A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Contemporary work in the Sociology of Education has been
sharply polarized between approaches which emphasize the
reproductive role of education systems and those which
emphasize the role of popular resistance and culture in
shaping the social relations of schooling. That opting for
either of these two divergent approaches poses serious
theoretical dilemmas is demonstrated particularly sharply
by attempts to analyze the South African education system
for Africans in the years between the 1940s and 1976. On
the one hand, it is widely seen as a system which
maintained relations of class and racial inequality; on the
other it produced an enormous student rebellion in 1976.
The thesis suggests that viewing education systems as part
of the state, understood as a contested field of social
relations, offers a way of investigating educational
conflict which avoids both the functionalism of
reproductionist perspectives and the voluntarist tendencies
of culturalist interpretations. It enables the valid
insights of these theories to be integrated into an
analysis without their characteristic drawbacks. On this
basis a series of analytical propositions about Bantu
Education are generated.
The thesis argues that the relationship between Bantu
Education policy and capitalism was changing and contingent
rather than fixed, as previous analyses have implied. The
state educational bureaucracy did not function as an
instrument of capital; rather, at certain times its aims
were complimentary with the needs of capital, and at other
times, largely contradictory with them, The education
system reproduced varying levels of skill in the work force
across time. Urbanization and industrialization, were central
forces moulding education policy, the introduction
of Bantu Education policy was a response to urban crisis.
The thesis argues that the way in which state education
policy was pursued was partly shaped by popular movements.
There was a battle within the education system between the
hegemonic project of government and mass resistance.
Changes in popular culture affected the nature of popular
responses to educational structures. Teachers' responses
were particularly affected by their ambiguous structural
position.
The thesis attempt to test these arguments through a
historical investigation of the period from the 1940s to
1976. It argues that the roots of Bantu Education policy
need to be sought in the social crisis resulting fro~
urbanization and industrialization, Which affected South
African society from the 1940s. In the education sphere,
this crisis was manifested in the inability of the existing
black education system to cope with the needs of urban
youth, growing conflict within the mission schools, and
disaffection and radicalization of the African teaching
profession. In these circumstances dominant class opinion
favored state intervention and restructuring of the
education system. The implementation of Bantu Education
from 1955 was initially focused on resolving the urban
crisis, by providing for the social control of the urban
working class and reproduction of a semi-skilled work
force. A notable campaign of resistance, in the form of
school boycotts by the African National Congress, opposed
the policy in 1955-1956, but eventually broke down,
primarily because of its inability to rival the state's
capacity to provide mass schooling. other forms of
resistance to state policy, such as opposition to the
establishment of school boards, teacher activism and
student riots, were too. dispersed and limited to block it.
By the early sixties, a new, state run, cheap education
system had been established. However the grim material
conditions in that system, and its racist administration,
prevented it from exploiting Opportunities to win active
popular support. In the 19608, government, enjoying
favorable political and economic conditions, moved to a
more rigid linking of education policy to the enforcement
of territorial apartheid, especially by preventing the
expansion of urban black secondary, technical and higher
education in the urban areas. It appeared that a degree of
popular acquiescence in the education system was
developing, with the stabilization of popular participation
in the school board system and in conservativee teachers
organizations. However, the system was generating new
industry, was adversely affected by skill
shortages increased by government educational policy, in
the early 1970s industry launched a strong campaign for
change in educational policy, which resulted in a
government shift toward expansion of urban schooling. By
the mid-1970s the changing political situation outside and
inside the country, changes in youth culture, new
ideological influences, and the material problems of the
expanding schooling system were creating a new and more
politicized culture of resistance amongst urban African
youth .The implementation of a new language policy by
government produced first the disaffection of school boards
and then revolt amongst students. The conclusion argues
that the analysis developed in the thesis has justified the
claim. that the theoretical approach adopted in it goes
beyond the limitations of reproductionist and culturalist
studies. / AC 2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/24344 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Hyslop, Jonathan |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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