Making different equal? Fractured state and ruptured policy: The National Qualifications Framework in South Africa

This paper explores the making of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in South Africa, and asks how a policy that was intended to unite education and training, and build new forms of equality, failed to become hegemonic as the new state established itself. In so doing, it engages, and argues for, theoretical tools that help keep ‘the state’ at the centre of policy analysis. The paper explores a rupture within the NQF between the fields of education and training by examining practices through which the policy developed between 1985 and 2007. Informed by involvement in these events, the author draws on data gathered from documents and interviews with over 70 participants engaged in making the NQF. Using a conceptual vocabulary derived from Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory the paper analyses the way social antagonisms were constructed and political frontiers drawn in changing political conditions [Laclau, E., Mouffe, C., 1985. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. Verso, London]. The paper argues that the emergence, development and rupture in the NQF can be explained in relation to shifting hegemonic practices that sought to organise social relations throughout the transition and within the post-apartheid era. The policy is portrayed as a feature of the political transition, marking the articulation of elements within the fields of education and training by hegemonic formations concerned with securing a democratic economy within a global market. The analysis runs that there has been a failure to maintain hegemony and that a rupture has occurred along a fault line within the South African state between practices building a corporatist state and those constructing a developmental state. The paper argues that the fractures built into the South African NQF point to complex challenges that states ‘at the margins’ face when simultaneously articulating with differing, contradictory globalised practices, whilst also seeking to build equitable national education systems. Local concerns remain significant in struggles to re-make the state, and education and training policy.     

The Regulation of Teacher Education in South Africa through the Development and Implementation of the National Qualifications Framework （1995 to 2005）

Together with National Qualifications Frameworks （NQFs）in England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia, the South African NQF is part of a somewhat elite, even notorious, and often criticized group of first generation NQFs that were established between the late 1980s and early 1990s. These NQFs were rooted in the thinking on competency, lifelong learning and outcomes-based education that prevailed in the United Kingdom at the timeH. In the subsequent period up to 2005, more than 30 additional countries have embarked on NQF development, while three regional qualification framework initiatives are also currently underway, one in the Southern African Development Community （SADC）, another in the European Union （EU）, and yet another amongst English-speaking Caribbean countries （Tuck et al., 2006）. In the background of this continued drive for NQF development across the world, I use this paper to reflect critically on the extent to which the development and implementation of the South African NQF has impacted on the regulation of teacher education. In particular I discuss the extent to which： （1） provisioning of teacher education has been quality assured through NQF sub-systems; （2） teacher qualifications and standards have been developed and realigned to NQF requirements to accommodate, amongst others, un- and under-qualified teachers; and （3） professional development points for teachers are being introduced to complement the NQF credit systemt. The paper is concluded with specific observations that may be of value to other countries that are using, or plan to use, NQFs to regulate and improve teacher education.     

Much Ado: ‘manpower shortages’ and educational policy reform in South Africa

This paper reviews the historical context behind the ‘manpower shortages’ argument underpinning proposed educational reform in South Africa circa 1980. It seeks to explain how such an argument became a dominant theme and ideological rationale for reform, by examining its passage through liberal reformist discourse into official state‐appointed commission reports. The paper then considers why the ‘manpower shortages’ argument was taken up at that particular time, and argues that it was part of an overall “Total Strategy’ for commodifying black labour through education in the face of the manifest failure of Bantu Education to achieve this end. The paper concludes by discussing briefly the failure of this strategy, and the disappearance of the ‘manpower shortages’ theme from arguments for educational reform.     

When does a nation-level analysis make sense? ESD and educational governance in Brazil,South Africa,and the USA

International policy analysis tends to simplify the nation state, portraying countries as coherent units that can be described by one statistic or placed into one category. As scholars from Brazil, South Africa, and the USA, we find the nation-centric research perspective particularly challenging. In each of our home countries, the effective influence of the national government on education is quite limited, particularly in fringe and emerging areas of education such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Climate Change Education (CCE). This essay explores how nation-level comparisons are and are not useful for international research on ESD and CCE. We consider several layers of decentralized governance, but ultimately come to the conclusion that ESD governance in our respective countries is polycentric rather than decentralized. We discuss the implications of this idea for cross-national policy research on ESD and CCE.     

Markets,equity and democracy — structural adjustment and the tensions of educational change in South Africa

In 1994 South Africa embarked on a process of major reform of an education system that had existed to support and maintain apartheid. Two of the key principles behind these reforms were greater equity and democracy. However, although not formally having a structural adjustment policy, since 1994 the South African government has had close ties with the World Bank and has increasingly adopted the type of free market macro-economic policies that it favours. This article examines tensions in South African educational policy caused by existing policies favouring state initiated redistribution of resources and power on the one hand and the wider context of a mounting emphasis on limiting public expenditure and increasing private provision on the other. It concludes by asking whether South African education would benefit by borrowing from the World Bank to invest in human resources and argues that the potential dangers outweigh the potential benefits.     

Curriculum reform and teaching in South Africa: making a `paradigm shift'?

South Africa's post-Apartheid Grades 1–9 curriculum, Curriculum 2005, has been introduced with many good intentions and an abundance of perceived educationally correct rhetoric. It requires that teachers make a `paradigm shift' from their old teaching practices to new ones. In order to understand better the processes which might be involved in such a transition, a small study was conducted of the way in which Grade 4 teachers performed the assessment of English reading. The results of the study pose fundamental questions about the manner in which Curriculum 2005 has been conceived and introduced.     

Planning,plumbing, or posturing? Explaining the weakness of human resource development structures and policies in South Africa

In South Africa, a national peak structure, the Human Resource Development Council, led by the Deputy President and consisting of key Cabinet Ministers, senior leaders from organised labour and business, community representatives, professional bodies and experts from research and higher education, was established to enable high-level coordination at a strategic level. There is little evidence of achievements of this Council and its associated human resource development strategy. This paper suggests that human resource development strategies in South Africa have been more about posturing to be seen to be doing something, than actually planning the development of the skills of the nation, with one brief period when there was a focus on ‘plumbing’ – or dealing with specifically targeted ‘blockages’ in the skills ‘pipeline’. The underlying problem, we suggest, lies in the very notion of national human resource development, which seems on the one hand to be too broad and unwieldy a concept to be useful to governments; on the other hand, it seems to carry too much of the weight of economic development. These conceptual weaknesses, as well as bureaucratic weaknesses in South Africa, explain the poorly conceptualised structures and processes.     

Social Work and Criminal Justice: Are We Meeting in the Field?

Social workers are needed but infrequently involved with criminal justice systems. One way to increase the number of social workers in the criminal justice system is by exposing students to work in these settings. This study examined the number, types, and utilization of criminal justice field placements in MSW programs by surveying field education directors. On average, 7.73% of field placements were in criminal justice settings. When asked about barriers to criminal justice placements, the most frequently identified challenge was a lack of MSW supervisors. Implications for future research and education are discussed.     

Levelling or Playing the Field? The politics of access to university education in post‐apartheid South Africa

This article identifies the three discursive forces of ‘equity and redress’, ‘development’ and ‘academic standards’ in the structuring of access and admission policies in South Africa. It is argued that these forces undergo a process of complex repositioning within the policy making arena of the National Commission on Higher Education. The discourse of ‘development’, couched in neo‐classical economic terms, emerges as a dominant discourse in this process and shapes the discourses surrounding ‘academic standards’ and, more fundamentally, ‘redress’ policies and strategies. Such oblique effects of the dominant discourse, it is suggested, have fundamentally reframed access and admission policies and strategies proposed by the Commission.     

A world apart? Higher education transformation in the US and South Africa

Higher education transformation is context dependent. However, through a comparison of transformation in South Africa and the United States, this paper highlights challenges and issues confronting higher education leaders and policy makers. Contrasting the experiences and issues of transformation in a long-standing democracy and in a newly emerging one surface key elements such as the structures of national mandates, challenges of urgency and abundance, the importance of a language of “transformation”, and issues of legitimate and tested decision making processes. This paper raises some of the implications for effecting change based upon this trans-national comparison, and concludes with implications for leaders interested in affecting transformation.     

Who will listen to educational researchers? Reflections on the research–policy relationship in the global South,with illustrations from Africa

While it is widely believed that relevant research is needed for educational policy and practice, an important issue is whether policy-makers and implementers are really receptive to such research. This study sets out a conceptual framework relating to the issue in low-income countries, encompassing the cast of characters involved, contemporary influences on role expectations and the potential for exchanges of benefits between actors. In a comparative discussion of four policy-related research projects in African settings, the general difficulty of communicating findings to senior policy-makers is noted, but some factors are identified that may affect the prospects for research to influence various stakeholders. It is argued that, in such settings, formal expectations for research to have a direct impact on policy should be modified, although there is a potential for beneficial influence.     

Compassion,Citizenship and Education in South Africa: An Opportunity for Transformation?

This study explores how citizenship education in South Africa is guided by liberal and communitarian concepts of citizenship. Its contention is that citizenship education, as it has evolved through policy discourses on Values, Education and Democracy, is heavily influenced by liberal and communitarian concepts of citizenship. Nonetheless, the liberal-communitarian concept of citizenship education is not sufficient on its own to bring about educational transformation in institutions. Instead, citizenship education initiatives in South Africa need to promote a sense of compassion, motivating learners to take seriously the suffering of others. It is argued that such compassion represents a precondition of genuine educational transformation.     

Robin Hood or Matthew? Children’s Reasoning About Redistributive Justice in the Context of Economic Inequalities

How should one respond to ubiquitous economic inequalities? The legend Robin Hood suggests to take away from the wealthy to benefit the poor, whereas another strategy holds the opposite (Matthew effect). Here, 3- to 8-year-old children (N = 140) witnessed protagonists performing redistributions (e.g., Robin Hood, Matthew) of necessary and luxury resources between a wealthy and a poor child. Results showed that, with age, children increasingly approved of Robin Hood and increasingly disapproved of Matthew. In addition, reasoning about others’ welfare mediated the effect of age on children’s evaluation of Robin Hood, but only for necessary resources. This suggests that children regard restorative justice actions as a strategy to address social inequalities when it increases the welfare of disadvantaged agents.     

Compassion, Citizenship and Education in South Africa: An Opportunity for Transformation?

This study explores how citizenship education in South Africa is guided by liberal and communitarian concepts of citizenship. Its contention is that citizenship education, as it has evolved through policy discourses on Values, Education and Democracy, is heavily influenced by liberal and communitarian concepts of citizenship. Nonetheless, the liberal-communitarian concept of citizenship education is not sufficient on its own to bring about educational transformation in institutions. Instead, citizenship education initiatives in South Africa need to promote a sense of compassion, motivating learners to take seriously the suffering of others. It is argued that such compassion represents a precondition of genuine educational transformation.     

OBE,RPL and adult education: good bedfellows in higher education in South Africa?

As its title suggests, this paper explores the compatibility of outcomes-based education (OBE), the recognition of prior learning (RPL) and adult education in higher education in South Africa. OBE and RPL entered the consciousness of South African educators in the 1990s, when policymakers, responding to economic and political imperatives to develop a more skilled and flexible workforce, turned to overseas models of integrated education and training systems. OBE and RPL are often described as ‘learner-centred practices’, meaning that learning goals, teaching and assessment processes, content and pace of learning are mutually determined by the tutor and student. Such practices are grounded in a humanistic approach to adult education which places emphasis on the person as a holistic being and allows for considerable differences which characterize mature adult learners. The paper explores the relationship between OBE, RPL and the andragogical model of adult education proposed by Malcolm Knowles, whose theories have acquired the status of established doctrine in South Africa. The paper points to areas of compatibility and difference between OBE, RPL and adult education, and concludes that problems which arise in introducing OBE and RPL in higher education have more to do with features of the context, and the processes of design and implementation, than with inherent defects in the theories underpinning them.     

Unemployment in South Africa on the rise: Are schools and universities to blame?

Abstract

Some critics have placed the blame for the rise in unemployment in South Africa at the doorstep of schools and universities since they are the initial formal education providers. This article argues that the notion that initial formal education should prepare the youth for the job market overlooks the core business of schools and universities, and the fact that the job market is not static. The article contends that schools and universities are there to prepare learners for life in all its spheres, through the development of literacy, numeracy and critical thinking skills. It attempts to put into perspective the breadth and depth of initial formal education as a foundation for life in its entirety, not just for labour. It argues that the said skills enable the youth to access the wealth of knowledge locked up in texts that attempt to explain the wide spectrum of human experience and possibilities. These skills are taught within broad contexts of specific study fields that open job and service provision opportunities in the labour market. The article maintains that in cases where initial education institutions had adequate resources to accomplish their role, South African education has earned international recognition and its graduates have accessed job markets both in South Africa and internationally. It further identifies possible causes of the perceived current high rate of unemployment among the youth of South Africa, for example, the economic climate of the country and the legacy of inequalities in educational provisioning among others.

The article concludes that the popular criticism that universities operate as ivory towers has long become a cliché, since universities, apart from the conventional academic and professional qualification programmes they offer, also provide a variety of career-specific short programmes for people already in employment.