scholarly journals Critical agency in the post-apartheid education system

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.

Decolonization of Higher Education in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 380-401
Author(s):  
Ali Arazeem Abdullahi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Education System ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
African Education ◽  
Western Education ◽  
South African Education ◽  
Academic Imperialism

Abstract Western education still dominates the education terrain across Africa. For some people, the dominance is nothing but ‘academic imperialism,’ which is believed to have relegated African scholars to mere conduits of knowledge through which European and American scholarship and interests are protected and promoted. Consequently, a dissident voice is resonating in the African educational system, particularly South African education system, demanding the recognition of ‘home-grown’ knowledge to solve home-grown problems. This article engages the debate about decolonization of higher education in South Africa and asks the fundamental question of whether or not it is possible to achieve a fully decolonized curriculum in a society that is already cloaked and engulfed by capitalism and Western ideologies.

scholarly journals The emergence of an education policy dispositif in South Africa: An analysis of educational discourses associated with the fourth industrial revolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aslam Fataar
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Research Association ◽  
The South ◽  
African Education ◽  
Generic Skills ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
South African Education ◽  
The Impact

The notion of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has recently entered the public and policy domain in South Africa. It has rapidly found resonance in policy discourse and the popular media. It has also entered the language of educational policy and institutions. The impact of 4IR on educational thinking and practice has hitherto not featured in academic discussion on education in South Africa except for a keynote plenary session at the annual conference of the South African Education Research Association (SAERA) in Durban (October 2019). The South African Education Deans Forum recently published a call for the submission of chapters for a book on teacher education, 4IR, and decolonisation. In this article, I develop an address that I delivered at the SAERA 2019 conference as part of the plenary panel. The article consists of four sections. The first offers a consideration of the entry of 4IR discourse into the educational imaginary. I suggest in this section that 4IR discourse has installed a socio-technical imaginary in South Africa's unequal educational dispensation. The second section concentrates on the construction of educational governance. Based on research on 4IR-related policy making, I discuss the policy directions taken by the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Basic Education in giving effect to ways of engaging with 4IR in each of their domains. The third section features a discussion of the impact of technological disruption on society, the economy and education. The final section presents a discussion of the emerging educational architectures in the 4IR and a critical consideration of the curriculum and pedagogical dimensions of 4IR, which, I argue, are informed by an orientation that prioritises the acquisition of generic skills. Sidelining knowledge and concepts as central to the structuring of the curriculum, a generic skills approach succumbs to what might be called a knowledge blindness that holds pernicious consequences for epistemic access in South Africa.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document