Student Teacher Preparation for Rural Education: An Issue of Social Justice in a Post-Apartheid South Africa

In South Africa employees are protected by various pieces of legislation. Section 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 provides for a right to fair labour practice. In its preamble the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (hereafter referred to as the LRA) states that the purpose of the Act is to advance economic development, social justice, labour peace and democratisation of the workplace. The LRA also states that one of its objectives is to give effect to and regulate the fundamental rights conferred by section 27 of the Constitution. The Occupational Health and Safety Act as amended by the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Act 181 of 1993 provides for the health and safety of persons at work and for the health and safety of persons in connection with the use of plant and machinery. The LRA provides for dismissal for incapacity and dismissals for misconduct. It also differentiates between the two. The LRA provides for both substantive and procedural fairness when dismissing an employee for incapacity and misconduct. This paper will examine the rationale behind differentiating between dismissal for drunkenness and dismissal for alcoholism.

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Student Teacher Preparation: A Collaborative Model to Assist At-Risk Students

Preventing School Failure Alternative Education for Children and Youth ◽

10.1080/10459880209603351 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 46 (2) ◽

pp. 80-85 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Joan Henderson-sparks ◽

Laura N. Paredes ◽

David Gonzalez

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Teacher Preparation ◽

Student Teacher ◽

At Risk Students ◽

Collaborative Model

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Towards social justice in a new South Africa*

Medicine Conflict & Survival ◽

10.1080/13623699708409343 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 229-239 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Solomon R. Benatar

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Justice ◽

New South

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Justice versus Social Justice in South Africa: Quo vadis?

Journal of Law Society and Development ◽

10.25159/2520-9515/4259 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Marelize Isabel Schoeman

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Justice ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Criminal Justice System ◽

Justice System ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Historical Discourse ◽

Self Reflection ◽

Underlying Basis ◽

Quo Vadis

This article explores the concept of criminal justice as a formal process in which parties are judged and often adjudged from the paradigmatic perspective of legal guilt versus legal innocence. While this function of a criminal-justice system is important – and indeed necessary – in any ordered society, a society in transition such as South Africa must question the underlying basis of justice. This self-reflection must include an overview questioning whether the criminal-justice system and its rules are serving the community as originally intended or have become a self-serving function of state in which the final pursuit is outcome-driven as opposed to process-driven. The process of reflection must invariably find its genesis in the question: ‘What is justice?’ While this rhetorical phraseology has become trite through overuse, the author submits that the question remains of prime importance when considered contemporarily but viewed through the lens of historical discourse in African philosophy. In essence, the question remains unanswered. Momentum is added to this debate by the recent movement towards a more human rights and restorative approach to justice as well as the increased recognition of traditional legal approaches to criminal justice. This discussion is wide and in order to delimit its scope the author relies on a Socratically influenced method of knowledge-mining to determine the philosophical principles underpinning the justice versus social justice discourse. It is proposed that lessons learned from African philosophies about justice and social justice can be integrated into modern-day justice systems and contribute to an ordered yet socially oriented approach to justice itself.

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Is Decentralisation a Suitable Response to Improve South African Rural Education?

International Journal of Learning Teaching and Educational Research ◽

10.26803/ijlter.20.6.11 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (6) ◽

pp. 211-224

Author(s):

Kevin Teise ◽

Emma Barnett

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Rural Education ◽

Rural Communities ◽

South African ◽

School Level ◽

High Quality ◽

African Education ◽

Departments Of Education ◽

South African Education ◽

Effectiveness And Efficiency

South Africa (SA) has a decentralised education system. It is generally assumed that decentralisation improves the effectiveness and efficiency of education by responding to the needs, values, and expectations of both local and rural communities. A large part of SA could be described as rural and a large number of learners attend rural schools. This makes rural education a significant part of the South African education context. With education being decentralised, and with decentralisation being heralded as the panacea to the problems faced by rural communities as well as rural education, the assumption is that rural education should be of a high quality. This desk-top paper assesses the potential of decentralisation to improve the quality and effectiveness of South African rural education. This it does by locating decentralisation within neoliberalism which this paper argues is the impetus behind the decentralisation of South African education, and the reason for the decline in the quality and effectiveness of rural education. The paper also highlights certain tensions between the various decentralised spheres of governance, namely the central and provincial Departments of Education and school-level governance structures. The paper further indicates how these tensions potentially hamper the effectiveness and efficiency of rural education. The paper concludes with some recommendations aimed at improving rural education.

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Critical agency in the post-apartheid education system

Journal of Education ◽

10.17159/i61a01 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Nazir Carrim

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Justice ◽

Critical Thinking ◽

South African ◽

Educational System ◽

Education System ◽

The South ◽

African Education ◽

South African Education

This paper looks at critical agency in the South African education system. There has been a consistent linking of critical thinking with critical agency under apartheid, and that this was constructed by a ‘critical struggle’ (Touraine, 1985) against apartheid domination. However, this changed significantly in the post-apartheid moment, where compliance with the newly elected government is emphasised, and could be viewed in terms of ‘positive struggles’ (Touraine, 1986). These, however, limit critical agency in the post-apartheid formation. There is, nonetheless, evidence of critical agency being enacted in the post-apartheid education system. The importance of highlighting those forms of critical agency is crucial in order to enhance social justice in the post-apartheid educational system and society. This paper also links critical agency in the post-apartheid situation with the postcolonial and postmodern conditions because such conditions affect the possibilities of critical agency not only in South Africa but more generally.

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Race, class and violent crime in South Africa: Dispelling the ‘Huntley thesis’

South African Crime Quarterly ◽

10.17159/2413-3108/2009/v0i30a897 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gavin Silber ◽

Nathan Geffen

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Justice ◽

Violent Crime ◽

Poor People ◽

Community Based ◽

The Social ◽

Distribution Of Resources ◽

New Community ◽

Basic Infrastructure

Brandon Huntley was granted asylum in Canada earlier this year based on the argument that whites are disproportionately affected by crime in South Africa. The decision was generally condemned, but it did receive support from various groups and individuals including Afriforum, the Freedom Front and James Myburgh (editor of Politicsweb). In this article we show the flaws in Huntley's argument by presenting evidence from several sources that demonstrate that black and poor people are disproportionately the victims of violent crime in South Africa. We are concerned that painting whites as the primary victims of South Africa's social ills is unproductive, ungenerous and potentially hampers the appropriate distribution of resources to alleviate crime. Furthermore, in order to move the debate on crime in South Africa into a more productive direction, we also describe the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) – a relatively new community based organisation that aims to mobilise communities around improving safety and security for all in South Africa, regardless of race or income. Campaigning for novel pragmatic and coordinated community and government responses to the broader lack of safety and security in the country, the SJC focuses on the introduction and development of basic infrastructure and services as a means of reducing crime.

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"Our roots began in (South) Africa": Modelling law clinics to maximise social justice ends

International Journal of Clinical Legal Education ◽

10.19164/ijcle.v23i3.532 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 88

Author(s):

Donald Nicolson

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Justice ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

Legal Rights ◽

Access To Justice ◽

Legal Service ◽

Legal Professionals ◽

Existing Problems ◽

University Of Cape Town ◽

The University

This article explores the ways in which law clinics can be organised to maximise their impact on social justice in South Africa. Such impact can be both direct in the form of the actual legal services offered to those in need or indirect in the form of encouraging law clinic students to commit to assisting those most in need of legal service after they graduate either through career choice or other forms of assistance. The article develops a decision-making matrix for clinic design around two dimensions, each with a number of variables. The first, "organizational" dimension relates to the way clinics are organised and run, and involves choices about whether: (1) clinics emphasise social justice or student learning; (2) student participation attracts academic credit or is extra-curricular; (3) participation is compulsory or optional; (4) clinics are managed and run by staff or students; and (5) there is one "omnibus" clinic structure covering all clinic activities or a "cluster" of discrete clinics conducting different activities. The second, "activities" dimensions involves choices about whether services are: (1) specialist or generalist; (2) exclusively legal or "holistic"; (3) provided only by students or qualified legal professionals; (4) located in community neighbourhoods or on campus; (5) provided by students working "in-house" in a university clinic or in external placements; (6) designed to benefit the wider community rather than just the individuals directly served; and (7) designed to remedy existing problems or educate the public on their legal rights and duties. While not intending to set out a blueprint for existing law clinics, the article argues that, if South African are motivated to enhance their impact on social justice and level of community engagement, they can learn much from the first law clinic to be established in South Africa, at the University of Cape Town, which was entirely student-run, optional and solely focused on ensuring access to justice rather than educating students. Drawing on his experience in adapting this model for use in Scotland, the author looks at the advantages of combining the volunteerist and student owned nature of this clinic with some formal teaching and staff involvement to maximize both the direct and indirect impact of clinics on social justice.

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