The governance of public schooling in South Africa and the middle class: social solidarity for the public good versus class interest

The article examines the unintended class differentiated and inequality reproducing effects of post-apartheid educational legislation. It does so through an analysis of government policies informing school governance and key policy makers in the education sector. It argues that such policies have had the unintended consequence of creating an unequal two-tier education structure in South Africa. While formally de-racialising schooling and aiming to make it more equitable the policies have not fundamentally eradicated the class and race bifurcation of the education system. As such a relatively well functioning, well-resourced semi-private education for the middle class, stands in stark contrast to a largely dysfunctional poorly resourced system for the disadvantaged poorer majority. Policy has thus permitted the middle class to secure control of the historically white school sector, facilitating a ‘new deracialised middle class’ who have ‘opted out’ of the public system of schooling in favour of semi-privatised schooling. The introduction of ‘no fee’ schools to address concerns of educational affordability and access in poor communities also fails to address the underlying structural issue of inequality. The paper concludes by examining re-distributive policy alternatives based on social justice, which can realise a far more fundamental re-distribution of educational resources and reclaim education as a public good

Teachers as agents of sustainable peace, social cohesion and development: theory, practice & evidence

This paper presents a ‘peace with social justice’ framework for analysing the role of teachers as agents of sustainable peace, social cohesion and development and applies this to research evidence from Pakistan, Uganda, Myanmar and South Africa. The paper draws on evidence from a recently completed UNICEF and ESRC funded project on education and peacebuilding, and specifically from data gathered around the role of teachers. Drawing on rich fieldwork data collected between 2014–2016 in each of the four countries, the paper will evidence the complex and contradictory role that teachers play in sustainable peace and development and its implications for teacher governance, teacher policy and teacher practice. The paper challenges the overly human capital driven logics of much teacher policy reform agendas and highlights the need and importance for a more holistic approach to teacher governance and management that recognises teachers’ multiple potential to contribute to both societal peace and development

Motivation to become a foundation phase teacher in South Africa

Motivation to enter initial teacher education is a key concern in research globally and in South Africa specifically. Supply of teachers for the Foundation Phase is identified as a critical need in South Africa and understanding of why individuals enter these programmes is crucial. In this context, this article explores what motivates student teachers to enter the Bachelor of Education in the Foundation Phase. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from a survey administered to first-year student teachers at three public higher education institutions in South Africa, this article examines the reasons why student teachers enrol in Foundation Phase Bachelor of Education initial teacher education programmes, highlighting the extrinsic and intrinsic reasons for doing so. The article concludes by drawing out the implications of the research into motivation to enter Foundation Phase teaching and how it relates to understanding and managing Foundation Phase teacher supply in South Africa

Teachers and social cohesion in the Global South: expanding the notion of education quality

The second decade of the 21st century has been largely characterised by ever-widening inequalities within and between countries, global economic crises, conflict, and climate change. Concern about this is evident in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed upon in September 2015. The SDGs arguably lay a foundation in both the Global North and the Global South for a renewed and ambitious development framework that tackles poverty and inequality, promotes social and economic inclusion, addresses the universal challenge of climate change, and focuses directly on issues of equity and access to quality education. Countries and organisations across the world, in engaging with this framework and reflecting on the various agreed (SDG) goals for 2030, have however struggled to comprehensively define the challenges attached to each of the above goals ‒ especially the latter. What is meant by equitable and inclusive quality education for all? On the one hand, an estimated 250 million children across the world are still ‘not learning even basic literacy and numeracy skills, let alone the further skills they need to get decent work and lead fulfilling lives’ (UNESCO 2014). On the other hand, where children do access education provision, the quality of the provision has often been directly related to their economic status. Invariably ‘the well-off tend to attend good schools and universities, mostly privately funded, and the poor attend inadequate, mostly publicly funded facilities’ (United Nations Development Programme 2013). This is particularly the case in developing countries, and suggests that a central driver in transforming human development prospects in these countries into the next period would need to be tied to the provision of greater access to ‘high-quality education’

Teacher governance reforms and social cohesion in South Africa: from intention to reality

The governance of teachers during apartheid in South Africa was characterised by high levels of disparity in teacher distribution and in conditions of labour. In the postapartheid context policies and interventions that govern teachers are critical, and teachers can be seen to be placed in a central role as actors whose distribution, employment, recruitment and deployment can serve to redress the past, promote equity and build trust for social cohesion. In this context, this paper examines several teacher governance mechanisms and interventions, namely the post provisioning norm and standards (PPNs), the Funza Lushaka Bursary Programme (FLBP), and the South African Council of Educators. The analysis suggests that undifferentiated policy frameworks for teacher governance result in measures that weakly account for differing contextual realities and persistent inequality. Additionally, the emphasis on technocratic measures of accountability in teacher governance interventions constrains teachers' agency to promote peace and social cohesion

Inside and Outside the School Gates:

Schooling is often optimistically presented as the forum in which individuals find avenues for self development, where a nation can sow and harvest the human resource potential of the future generation of society, where notions of democracy, equity and social justice are taught and learnt. Most nation–states develop their official policies around education in order to realise at least some of these psychological, social and ideological goals, yet the glaring contrary reality often presents itself. Schooling for many is not self-affirming, is unable to produce adequate and relevant human resource capital and is a place where learners learn more about the iniquitous hierarchies that exist between different groups of people. Patterns of social inequalities are reflected in schools despite the policy interventions aimed at reducing or eradicating injustices. This study aims to uncover the experiences of learners within the schooling system in the context of a country which consciously attempted to make a break from the past history of an apartheid education system. South Africa is one of the few countries in present times which has had the fortune of being able to fundamentally overhaul its education system, infusing at all levels a campaign for realising better social justice for all. In particular, the goals of the new educational policies attempted to be reconciled with the New Constitution in the country (RSA 1996), which presented new liberties for the previously marginalised, or excluded in society. The education policy makers were nevertheless conscious that the legislating of policies would not transform the system overnight and that deliberate and sustained effort would be necessary to tackle the deep-rootedness of the past prejudices and stereotyping in the social fabric of postapartheid life. This study is conducted some eight years after the formal dismantling of the former apartheid education system. It is an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come to be able to realise the goals of better justice for the marginalised

Development of teacher knowledge in an initial teacher education programme qualifying mathematics teachers

South African teacher education policy expects initial teacher education programmes to introduce integrated and applied knowledge to underpin a teacher’s practice in diverse classroom contexts. This paper explores how a one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education responds to this expectation in terms of training prospective teachers to teach high school mathematics. Exploration involves a qualitative case study of semi-structured interviews with six teacher educators and five newly qualified teachers, supplemented with document analysis. The stages of research involved a literature review, piloting the semi-structured interview questions, conducting semi-structured interviews, and analysing all accessible documents linked to the Postgraduate Certificate. All collected data were merged into one document which was read to identify codes, themes and categories. The paper finds that the Postgraduate Certificate does equip individuals with professional teacher knowledge to function in diverse contexts, albeit unevenly and highly dependent on the quality of each teacher’s past engagement with mathematics. The broad nature of policy knowledge type definitions and the lack of clarity in differentiating ‘specific specialised subject matter’ and ‘specialised pedagogical content knowledge’ are key contributing factors to uneven development in a Postgraduate Certificate. As a recommendation, we suggest that policy should differentiate ‘specific specialised subject matter’ and ‘specialised pedagogical content knowledge’ in more detail to promote the development of each as important types of knowledge needed by teachers

Ideology and the good society in South Africa: the education policies of the Democratic Alliance

Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has been transforming in the economic, political and social spheres. This largely peaceful democratic transition sought to dismantle the apartheid system of institutionalised racial segregation and extend the status of a common citizenship and equal enjoyment of rights to all South Africans, regardless of race, gender or religion. Despite the establishment of democratic institutions and the inclusion of social and economic rights for all citizens in a complex map of policy frameworks, South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies in the world. The education system, characterised by a crisis in quality, persistent inequality of access and fragmentation in achievement levels, further reflects this trend (Badat & Sayed 2014; Van Rooyen & le Grange 2003; Deegan 1999). In the post-apartheid period, public debate has arisen around the socioeconomic rights of citizens in the allocation of resources and access to basic services such as education. Crucial to the democratic transition in South Africa have been the political parties – articulating and aggregating the interests of the populace as well as developing and promoting policies for change (Matlosa 2007). Notwithstanding this, there has been very little engagement with political parties and their positions on social policy. This article seeks to address this gap by providing a detailed analysis of the education policy of the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance. To this end, it scrutinises the ideological underpinnings of their education policy framework and the policy ideas and strategies proposed. The article begins by contextualising the research in relation to the literature related to education policy and political parties. A description of the educational context in South Africa and of the Democratic Alliance (DA) follows. The emergent education priorities and approaches of the DA, with reference to citizenship and in effecting redress and equity in relation to the role of the state, are then discussed. The article concludes by reflecting on the significance of its findings for education research and policy

Teacher professionalism and accountability in South Africa: a review of the literature

This is a review of literature on teacher professionalism and accountability. The theoretical component focuses on English-language scholarship on the topic stemming from the global North and Africa, while the empirical component focuses on longitudinal studies from the global North and southern Africa – currently absent as a coherent review in the literature. The review of theoretical literature indicates that, across countries, the notion of teacher professionalism remains highly contested, and there are doubts as to whether teaching can be spoken of in the same way as other professions. This view hinges on a posited theoretical tension between accountability regimes and the professional standing of teachers. The literature suggests that, as accountability regimes deepen, teachers tend to be conceptualised as lacking in competence and in need of supervision. Teacher autonomy is consequently undermined and teaching is viewed as a “semi-profession.” Within Africa, the review indicates a complex relationship between teachers’ past struggles against colonialism and apartheid, and their present attempts to assert autonomy and participate in educational governance. In South Africa, teachers are seen to embrace hybrid identities that combine unionist and professional traits. Such hybridity is inflected by teachers’ race, class and gender position. There is relatively little analytical and historical work on the ways in which teachers’ professional status is shaped by race, class and gender. This is particularly urgent given high levels of inequality and violence in the schooling sector. The review of longitudinal studies suggests that there is a limited focus on ordinary teachers’ views and perceptions of their professional roles. High profile multi-country studies, such as TALIS and SACMEQ, have focussed largely on teacher education and subject knowledge matters. While TALIS and the Eurydice network research are increasingly gathering subjective data from teachers, there is limited longitudinal data on teachers’ views of their professional lives and the challenges they face. In South Africa particularly, such research is only starting