scholarly journals SOCIAL SCIENCE STUDENT TEACHERS’ AWARENESS OF THE INTERTWINESS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN MULTICULTURAL SCHOOL SETTINGS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Titus Williams ◽  
◽  
Gregory Alexander ◽  
Wendy Setlalentoa ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Science ◽  
South African ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Social Justice Education ◽  
Education Students ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Science Education ◽  
The Subject

This qualitative study is an exploration of final year Social Science education students awareness of the intertwined nature of Social Science as a subject and the role of social justice in the classroom of a democratic South Africa. This study finds that South African Social Science teachers interpret or experience the teaching of Social Science in various ways. In the South African transitional justice environment, Social Science education had to take into account the legacies of the apartheid-era schooling system and the official history narrative that contributed to conflict in South Africa. Throughout the world, issues of social justice and equity are becoming a significant part of everyday discourse in education and some of these themes are part of the Social Science curriculum. Through a qualitative research methodology, data was gathered from Focus Group Discussion (FGD) sessions with three groups of five teacher education students in two of the groups and the third having ten participants from the same race, in their final year, specializing in Social Science teaching. The data obtained were categorised and analysed in terms of the student teacher’s awareness of the intertwined nature of Social Science and social justice education. The results of the study have revealed that participants had a penchant for the subject Social Science because it assisted them to have a better understanding of social justice and the unequal society they live in; an awareness of social ills, and the challenges of people. Participants identified social justice characteristics within Social Science and relate to some extent while they were teaching the subject, certain themes within the Social Science curriculum. Findings suggest that the subject Social Science provides a perspective as to why social injustice and inequality are so prevalent in South Africa and in some parts of the world. Social Science content in its current form and South African context, emanates from events and activities that took place in communities and in the broader society, thus the linkage to social justice education. This study recommends different approaches to infuse social justice considerations Social Science; one being an empathetic approach – introducing activities to assist learners in viewing an issue from someone else’s perspective, particularly when issues of prejudice or discrimination against a particular group arise, or if the issue is remote from learners’ lives.

scholarly journals Higher education leadership responses applied in two South African comprehensive universities during the COVID-19 pandemic: A critical discourse analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamvalethu Kele ◽  
Pedro Mzileni
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
South African ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Comprehensive Universities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Justice Theory

Background: This article explored the leadership responses that were used by two comprehensive universities in South Africa (Nelson Mandela University and University of Johannesburg) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in continuing with the rolling out of their teaching and learning programmes safely and digitally under disruptive conditions.Aim: Whilst universities in the developing world such as South Africa were expected to face challenges during the pandemic, this article showed that the leadership executives and general staff in two of its large universities, instead, crafted equitable and flexible improvisations to overcome the social challenges that could have posed a threat to their academic project.Setting: The selection of these two specific universities provided a unique opportunity to engage with comprehensive, massified and post-merger former Technikon-university institutions that mainly cater for working-class students.Methods: The social justice theory was utilised to frame the study, whilst critical narrative analysis was the methodology.Results: This research reveals that South African comprehensive universities possess capacity to adapt and innovate in the middle of an institutional crisis using their flexible systems and agile personnel to drive the academy under such circumstances. The study also reveals that the process of social justice is full of contradictions. As the universities created equitable measures to assist underprivileged students, these measures also generated injustices for others.Conclusion: This generated admirable and productive systematic traits to observe about some of our universities, as the South African higher education sector continued to engage with difficult conversations such as transformation.

scholarly journals Perceptions of teacher education students at a South African university on the relationship between culture and education: implications for social justice

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Teise ◽  
Gregory Alexander
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
South African ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Just Society ◽  
Effective Teaching And Learning ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Diverse Cultures

The Constitution of South Africa envisions a socially just society. However, realising this requires an education context that amongst other things, celebrates and promotes cultural diversity. Widely known as the rainbow nation, South Africa is home to diverse cultures, both from within and from all over Africa and the rest of the world. This fact poses particular challenges to education, which is not only required to provide a multi-cultural educational context conducive to effective teaching and learning, but also to promote social justice. However, indications are that SA education fails dismally to achieve both ends. We argue that part of the reason for this failure is the inability of (pre-service) education students to understand, acknowledge and validate the intrinsic relationship that exists between culture and education. As such, they hamper efforts to realise social justice through education. In this paper we report on the perceptions regarding the relationship between culture and education of third- and fourth-year education students at a university in South Africa. We conducted quantitative research amongst a culturally diverse group of students; 266 in total. Findings suggest that students have a limited understanding of this relationship, in spite of the efforts both this university, as well as the education authorities’ attempts. The paper concludes with recommendations for enhancing sensitivity amongst education students about the relationship between culture and education, and the possible implications for social justice as a result of ignorance of this issue.

scholarly journals The Australopithecines – An Extinct Group of Human Ancestors: My Scientific Interest in South Africa

Werkwinkel ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
Katarzyna A. Kaszycka
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Morphological Description ◽  
Australopithecus Africanus ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Australopithecus Robustus ◽  
Extinct Group

Abstract I introduce the subject of my research interest in South Africa - the australopithecines - a group of bipedal, small-brained and large-toothed creatures from the Plio-Pleistocene, from which the human genus arose. I then briefly discuss various topics of my research, concerning: (1) Taxonomic status and morphological description of the extinct human relative from the Kromdraai site (Australopithecus robustus); (2) Graphic reconstruction of the partial skull from Kromdraai - specimen numbered TM 1517; (3) Assessment of size sexual dimorphism of the South African australopithecines (Australopithecus robustus and Australopithecus africanus), which, in terms of facial features, was pronounced - being almost gorilla-sized; (4) Social behavior of a fossil hominid species from around 2 million years ago, which, in terms of the social structure, was most likely a multimale-multifemale one; and (5) An event from the history of paleoanthropology, concerning the content of the 1924/25 photographs of the Taung Child (Australopithecus africanus) - the first australopithecine skull discovered.

scholarly journals South African Social Science and the Azanian Philosophical Tradition

Theoria ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (168) ◽  
pp. 111-135
Author(s):  
Anjuli Webster
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Social Science ◽  
South African ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Ethical Question ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Material Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

This article discusses the contemporary history of South African social science in relation to the Azanian Philosophical Tradition. It is addressed directly to white scholars, urging introspection with regard to the ethical question of epistemic justice in relation to the evolution of the social sciences in conqueror South Africa. I consider the establishment of the professional social sciences at South African universities in the early twentieth century as a central part of the epistemic project of conqueror South Africa. In contrast, the Azanian Philosophical Tradition is rooted in African philosophy and articulated in resistance against the injustice of conquest and colonialism in southern Africa since the seventeenth century. It understands conquest as the fundamental historical antagonism shaping the philosophical, political, and material problem of ‘South Africa’. The tradition is silenced by and exceeds the political and epistemic strictures of the settler colonial nation state and social science.

The Everyday in a Time of Transformation: Exploring a Single South African Lifeworld after 20 Years of Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-54
Author(s):  
P. Conrad Kotze ◽  
Jan K. Coetzee
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Epistemological Framework

Transformation has come to be a defining characteristic of contemporary societies, while it has rarely been studied in a way that gives acknowledgement to both its societal effects and the experience thereof by the individual. This article discusses a recent study that attempts to do just that. The everyday life of a South African is explored within the context of changes that can be linked, more or less directly, to those that have characterized South Africa as a state since the end of apartheid in 1994. The study strives to avoid the pitfalls associated with either an empirical or solely constructivist appreciation of this phenomenon, but rather represents an integral onto-epistemological framework for the practice of sociological research. The illustrated framework is argued to facilitate an analysis of social reality that encompasses all aspects thereof, from the objectively given to the intersubjectively constructed and subjectively constituted. While not requiring extensive development on the theoretical or methodological level, the possibility of carrying out such an integral study is highlighted as being comfortably within the capabilities of sociology as a discipline. While the article sheds light on the experience of transformation, it is also intended to contribute to the contemporary debate surrounding the current “ontological turn” within the social sciences.

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.

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

2016 ◽  
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.

Innovation and technological change in South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 466-488
Author(s):  
Erika Kraemer-Mbula ◽  
Rasigan Maharajh
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
System Performance ◽  
Technology And Innovation ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science Technology And Innovation ◽  
Radical Transformation

This chapter explores the main achievements and remaining challenges in the governance of the South African science, technology, and innovation (STI) system. While reflecting on the inherited features from the apartheid period, it focuses on the period between the two White Papers in 1996 and 2019. The chapter discusses the main shifts in policy emphasis (intents) of these two policy/institutional developments and connects them to the STI system performance and its measurement. It shows that the drastic shift in policy orientation towards addressing social imperatives and the quantitative improvements in the STI outputs since 1994, have not materialized in a radical transformation of the economy or the social relations inherited from apartheid. The chapter argues that the assessment of the STI system needs to be expanded through an evolutionary lens in order to activate the needed systemic transformations.

Social Justice and Inclusion of Children With Diverse Needs in Mainstream Schools

2018 ◽  
pp. 171-185
Author(s):  
Velisiwe Gasa
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
South African ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter opens with a broad statement that coins the social justice and inclusion as prominent concepts. The foundation is laid by giving a clear background using a South African context where there is a gap between the policy and implementation of social justice and inclusion of children in mainstream schools. This explanation goes further when the social justice, inclusion, and related concepts are conceptualised and the relationship brought forth. The main issues that temper social justice and inclusion in the mainstream schools are debated. Furthermore, there is an engagement regarding practices that hamper social justice and inclusivity of children with diverse needs. Finally, the solutions and recommendations that can be considered in dealing with the issues, controversies, or problems presented in this chapter are highlighted.

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