The Schools and Transformation
One of the current debates in education revolves around the
increase in learner numbers per teacher. During the apartheid
years the majority of teachers who had the task of teaching in
schools for children first classified Bantu and then Black struggled
to manage, discipline and teach very large classes of learners.
The present education policy instead of reducing the abnormally
high learner to teacher numbers at these schools to more manageable
ones is making large classes the norm for teachers at all public
schools. Large numbers, however, is only one of the factors that
are making it frustratingly difficult for teachers to teach effectively.
Except in those areas where the school attracts learners from
a single cultural-linguistic community, the normal classroom situation
is one of multi-cultural, multi-lingual learner mix. It is unfortunately
thus, in many cases, a school environment in which learner to
teacher and learner to learner interpersonal relationships create
"racial" feelings and attitudes. These attitudes undermine
the collaborative and cooperative methodologies that teachers
have to use for successful teaching. The "racial" and
other tendencies in schools and how to equip teachers to work
in the present school and classroom environment were among the
concerns addressed at the 1998 Conference of the Teachers' League
of South Africa.
In the April-May 1998 issue of The Educational Journal
we gave readers insights into two of the four Papers delivered
at the Conference: The Route to Equity in the South African Context;
and The Private Schools Challenge - Classist Education. The other
two Papers were entitled The New Racialism: Its Origins and the
Means to Combat It; and Equipping the Teacher to Effect Social
and Educational Transformation.
The Paper on the New Racialism made some observations
that deserve further research and debate. The authors characterised
present-day South Africa as experiencing a period of "transition".
"South Africans find themselves in a precarious
moment in history loosely referred to as the "transition".
Transitions are complex social processes which see many pushing
towards the new, while there is a great pull from others to retain
the old. Many find themselves at the centre of this push-pull
situation where mostly chaos reigns. It is within this space that
the argument is made that some of the old was good and should
remain, while others argue that we should build from scratch and
leave the old behind."
The Paper on Equipping the Teacher� recognised
the dilemmas and daunting challenges confronting both teachers
and learners who find themselves at the centre of the push-pull
situation of transition politics "where mostly chaos reigns"
and recommended some measures that would assist schools to traverse
the route to social and educational transformation. The authors
of this Paper also held the view that :
"Equipping the teacher today remains an investment
in fitting out the adult of tomorrow with social skills, technical
skills and the expertise to make South Africa prosper in the twenty-first
century."
In the paragraph Racialism : Identity or Power, the
New Racialism Paper contended that many people in the new South
Africa continue to see through the old tinted or, perhaps more
accurately, tainted lenses.
The authors suggested that perhaps the title of the
Paper was a misnomer and that there really is no 'new' racialism.
"It is the old racialism lingering on, quite like the old
wolf in sheep's clothing."
The Paper asked what exactly is meant when people
talk about race and racialism and argued that the concept has
different meanings for different people within different contexts.
The authors then detailed a few meanings that might be useful
in providing a framework for the Paper. One of the theories of
race is that race determines identity.
"This emanates from the view that one's values,
convictions, rituals, norms, beliefs, judgements and character,
amongst other things, are determined by one's bloodline."
The authors effectively repudiated this theory with
the contention that this view is unable to entertain the likelihood
that one develops, shapes and reshapes one's norms values and
beliefs. The Paper observed that is critical to acknowledge that
one cannot talk about racialism without talking about power. It
said that racialism often results from the fear of having to
cede power that the status quo provides. It is for this reason
that people choose to avoid the discussions about power-relations
and prefer to talk about demographic representation and identity.
"The trump card of apartheid was that it pigeonholed
people in colour categories to create a system of beneficiaries
and exploitables."
The New Racialism Paper then proceeded to expose
the "racial" character of current South African Affirmative
Action policies. The Paper contended that the language of racialism
has taken on a different look, although fundamentally it boils
down to the same thing.
"These days we talk about equal opportunity,
equity and equality, perhaps with the best intentions. However,
the best intentions, that is, putting in place policies and practises
that dismantle racialism, are in fact promoting racialism. Because
of their focus on skin colour and numbers, they paradoxically
tend to create, encourage and entrench racial division�.
In South Africa, what the quota system has done is ostensibly
swell the ranks of the "black" middle class, which results
in the emergence of classism within a racist divide. That, in
turn, justifies capitalism and perpetuates the divide-and-rule
strategy."
The authors concluded in this section with the injunction
that we need to revisit the original goals of non-racialism that
strengthened us during the apartheid era when we argued that racialism
is ideologically-based and that our fight against racialism therefore
is an ideological battle.
The Paper also looked at racialism in schools. The
Conference Paper entitled The Route to Equity in the South African
Context contended that feature of apartheid-era education today
present teachers with enormous obstacles to creating non-racial
classrooms. Two of the most pernicious features were retribalisation
and language policy. The Route to Equity Paper said :
"It was recognised that retribalisation could
most easily be achieved through the schools, by "catching
them young". Language medium and instruction was seen as
a very effective tool for indoctrinating and then maintaining
the sense of otherness/own culture - andersoortigheid and eiesoortigheid.
In addition the mother tongue language policy had the specific
objective of eventually cutting the oppressed off from all acquaintance
with English - the language through whose literature they could
imbibe liberating/contaminating ideas.
These two most pernicious features of apartheid-era
education - retribalisation and language policy - are the legacy
that present teachers with enormous obstacles to creating non-racial
classrooms. The prejudices and suspicions sown and bred by apartheid
education will be hard, and take long, to destroy. And the difficulties
that prevail in classrooms where learners and teachers have no
common language of approach to one another not only make teaching
and learning a frustrating exercise but aggravate the children's
"racial" perceptions and tensions."
The New Racialism Paper commented that the doors
of learning have now been opened and that schools have become
the domain of all children. Schools now contain children with
different languages, religious backgrounds, experience and abilities.
Drawing from their own observations and experiences the authors
said that in the official policy that racialism in schools will
not be tolerated there is very little guidance on how schools
should deal with racialism should it arise. According to available
information the Human Rights Commission is investigating twenty-nine
cases of schools racism that have been brought to its attention.
Legal contentions are raging over the appointment of teachers
at particular schools and racial issues are at the heart of these
battles.
On the positive side of the school situation the
Paper said that many teachers have examined themselves to understand
how apartheid has impacted on them and that consequently they
have begun to change their methods of teaching. Teachers are tuned
into how they relate to their learners and are constantly seeking
ways inside and outside the classroom and school to uproot whatever
form of racialism might present itself.
It is in the context of this multi-cultural, multi-lingual
school situation plagued by racial attitudes and hurtful racist
comments that lies the problem of how to equip teachers to effect
social and educational transformation. The Paper on Equipping
the Teacher examined critically the current work at teacher-training
colleges. It asked whether colleges have the capacity and resources
to implement South Africa's official language policy that accords
equal status to all eleven languages. The colleges school their
students in the philosophy and methodologies of Outcomes-based
Education. But when as qualified teachers they enter the overcrowded
schools in the townships are they able to implement OBE? The authors
argued that in addition to being knowledgeable about the content
that they teach college lecturers should also be informed about
the current political-economic-social trends in South Africa.
They should encourage their students to become better informed
about the "new" South Africa and to be independent,
critical thinkers.
The authors of this Paper made concrete proposals
on how teachers could be equipped for their task of effecting
change. The thread that runs through the proposals is that teachers
should be assisted to think critically about their teaching role.
There should be interaction between teachers at a school and also
with teachers at other school so that lesson content and presentation
become interesting and stimulating for learners. The authors say:
"Pressure should be exerted on the Education
Ministry, education departments and colleges in their role of
training and shaping a teacher that not only is capable of imparting
academic material, but also can teach learners to think."
In the discussions on the Presidential Address and
the four Papers the content and tone of contributions and questions
by Conference delegates conveyed a deeply-felt concern about the
present education situation. The feeling was that the Ministry
of Education's route to equity which has already resulted in the
loss of tens of thousands of teachers is a certain and short route
to disaster. Delegates recognised that just as during the worst
years of apartheid throughout the country there were teachers
who remained committed and did excellent work so now also there
will be committed teachers who will do outstanding work. But they
felt that too many teachers are demotivated, and angry and outraged
at being forced to educate children in overcrowded classrooms
with limited resource materials, limited numbers of textbooks.
Teachers are fed-up with an Education Ministry that is cutting
costs on everything. Delegates said that teachers want to develop
and practise modern methodologies that have improved the learning
capabilities of pupils in other countries but the realities of
the classroom situation militate against their successful implementation.
The contents of the Presidential Address, the Papers and the Area
Reports reveal the enormousness of the tasks that face teachers,
pupils and parents in the continuing fight to effect transformation
in education. Conference agreed that at the same time as we have
to oppose current negative education policies it is imperative
that assistance be given to both teachers and pupils.
[THE EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL VOL.68 #3, OFFICIAL ORGAN
OF THE TEACHERS' LEAGUE OF SOUTH AFRICA, JUNE 1998]
EDITOR: Mrs. HN Kies, 15 Upper Bloem Street, Cape Town, 8001
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