In 1994, the new democratic government brought with it a desegregated national
education system that resulted in an influx of large numbers of black learners at
historically white schools. Meier (2005:170) states that some of the black learners, who
were accepted at historically white schools, found it very difficult to adjust to the new
educational environment, because they lacked the language skills and required
background knowledge to deal with the curriculum contents and medium of instruction.
In the Northern Cape, multicultural education unfolded in a similar fashion, as in the rest
of South Africa. Currently 69% of all learners registered at historically white Further
Education and Training (FET) schools in the province are black, whilst only 9% of the
teaching staff is black (Northern Cape Department of Education, EMIS, 2008). The staff
complement in most historically white schools does not reflect the concomitant learner
population of these schools. This is a clear indication of the uneven distribution of the
educator-learner ratio, if the issue of culture is considered. This state of affairs may
result in cultural misunderstandings and the consequent breakdown in educator-learner
relations. This may result in the escalation of unsatisfactory scholastic experiences
internalised by black learners.
The aim of the study is to evaluate the scholastic experience of black learners in
multicultural FET schools in the Northern Cape. The objectives are:
to ascertain what the characteristics of multicultural education are, as well as the issues
and challenges learners and educators are confronted with; and to provide staff
members with effective and practical guidelines and strategies in dealing with underlying
pedagogical challenges, relating to the current scholastic experiences of black learners
in multicultural school settings.
The study will comprise of a literature study as well as an empirical investigation, by
way of the quantitative research method. Self designed questionnaires will be used to
gather information from both educators and learners, respectively. It may therefore be
possible that these findings may be used to improve the teaching and learning process. It is further hoped that the latter may ultimately lead to the improvement of the scholastic
experience of black learners in multicultural FET schools in the Northern Cape. Finally,
the findings of this study may also be used to develop an educatorâs guide for staff of
multicultural FET schools in the Northern Cape. This educatorâs guide will comprise of
effective and practical guidelines, skills, strategies as well as approaches with which
multicultural teaching and learning could be pursued.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-03222011-155944 |
| Date | 22 March 2011 |
| Creators | Mpisi, Anthony Sydney |
| Contributors | Dr MG Badenhorst, Dr G Alexander |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-03222011-155944/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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