Assessment policy in post-apartheid South Africa: challenges for improving education quality and learning

The South African education system has witnessed significant changes since 1994 when the democratically elected government began the process of dismantling the inherited apartheid order. The primary focus of the transformation process was to address the twin imperative of equity and quality in education, particularly for the historically marginalised black population. A key aspect of this transformation process remains the development of alternative assessment policies. This paper reviews the changes focusing on the stated rationale as well as their underlying assumptions and implications for practice. It argues that the changes have in many respects addressed the most obvious effects of the previous apartheid systems. However, it notes that, notwithstanding the policy intentions, assessment policy since 1994 has favoured a measurement focused-approach in the classroom, which has hindered a shift towards an assessment for learning approach. This, it argues, is partly fuelled by the abiding belief in and commitment to classroom testing and examinations as well as external national assessments as the key criterion for reforming learning and teaching practices in the classroom.     

Changing forms of teacher education in South Africa: a case study of policy change

This paper examines some aspects of teacher education policy change in South Africa. It contextualises the changes by firstly examining the apartheid teacher education system and then mapping the changes that have occurred in teacher education in South Africa since 1994. Using a case study of the Further Diploma in Educational Management at the University of Pretoria, it provides a critical analysis of one particular current path to teacher education in South Africa, namely the ‘franchise’ public/private teacher education provision. The paper concludes by discussing the related policy possibilities and problems of teacher education policy since 1944. It highlights how institutions have stategically responded to change in a transitional context, and draws attention to the disjunction between policy intentions and outcomes.     

Teacher education in post-apartheid South Africa: Navigating a way through competing state and global imperatives for change

This article focuses on teacher education in post-apartheid South Africa. It argues that the restructuring and reorganization of teacher education is at the nexus of the axes of tension created by national and global imperatives for change. Along with the dismantling of apartheid and the transition to a free and democratic state in 1994 came the urgent need for social reconstruction, democratization, redress, social justice, and equity. At the same time, and as part of a global context, the country needed global competitiveness, human capital development, global skills, international standards, and accountability. These competing modernist discourses have informed the design and orientation of the National Qualifications Framework and national curriculum that took place in parallel with, and simultaneous to, the restructuring and reform of teacher education. This article reviews literature pertinent to understanding the post-apartheid transformation in South African education in general and teacher education in particular. It concludes that policy makers have managed to navigate a way through the axis of tension created by opposed orientations to transformation. A more equitable and improved system of teacher education has been achieved but critical issues of teacher quality and quantity have emerged which urgently need resolution.     

Religion in education policy in South Africa: a challenge of change

Since 1995, the National Department of Education has developed a number of policies to give effect to the proposed transformation outlined in White Paper 1 (Notice 196 of 1995) and in subsequent legislation. A range of Acts and policies were introduced, many of them dealing with how religion should be dealt with in schools and it culminated in the promulgation of the National Policy on Religion and Education (2003). In all these policies the role of the school and, in particular, of the school principal has been foregrounded as important for effective implementation of policies. This article is based on research conducted to determine how school principals dealt with religion and the implementation of the religion and education policy. This study found that school principals often ignore the policy and maintain the status quo. When faced with conflict of religious interests, they partially sub-contract into the policy. The study also found that past experiences with religion in education, either as students or educators, had a major impact on how principals perceive the role of religion in schools and how they dealt with it.     

School quality, clustering and government subsidy in post-apartheid South Africa

This paper examines a range of historical and geographic factors that determine the quality of public school education in post-apartheid South Africa. Empirical analysis shows, first, that population groups are still spatially segregated due to the legacy of apartheid, which implies that, given the positive correlation between school quality and school fees, quality education is concentrated in formerly white, coloured and Indian schools in areas where the majority is non-African. Second, school quality, measured by the learner-educator ratio, improves as school fee and government subsidy increase. In this sense, school fee can be decreased with an increase in government subsidy to maintain school quality. It is also shown that government subsidy is allocated to schools with lower quality and fees, increasing the number of subsidized teachers. To address the current imbalance, financial support to disadvantaged locales and schools should be strengthened further.     

Inviting discomfort: foregrounding emotional labour in teaching anthropology in post-apartheid South Africa

This article examines the potential and limitations of Megan Boler's ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ in a post-apartheid yet heavily racialised South Africa. Taking an ‘ethnographic sensibility’ to anthropological teaching, this paper sketches the social and historical context of discomfort produced by everyday classroom practices at a historically privileged university. This paper argues that new patterns of thought, if achieved at all in the course of learning through ‘discomfort’, are deeply embedded within uneasy social relationships.     

Adult education in the Limpopo province of South Africa: challenges for policy implementation

In this article we report and reflect on a study about the problems encountered in the implementation of adult education policies in the Limpopo province of South Africa. We used the model of intergovernmental policy implementation of Van Horn and Van Meter as a theoretical framework. We reflect on this study and link the findings with more recent literature on and experiences with developments in the implementation of adult education policies. The findings of our study show several discontinuities and contradictions in the implementation of an adult education policy, partly caused by the legacies of the past. A central recommendation, informed by contributions from stakeholders at grassroots level, is to use a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches (bottopdown) in policy development to improve the quality of the implementation.     

Schooling citizens: policy in practice in South Africa

The notion of ‘student citizen’ is implicit in a range of national and provincial policy documents in South Africa, with citizenship promoted as both an expected outcome of schooling and an encouraged practice within schools. This paper provides an account of how policy on student citizenship was translated differently into practice in four secondary schools in Cape Town, each with a different former racial categorisation under apartheid. It argues that student engagement with citizenship varied considerably between the schools and in many cases was significantly different from the policy framework. Influencing factors included staff–student relations, socio‐historical contexts and how diversity was played out in the schools.     

Aims of education in South Africa

The first part of this paper gives a historical account of the aims of education under Apartheid, and discusses the ideological success of Apartheid education. The second part argues that a significant discussion — that is one which could have some purchase on schooling policy and educational practice — of aims of education in South Africa is not possible at present because the historical preconditions for such a discussion are not satisfied. It is argued that Apartheid has generated a political perspective which is unsympathetic to a discussion of aims of education; that the dominance of a social engineering model of schooling distorts a discussion of aims of education; and that a shared moral discourse, which is a necessary condition for a significant discussion of aims of education, does not yet exist in South Africa.

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Zusammenfassung Der erste Teil dieses Artikels enthält einen historischen Bericht über Erziehungsziele unter dem Apartheidssystem und untersucht den ideologischen Erfolg dieser Apartheiderzichung. Im zweiten Teil wird erläutert, daß eine sinnvolle Diskussion — nämlich eine, die einen gewissen Einfluß auf die Schulpolitik und die erzieherische Praxis nehmen könnte — über Erziehungsziele in Südafrika zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt nicht möglich wäre, da die historischen voraussetzungen für eine solche Diskussion nicht gegeben sind. Im weiteren wird ausgeführt, daß die Apartheid eine politische Perspektive erzeugt hat, die einer Diskussion über Erziehungsziele nicht förderlich ist, daß das herrschende Erziehungsmodell, das hauptsächlich der Strukturierung der Gesellschaft dient, eine solche Diskussion verzerrt und daß ein gemeinsamer moralischer Rahmen, der die notwendige Voraussetzung für eine sinnvolle Diskussion über Erziehungsziele ist, in Südafrika bisher noch nicht existiert.

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Résumé La première partie de cet article présente un exposé historique des objectifs de l'éducation sous l'apartheid et examine le succès idéologique de l'éducation de ce système. Dans la deuxième partie, on affirme qu'une discussion importante (c'est-à-dire qui aurait une certaine influence sur la politique et la pratique éducatives) sur les objectifs de l'éducation en Afrique du Sud n'est pas possible à l'heure actuelle attendu que les conditions préalables à une telle discussion ne sont pas remplies. On souligne que l'apartheid a engendré une perspective politique qui n'est pas favorable à une discussion sur les objectifs de l'éducation; que la dominance d'un modèle éducatif social manigancé fausse la discussion sur les objectifs éducatifs; et qu'un discours moral partagé, qui est le préalable à une discussion pertinente sur les objectifs de l'éducation, n'existe encore pas en Afrique du Sud.

     

Private higher education in Africa: The case of Monash South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to review the contribution of private institutions to higher education in Africa and use Monash South Africa as a case study. A literature search was conducted to gain perspective on the current situation with respect to private higher education institutions in Africa and how they are perceived in relation to public higher education institutions.

In comparison with public higher education institutions, private higher education institutions in Africa were successful in four areas: ? Widening access to higher education in the continent

? Improving the quality of education

? Improving student experience

? Increasing the recognition and marketability of their degrees

However, private higher education institutions in Africa have failed in two areas: ? Reducing the costs of higher education in Africa

? Assisting with retention of skilled human capital in African countries.

In fact, private higher education institutions in Africa, have exacerbated the two situations above.

Monash South Africa was the first foreign university to be established in South Africa and one of over 100 private universities in the continent. As a campus of Monash University in Africa, it has seen a steady growth with over 3,500 students in the past 10 years of its existence. Like other private institutions, the campus was successful in the four areas above and also fails in the area of costs and assisting in retention of skilled staff in Africa. The campus has been successful in blending its private provider status with a public purpose mandate by offering degrees in social science, business and economics, information technology and health sciences.     

Multilingualism and education in South Africa: one year on

After a short presentation of the relative status of the different languages (and dialects) in the greater Cape Town area, an overview is given of recent debates and developments in the language policy in education in South Africa. The aim is promoting multilingualism. Current language and literary initiatives in primary schools and in teacher education are described briefly. Proposals for translating policy in practice are reviewed.     

Sexuality education in South Africa: Three essential questions

Sex education is the cornerstone on which most HIV/AIDS prevention programmes rest and since the adoption of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE), has become a compulsory part of the South African school curriculum through the Life Orientation learning area. However, while much focus has been on providing young people with accurate and frank information about safe sex, this paper questions whether school-based programmes sufficiently support the needs of young people. This paper is based on a desk-review of the literature on sex and sexuality education and examines it in relation to the South African educational context and policies. It poses three questions: (a) what do youth need from sexuality education? (b) Is school an appropriate environment for sex education? (c) If so, what can be said about the content of sex education as well as pedagogy surrounding it? Through reviewing the literature this paper critically engages with education on sex and sexuality in South Africa and will argue that in order to effectively meet the needs of youth, the content of sexual health programmes needs to span the whole spectrum of discourses, from disease to desire. Within this spectrum, youth should be constructed as “knowers” as opposed to innocent in relation to sex. How youth are taught as well as how their own knowledge and experience is positioned in the classroom is as important as content in ensuring that youth avoid negative sexual health outcomes.     

Governmentality, education and quality management

Summary We will focus on the recent concern — and even ‘obsession’ — with quality in education from the perspective of changes in how we are governed and governing ourselves. Therefore, we will explore advanced liberalism as a form of ‘governmentality’ and point out that (political) government has to submit itself to a ‘permanent economic tribunal’, i.e. judge everything constantly by the principles of entrepreneurship and competition. Furthermore, not only political government, but foremost self-government should be understood in relation to the tribunal: free people objectify within them skills and competencies, which are valuable in a (market) environment. Moreover we argue that management rationality and technology try to establish a double bond within the organization by regarding the worker as an enterprising self. Having pointed out the relationship between entrepreneurship and (self-)management, it is possible to describe how quality becomes a permanent obsession to those managing their life or an organization as an enterprise. After describing management and quality (and their relation) as a ‘function’ of entrepreneurship it is possible to understand how learning is part of it, and how quality management and schooling become entwined at all levels.

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Zusammenfassung ‚Gouvernementalité’, Bildung und Qualit?tsmanagement — Versuch einer Kritik des Konzepts der st?ndigen Qualit?tskontrolle Im vorliegenden Text wird die neuerliche — fast obsessive — Besch?ftigung mit ‚Qualit?t’ im Bildungssystem in den Blick genommen, und zwar vor dem Hintergrund der sich ver?ndernden Formen, in denen wir bestimmt (regiert) werden und uns selbst bestimmen. Dazu wird der fortgeschrittene Liberalismus als Form von ‚Gouvermentalité’ (Foucault) untersucht und herausgestellt, dass (politische) Kontrolle sich einem „st?ndigen wirtschaftlichen Tribunal“ unterziehen muss, d.h. alles kontinuierlich an Prinzipen von Unternehmertum (Entrepreneurship) und Wettbewerb auszurichten hat. Dieses wirtschaftliche Tribunal wird darüber hinaus nicht nur in Bezug auf das politische Regieren verstanden, sondern vor allem auf die individuelle Selbst-Regierung; denn freie Menschen zeigen in sich selbst Begabungen und Kompetenzen, die in einer marktwirtschaftlichen Umwelt wertvoll sind. Ferner wird argumentiert, dass Managementrationalit?t und-technologie versuchen, eine doppelte Bindung innerhalb der Organisation zu etablieren, indem sie den Arbeiter als ein unternehmerisches Selbst betrachten. Nach einer Darstellung der Beziehung zwischen Unternehmertum und (Selbst-)Management l?sst sich im Weiteren beschreiben, wie Qualit?t zur Obsession für diejenigen wird, die ihr Leben oder eine Organisation als Unternehmen managen. Im Anschluss an die Er?rterung von Management und Qualit?t (und deren Beziehung) als Funktion des Unternehmertums l?sst sich verstehen, welchen Part das Lernen in diesem Zusammenhang spielt und wie Qualit?tsmanagement und Schulwesen auf allen Ebenen miteinander verflochten sind.

     

Higher education and training policy and practice in South Africa: impacts of global privatisation,quasi-marketisation and new managerialism

Trends suggest that business practices and private sector ideas and values are increasingly permeating public funded higher education institutions world-wide. The impact of business practices and values on higher education policy and practice is discernible in the growing dominance of global privatisation, quasi-marketisation and new managerialism in the higher education sector. However, reactions of different role players and responses of higher learning institutions to these external demands have varied according to local conditions and institutional types. This article contributes to the debate on the increasing permeation of business practices and private sector ideas and values on higher education in South Africa after apartheid using the case study of the University of Pretoria. It begins with the review of debates on higher education on this topic in general, and then moves on to analyse these debates in South Africa using the resource dependence theory and structuralism as conceptual frames. It argues that: (i) the increasing marketisation and quasi-marketisation in higher education and training could be attributed to the influence of neo-liberalism and new managerialism; (ii) changes in higher education provision, policy and practice in South Africa need to be understood in terms of marketisation and quasi-marketisation rather than in terms of privatisation; (iii) although the influence of these external forces is unlikely to be reversed, provision, policies and practices must be tempered by imperatives of redress and equity in South Africa; and (iv) the case study of the University of Pretoria reported here is used as an example of the extent to which institutions are becoming entrepreneurial.     

Comparative education in primary teacher education in Ireland and South Africa

Comparative Education as a subject or course on teacher education curricula mainly continues to be taught in Ireland, some African and East European countries and a few colleges in Ireland, the UK and several universities in the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Latin America and Australia. This research compares Irish and South African students' experiences of their Comparative Education courses. The article commences with a survey of literature on the position of Comparative Education in teacher education, a portrayal of the contextual background of South Africa and of Ireland, and a brief synopsis of the pre-course survey of students' expectations, upon which this study builds. Subsequently the research method is explained and the results presented. Three findings emerged from this study. The first is the valuable role of Comparative Education in teacher education. The second is the role of contextual factors in determining the significance of Comparative Education in teacher education. Thirdly, the centrality of clients (i.e. students) is critical to the future of Comparative Education in teacher education.