Education In Post-apartheid South Africa Research Articles

“Asiphelelanga!” (we are not complete!): #FeesMustFall movement and higher education in post-apartheid South Africa

This article focuses on the Fees Must Fall Protests in South Africa as a decolonial strategy implemented by university students who seek a fully liberated South Africa. Students’ core demands of the access to and quality of university education embody Africans’ early ideals of freedom from the Victorian Era to the turbulence seen in the violent student protests of the 1970s and 1980s. Students underscored that their future is compromised by the ruling party’s inability to live up to a democratic blueprint of liberation. By marching and inflicting disruptive modes of politics, including vandalizing property, university students called for the removal of colonial artifacts. Through innovative uses of social media networks and viral hashtags, students documented their effort to decolonize their universities through a form of knowledge production infused with African epistemologies.

Analysis of Funding and Access Challenges to Higher Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Analysis of Funding and Access Challenges to Higher Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Medical Students’ Experiences of Mistreatment by Clinicians and Academics at a South African University

Phenomenon: Tertiary education in post-apartheid South Africa has faced many challenges regarding class, language, and race. Even though previously white Afrikaans-rooted universities now have a diverse student population, recent student protests have highlighted the ongoing need for decolonization in higher education. In addition, the majority of public hospitals in the country function under significant staffing, infrastructure, and equipment shortages. Although the mistreatment of medical students has been well described internationally, to date no South African data exists. The aim of this study was to identify experiences of mistreatment of medical students by clinicians and academics at a South African university and to describe the type of mistreatment experienced, the perceived mental health effects, and the influence on academic performance, resilience, and students’ knowledge of current reporting systems. Approach: A cross-sectional study was conducted through a locally developed online survey of 443 medical students at a South African university in May to June 2018, comprising of both open and closed ended questions. Levels of psychological distress (K10) and resilience (CD-RISC -10) were measured. Chi-square and student t-tests were used for the analysis of associations, and linear regressions were used to assess predictors of psychological distress. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically using the approach described by Braun and Clarke. Findings: Of 800 eligible medical students at Stellenbosch University, 443 students (55.4%) completed the survey. Mistreatment, comprising of being ignored/excluded (83.4%), offensive gestures (75.0%), verbal abuse (65.1%) and discrimination (64.4%), was prevalent and pervasive, and was perpetrated mainly by registrars (46.7%) and other medical staff (43.8%). Mistreatment was associated with psychological distress, which was generally high and more severe for females. Resilience, which was higher for males, moderated the effects of gender and perpetrator type on distress. Only 15% of students who had experienced mistreatment, either directly or indirectly, reported it, of which more than half (52.8%) were not happy with the outcome. Most students (80.9%) were not aware of the systems in place to report mistreatment. Insights: Student mistreatment is more highly prevalent among medical students at a South African university compared with studies conducted internationally. Despite over 20 years of democracy in South Africa, high rates of racial and gender discrimination were reported and descriptions of racial, language and gender discrimination were particularly concerning. Since the findings of this study, an anti-bullying poster-campaign has been initiated at the university as well as an online reporting system.

"Myth" or "construct"?: What students are learning about race in the South African history classroom

History education in post-apartheid South Africa addresses topics that are highly salient to the concept of race. To make sense of colonialism, slavery, the Holocaust, and most notably apartheid, students require an understanding of what race is, and how it has been used to justify discriminatory and unjust behaviour. The South African Curriculum and Policy Statements for Grade 9 History therefore devotes two hours to a topic on "the definition of race" (Department of Basic Education [DBE], 2011a: 43). However, what are students learning about 'the definition of race' from their history education? In this article, we draw on our experience as a history educator and history education researcher to argue that students often develop inaccurate and unhelpful understandings of race. This is partially since both the South African history curricula and textbooks describe race as a "myth" (DBE, 2011a, 43; Bottaro, Cohen, Dilley, Duffett, & Visser, 2013) with no scientific or evolutionary basis. Hence, students who learn that race is a 'myth' understandably struggle to understand discourses and policies that refer to racial identity and are at risk of misunderstanding theories of evolution. While we agree that the concept of race has no legitimate scientific basis, we nonetheless argue that students require an historical understanding of race; one that demonstrates how racial identities have been constructed in different ways and for different purposes over time. Such an approach would introduce students to the extensive historiography of the construction of race (e.g. DuBois, 1940; Dubow, 1995). By understanding race as a construct rather than a myth, we suggest that students will be better able to engage with the legacies of racialised violence as well as the ways in which racial identity is a legitimate source of meaning for many South Africans.

Decolonisation and the Risks of Exception in South African Higher Education

Abstract Amid competing arguments of what it “looks like” and what it “should be doing”, decolonisation in higher education in post-apartheid South Africa has become increasingly problematised and stultified. On the one hand, a coalescence between decolonisation and Africanisation has taken root in a propagation of decolonisation-as-Blackness and, hence, by implication, anti-whiteness. On the other hand, there is a worrying resort to structural and epistemic violence, which has come to characterise student protests. I argue that decolonisation can neither erase colonialism through a language of exception nor through a language of violence. Decolonisation calls for an epistemic re-prioritisation and restoration of what makes us all human. This means that until students (and others) liberate themselves from a discourse of dichotomous binaries (as found in constructions of Blackness/whiteness), and until they unlearn the violence of colonialism, decolonisation will not evolve in South Africa.

A South African Perspective on Learning in Social Movement Activism

There is a body of education scholarship in South Africa that captures the role played by social movements in democratising education in post-apartheid South Africa. However, this scholarship says little about how power dynamics affect learning and intellectual labour in social movements or social movement organisations. In addition, the issue of learning in social movements or social movement organisations is hardly explored in the South African social movement literature. This lack of focus on how activists, especially grassroots activists in working-class communities, learn and produce knowledge in social movements and organisations obscures the complexity of learning and knowledge production in activist settings. This article explores how activists, especially grassroots activists, learn in social movements. Based on secondary literature and interviews, the article advances two main arguments: First, learning in social movements and organisations takes place in non-formal and informal ways. Both these forms of learning take place inside and outside formal educational settings. And they both contribute to the empowerment and critical consciousness of activists in social movements and organisations. In addition, informal learning takes place inside and outside popular educational spaces. However, it is not inevitable that non-formal and informal forms of learning in activist settings will generate critical knowledge and activist practices that disrupt the status quo. Second, power relations based on “race”, social class, gender, and sexuality, among other axes of social division, impact on how learning takes place in non-formal or popular contexts of education. This article seeks to understand how power relations shape the learning and knowledge production process in social movements and organisations.

1 - Access to, and Success in, Higher Education in Post-apartheid South Africa: Social Justice Analysis

The post-apartheid government that came to power in 1994 inherited an inequitable and unjust higher education system whose expression included preferential access to higher education for whites and limited higher educa- tion opportunities for the black majority. As a result, one of the priorities of the new government was to redress the inequalities of apartheid by adopting policies that would widen access to higher education for all South Africans and, simultaneously, ensure their success. This article analyses the progress made in the implementation of equity policies by posing the following ques- tion: ‘What progress has been made in the pursuit of a policy of equity of access and of success since 1997?’ We have examined government-related documents and institutional practices to answer this question. We link ac- cess with success to explain the impact of the transformation agenda on the outcomes of higher education. Using social inclusion and justice theory, we contest neoliberal ideologies of access (Gidlye et al. 2010) as merely increasing participation rates and relying on the economic role of higher education, without paying attention to the factors that should facilitate success in higher education. Methodologically, the paper relies on the documentary analysis of secondary data, on social theory, and on primary data obtained from official government policies and reports.

Case Study and Narrative Inquiry as Merged Methodologies: A Critical Narrative Perspective

Case study and narrative inquiry as merged methodological frameworks can make a vital contribution that seeks to understand processes that may explain current realities within professions and broader society. This article offers an explanation of how a critical perspective on case study and narrative inquiry as an embedded methodology unearthed the interplay between structure and agency within storied lives. This case narrative emerged out of a doctoral thesis in occupational therapy, a single instrumental case describing a process of professional role transition within school-level specialized education in the Western Cape, South Africa. This case served as an exemplar in demonstrating how case study recognized the multiple layers to the context within which the process of professional role transition unfolded. The embedded narrative inquiry served to clarify emerging professional identities for occupational therapists within school-level specialized education in postapartheid South Africa.

Muslim Education in Democratic South Africa: Convergence or Divergence of Religion and Citizenship?

South Africa's transition to democracy signaled many new beginnings to different people and communities. For the Muslim community, democracy beckoned toward an untraversed path of identity and expression—one unshielded by the seclusion unintentionally provided through apartheid. The changes, while not immediately obvious, were nevertheless profound, no more so than within a new realm of desegregated schools. The extensive migratory patterns of learners to previously “off-limits” schools soon revealed another pattern of exit: The more public schools diversified, the greater the increase in the number of faith-based schools. Although small in relation to the total number of independent schools, the percentage of Muslim schools was significantly higher than the proportion of Muslims in the South African population. In “mapping the terrain” of Muslim education in post-apartheid South Africa, the interest of this article lies, firstly, in understanding the underlying motivation for this proliferation of Muslim schools and, secondly, how the prevalence of faith-based schools might enhance South Africa's democracy.

Disrupting the neoliberal university in South Africa: The #FeesMustFall movement in 2015

This article analyses the 2015 student mobilizations in South Africa (SA), which arose in opposition to a 10% hike in tuition fees planned for 2016 at the University of Witwatersrand (WITS) and spurred a massive student reaction across all the universities of the country. After only 10 days of mobilization, the protest, also known as #FeesMustFall by virtue of the most popular Twitter hashtag associated with it, succeeded in halting the hike. How and why did the protesters win? To answer this question, this study combined various qualitative methods of analysis. The author carried out in-depth interviews with all the relevant actors involved in the issue, and analysed documents relating to the movement elaborated by the students in the year of the protest (2015), as well as the main policy documents on higher education in post-apartheid South Africa (1994–2016) released by the government. The author argues that massive and disruptive student protests play a crucial role in ‘young’ democracies, as is the case of today’s South Africa, in which higher education is still considered an important societal issue, and university-level students a legitimate political actor. Where students are perceived as a legitimate element of the political system, it is more likely for them to have an impact on society.

The 2015 Student Mobilizations in South Africa. Contesting Post-Apartheid Higher Education

In October 2015, a student protest at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), a historically white university (HWU), arising in opposition to the decision taken by the University Council to increase tuition fees, spurred a massive wave of mobilizations across the country. The protests drew national and international media attention to what became the #FeesMustFall movement, named after the most popular twitter hashtag adopted by the protesters. Why did a local mobilization at WITS in 2015 trigger a national wave of student protests? After ten days of protests, the South African President intervened directly to calm down the situation by announcing a 0% increase in tuition fees for 2016. To all appearances, ten days of protests allowed South African students to win their battle over the hike in tuition fees. How and why did they obtain this concession? To answer the questions above, I have combined various qualitative methods of analysis. I carried out several in-depth interviews with relevant actors involved in the issue; I analysed movement documents elaborated by the students in the year of the protest (2015) as well as the main policy documents on higher education in post-apartheid South Africa (1994-2016) released by the government.

Strangers “at home”: Gay, lesbian and bisexual students’ strategies for resisting heteronormativity in university residence life

Higher education in post-apartheid South Africa has been concerned with the establishment of non-discriminatory institutions. However, research continues to highlight various experiences of exclusionary practices across universities in South Africa. In this article, we demonstrate the various coping mechanisms that some students who self-identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual in the university residences adopt to deal with the exclusionary practices that the dominant heteronormative culture of the institution (re)produces which positions them as “sexual strangers” within the institutional “home”. We adopt Vangelisti and Crumley’s (1998) three categories of behaviour namely “acquiescence” which we term here as endeavours to “fit in”, “invulnerability” which we identify as “keeping one’s distance”, “verbal active” as “voicing” and a fourth category we identify as “turning the tables on heteronormativity” in our discussion. We also highlight the various forms of responses that the institution adopts in its attempts to create a conducive environment for all.

Peace Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Needs, Responses, and Constraints

Peace Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Needs, Responses, and Constraints

Decolonizing Knowledge in South Africa: Dismantling the ‘pedagogy of big lies’

Author(s): Heleta, Savo | Abstract: The colonial and apartheid knowledge systems and Eurocentrism have not been sufficiently questioned, let alone transformed, during the first two decades of democracy in South Africa. The movement to decolonize higher education was launched by students in 2015. The fact that the students are at the forefront of the campaign for decolonization and not the university leaders, academics, and administrators tells a lot about the state of higher education in post-apartheid South Africa and the continued maintenance of the hegemonic status quo when it comes to the knowledge, teaching, learning, and research at the country’s universities. Decolonization of knowledge is crucial in order to rewrite histories, reassert the dignity of the oppressed and refocus the knowledge production and worldviews for the sake of the present and the future of the country and its people, as well as the rest of the African continent. The dismantling of the ‘pedagogy of big lies’ rooted in colonialism and apartheid will require a complete reconstruction of the epistemological model. The decolonized curriculum must place South Africa and Africa in the center of teaching, learning, and research and incorporate the epistemic perspectives, knowledge and thinking from the African continent and the global South and place them on an equal footing with the currently hegemonic Eurocentric canon.

Human rights and neo-liberal education in post-apartheid South Africa

Internationally, human rights are considered innate, natural and inalienable. The article offers proffers a historical account of the natural law philosophy as the basis upon which human rights are ascribed to a supernatural force and human agency, on the one hand, and to the struggle for human existence, on the other hand. The author shows how the social contract that stems from human rationality underpins global, regional and domestic human rights frameworks. Based on a neo-liberal ideology, governance and policies, I argue that the education agenda in post-apartheid South Africa does not guarantee equal access to education. In light of this, the article maintains that, despite the anti-apartheid struggle movement’s achievements in human rights, the right to education is yet to be fully realised. In the end, I employ political philosophy to help us clarify fundamental problems of education within neo-liberalism that need to be addressed in post-apartheid South Africa.

Riding the Waves: Journalism Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Since 1994, South African journalism education has undergone waves of introspection about curricula and methods of teaching as educators respond to the challenging realities of the post-apartheid environment. The most recent challenge to journalism educators is the student protests which started at the end of 2015, questioning the high costs of education and demanding “decolonization” of curricula. The traditional alignment with media companies has also been upended as the drastic contraction of newsrooms removes the promise of jobs upon graduation and the swiftly shifting digital terrain rearranges the financial basis of all journalism. These factors introduce a dynamism and uncertainty into South African journalism that educators are compelled to respond to with imagination and principle.

Extracurricular arts: poverty, inequality and indigenous musical arts education in post-apartheid South Africa

The bifurcation of the musical arts education sector in South Africa into its public and private dimensions reproduces inequality along lines of class, race and geography. This article reviews policy and practice in the post-apartheid era to provide new insight into the crisis unfolding in public schools. An ethnographic case study of school musicking in the Ingwavuma district of KwaZulu-Natal describes some of the strengths and challenges associated with music education in rural areas. Indigenous musics are thriving, but teachers lack training in music literacy and have limited resources at their disposal. The 2012 National Curriculum Statement accords music a peripheral (and in some cases, optional) position in South Africa’s Basic Education syllabus (DBE 2012). Music is widely practised as an extracurricular activity that does not develop the skills in music literacy required for entry into tertiary education or the music industry. By contrast, students at private schools benefit from high-quality education in Western musics through independent examination boards. It is argued that an egalitarian approach to music education would return the study of music to the school curriculum in revised form.

Performing Problems on the Pavement: An Innovative Approach to Architectural Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa

In this article we interrogate the possibility and benefits of introducing alternative participatory pedagogies to architecture students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in order to mediate the gap between students' knowledge of the living environments they are expected to design and the authentic, lived realities of the inhabitants of those environments. Architecture students, assisted by applied theater students, devised participatory theater on the pavement of downtown Durban.1 This approach encouraged in situ engagement between students and the typically marginalized inhabitants of that area. Moreover, these participatory performances served as a catalyst to disrupt some commonly held perceptions around the notion of “the expert” and provoked a possible reimagining of an architectural pedagogy that was responsive to the South African context.

Educational change in post-conflict contexts: reflections on the South African experience 20 years later

ABSTRACTReflecting on South African experience, this paper develops an analytical framework using the work of Henri Lefebvre and Nancy Fraser to understand why socially just arrangements may be so difficult to achieve in post-conflict reconstruction. The paper uses Lefebvre's analytic to trace three sets of entangled practices (perceived–conceived–lived) as evident in education in post-apartheid South Africa in order to illustrate the complexity that is entailed in a particular moment of social reconstruction. Coupled with this approach, It draws on Fraser's analytic to show how the different forms of social injustice and their different remedies (redistribution–recognition–representation) may easily shift and slip in times of complex change. The paper shows that post-conflict reconstruction in education requires a number of different social practices that are not easily orchestrated.

Educational change: a case for a 'pedagogy of compassion'

This paper sets out to advance the concept of an ‘epistemology of compassion’ first proposed by Vandeyar (2013; 2016). Utilising a single embedded case study and the theoretical mooring of post-conflict pedagogy this paper attempts to find links between Jansen’s perceptions of a post-conflict pedagogy and Freirean pedagogy and to argue a case for a ‘pedagogy of compassion’ as a possible approach to addressing and transforming education in post-apartheid South Africa. Data capture comprised a mix of semi-structured interviews, observations and field notes. Data was analysed by means of the content analysis method. Findings were threefold. First, the implementation of a ‘pedagogy of compassion’ enabled the teacher to dismantle polarised thinking and to shatter the polite silence of post-apartheid South African society. Second, teachers not only need to be able to raise the critical consciousness of learners but they need to adopt an ‘epistemology of compassion’ in order to enable learners to become active critical citizens, imbued with a sense of common humanity and compassion. And third, becoming an agent of transformative change may challenge the very premise of teachers’ identities and practices, but by empowering the learner to exert influence on her world, the teacher is in turn also changed and empowered. Â