The schooling system and the reproduction of selves in the post-apartheid era in South Africa : a dialogic approach.
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The mandate of the apartheid regime was to oppress the indigenous people of South Africa so \nthat they would perpetually be subservient to white people. The education system was \nengineered to keep the binary of white supremacy and black inferiority intact. By \ninstitutionalizing whiteness as a norm or standard, the education system was instrumental in \nportraying black people as inadequate or not good enough while representing whites as \nexcellent. The unintended outcome was the emergence of struggle cadres who fought the \ninjustices of apartheid and ushered in a democratic dispensation that seeks to redress the \ninequities brought on by apartheid through, inter alia, a non-racial education system. Nonracialism \nnotwithstanding, the education system is shown to be reproducing the white excels \nand black-is-not-good-enough identity binary. Not only does this marginalize African \nunderstandings of the self, it also fails to articulate the multiple selves that have emerged by \ndefault through intermingling of cultures, as a non-racial identity is pursued. \nThis study uses the narrative interpretivist methodology to explore how black learners who \nattend predominantly white schools construct their identities within multiple meaning \nsystems in their liveworlds and lifeworlds. Taking the plurality of selves and the dialogic \naccount of human functioning as advocated by Ubuntu and Dialogism as its point of \ndeparture, this study uses interviews and focus groups to explore how black learners in \npredominantly white schools make meaning and negotiate the tensions, contradictions, and \npower dimensions in identity construction post-apartheid. Fifteen students recruited from \nFurther Education and Training (FET) Colleges participated in the study. The results indicate \nthat black learners, rather than allow the institutionalized binary of white superiority and \nblack inferiority to define them, develop a framework to articulate multiple selves that \nchallenge and exist in tension with the binary. Six self-narratives were identified: the black \ndeficiency, white excellence, black excellence, non-racial self, revolutionary/ rebellious self, \nand a connected self, informed by the idea of Ubuntu. While the first three are shown to \nentrench the binary, they co-exist with the others to form multiple selves that are fluid and \ncharacterized by contradictions, tension and contestation of power. It is this framework, \nwhich I refer to as Ubuntu-as-dialogue that reconciles the black learners’ multiplicity formed \nby default through intermingling of cultures. It uses dialogic tools to articulate multiple selfnarratives \nwithout marginalizing Ubuntu, on which African approaches to selfhood are \nfounded. These findings have the following implications for policy, research, theory and \npractice. Ubuntu-as-dialogue framework needs to be institutionalized by the schooling system \nin order to enable multiple identities to emerge post-apartheid. This includes, inter alia, \nensuring that indigenous languages are taught at the same level as the other dominant \nlanguages. Research on identity development needs to be informed by the lived experiences \nof black learners rather than relying on Western Cartesian theories as these are proven not to \napply to the South African black population who have a communal collectivist orientation.
Author: Charity Thobile. Sifunda
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2337770159