Women principals in South Africa: gender,mothering and leadership

This paper draws on qualitative data from a mixed‐method study that analysed women's access to the principal role and their leadership experiences. The paper draws on a subset of interviews with 54 female head teachers in the Gauteng and North West provinces of South Africa. Since a mothering style of leadership was self‐reported by over half of the participants in our study, this paper aims to explore the diverse ways in which motherhood was constructed and the outcomes of these constructions on women.     

Provision, acquisition and culture: Literacy research in South Africa

It is hard to overdramatise the impact of recent political changes in South Africa: The seemingly relentless slide into racial polarisation and civil war that was South Africa's expected future has been unexpectedly checked, and a new government is committed to unpicking the social tapestry of half a century of Afrikaner-dominated ethnic minority rule, itself preceded by white domination that goes back into times of British colonial rule. It would seem trite to point out that these happenings have profoundly affected thought and action inside the country. An effect that concerns this paper has been the recent foregrounding and discursive construction of the ‘social problem of widespread illiteracy’ in South Africa.     

基督教与新南非的和平与稳定

新南非建立初期，国家面临种族、党派、政治、经济、社会治安等多种矛盾，南非本土基督教组织把非洲本土的政治、化与西方的基督教思想、民主精神相结合，强调民主、平等的同时，提倡爱与社会整体的和谐，在经济上帮助穷人，用宗教唤起人们的良知，让罪犯在上帝面前主动认罪，让黑人重新找田自信，为化解新南非的种种矛盾，为它在和平、稳定中逐步走向繁荣作出独特的贡献。     

South Africa: The need for a radical restructuring of specialized education in the new South Africa

Sigamoney Naicker, a lecturer in Specialized Education in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Western Cape, provides an analysis of specialized education after one year of the first democratic government in South Africa.     

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.     

南非博士生教育：现状、问题及改革

发展博士生教育是南非高等教育发展中的重要规划。南非博士生教育存在规模水平较低,类型结构单一和支撑条件较弱等问题;当前,南非部分高等院校正致力于高质量地扩大博士生教育规模,增设新的学位类型,以制度创新优化支撑条件水平,以多方面的改革更好地促进博士生教育发展。     

Politics,Poverty and Education in Rural South Africa

This article examines the relationship between poverty and education in South Africa, and how its conceptualisation has changed historically. By analysing two major inquiries into poverty conducted by the Carnegie Corporation (in 1929‐32 and 1982‐84), it highlights the political nature of poverty and also its racialisation in South Africa. Using material from a peri‐urban research study, it extends the analysis to include the underprovision of schooling, gender relationships of poverty and also child labour. The article illustrates how the relationship between poverty and education has been differently constructed in different discourses, and concludes by considering the challenges of developing policies to address the education/poverty nexus in the rural areas of post‐apartheid South Africa.     

Languages,development and reconstructing education in South Africa

The educational crisis in South Africa is examined against the history of language-in-education policy over the last 25 years. The Soweto student revolt in 1976 is identified as a pivotal point, resulting in educational responses which have exacerbated academic failure amongst the majority of school students.The vexed role of African languages in education, vis-à-vis structural constraints, including international `aid', across the continent is discussed as a textured background from which innovative South African educators have had an opportunity to take cognisance.The argument in this article is that curriculum and language-in-education policy changes which came into force in 1997, whilst based on the goal of an equitable school system, are unfortunately flawed both in the conceptualisation process and implementation strategy. The role of African languages, despite policy statements to the contrary, is not adequately addressed.Suggestions which are influenced by developments elsewhere on the continent are offered as alternatives to reconstructing viable education in the country.     

Higher education research in South Africa: Achievements, conditions and new challenges

This paper provides a historical overview of the development of higher education research in South Africa by focusing on past achievements and conditions, and present and future challenges. An attempt is made to point out the changes in both the context and paradigm of higher education research. The authors illustrate how research foci and methods were shaped by the political agenda of the old South Africa, and highlight the issues which higher education currently and in the future will have to address as part of the transformation process of not only higher education, but of South African society as a whole.     

Standards-based accountability in South Africa

The implementation of standards-based accountability (SBA) interventions aimed at improving school performance often focuses on the testing component, at the expense of capacity building. This was the case in South Africa when a SBA programme was instituted by government in 2000, which was accompanied by substantial rises in senior certificate pass rates between 2000 and 2003. Our analysis indicates that the bulk of these effects was achieved by manipulating the results by means of 4 measures: eliminating high-risk candidates, encouraging candidates to register at the easier standard grade, lowering the standard of examination questions, and raising raw scores during the moderation process. However, research results from other school improvement programmes in the country indicate that significant improvement in school performance is possible when capacity-building elements are combined with accountability measures.     

Special Education in South Africa

THE APARTHEID POLICY in South Africa has legally separated its 35 million inhabitants into four official racial groups. Political power and privilege have been vested entirely in the white group (i.e., 14% of the population), while the blacks are sociopolitically disadvantaged. The systems of education and special education strikingly reflect, and are a product of the divided, inequitable society. The majority of black South African students are academically retarded due to the inadequacy and inequity of the educational and sociopolitical system. Moreover, facilities for black handicapped children both within and outside the mainstream are extremely limited. For whites, there are far better facilities for disabled children, but their education system tends to be conceptually antiquated and narrow‐minded. The past decade has seen some improvements in the provision of special education facilities and in the approach to education generally. Significant political changes are now occurring in 1990, which are heralding the downfall of the apartheid system and are likely to produce a major overhaul of the education and special education systems for all children. However, the enormity of numbers involved remains a major problem and calls for innovative solutions.