
of middle-class families into the suburbs, so too has the class stratification
become clearer as township areas have become more visibly working class.
The legacy of apartheid spending in township schools thus remains alive
and well for two reasons. The first is that these schools are already staffed by
teachers who, though minimally qualified, are not necessarily as well-quali-
fied as their counterparts in 'suburban' middle-class schools, and the second
reason is that the lower economic catchment areas (typically township, but
also rural poor areas) have fewer resources to draw upon in terms of school
13 I Schooling in South Africa

fe or other forms of income to be derived from the local communities. The

ironies of education in this area are plentiful. All over South Africa, former
township areas became centres of socia l and cultural activity in which the
solidarity of people oppressed by the regime found expression in writing, art,
music and religious li fe. As these areas have become impoverished, arising
from the gradual shift as classes stratify in comm unities (most ly gated and
sometimes cordoned off depending on what is permitted under loca l muni-
cipal regulations), the quality of community life, of which schools are a fun-
damental part, is changing. From the media report by Mafisa and Malingo
(2014) parents suggested the fo ll owing:
Stella Putsoa from Dube in Soweto said that in some of the local public schools
there was virtually no teaching at all.
'I used to teach maths to my kids while they studied at our local school because
they only had eight pages filled with work in their exercise books for the whole
year,' she said.
A longtime community member of Soweto's White City, known as Bab'Gambu,
said most schools in the area were closed and the consequences of the closures
were being felt by their children.

'Our children now travel long distances because as parents we want them to study
but there are a few schools close by now, unlike in the old days,' he said .

That said, church schools have long been perceived as offering a superior
education even in impoverished areas and they continue to be in high de-
mand , and because these are mostly low-fee paying private schools, they
are able to attract child ren from a va riety of class backgrounds. This is
unlike the new consortium type schools mentioned earlier, which even if
values-based (for example, the C urro school s are all C hri stian schools),
are high -end fee -paying schools (see a lso Chapter 7 on funding educa-
tion). In rural areas the problems associated with depopulation a lso have a
negative effect on schools and hence the high numbers of school closures
in mostly rural provinces such as the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. Bloch
(2014) has noted that this places a great strain on children in rura l a reas,
who (as rural schools close) are required to walk longer distances to those
that remain viable. In view of the drift to cities (2013 was the first year in
South Africa's history where the sca les tipped in terms of 49% of learn-
ers being located in rural areas), one might imagine that the demand for
education even in the townships would increase, but the perceptions as
regards quality are backed up by statistics which show that: 'The pass rate in
14 I Robert J. Balfour

former Model C schools is over 98%, while the pass rate in township schools is
about so or 6o%.'

1.4 TYPES OF SCHOOLS

Schooling is the joint responsibility of the Department of Basic Education

(DoE or since 2012 the DBE) and Provincial Departments of Education
(PDEs). The DBE is responsible for national policy, norms and standards.
The PDEs are responsible for the implementation of the national mandates.
There are two main types of school in South Africa, namely public and
independent schools, and collectively these are known as 'ordinary schools'.
Public schools are controlled by the government through the education
departments, while independent (private) schools are controlled by pri-
vately-owned individuals and/or structures. Although independent schools
are privately controlled, they all have to be registered with the provincial
departments where they reside, and also must comply with the various edu-
cation regulations and policies that are prescribed to all learners, teachers
and schools. There is, however, some flexibility and freedom granted to inde-
pendent schools.
These schools are further complemented by a specialised type of school-
ing known as 'inclusive education and full-service schools' (IEFSS 2010, 3),
which are aimed at reducing barriers to learning and participation to all
learners, not only for those with impairments or are categorised as ' having
special education needs' (IEFSS 2010, 3).
According to the Education Statistics 2013 (DBE 2014), ordinary schools
can be classified as primary, secondary and intermediate. According to the
DBE EMIS section there has been a phasing out of combined schools in the
education system. There are two other separate categories of schools, namely
early childhood development centres, which include those institutions who
have pre-primary classes at primary schools, and special needs schools, which
include standalone special schools and those attached to ordinary public and
independent schools (see Table 1.6).
15 I Schooling in South Africa

Table 1.6: Nu mber of categories of schools in South Africa (2013)

-_l'ype or Khool School category Number of institutions I

14 206
-Public School Primary

- Secondary

ombincd + Int ermediate

6411

5 209

- Independent School
Tota l (Public)

Primary
25 826

Secondary
-
ombi ned
- Intermediate

Tota l (Independent) 1544

-Total Public and Independent Schools

O ther Ed ucatio n Sec tor EC D

27 370

4 699

Spec ial Need s School 44 2

Total (O ther) 5 141

-
Grand Total of P ublic, I ndependcnt and O ther Schools 32 511

Source: Education Stat istics 20 t 3 data WEB published by DBE, January 20 14

1.5 LEARNERS WHO EXPERIENCE BARRIERS TO LEARNING (INCLUDING LEARNERS

WITH DISABILITIES) IN SPECIAL AND IN ORDINARY SCHOOLS

With the introduc tion of the Policy on Inclusive Educa tion, as published
in th e 'Educa tion White Paper 6' (2001), the DoE made a commitment to
enabl e a nd ensure th at all children are welcomed in all sc hools. It indi -
cated that children with special needs would be supported and developed
rega rdl ess of their background, culture, abilities and disabilities, gender or
race. 2 The introduction of the Convention on the Rights of Perso ns with
Disabilities, ratifi ed by South Africa in 2007, commits government to en-
surin g th e introduction of an inclusive education system at all levels and
making reaso nable accommodation avai lable to all children and youth
with disabilities (Article 24).
The concept of' full-service and inclusive ed ucation' schools was introduced
to show how ordinary school s ca n transform themselves to become inclusive
16 I Robert J. Balfour

centres of care and support. Existing special schools would be strengthened

to provide quality specialised teaching and support to learners with a high
level of support needs, while at the same time being converted into resource
centres capable of providing outreach services to ordinary schools. The DoE
claims that by 2025 all ordinary schools would be required to be inclusive in
their policies, cultures and practices. As part of this process, District-based
Support Services must be capacitated to provide universal quality support to
schools.
The strategy for Inclusive Education has been approved and implementa-
tion targeted for 2014. The following key areas have been incorporated in the
strategy:

• Implementing the Policy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and

Support (SIAS);

• Operationalising Full Service/Inclusive Schools;

• Improving Quality Education and Support in Special Schools and Special

School Resource Centres;

• Institutionalizing Curriculum Differentiation;

• Quality Curriculum Delivery in Schools for Learners with Visual Impair-

ment; and

• Introduction of South African Sign Language and improvement of curric-

ulum delivery in Schools for the Deaf. (DBE Annual Report 2013, 64).

Table 1.6 shows that Gauteng has consistently been the province with the
highest enrolment of learners from 2011-2013, with 36% of the total learners
in special needs schools. Western Cape is the next highest with 17% followed
by KwaZulu-Natal. The province with the least number of enrolments is the
Northern Cape, which reflects 1.4% between 2011 and 2013.
The numbers of educators in special needs schools between the period
2011 and 2012 follow a similar pattern to the number of learners per prov-
ince. Gauteng leads with the highest number of educators and this corre-
lates with the highest number of learners, followed by Western Cape and
KwaZulu-Natal. The province with the lowest number of educators is the
Northern Cape (see Table 1.7). The data for number of educators for 2013 was
not available from the DBE at the time of writing.
17 Schooling in South Africa

Table 1.7: Number of Special Schools with Educators and Learners per Province (2011- 2013)
:--
I

-Provi nce
2011

Lea rners
2012

Lea rne r s
2013

Learner s
2011

Educators
2012

Educators
2013

Tota l number of
Specia l Schoo ls

__:astern Cape 9031 9 11 7 9165 878 854 42

Free State 55 14 5l10 1 6036 602 625 21

-Gauteng

_ KwaZulu- Natal
39 283

15 955
41 184

16264
42958

168 11
3 182

733
3396

1393
133

73

-Li mpopo

_Mpumala nga
8360

3639
8524

3549
8598

38 18
706

269
684

355
34

20

No rthern Cape 1644 1646 169 1 160 165 10

-North -West

Wester n Cape
5634

19180
5437

20076
6764

20689
236

1853
465

1802
32

79

11 65) 0
- o uth Africa 108240 11 1 598 8619 9739 444

Source: DBE , Annua l Specia l School Survey 2ou, 20 12,2013

Table 1-8: Number of Schools per Province

Province P ublic Schools Ave Schools As%Total

2008 2009 20 10 20 11 20 12 2013 o8- 13 o8- 13

Eastern Ca pe 5686 5668 5588 5589 5558 5562 56 13 22.9%

Free State 1614 1547 14 22 1371 1351 1327 1439 5.9%

Gautcng 1989 1970 20 13 2040 2045 2056 20 19 8.3%

KwaZu lu - a tal 5783 5907 5927 5957 5955 5937 59 11 24 .2%

Limpopo 4023 3988 3965 393 1 3935 3924 396 1 16.2%

Mpuma langa 1873 1844 1838 1821 1807 1768 1825 7.5%

ort hcrn Cape 602 6oo 597 59 1 560 553 584 2. 4%

orth -Wcsl 1730 17 16 1646 16 14 1591 155 1 1641 6.7%

Wcslern Cape 145 1 1453 1455 1451 1453 1458 1454 5.9%

o uth Arrica 24 75 1 24 693 24 451 24 365 24 255 24 136 24447 100%

Sou rce: DBE, School Rea lit ies 20o8-2013

There we re 1584 indepe ndent schools in 2013 co mpa red to 1124 schools in
2008 (see Table 1.9). Th is represe nts a steady increase of 460 independent
18 Robert J. Balfour

schools over the past five years. Independent schools have been increasing at
an average of 77 schools per year. Gauteng has had the biggest net increase
of 177 schools between 2008- 2013, followed by the Western Cape, which has
seen a net increase of 98 schools, and thirdly KwaZulu-Natal, with a net in-
crease of 64 schools. All other provinces showed a net increase of less than
45 schools; Limpopo had a net increase of 44 schools, while the Eastern Cape
and Mpumalanga had a net increase of 32 and 31 schools respectively.

Table 1.9: Number of Independent Schools, by Province, 2008 - 2013

Province Independent Schools Ave Schools As% Total

2008 2009 2010 2.011 2012 2013 2008 - 13 2008- 13

Eastern Ca pe 139 140 154 166 196 17 1 161 ll,6%

Free State 61 64 66 66 68 69 66 4 .7%

Gaulcng 416 420 472 519 566 593 498 35 .8%

KwaZulu -Natal 155 159 220 223 22 .1 2 19 200 14 .4%

Limpopo 99 11 7 141 14 2 143 143 131 9.4%

Mpumalanga 86 89 10 1 11 0 11 3 11 7 103 M %

orthern Cape 15 17 20 20 20 20 19 1,4%

North -West 54 52 55 55 54 55 54 3.9%

Western Cape 99 116 170 185 190 197 160 11 ,5%

South Africa 1 .124 I 174 1399 I 486 1 571 I 584 1392 100%

Source: DBE, School Realities 2008 - 20 t 3

School libraries are intended to provide learners with access to learning

materials such as books, periodicals and audio-visual media. International
studies have revealed that a functional school library will add between 10%
and 25% (Equal Education 2010, 6) to average learner outcomes, all other
things being equal. A strong correlation and causal relationship have been
found between the presence of a staffed library and higher academic per-
formance in research conducted locally.
Education Statistics SA (DBE 2013, 3) stated that in 2011 there were 30 992
established public and registered independent education institutions. 25 851
of these were ordinary schools comprising 14339 primary schools, 6407
secondary schools and 5 105 combined and intermediate schools. The other
5 141 schools were defined as 'other education institutions', namely, Early
Childhood Development (ECD) centres and special schools (ETDP SETA
Skills Plan 2014, 81).
19 I Schooling in South Africa

1.6 LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE: QUERY AND QUANDARIES

Not unexpectedly, if international trends are to be considered, girls per-

form better in terms of completing their school time within the normal
cycle, with fewer dropouts and better grades. In 2005, Education Statistics
SA (DBE 2005) showed that although there were fewer females than males
in Grades 1- 7 (less than 50%), the opposite was true for Grades 9 - 12. In
Grade 1 2, females (54-4%) accounted for the highest female enrolment in
all the primary and secondary-level grades. Dropout and poor success rates
for boys in South Africa within the first 10 years of the changed system
remained high and worryingly so, especially in the context of the global
financial downturn that began to be experienced by 2005 and onwards.
At that stage, the DoE noted that in schooling, the highest under-enrol-
ment was experienced in Grades R and 12, which reflected an enrolment
of 40.5% and 55.1%, respectively, of the appropriate school age population,
claiming that while 'the data in this case do not necessarily indicate under-
enrolment, but merely reflect the fact that about half of the population of
this age was not in the formal schooling system' (2005, 13). In hindsight,
such claims need to be treated with caution, given that the dropout rates in
schooling, let alone higher education, provide a skewed picture of success
in the system; those who remain in the system to be counted are precisely
those most likely to leave with some form of education; for the many other
children exiting the system earlier, the statistics remain deafeningly silent
- a growing, seemingly mute and restive proportion of school-leavers too
uneducated for skilled work, and too unskilled for anything but unskilled
labour. With the economy visibly slowing down by 2007, and an upturn in
labour unrest particularly among unskilled labour as ociated with the min -
ing industry, political and higher education leadership expressed concerns
about the increased unemployment of youth.
In 2014, unemployment was estimated by Statistics SA as standing at
25-4%, with an additional 1.3 million South Africans in long-term un -
employment. The official term for such persons as a group is NEET: not in
education, employment or training. Access to, and success in, education con-
tinued to be configured along racial lines, and more lately class lines, with
Statistics South Africa confirming that, in 2014, whites were still among the
group most likely to complete their schooling, followed by Indian and Asian
groups. According to Bhorat et al. (2001), intra-black inequality has also
increased dramatically in recent times. In addition to concerns about the
low performance and retention of black learners in the system, it is also evi -
dent that performance in certain subject areas (typically those scarce skills
20 I Robert J. Balfour

such as Science, Mathematics and Languages) is similarly skewed along race

and class lines. In every year in which the improvement in NSC pass rates is
celebrated, critics routinely point to the fact that even the best of the school
leavers do not in general complete their degree studies in time and are widely
regarded as 'unfit' for higher education. Spaull (2013) notes that 'the more
serious problem is widespread dropout before Grade 12, and that over time
more pupils seem to be choosing less demanding exam subjects. Regarding
the latter, it is revealing to note that over the four-year period between 2008
and 2011, the proportion of pupils taking mathematics (as opposed to maths
literacy) has fallen from s6% to 45%, as more pupils opt for the easier maths
literacy' (Spaull 2013, s).
The South African government is acutely concerned with the performance
of children in the system. Speaking to learners at the launch of the Ned bank
Back to School project in January 2014 in Pretoria, Education Minister Angie
Motshekga noted publicly the low ranking of the system, especially in Maths
and Science, saying: 'South Africa has ranked its maths and science edu-
cation as second last in the world, ahead of Yemen, according to a World
Economic Forum Report'.
The Global Information Technology Report (2013) added that South
Africa's costly access to Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) is hampering its competitiveness:

Going up two positions, South Africa is in 70th place. Despite a sharp improve-
ment in the development of its ICT infrastructure (59th) - notably in terms of
international Internet bandwidth capacity (66th) - and a strong uptake by the
business community (33rd), the ICT impacts (92nd), particularly the social ones
(112th), remain limited.

The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report (2012-2013)

notes that the lack of clear government vision (SA ranked 105th world-
wide) to orchestrate and implement a holistic ICT strategy for the country,
coupled with deficiencies in the educational system for some segments of
the population (SA ranked 102nd), play negatively in this process and out-
weigh a rather positive political and regulatory framework for ICT devel -
opment (SA ranked 21st) and pro-business environment (SA ranked ssth).
It is the latest indictment of South Africa's education system since the 2011
Progress in International Reading Literature Study (PIRLS) which indi-
cated that most South African Grade s learners have not yet acquired basic
literacy skills:
21 Schooling in South Africa

In the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report, 2012- 2013,

South Africa ranked 132nd out of 144 countries in quality of primary education,
even below some of the poorest countries in Africa, such as Mali, Chad, Tanzania
and Malawi. For the quality of the educational system as a whole, it ranked 14oth
out of 14 4 countries, and for the quality of maths and science education, South
Africa ranked 143rd out of 144 countries, having the worst provision of maths
and science education in all of Africa. (Naidoo 2014, 6)

Two decades after the celebrated implementation of the new national curric-
ulum, South Africa continues to occupy the lower echelons of international
education achievement rankings (14oth out of 144 countries in the quality
of education provision) vis-a-vis considerably less resourced, impoverished
nations. Jansen (2014) makes the following points about the pass rates and
policy concerning the promotion of children who fail in the system:

'The fourth , and arguably most serious dimension of this crisis, is the institu-
tionalisation of low standards and low expectations in the sch~ol system. The
problem is not the low standards, it's that we accept them ,' he said .

'What message do you give when in 2012 your Minister of Basic Education says:
"30% for a slow learner is fine," or, "when someone has achieved 30%, it means
that person has been able to master the basic skills."'3

'It's human behaviour - if you tell a child to jump this high, that's what they will
do,' he added . 'We need to give the message that this is not good enough. Yet our
government is happy with this.'

As if a 30% pass is not bad enough, South Africa is the only country in the world
where learners in Grades 10 to 12 are automatically promoted after failing a year.

The fifth point he made is that the resolution of the crisis does not require more
resources, but a more efficient use of existing resources. 'Why is it that some
schools can achieve something different, given the same resources?' (Jansen in
Planting, 2014)

Spaull (2013) summarises South Africa's achievement in the two decades.

Using the SACMEQ II (2ooo) and SACMEQ III (2007) test results, he argues
that it is evident that there has been no improvement in South African Grade
5 literacy or numeracy performance over a seven-year period. Sadly, this per-
formance is worse than countries much poorer than South Africa (South
African pupils ranked 1oth of the 14 education systems; 12th for reading and
8th for mathematics, behind much poorer countries such as Tanzania, Kenya
and Swaziland).
22 I Robert J. Balfour

Spaull also considered the TIMSS 1995, 1999, 2002, 2011 Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (Grade 8/9 Mathematics and
Science) and found that tests for mathematics and science showed that there
had been no improvement in Grade 8 Mathematics or Science achievement
between 1995 and 2002. However, when these same tests were applied to
Grade 9 learners (who wrote the Grade 9 test), there was marked improve-
ment between 2002 and 2011 in Maths and Science performance amount-
ing to approximately one-and-a-half grade levels of learning. This shows that
there has been some improvement over the period. But, as Spaull (2013, 4)
notes, 'While this is hopeful, it is difficult to celebrate when one considers
how low the post-improvement level of performance really is'. For example,
in 2011 a third of pupils (32%) performed worse than guessing on the mul-
tiple choice items (i.e. no better than random). Furthermore, three-quarters
(76%) of Grade 9 pupils in 2011 still had not acquired a basic understanding
about whole numbers, decimals, operations or basic graphs, and this is at the
improved level of performance. Thus improvement can only be read as such
because of the low base from which it was charted in 2002. To place this in
perspective, South Africa's post-improvement level of performance is still the
lowest of all participating countries, with the average South African Grade 9
child performing between two and three grade levels lower than the average
Grade 9 child from other middle-income countries.
Other measures of school success are determined by the DBE through the
Annual National Assessments, but year-on -year the questions in these tests
change and so without any control items in the tests, there is a question con-
cerning their validity. Unfortunately, the credibility of the results is thrown
further into doubt by South African learners' low performance in inter-
national testing measures already described. This chapter does not consider
performance in the annual national assessment because of the mismatch be-
tween claims made regarding this data and the international benchmarks
that can demonstrate both validity and reliability over time.

1.7 TEACHERS AT WORK IN SOUTH AFRICA

Pendlebury (1998) suggested that South Africa's accession to membership of

global organisations after a long period of relative isolation required that it
implement radical and key reforms in education in a short period of time.
A focus on values and policies (whether macro-legislation or micro-policy
in terms of the curriculum, for example), has ultimately, as its aim, people
23 I Schooling in South Africa

as well as places in which education as a practice is situated and conducted.

This section describes the teach ing corps in South Africa in terms of where
they are located, how they are supported, and how ready they have been to
embrace and enact new curriculum initiatives after 1995.

--
1.7.1 Politicisation of the profession
At the outset it has to be stated that the teaching profession is an embat-
tled one in South Africa, in part because apartheid focused on education
as a means both of the repression and under-development of black people.
Thus the area identified as a site for coercion and repression became also a
site for contestation and confrontation, as noted by Govender (in Chisholm
2004), Hyslop (2003), Chisholm (2003) and Motala (2006). Teacher unions,
as they developed in their resistance to the apartheid State, became political
entities capable of mobilising resistance and confrontation with the State as
seen for example in the schools boycotts of the 1950s (Hyslop 1987) and in
cataclysmic Soweto Uprising of 1976 (Hyslop 1985 and 1990).
Given the poor quality of teacher professional development in the apart-
heid period, it is thus not surprising that high levels of unionisation have not
been accompanied by high levels of commitment to professional develop -
ment through the unions. Where unions have been very successful is in the
ongoing politicisation of teaching and instead of partnership with govern -
ment, there has developed a tradition of contestation between government
and the unions, almost always in terms of teachers' conditions of service.
Strikes such as those that occurred in 2008 (when most members of the lar-
gest union , the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, embarked on a
go-slow, limiting the hours of teaching in schools, and increasing levels of
teacher absenteeism), have been highly damaging to the professional image
of teachers, and have had an observable impact on the quality oflearners' ex-
perience in schools. As Jan sen notes:

'The second "c ritica l fact " is that there is no system of accountability for what
happens inside schools,' Jansen said . 'Unless we hold teachers to account, we will
perform at the bottom of the ladder. And we can't do that because the South
African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) will have us for breakfast.'

With every year that goes by th e greater the educational and social inequality be-
tween our two school systems becomes. We are in trouble.

In a school - as in any functioning organization - rhythm and routine are essen -

tial. 'This is absent in most SA schools,' Jansen sa id . 'O n average five teachers in
24 I Robert J. Balfour

every school are absent every day- and SAFTU is motivating for more sick leave'.
(Jansen in Planting 2014, 1)

SADTU members are drawn mostly from former DET and Bantustan
schools, whereas the National Association of Professional Teachers of South
Africa and the South African Teachers' Union (SATU) draw their members
from formerly white, Indian and coloured schools. The race politics so typ -
ical of the apartheid era unfortunately and very damagingly remains a con-
sistent theme in teacher protests in the new democratic period.
The struggle to develop a culture of a professionally-focused teachers'
corps has been a persistent cause for concern . The South African Council of
Educators (SACE), which was created as the statutory professional body for
teachers in 1995, has been tasked with developing a mechanism to institute,
promote, recognise and accredit continuous teacher development for teach -
ers in schools.

1.7.2 The under-development of the education system

Scholars have noted the deleterious effects of the apartheid curriculum in

schools: not only was content suited to the race classification of people, but, for
example, Prinsloo (2ooo) compares the examination papers of the late apart-
heid period for English Second Language (termed 'English as an additional
language' after 1995) and isiZulu First Language (termed 'home language',
for example), and showed thal the curriculum for black schools (bantustan
schools as well as Department of Education and Training in the apartheid
era) was not only less challenging in terms of intellectual stretch, but also less
demanding in terms of content when compared with examination papers
set by the 'white' education departments. Implied, even in this documentary
analysis, is that the teacher training associated with different race groups was
different also in terms of quality and standards and expectation.
The department (DoE/DBE) in its reporting has tended to focus primarily
on the quantitative data concerning teachers and learners in the system. Thus,
in 2005, the department could claim that the 'national learner-to-educator
ratio trend line, as reflected in Table 1.7, stayed fairly consistent between 2001
and 2004, but decreased between 2004 and 2005' (2005, 15). Six provinces (the
Eastern Cape, the Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the
Western Cape) showed a net decrease from 2001 to 2005, while Limpopo
indicated the highest net increase, of 7-Jo/o.
According to departmental statistics, there were, in 1999, 27 461 ordinary
public and independent schools in South Africa. These figures exclude special
25 / Schooling in South Africa

needs schools or pre-primary ones (Early Childhood Development centres,

or pre-primary care schools or centres). Just over 97% (26 644) of these or-
dinary schools were public schools and less than 3% (817) were independent
schools. The distribution or concentration of schools bears no correlation to
the achievement of the regions named. Thus, while the Eastern Cape in 1999
had the largest number of ordinary schools (6 190), and the Northern Cape
had the smallest number of ordinary schools (493), it was the Western Cape
and Gauteng that outperformed other regions in terms of learner results in
the 2o-year period. This suggests different levels of complexity to the ana-
lysis. On the one hand , while the Eastern Cape had the highest number of
ordinary public schools (6 145), KwaZulu-Natal (5 578) and Mpumalanga
(4035) together accounted for almost 6o% of all ordinary public schools in
South Africa in 1999, but their year-on-year learner performance remained
among the lowest in South Africa. These three provinces account for the
highest concentrations of schools and learners from rural areas, confirming
the Emerging Voices Report (Chisholm and Porteus 2005) that rural educa-
tion remains the most neglected dimension of education for almost half of
the school-going population.
In 1999, there were 365 447 educators (teaching the 12 313 899 learners in
ordinary schools in South Africa, as mentioned in the previous sections).
KwaZulu-Natal had the highes t number of educators in ordinary schools
(74719), while the Northern Cape had the lowest (6773). It would not be
unusual to expect that a lower teacher-learner ratio would enable a better
quality of teaching (well-qualified teachers prefer to engage with smaller
numbers of learners as this enables teachers to identify learners' styles of
learning and barriers to learning experienced by the learner and identified
by the teacher). However, in 1999 the teacher-learner ratio was lower than it
had been in 2014 (almost 34 learners per educator in South Africa, accord-
ing to Education Statistics SA), and even lower in KwaZulu-Natal (30.1), and
yet those indicators cannot be relied upon to have correlational value for the
quality of education. In KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, despite lower
teacher-learner ratios, learner throughput and success rates are among the
lowest in South Africa. This can be explained by the fact that the majority of
under-qualified and non -qualified teachers in the system are concentrated in
these two provinces. Spaull (2013, 5) notes further that:

in the Eastern Cape only 20% of Grade 2 pupils from the 20ot cohort went on
to pass the NSC exa m in 2011, compared to 6o% in Gauteng and so% in the
Western Cape. These 'conversion rates' provide a good indication of the quality
of educat ion offered to pupils in these provinces. While one should be aware of
26 \ Robert J. Balfour

the differing socio-economic profiles of the provinces, the fact that equally poor
provinces with similar geographical, sociological and historical profiles have dif-
ferent conversion rates is testament to the fact that schools and provincial admin -
istrations can make a difference.

It is thus unsurprising that in addition to the above, the same three low-per-
forming provinces also have the highest rates of over-aged and under-aged
learners in the system. Thus, Education Statistics SA reports that the 'gross
enrolment rate' for the Eastern Cape was 214%, and in KwaZulu-Natal and
Mpumalanga over 100%. Five years into a new democratic dispensation, the
system in these provinces had to be geared to address the challenges outlined
above, and as might be expected, the turnaround needed in such contexts
would be unlikely to occur within the first decade of the new dispensation.
Simply put, teacher education, curriculum redesign, teacher qualification up -
grading, while national priorities, would not have much immediate impact
at provincial levels.
The question of why schools become unsustainable, and why they close,
has been touched on earlier in this chapter, and is a complex one. By 2005
the number of schools had been reduced to 26 592 as part of a rationalisa-
tion of ineffective and small (and thus unsustainable) schools located mostly
in rural areas (typically farm schools, or multi -grade schools in villages).
Education statistics show that of the 26 592 ordinary schools, 19 260 were
primary schools and 5851 were secondary schools.
Ten years into the new democracy the number of learners in the system
was similarly lower with a little over 10 million learners in the system
(7 681324 learners in primary schools and 3 828 705 learners in secondary
schools). Combined and intermediate schools accounted for 707 736 learn-
ers and 29 229 educators. The overall number of teachers in the system had
also been reduced from over 370000 in 2005, to a little over 35oooo in 2005
(228 957 primary school teachers and 123 947 secondary school teachers).
How is the reduction in learner numbers and teachers to be explained?
On the one hand, the reduction of schools regarded as unsustainable
explains also the reduction in student numbers. However, school dropout
figures in this period remain high. This is illustrated by the data concerning
school dropout and retention rates. Education Statistics SA (2005) indicates
that of every 100 learners in ordinary schools in South Africa, more than
31 learners were in the Foundation Phase, slightly fewer than 24 were in the
Intermediate Phase, slightly more than 24 were in the Senior Phase, 20 were
in the FET band, and less than one was in the pre-Grade-R Phase and 'other'
combined . Roughly then, on ly a third of an initial cohort might finish their
27 I Schooling in South Africa

schooling on time, and of this group, ten learners (i.e.10% of the cohort itself)
would have exited school without completing any kind of qualification.
In 2005, the DBE had started to count the number of teachers employed
by schools in a private capacity. This had not been the practice in 1995. In
other words, this is where schools with access to substantive privately raised
funding, through class fees or community assistance, were able to employ
additional teachers. This had the simultaneous effect of bringing down the
overall national pupil-teacher ratios, but creating the wrong impression of
more equity of access to teaching in the system. In fact, already enabled com-
munities, mostly urban and middle class by nature, simply circumvented the
post-provisioning norm, and employed additional teachers in particular in
subjects defined as 'scarce skills' (Arts and Culture, Science and Mathematics
and Languages).
For schooling, which includes both independent and public schools,
according to the 2013 School Realities data, there were 25 720 schools (24136
public and 1584 independent), served by 425 023 educators and servicing 12
489648 learners. Independent schools comprise 1584 schools, with a staff of
33 194 educators, teaching 513 804 learners which translates to 4.1% of the
entire learner population in SA (DBE School Realities 2013).
In 2011 in South Africa there were 30 992 established public and registered
independent education institutions that submitted the survey forms. Of these,
25 851 were ordinary schools and 5141 were other education institutions -
namely, ECD centres and special schools. The ordinary schools compri sed
14 339 primary schools and 6407 secondary schools. In comparison, this
represents an increase of a little over 3000 additional schools in the system
over a 2o-year period. By 2011 there were a little over 12oooooo learners in
the system comprising 5 980 939 learners in primary schools, 3 966 838learn-
ers in secondary schools and 2 340 217 learners in intermediate or combined
schools.
By this time the primary there were 187 065 school teachers, 146 434 sec-
ondary teachers and 87109 educators for the combined and intermediate
schools. Comparatively, there were fewer teachers in the system in 2011, for
the same number of children, roughly, as recorded in 1999 (in 1999, there
were 365 447 educators teaching 12 313 899 learners in ordinary schools) in
South Africa. While the detail concerning numbers in the system is inter-
esting, what is especially revealing in the 20-year period since 1994 is the
persistent trend towards high levels of participation in schoolin g in the early
years, tailing off in the later years of senior school. The loss of approximately
10% of children going through the system remains a worrying phenomenon,
28 I Robert J. Balfour

at once complicated by the fact that the changes to the curriculum over the
period have been frequent and substantial. The Twenty-Year Review 1994-
2014 of South Africa (The Presidency 2014) suggests that progress in educa-
tion is measurable and definite.
The learner-to-teacher ratio improved from 33 to 1 in 2000 to 30 to 1 in
2012. As a result of improved infrastructure, a higher proportion of younger
children are accessing classroom facilities. Overall, South Africa is achieving
gender parity in school enrolment with a Gender Parity Index of 1 in 201223,
and is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of achiev-
ing universal primary education by 2015. Progress has also been made in
increasing access to schools for children with disabilities, with more public
special schools being built. More work is required in this regard because
access is still limited, with less than 40% of children with disabilities accessing
formal education, either through special schools or mainstream education.
The improvements in access have resulted from a number of interventions.
The burden of school fees for poor households has been reduced by introdu-
cing no-fee schools" (The Presidency 20.1 4, 48).
But, as noted by Harber and Mncube (2012), access to schooling is the
single most important issue in the developing world, where a significant pro-
portion of children of school-going age remain outside the schooling system
in their respective countries (Harber & Mncube 2012). Furthermore, crit-
ics of the system (notably Bloch 2009) observe that a conspicuous number
of (historically) black schools continue to be ineffectual, despite changes in
education policy, constitution and schools legislation notwithstanding. As
Jansen notes:

The third fact is that the government has tried to resolve the crisis through
reforms that do not address the core of the problem. Their approach is, if you
don't know what to do, develop a new policy. (Jansen in Planting 2014, 1)

The comments above suggest that measures of system-efficiency are com-

plex, relating not only to the degree to which schools are able also to sup-
port adequately the good performance of teachers, but also to infrastructure,
learner support and success. Reading data is equally complex since assump -
tions made with regard to efficiency cannot be sustained in an environment
where so many systemic inequality issues associated with apartheid continue
to have an impact on present-day success or failure in education.
In terms of support, for example, data concerning administrative sup-
port is available to learners and teachers in provinces in South Africa.
Unfortunately, though, because of the deep-seated nature of the problems
 29 Schooling in South Africa

associated with apartheid's legacy, neat deductions are seldom supported by

the data. The table below, taken from Education Statistics SA (2001) is illus-
trative of this phenomenon. The department (DoE/DB£) provides data on
administrative support in regions, but those associated with top perform-
ance in terms of schooling (typically Gauteng, North-West and Western
Cape) bear no relation to the other provinces either in terms of population
density, learners in the system or education performance (as associated with
the quality of teaching and education in these areas).

Table 1.10: Learner-administrative staff ratio (LAR), in the ordinary schools, by province, in 2011

-Province

_!astern Cape
Administrative

)226
Learners

1963 578
LAR

609
I

~' rec State 1815 658010 363

Gauteng 8220 2022050 246

KwaZulu -Nalal 5 352 2847378 532

_2:impo po I 53 1 I 695 524 11 07

~puma langa 2701 I 046 551 387

_ Ort hcrn Cape 678 274 745 405
_No rth-West I 915 765 120 400

-Western Ca pe 3 513 I 0 15 038 289

Source: 201 1 SNAP Survey

Furt hermore, impressive progress has been made in terms of providing

access to education in the form of no -fee, or low-fee schools (see Heystek
in Chapter 7). Thus, the Twenty-Year Review 1994-2014 (The Presidency
2014) noted that by 2012, 78% of learners (more than 8 million) in So% of
public schools (close to 20 ooo schools) benefited from the no -fee policy. In
addition to this, the government had introduced school meals in all no -fee
schools through the National School Nutrition Programme and has claimed
that this initiative ' has contributed to regular and punctual attendance by
learners and enabled them to attend school without being hungry' (48).
By 2012, about 9 million learners in 20 905 primary and secondary schools
- virtually all the learners from poor households - were receiving a gov-
ernment-funded school lunch. Notwithstanding the sincere and dedicated
efforts of the govern ment to provide for children and thereby better support
them in their learning, the critical issue concerning success in schools has to
do with the quality of teaching. Jansen (2014) argues that:
30 j Robert J. Balfour

The performance of the good schools masks the crisis in the system. Growth in
the pass rate does not reflect improvements in the system. The international and
comparative tests of achievement do not lie - we should not be interested in how
we perform inside SA but how we compare internationally.

How, when it comes to global ran kings, can we come first in auditing and account-
ing standards and dead last in science and mathematics, along with Guinea-
Bissau. It's because the auditing and accounting profession is held to account by a
standard that is set outside the country.

Unfortunately, when it comes to education, that standard is set by the govern -

ment, and it's been declining since 1954 (when the government took the respon-
sibility for black education away from the Catholic and Anglican churches).
(Jansen in Planting 2014, 1).

What is important in either a centralised or decentralised system is the

nature of leadership, 'precisely one of the scarcest resources in developing
countries, and even in developed countries' (Carnoy 2008 in Chsholm 2012,
21). The bottom line 'is that decentralisation of management can work well
in counties where there is already sufficient capacity at the local level to al-
locate resources efficiently and produce effective education' (Carnoy 2008,
22, in Chisholm 2012, 23) . The Twenty-Year Review 1994- 2014 notes that the
identification of'problem areas' necessitated that the government establish in
2009 the National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (NEEDU).
NEEDU published a comprehensive report on the state of literacy teaching
and learning in the Foundation Phase in 2012. Findings in the report included
the fact that learning time is being lost due to the late-coming of learners,
abuse of leave by teachers and daily school disruptions. Furthermore, it was
found that learners' performance is affected by the limited subject knowledge
of teachers, heads of department and subject advisors (The Presidency 2014,
49-51).
It has taken over 10 years to reach agreement about the need for relative
uniformity in relation to the provision of standardised and good education
facilities, and even today this remains an area of annual reporting in DBE
(former DoE) reports. The Minimum Norms and Standards for Public School
Infrastructure (2013) regulations were legislated to describe minimum uni -
form norms and standards for public school infrastructure. The Norms and
Standards also served to ensure that there was compliance with the min -
imum uniform norms and standards in the design and construction of new
schools and additions, alterations and improvements in schools, timeframes
within which such infrastructure backlogs has to be eradicated.
31 / Schooling in South Africa

1.8 SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURAL NEEDS

The NElMS Report (2011) shows that out of 25 783 schools in South Africa,
3544 schools do not have electricity; 2402 have no water supply; 913 do not
have any ablution facilities; 11450 are still using pit latrines; 22 938 do not
have stocked libraries; 21 021 do not have any laboratory facilities; 2703 have
no fencing at all; and 19 037 schools have no computer centres.
In the 20 years since Nelson Mandela came to power, the government has
consistently devoted resources to the improvement of facilities such as those
listed above, but even after these two decades, mud schools, lack of clean
running water and electricity, and even security, textbooks and school fur-
niture, continue to be challenges for the DBE (NElMS Report 2011). Naidoo
(2014) argues that the persistence of these issues belies the persisting notion
of the celebrated 'education transformation and democratic citizenship'
programme. The proportionately high budgetary allocation for education -
Mandela's 'great engine of growth and development', has materialised, appar-
ently, in a 'trickle-down effect', minimally mitigating chronically debilitating
infrastructural conditions in a substantial constituency of schools- a far cry
from the 'safe (pedagogic) environments conducive to democratic education'
(Dewey 1916; Lipman 2003; Naidoo 2014, 42-43).
Against the backdrop of political change in the country, acclaimed as the
' last bastion of colonialism' in Africa, the stark paucity of achievement in
the classroom (since 1994) remains a major concern (Nugent 2004). South
Africa's ranking at the bottom of the international education index under-
standably is an anomaly in a portfolio that commands the lion's share of
the national budget (DoE 2010), notably in a climate of intense competition
for priorities in terms of scarce financial resources and stringent budgetary
allocations (Harber & Brock 2013). In this regard, resource allocation for the
education sector is the unlikely culprit in being considered solely responsible
for the low level of achievement in education.
Spaull (2013) argues that 'apart from the 25% of schools that are mostly
functional, South African schools as they currently stand do not, and argu-
ably cannot, impart to pupils the foundational knowledge and skills they
should be acquiring at school'. Improving pass rates against the backdrop
of post-provisioning norms which guarantee abnormally large classes for
all children other than those from middle-class families (whose parents
can afford to subsidise additional posts in schools) does not guarantee
quality education in terms of the individual attention children need in the
early years of schooling. It is for this reason that claims made by the DBE
32 I Robert J. Balfour

concerning improvements are met with scepticism: 'While the NSC pass
rate has been increasing in recent years, this measure should not be seen as
an accurate indication of the quality of education in the country. It is flawed
because it only reflects the achievement of the best-performing so% of a co-
hort, i.e. those that make it to Grade 12, and it does not take into account
subject combinations and the fact that more pupils are opting for easier sub-
jects like mathematics literacy, compared to more challenging subjects like
mathematics' (Spaull 2013, 7).
One of the issues in relation to the increasing number of learners in the
system and the obvious needs this has created both in terms of the creation of
new schools and a new generation of teachers to educate young people, relates
to teacher supply-and -demand. Because South Africa's education system was
designed in the apartheid period to develop differential and unequal access
to education of unequal levels and quality, it is not surprising that teacher
supply-and-demand is closely linked to issues of quality in education (see
Hyslop 1989).

1.9 CURRICULUM REFORM

When the new government took power in 1994, a priority was the stand -
ardisation of education curricula. Unsurprisingly this was a cornerstone
of the transformation project and in the early years the emphasis was both
on teacher education and on school, viz. outcomes-based education (OBE;
Spady 1994). OBE espoused many of the aspirations of equal education,
democratic education, as well as the methodologies associated with learner-
centred approaches to teaching, communication competence, collaboration
and self-directed learning. However, as Chisholm (2004) argues, thi s policy
shift, while important in signalling how the State envisioned the role of edu-
cation as a means of emancipation and development with a view to progress,
was not accompanied by a radical shift in teacher education policy or re-
form. The first five years of democracy in South Africa saw school curricula
change without changes being effected either to teachers coming into the
system, or teachers already in it. That there ought to have been a major pro-
cess for education as well as re-education goes without saying. Instead, a new
curric ulum was developed which required that teachers change methodolo -
gies, assessment techniques and learning strategies. The Twenty-Year Review
1994-2014 (The Presidency 2014) notes that OBE 'proved to be difficult to
implement and was subsequently replaced by various revisions, including the
33 I Schooling in South Africa

National Curriculum Statement Grade R-12 and the National Curriculum

and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) between 2011 and 2014' (48).
Scholtz (2008) argued that OBE was 'based on cooperation, critical think-
ing and social responsibility, thus enabling individuals to participate in all
aspects of society. Concomitant with this is the need for teachers to change
their pedagogy from one that is more didactic and teacher-controlled to one
that [encourages] ... active learner participation' (22). Naidoo (2014) suggests
that the 'the new policy was categorical in its progressive aims, democratic
vision and the newly defined role of the teacher as vanguard of the new peda-
gogy in South African classrooms':

The kind of teacher that is envisaged ... contributor to the transformation of

education in South Africa ... teachers who are qualified , competent, dedicated
and caring ... mediators of learning, interpreters and designers of Learning
Programmes and materials, leaders, administrators and managers, scholars,
researchers and lifelong learners, community members, citizens and pastors,
assessors and learning area/phase specialists. (RNCS 2002, 9)

OBE was widely critiqued on the basis of three important points: the lan-
guage ofOBE was alien and new to most teachers in the system and even the
roll-out ofOBE through country-wide workshops was problematic. Trainers
were contracted by government to train teachers on how to use OBE, without
accounting for the various levels of awareness of English as a lingua franca,
and in the context of highly complex pedagogical terms (guided learning,
self-direction, problem-based learning, integrated assessment and so on),
the very model used to roll out the new curriculum was itself considered
as top-down. Many prominent educationists (for example, Jansen (1998)
(and Bloch 1999; Chisholm 2003) noted that the new policy (known as
Curriculum 2005) was in fact incommensurate with teachers' existing know-
ledge and required a new way of teaching that not only assumed essentially
middle-class and urban values, but also assumed a resource and capacity
base (equipped classrooms, media centres, libraries, functioning schools and
facilities) that were at best fra.gile and at worst non -existent. Curriculum 2005
was revised by a committee led by Linda Chisholm (2002) at the end of the
century and resulted in a new document: the Revised National Curriculum
Statem ent (2002), as based on the recommendations of the Chisholm Report.
In essence, the revisions entailed an affirmation of the progressive and demo -
cratic language of the curriculum, but also a refocusing on the content on the
understanding that progressive education methodologies were fairly useless
without a sound knowledge base.
34 I Robert J. Balfour

Nevertheless a number of radical departures from the past call for com-
ment here. The first concerns the place of official languages in the curriculum.
The Constitution made provision for the use of 11 official languages in edu-
cation. The legislation framing this is known as the Language in Education
Policy (LiEP), in which additive bilingualism was promoted with the idea
that the home language was introduced to children first in primary school
and that additional languages would be gradually scaffolded later in the cur-
riculum. In these terms schools could choose, through the School Governing
Body (SGB), the language of instruction as derived from the language(s)
spoken by the community. Initially, this seemed to become operative only
in those schools where English 4 had never been a language of instruction to
begin with, but in the last five years, more schools have been opting for alan -
guage policy in which English features at least as an additional language, or
as the language of instruction.
A second feature of the new curriculum was the creating of phases asso -
ciated with the schooling years beginning with Grade 0, Early Childhood
Education (also known as reception year or pre-school), and Grades 1-4,
known as the Foundation Phase, to be followed by the Intermediate Phase or
Grades 5-7, a Senior Phase, known as Grades 8-9, and a Further Education
and Training Phase known as Grades 10-12. In this system students are
able to exit the school at the end of Grade 9 and request to be admitted to a
Further Education and Training college (FET; now TVET), should they seek
to pursue vocationally oriented education (typically the trades, hospitality,
tourism and other forms of vocational training, for example, agriculture and
so on). All school leavers would ideally be able to leave the system after 13
years of education with a National Senior Certificate (NSC), which replaced
the old provincial departments' (19 all in all) matriculation examinations.
A third defining feature of the new curriculum occurred within the
Intermediate Phases in which students no longer chose individual subjects
but rather subjects from a selected groupings of what was termed 'learn-
ing areas': for example, Arts and Culture, Life Sciences, Languages, Social
Sciences. This differed from the OBE curriculum in which there were more
choices available and fewer groupings.
In 2011, in recognition of the growing sense of confusion and discord with
regard to the content and levels appropriate to the learning areas, let alone
phases, a third round of revisions (known as the Curriculum and Assessment
Policy Statement; CAPS) was enacted. The Twenty-Year Review 1994- 2014
(The Presidency 2014) notes that 'The CAPS spelt out what teachers should
teach and assess, how lesson plans should be prepared, and how teaching
35 I Schooling in South Africa

should take place. This was crucial for addressing gaps that were apparent in
the outcomes-based curriculum. CAPS also introduced English as a subject
in the early grades to ease the transition to instruction in English for learn-
ers who are not first-language English speakers' (The Presidency 2014, 48).
While curricula have become more content-focused in the last 20 years, it is
important not to lose sight of the original intention ofOBE: learner-centred
education designed to develop self-directed learning. This is st ill regarded
as an influential idea and concept derived from the OBE documentation
introduced in 1995, and its relevance extends beyond subsequent revisions
to the curriculum . As Boehm notes:

Learner-centered attitudes can be regarded as an important prerequisite for life-

long learning in an ever changing world of work. This is supportive of the ability
to adjust to new job requirements. Current jobs too require more self-initiative
and flexibility from employees so that the ability to learn is as important as the
readiness and motivation to take initiative. (Boehm 2000, 9)

According to Naidoo (2014), this round of revisions contained an 'even

stronger focus on curriculum content, adopting the previously eschewed
traditional, cumulative approach to learning and knowledge acq uisition'. The
OBE terminology and jargon associated with ea rlier policies were removed
and a straightforward common-sense approach to teaching was described in
relation to a set of prescribed minimum content with 'teacher-proof guides.
This demonstrates the State's increasing awa reness of the genera ll y low com-
petency levels of teachers in South Africa. Rogan and Macdonald (1985) argue
that the introduction of innovative pedagogies is unlikely to succeed if teach-
ers are not confident in their own subject-content knowledge. Naidoo (2014)
suggests that the majority of non-white teachers in South Africa had experi-
enced the limited apartheid education curriculum and were now expected to
teach the comprehensive national OBE curriculum. Like Ch isholm, Naidoo
(2004, 16) suggests that the immediate reforms of the system shou ld also
have focused on the upgrading of knowledge content, but without policy re-
form this could not have occurred or be guided. On the other hand, policy
reform without re-education was the equiva lent of form without substance,
and the absences in knowledge substance became evident after five years,
highlighted by the patchy and confused implementation of Curriculum 2005
(as based on OBE).
With successive curriculum reforms (of which there have been at least four
in the last 20 years), the focus narrowed at times so that by 2011, with the
introduction of CAPS, it was evident that the national focus on assessments
36 I Robert J. Balfour

(known as the annual national assessment) that CAPS (2011) had moved
away from group to individual work; it decreased flexibility and creativity
of the teacher and reinstituted annual national testing of Grades 3, 6 and 9·
Naidoo argues that 'The combined effect of these four major changes, along
with the changes in terminology and renewed content (rather than skills)
focus can be interpreted as an effective about-turn in government education
policy strategy, signalling a change of intent' (Naidoo 2014, so).

1.10 REFLECTIONS

The aim of education-related directives, policies and strategies has been

to widen access, develop quality and create success. Mother-tongue edu-
cation has been a central feature of initiatives at policy level that relate to
access and success. But, as Naidoo argues, the policy that prescribes that
children be taught in their mother tongue (in the first three grades), does
in some instances prevent race integration in the early years. Thus the lan-
guage policy could be used both to enable success and straitjacket access
along race lines (Soudien & Sayed 2003). The new constitutional right to
choice oflanguage oflearning was overtly democratic in its intention to en -
sure a learner-centred approach to teaching. Naidoo suggests that this has
been a double-edged sword. Arguments rest on two problematic areas: the
first is the relative absence (especially between 1995-2004) of indigenous
language materials for use in Grades 1-3, while the second has to do with
the fact that the overwhelming majority of teachers were not themselves
trained to use indigenous languages for teaching and learning. This latter
aspect was another 'legacy factor' from apartheid, but its long-term effects
countered the positive intentions of the curriculum as well as the language
policy itself both of which aspired to ' develop the full potential of each
learner' (RNCS 2002, 8). What impact have successive waves of curric-
ulum reform had on learning in South Africa over the 2o-year period in
question? The Minister of Basic Education instituted a Maths and Science
task team in 2013 which found that '43% of South African Grade 5 learners
failed to reach the lowest international benchmark, in contrast to so/o of
Grade 4 learners internationally. This means that they have not yet mas -
tered the basic reading skills required to access and retrieve information
for reading comprehension purposes', the PIRLS report (Howie et al. 2011)
stated. It further revealed that about 90% of the Grade 4learners tested in
English or Afrikaans attained the lowest international benchmark, while
 77

INDIGENOUS EDUCATION DURING THE PRE-COLONIAL

PERIOD IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Johannes Seroto
University of South Africa
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
Prior to the arrival of European settlers in the Cape Colony in 1652, formal and informal
educational practices through the transmission of indigenous knowledge from adult to
child had long been in existence among the Khoi, the San and the Bantu-speaking people
of Southern Africa. The African child was brought up by the community and educated in
the culture and traditions of the community. The curriculum of indigenous education during
the pre-colonial period consisted of traditions, legends and tales and the procedures and
knowledge associated with rituals which were handed down orally from generation to
generation within each tribe. This process was intimately integrated with the social,
cultural, artistic, religious and recreational life of the indigenous peoples. This article
discusses different forms of indigenous education that existed in Southern Africa during
the pre-colonial period.

Keywords: Pre-colonial period, indigenous education, indigenous people,

culture, rituals.

INTRODUCTION

Indigenous knowledge has been defined differently by various scholars (Flavier,

de Jesus, Navarro and Warren, 1995: 479; Suminguit, 2005: 1), although such
definitions have several overlapping features. Nakashima, Prott and Bridgewater
(2000: 11) argue that societies worldwide have always developed extensive and
useful sets of knowledge which have been derived from the local environments
in which people live and which guide them to survive within those environments.
Such social capital is present in all societies and has been developed over
generations (Gorjestani, 2000). Kothari (2007) explains further that indigenous
knowledge includes the codified wisdom, customs and traditions of local groups
of people which have been transmitted orally from individual to individual and
include folklore, rituals, songs, art and traditional law. The latter definition
stresses the transmission of this knowledge linking to the notion of indigenous
education. Armstrong (1987: 14) contrasts modern views of education with
indigenous education, which, she argues, is a natural process embedded in
everyday life and its activities. Indigenous education ensured cultural continuity
between one generation and the next and was essential to the continuance of
the intellectual, and survival of the mental, spiritual, emotional, and health of the
cultural unit and its environment. The emphasis in indigenous education lay in
the holistic development of the whole child (Alan, 1997).

Against this background, this article focuses on forms of formal and informal
teaching and learning existed among the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa
 INDILINGA – AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS Vol 10 (1) 2011
78

before the arrival of the Europeans in the Cape Colony in 1652 (referred to later
as the pre-colonial period). The children of indigenous peoples learned in differ-
ent ways. In the early years of childhood, the child’s education was largely in the
hands of the biological mother; the community assumed a greater role as the
child approached adolescence. Language was learned mainly from the mother
and the extended family. Children learned about work, hunting, rituals and other
cultural traits (such as trance dancing, herding and the manufacturing of equip-
ment) from older members of their clans, through experience and by completing
tasks such as gathering and preparing food. The primary aim of indigenous
education was to prepare and integrate the young into various social roles.
Education was a deliberate endeavour to explain to children that their future (and
that of their community) depended on their understanding and perpetuation of
the social structures, laws, language and values inherited from the past.
Rituals and ceremonies were important events through which learning took
place. ‘Formal’ education during the pre-colonial period was most strongly
manifested in the form of the initiation ceremony. Different members of society
played the role of educators and the education that was provided corresponded
to the essential needs of the society.
In the past, many scholars tended to use the start of colonial rule as the dawn of
South African history (Molema, 1920: 51-52; Theal, 1894). These scholars held
the view that an indigenous person was a savage pagan with no history or
culture to transmit. This was a primitive, mistaken and naïve belief that perpetu-
ated the notion that indigenous people made no deliberate attempt to bring up
their children to be the kind of men and women society required (Mazonde,
2001). Although colonial rule marked a new epoch in history, pre-colonial South
Africa had several black communities which today form part of groups that make
up the country’s diverse population. The indigenous peoples (the Khoi, the San
and the Bantu-speaking peoples) lived a nomadic life at the Cape of Good Hope
and informal education took place in these communities.
A Western viewpoint proposed that formal schooling and education were syn-
onymous (Theal, 1894). However, education should be understood as the “whole
process by which one generation transmits its culture to the succeeding genera-
tion” or as a “process by which people are prepared to live effectively and effi-
ciently in their environment” (Sifuna and Otiende, 2006). In this sense,
indigenous education was closely intertwined with social life. It embraced char-
acter building, the development of physical aptitudes and the acquisition of moral
qualities that are an integral part of adulthood. Scanlon (1964: 3) describes the
education of the African before the coming of the European as an education that
prepared him/her for his/her responsibilities as an adult in his/her home, village
and tribe.
Education within local communities during the pre-colonial period involved the
oral histories of the group, tales of heroism and treachery, and practice in the
skills necessary for survival in a changing environment (Mbamara, 2004; Ma-
zonde, 2001). Pre-colonial history and education were based on oral tradition,
oral culture and oral lore – which are broadly messages or testimonies that are
 INDIGENOUS EDUCATION DURING THE PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
79

transmitted orally from one generation to another. Transmission of these testi-

monies also took the form of ballads, songs or chants. The main focus of this
oral history, according to Leshoai (1981: 242), was to teach children, men and
women about morality, religion, philosophy, wisdom, geography, history, politics
and the entire spectrum of human existence in the various communities. The aim
of this article is therefore to examine the virtues of the indigenous education of
the Khoi, the San and the Bantu-speaking people during the pre-colonial period.
The objectives emanating from this overall aim, are to:
• describe different forms of education that were provided to and by indigenous
peoples during the pre-colonial period; and
• analyse the contents and methods that were used to provide education to
indigenous people.

This article is based on a literature study and the analysis of historical docu-
ments and archaeological and anthropological material.

EDUCATION THROUGH SOCIALISATION

The process of indigenous education in Africa was intimately integrated with the
social, cultural, artistic, religious and recreational life of the indigenous peoples.
Education took place through the socialisation process which had to do with the
acquisition of cultural norms, values and beliefs, and rules for interacting with
others. The process of socialisation begins within the context of the family. The
family has a fundamental function of shaping a child’s attitudes and behaviour.
The family also determines the child’s initial social status and identity in terms of
race, religion and social class. The central concern is how infants and children
are taught to think, act and feel appropriately. Broadly conceived, education is
seen as the means whereby individuals are recruited to be members of a culture
and whereby culture is maintained (Spindler, 1974).
The education of indigenous people was transmitted in two ways: (i) informally
by parents and elders in society through a socialisation process; and (ii) ‘for-
mally’ through initiation rites or apprenticeship/craftsmen (Hlatshwayo, 2000: 28).
Informal education is the “lifelong process by which every person acquires and
accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights from daily experiences and
exposure to the environment” (Coombs and Ahmed, 1974: 8). One of the charac-
teristics of informal education is the contact individuals have with a variety of
environmental influences that result from day-to-day learning. In the informal
education mode, formal characteristics that are associated with certain rites of
passage in formal organisation (such as the initiation ritual) might exist (La Belle,
1982). Formal education, on the other hand, can be defined as the “institutional-
ised, chronologically graded and hierarchically structured educational system”
(Coombs and Ahmed, 1974: 8). Unfortunately, this mode of education did not
exist in the pre-colonial era. Nevertheless, the absence of formal education
during this period did not necessarily translate into the total absence of provision
of education as a lifelong process to and by indigenous people. The two modes
of education (formal and informal) should not be viewed as discreet entities. In a
formal education system (like a classroom) the teacher and the learners are not
 INDILINGA – AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS Vol 10 (1) 2011
80

only involved with the curriculum, teaching methods or the organization of the
classroom, but also with the rules, beliefs, knowledge and culture that learners
transmit among themselves. It is therefore imperative that the two modes of
education should supplement and complement each other. As will be discussed
below, informal education during the pre-colonial period was provided through
language learning, initiation schools, art education and music education.

Language acquisition
It is important to take note of how children are socialised to use language and
how they are socialised through language. According to Schieffelin and Ochs
(1986: 183), language is “a critical resource for those who wish to understand
the nature of culture and how cultural knowledge and beliefs are transmitted both
from generation to generation and in every interaction”. Language socialisation
begins at the moment of social contact in the life of a child. The verbal interac-
tions that are established between the mother and the child can be regarded and
interpreted as cultural phenomena that are embedded in systems of the ideas,
knowledge and social order of the particular group into which the child is being
socialised (Ochs and Schieffelin, 2001: 190).
Pre-colonial education was oral in nature and was transmitted through the
peoples’ own languages. Through folklore, children learned the values of their
community and to appreciate the power and beauty of their own languages. A
full body of custom can be regarded as the total culture of a people. An important
part of each culture is that aspect of their creative expression that is verbal. The
verbal aspects of the creative life of the indigenous people were found in tales,
proverbs and riddles – and collectively, this may be referred to as ‘folklore’
(Herskovits, 1961: 452). Language learning activities were organised in the
evenings in the form of folk storytelling sessions. It was during these times that
cultural values were transmitted to children through language learning.
Proverbs were also used to transmit and enhance language learning among
younger members of a community. In African societies, it was a mark of ele-
gance to enliven one’s speech with different aphorisms (Herskovits, 1961: 453).
Proverbs were cited in the native courts in much the same way as they are cited
today, by lawyers in a court of law. The morals that the proverbs illustrated gave
insights into the basic values of society and also taught what was held to be right
and wrong. Herskovits (1961: 453) mentions that these proverbs can be re-
garded as an index to accepted canons of thought and action.

Initiation ceremonies

Throughout Africa, initiation rites and various rituals to mark the passage from
childhood to adulthood were cultural devices that were used to inculcate the
spirit of communalism in the youth. An initiation ritual includes any system of
rites that are done regularly in a set, precise manner whereby a child or adoles-
cent is made a member of a sect or society and invested with a particular status.
Initiation rituals occur in special places and this is an indication of that they are
organized systematically. Certain teachers impart knowledge to initiates and
information on the initiation ritual is fixed and varies from one society to the next.
 INDIGENOUS EDUCATION DURING THE PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
81

Initiation rituals remain informal in that the curricula of initiation are not fairly
standardised and validated. Initiation as a ritual carried symbolic meaning that
related to the social structure and belief system of a particular cultural group.
The values, memories, myths and traditions of a community are contained in the
initiation ritual.
An example of an initiation school among the Bantu-speaking people in the pre-
colonial period can be traced back to the Tsonga-speaking people. The schools
were called ngoma (drum – general word for rites), were held every four or five
years and were attended by boys aged 10 to 16. A lodge was constructed away
from the village in a secluded area and consisted of a walled or fenced com-
pound with sleeping huts and other ceremonial areas (Junod, 1962: 74). Initiates
were circumcised immediately when they entered the lodge. Junod (1962: 75)
explains this stage by saying that “the boy has now crossed…” – a technical
expression that clearly shows the character of this rite of passage. The principals
of the schools believed that during this period, initiates had to be taught about
perseverance and initiates were therefore beaten for small offences. Harsh
tactics were used to teach the boys courage and endurance. The Venda people
and the Pedi people believed that this harsh treatment enabled the circumcised
boys to be in a better position to be called upon to fight during war (Pitjie, 1950:
105). The art of fighting was part of the activities the boys practised. Experienced
men gave lessons to initiates in stick fighting. Stick fighting was believed to be
part and parcel of manhood. Initiation schools played a pivotal role in equipping
the circumcised boys with the knowledge that was required for success in battle.
When the boys came out of the initiation schools, they had acquired the neces-
sary skills to be good fighters or warriors (Mönnig, 1967; Pitjie, 1950).
The purpose of the initiation school was to introduce the young boy to manhood
and to make him a thoughtful member of the community (Junod, 1962: 94).
According to Hammond-Tooke (1974: 230), the education that was given by the
men of the tribe during the period of seclusion (especially among the Sotho
group) had a strong nationalistic flavour and was characterised by tribal loyalty
and values. The rights and obligations of citizenship were an integral part of the
teaching that Bantu-speaking initiates received throughout the initiation process.
Hammond-Tooke (1974: 231, 235) reiterates that initiation schools prepared the
young boy for one or many of his adult roles, including his military, political,
religious, legal and marital duties. The emphasis varied from society to society.
Female circumcision was also practiced in some indigenous communities.
During the initiation, girls received instruction in various matters. Although ex-
perienced women in charge of the initiation schools aimed their efforts at instill-
ing tribal history and values, it seemed that much time was also spent on tutoring
initiates regarding the roles of women, including their domestic, agricultural and
marital duties. Sex education, in particular, received much attention (Stayt,
1968).

Rock art

The production of rock art during the pre-colonial period was embedded in the
social, economic and intellectual circumstances of the community in which it was
 INDILINGA – AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS Vol 10 (1) 2011
82

made (Wolf, 1981). Rock art in South Africa has been generally associated in
most people’s mind with hunter-gathers; yet both pastoralists and agriculturalists
also produced a variety of rock art during and after the pre-colonial period
(Maggs, 1995: 132). In the South-western Cape, there are enormous collections
of rock art and evidence suggests that they are thousands of years old (Yates,
Manhire and Parkington, 1993: 61; Thackeray, 1983). Many paintings in the area
are recognisable as human figures and a variety of animal species. The paint-
ings have been clearly linked to a predominantly hunter-gatherer (Khoi and San)
lifestyle and many yielded evidence of shamanistic ritual practices (Yates,
Golson and Manhire, 1985; Parkington, Yates, Manhire and Halkett, 1986;
Lewis-Williams, 1992).

In a field study that was devoted to the measurement of hand prints found in the
South-western Cape, it was believed that the first people who occupied the
Western Cape were the San people, although it was also inhabited by the
Tswana-speaking herders and the Nama-speaking pastoralists (Manhire, 1998:
100). Manhire (1998) concluded that the majority of the hand prints found in the
area were made by children. Hand prints were produced by smearing the palm
and digits with wet pigment and placing them on a wall or roof to leave an imprint
of the hand. The fact that a number of young people were involved in a group
activity to make hand prints suggests that some kind of special event or cere-
mony was held. In most cases, it was at these types of functions that informal
education took place.

We can also learn much from the type of pottery that was produced during the
pre-colonial period. The early white travellers in the southwest and south of the
Cape Colony saw the Khoi making and using large reddish or black, coil-built
cooking vessels with shoulder lugs and incised necks with reverted rims (Bol-
long, Sampson and Smith, 1997). These ceramic utensils were used in the Late
Stone Age by the San and the Khoi. On the basis of excavations at Zaayfontein,
Glen Elliot and Holmsgrove Shelteron the southern bank of the Orange river,
about 50km upstream from the Orange/Seacow confluence, Bollong et al (1997)
concluded that the ceramics (dated before 700 A.D.) that were found in rock
shelters in the upper Seacow Valley were possibly used by the Khoi as vessels
for liquid storage while the bowls were used by the San for cooking. The San
people traditionally used empty ostrich eggs to store water. They carried the
eggs as water bottles or buried them in the sand to keep the water cool. Knowl-
edge about the use of different utensils and how they were made was passed on
from generation to generation. This in itself was an education that satisfied the
needs and requirements of the time.

Acquisition of practical skills

Men and women played different roles during the pre-colonial period. Since the
Khoi were interested in livestock, the men and boys were responsible for guarding
the herds from being stolen or attacked by wild animals. As a result, they were
taught how to make implements like poison arrows or utensils like clay pots.
Boys would learn practical skills by watching what senior members of the society
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83

did. The San regarded the eland as their most spiritual animal and their rituals
revolved around this animal. One of the tasks of the elderly men was to teach
the young boys how to track an eland and how the animal would fall once it was
shot with an arrow. The boy had to carefully observe the skills that were used to
kill an eland. Only after a boy had killed his first large antelope, preferably an
eland, was he considered an adult (Clottes and Lewis-Williams, 1996).

The Khoi people had to acquire certain skills by means of observation. For
example, before the birth of a child, the Khoi mother-to-be was taken to a hut
where she remained until at least seven days after the delivery. No men were
allowed to enter the hut. A special fire was lit in the hut. The mother and the
baby had to avoid contact with water. Both the child and the mother were to be
protected from any harmful practices. It was during this period of seclusion that
the mother was taught how to care for the baby. After this period of seclusion, a
ritual of incorporation was conducted in which members of the kraal and blood
relations from other kraals participated (Lewis-Williams, 1990). Birth rituals
included subjecting the child and the mother to some form of medication. The
young mother learned about the different herbs that could be used to cure child
illnesses.

The San’s culture included institutionalised, altered states of consciousness that

were called the ‘trance dance’. The trance was induced through intense concen-
tration, prolonged rhythmic dancing, audio-driving and hyperventilation. The
trance dance was performed around the carcass of a recently killed animal; men
and older shaman women danced in circles while young women sat, clapped
their hands and sang traditional songs (Lewis-Williams and Dowson, 1989: 38-
49). The term ‘shaman’ refers to someone ‘who knows’ and is able to transcend
into the supernatural world (Ogembo, 2005: 206-207). Certain kinds of trance
experiences and hallucinations were accorded the status of visions. In general,
people accepted the shamans’ accounts of their various visions as insights into
what was happening in the spiritual world (Lewis-Williams, 1994: 278).

A central element of the trance dance was the San’s belief in an invisible energy
that was found in almost all animals, but especially in the eland. According to the
San shamans, this enabled them to undertake a journey to the supernatural
world where they were able to perform various tasks such as rainmaking, fighting
off evil spirits and curing the sick (Lewis-Williams and Dowson, 1989). To
achieve this, the San believed that their most important spiritual being (Kaggen,
the trickster-deity) harnessed a supernatural potency which was associated with
large game animals and could be found especially in the blood, fat and sweat of
the eland (Lewis-Williams, 1994: 278). Any person who wanted to become a
shaman had to be trained and had to observe how the trance dance was con-
ducted. The dance was not isolated from other cultural beliefs, norms and prac-
tices. A young San man who wished to become a shaman had to dance with an
experienced shaman until he had learned to master altered and unique states of
consciousness and to control the level of his trance state (Clottes and Lewis-
Williams, 1996; Marshall, 1969: 347-381). Indigenous education during the pre-
colonial period therefore involved both the theoretical inculcation and the practical
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84

inculcation of skills. Young shamans had to learn the trance dance through
dance and folk songs by watching and participating in the trance dance.
The San and Khoi children (boys and girls) learned certain life skills through
watching what adults demonstrated during different cultural practices and cere-
monies. At the commencement of menstruation, a girl’s puberty ritual was held.
This comprised of isolating the young girl in her hut. During this period of seclu-
sion, the young girl would effectively learn the roles of motherhood, wife and
other gender-appropriate skills. This can be construed as a transmission of
education from an adult to a non-adult. The adults also performed the Eland Bull
dance during which the women imitated the mating behaviour of eland cows and
the men that of eland bulls. The elderly men had to demonstrate the activity and
thereafter the young boys had to reflect on what they had observed. As a part of
the marriage ritual, the man would give the fat from an eland’s heart to the girl’s
parents as a token of love and appreciation (Clottes and Lewis-Williams, 1996).

Music and dance education

Music and dance played, and still continues to play, a special role not only in
South African society but also throughout the rest of the world. People have
sung and danced to express joy or sadness to reinforce cultural beliefs and
values. Song and dance were often regarded as living records of past and
present events and traditions (Kgobe, 1999). Even though formal lyrics and
musical notes were not taught, indigenous music equipped young generations
with knowledge about past and present events and traditions. It was through
music and dance that the social norms, traditions and beliefs of a community
were depicted. Music and dance also played a role in marriages, funerals,
initiation ceremonies, religious practices and rituals.
A common feature of all indigenous music is rhythm, which engages all mem-
bers of a group to respond to the beat in a social way. The co-existence of
different and simultaneous rhythms created a strong sense of community and a
highly interactive mode of learning. Oehrle (1991) refers to indigenous music as
something profoundly pluralistic to which one responds in a social fashion.
Indigenous music has relied entirely on an oral tradition of transmittance. Musical
knowledge is learned through highly interactive social events and rituals where
music is the predominant means of communication (Westerlund, 1999: 99).
Music and dance also played a significant role in the history of the Bantu-
speaking peoples. Just like the San, the Bantu-speaking peoples used bow
instruments, whistles, rattles, drums, xylophones, reed flutes and horns signal-
ling on special occasions (Hammond-Tooke, 1974: 106). Singing and dancing
were used during initiation ceremonies, especially in girls’ initiation schools (e.g.
the Pedi girls’ initiation rite called bjale) (Mönnig, 1967). During the initiation
process, the initiates sung different songs which marked different stages of the
initiation. For example, the special dancing drum was kept by the chief and it
was used during the girls’ initiation ceremonies. The song they sung when they
entered the initiation school was not the same as the one they sung when they
went home. Every song they sung had a link with the social practices of the Pedi
 INDIGENOUS EDUCATION DURING THE PRE-COLONIAL PERIOD IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
85

people. In the Venda Domba (python dance), social, religious and sexual instruc-
tion were given through the medium of song and dance. It took place during the
period when girls were believed to be crossing the bridge between childhood and
adulthood. Moral lessons on desirable social skills were taught and reinforced
through traditional music and dance (Kgobe, 1999).

CONCLUSION
Indigenous education, which was predominantly informal, prevailed before
formal and institutionalised education was introduced by the European settlers
on their arrival in the Cape Colony. This type of education, which was fundamen-
tally provided through the socialisation process, ensured that indigenous people
acquired and accumulated knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights from their
daily experiences and exposure to the environment. Indigenous education during
the pre-colonial period was relevant to the needs of the society of the time.
These skills, attitudes and insights are still relevant today. It would be an error to
undermine and replace these African value systems with a modern or Western
education system. Formal and informal education systems should exist simulta-
neously, even though they might sometimes appear to be in conflict with one
another. Through informal education, children learn the norms and values of
society, and ideally, this forms the foundation for later schooling. In other words
a judicious integration of both approaches in which culture and tradition are
valued while contemporary knowledge essential for life in the 21st century is also
acquired. A well-socialised child will benefit more from formal education. Indige-
nous knowledge should, therefore, form a basis of any curricula that is intro-
duced in any education system.
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86

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