Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

This is a study of educational change that was carried out at the School of Education (SOE) of the University of Cape Town's (UCT) in July 1998. It is about institutional and human transformation in South African higher education in 1998. The context of this inquiry is situated in South African society and polity from the start of the Apartheid era in the late nineteenth century colonization by the Britain, through the 1948 period of minority Afrikaner nationalist government, and to the time of the historic democratic election in 1994. It deals with postapartheid policies aimed at eliminating apartheid in all areas of society and education. The thesis examines new educational policies and practices that resulted from postapartheid transformational initiatives that addressed past inequities and injustices committed against the African and black majority population. / South African universities were charged with the responsibility of increasing access to formerly excluded students and staff, in circumstances of declining economic fortunes. My central research question was concerned with the changes that had been brought about in the educational system to enable the process of transformation to come about. More specifically, I inquired whether changes had occurred at UCT and if they did, to what extent could they be indicative of a transition from apartheid to a democratic ideal. The research targets the respondents' (students, teachers, administrators) views of transformational experiences, whether positive or negative. The research adopts a case study approach to gain insights into transformation in South African universities' reform process. / UCT was chosen as the focus of this study because as the country's first university established in 1829, it has distinguished itself in many fields and yet has remained largely a historically all white university, up to 1994. The University was also the first to be led by an African female academic leader, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, to transformation. This study found that the University had been greatly transformed at an intellectual and administrative level. Notably, access for disadvantaged South African students has been improved; teaching and learning encouraged critical thinking and participation, and administrators demonstrated dedication to democratic change. However, the study also reveals that there is still a gap between the expectations of a top-notch research university and preparation of students; financial restraints still limit students' learning opportunities. Race, gender, and class issues still constrain efforts to fully democratise the University. Also, the constructs and content of knowledge require changes that reflect a democratic ethos. / The significance of this study lies in its attempts to form a part of the growing body of research concerned with conflict resolution, peace, and the maintenance of stability in South Africa and indirectly, in the world. This study furthermore exposes a view of what open education means within the South African context. / In highlighting the example of UCT's SOE, the most outstanding feature of this work is that it formulates questions about the actual nature and process of educational, pedagogical, and administrative transformation taking place in contemporary South African universities.

This Dissertation examines Sichuan students' attitude toward modern education in the transitional times. The text describes the intrinsic crisis of the civil service examination system in the late nineteenth century, the establishment of the new school system in the first decade of the twentieth century, and the birth of the first generation of the new political elite in Sichuan after the 1911 Revolution. It highlights the students' participation in the educational reform from their motives of career-seeking and social mobility rather than from their political sentiments such as radicalism, nationalism, and modernization. The study argues that without fundamental social and economic change, educational reform in inland China did not cause a substantial change in the students' traditional attitude towards education. The new school system, substituting for the abolished civil service examination system, functioned as a new ladder of success or a new elite recruiting mechanism for the students. The study suggests that statistical growth did not mean modernity. Tradition played an important role in inland China's modernization movements in the twentieth century by shaping the ways that were used to pursue the aims of the movements and the motives of the people who participate in the movements. Extensive primary documents - ranging from government decrees to local gazetteers - are employed in the study, and attention is paid to the similarities and contrasts between Sichuan and the coastal provinces. Quite a number of tables and a comprehensive bibliography are also included.