CHAPTER 2: TOOLS REQUIRED TO CARVE A MASTERPIECE AROUND
2.5 THE DILEMMATIC SPACE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AS THE
2.5.3 Race, class and location as a contributing factor to teachers’ dilemmas
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by Ramatlapana and Makonye (2012), who find that the guidelines provided by the CAPS policy document and annual teaching plans are markedly prescriptive and restrictive.
Teachers also lament the unrealistic assessments, which create a dilemma for them in terms of how to use their teaching time (Smith & Kovacs, 2011). The increased administrative work demanded by the CAPS curriculum erodes teachers’ available time;
as a result, they are not able to collaborate, and often work in isolation (Badugela, 2012).
However, the dilemmas faced by teachers within the South African educational landscape are amplified when all schools are treated the same, without due consideration for the specific contextual challenges that some schools confront, such as a lack of resources (Adendorff et al., 2010) and an increased necessity for fundraising (Mestry, 2016). These responsibilities take time away from teaching, yet schools are still expected to adhere to the curriculum timeframes as stipulated by the CAPS document (Msibi & Mchunu, 2013).
Such demands have resulted in the intensification and de-professionalisation of teachers’
work (Kostogritz, 2012).
2.5.3 Race, class and location as a contributing factor to teachers’ dilemmas
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therefore, been a site of contestation, with the legacy of race-based apartheid policies one of the key deciding factors in what experiences people are entitled to (Msila, 2007).
According to David, Soudien and Donald (1999), under apartheid the aspects of class, race, and locality were closely related. People were separated into different groups according to their race, and each race group was exposed to different educational experiences. Schools were segregated along racial lines, and it was an offence for a learner to attend a school not designated for his or her race (David et al., 1999). Schools for particular race groups were subject to specific regulations and funding (Smith, 2011), thus affecting the teachers and learners at the school. The amount of money spent on education for the different race groups varied; with schools for White learners receiving the lion’s share of the available government spending. Although the educational funding gap between the different race groups had narrowed by 1989, the ratio was still 4 to 1 in favour of the White child (Thomas, 1996).
While funding was a significant obstacle to educational equality in the way that it impacted teaching and learning, other barriers to equality were the curriculum, infrastructure and quality of teachers, which were also different for the different race groups (Smith, 2011). Schools for White learners emphasised the importance of academic subjects, while schools for Black learners emphasised more practical subjects that prepared them for manual labour (Fiske & Ladd, 2004; Rakometsi, 2008). The conditions within the schools also varied for the different race groups. Black schools were more overcrowded than White schools, and their school infrastructure was also significantly worse (Spaull, 2013). Educational qualifications for the teachers were also different, with teachers at Black schools tending to be less qualified than those found at White schools (Fiske & Ladd, 2004). According to McConnachie (2014), there was blatant discrimination between the four educational systems in South Africa. Schools for White learners were far better than those for Indian and Coloured learners, and the Black child received the worst quality of education of all. This discrimination extended to aspects such as the qualifications of the teachers employed at these schools, the per capita funding, the infrastructure, equipment and facilities, and so on (David et al., 1999). In essence, Black people, especially those in rural areas, experienced hardship and poverty.
White people were typically shielded from extreme economic conditions (Jacklin, 2001;
Msila, 2007). Despite the abolition of apartheid and the promise of equality, these are the
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contextual realities that the teachers who were part of this study have been required to navigate daily.
2.5.3.1 School diversification and racial integration as a dilemma
Since the formal abolition of apartheid in 1994, and the subsequent integration of learners and diversification of schools, there has been a need for a mental shift in the way teachers, especially, see themselves and also in the way they view others (Tsoaledi & Thobejane, 2013). This mental shift has been especially pertinent with respect to race, which has been at the centre of the South African landscape for a very long time, and which, despite; the abolition of apartheid still influences every aspect of people’s lives (Tsoaledi &
Thobejane, 2013). According to Vandeyar (2010), the educational reforms implemented in post-apartheid South Africa presented new challenges for teachers. One such challenge was the changes associated with the desegregation of schools and the integration of learners of all races. The dilemma for teachers was that most of them were socio- culturally, physically, and emotionally removed from the community and the children they were required to teach (Hargreaves, 2001), and they therefore felt ill-equipped to handle those changes (Vandeyar, 2010). Thus, integration created a dilemma for some teachers, as their personal-professional life experienced a state of conflict. Furthermore, while teachers experienced these difficulties, so too did learners who had been separated from other race groups during apartheid, and who had thus also been restricted in terms of their opportunities to interact with teachers from different race groups (Hofmeyr, 2000).
Thus, the employment of teachers within schools previously reserved for a particular race group has required the unlearning of ingrained views and modifications to their ways of being and doing. There has been a need for a relearning of tolerance and acceptance, irrespective of race, class, gender, culture or language. According to Pöllmann (2016, p.
6), intercultural experiences can offer particularly “context-intensive” opportunities for intercultural learning. This intercultural experience is especially possible when there is a movement across cultures. Such movement can result in insight into what it feels to be (perceived as) the “other”. The respective alterations in attitude and perceptions “can
‘interrupt’ both long-accustomed practical sense and taken-for-granted ways of being
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reflexive, possibly stimulating new forms of reflexive intercultural awareness and a renewed feel for the intercultural game” (Pöllmann, 2016, p. 6). Teachers in post- apartheid South African classrooms can also engage in teaching that will change the way people are viewed, and in the process modify entrenched ways of thinking. People need to be seen not as Black, Coloured, Indian or White, but as equal South African citizens (Cappy, 2016). Issues that arise from the complexities of racial integration within schools have become a reality as learners access schools previously closed off to them. The critical question for teachers is whether they want to be seen as racially tolerant or intolerant, and if they are confronted with situations involving issues of racial tolerance, how they choose to negotiate them (Cappy, 2016).
2.5.4 Contextual forces within schools that lead to teacher dilemmas