Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching: Global lessons

The government of South Africa, through the national department of education and various provincial education branches, has called for an upscale in the use of multigrade teaching in primary schools, many of which are located in rural areas where, for various reasons, it is a challenge to get teachers to take up teaching appointments. At the same time as the country faces teacher shortages, there is also a situation of underqualified and unqualified teachers in the school system. Drawing on a literature review and data collected in a qualitative study, this article sampled 25 multigrade teachers in rural township and farm schools in the Eastern Cape and reported on the professional training needs of these teachers and the implications for teacher in-service education and training in a higher education institution. It revealed multigrade teaching skills deficiency among teachers, many of whom were underqualified as professional teachers. In-service education programmes, such as the BEd programme, which are supposed to address practising teachers’ professional training needs, do not have modules or topics on multigrade teaching. The author proposed key areas of training to address multigrade teachers’ needs and ways to incorporate multigrade topics into the BEd in-service programme, but theorised that the absence of multigrade in mainstream teacher training schemes is further evidence of the lack of recognition of multigrade as a legitimate practice in schools. Avenues for further research have been proposed.

Volume 15, Issue 2, 2009 SARE Southern African Review of Education A Review of Comparative Education, History of Education and Educational Development SACHES THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN COMPARATIVE AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION SOCIETY Southern African Review of Education (SARE) is the journal of the Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society (SACHES). It was previously published together with Education with Production (EWP), the journal of the Foundation for Education with Production. Editor of SARE: Linda Chisholm, Human Sciences Research Council [Fax 012 302 2247. Tel 012 302 2208. E-mail: LChisholm@hsrc.ac.za] Associate editors: Aslam Fataar Peter Kallaway Mark Mason Seán Morrow Crain Soudien International Advisory Board Martin Carnoy, Stanford University, USA Cati Coe, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA Wim Hoppers, Stockholm University, Sweden Ulla Kann, SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency), Windhoek, Namibia Kenneth King, Edinburgh University, Scotland Simon McGrath, Notthingham University, UK Karen Mundy, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada Joel Samoff, Stanford University, USA Yusuf Sayed, University of Sussex, UK, and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA Richard Tabulawa, University of Botswana Leon Tikly, Bristol University, UK Keith Watson, University of Reading, UK Allan Wieder, University of South Carolina, USA Willy Wielemans, CESE, Brussels, Belgium SACHES Executive Committee: Thobeka Mda (President), Sheldon Weeks (Vice-President), Petro van Niekerk (Treasurer), Charl Wolhuter (Secretary), Thabo Msibi (Membership Secretary), and Zaida Cabral, Linda Chisholm, Harold Herman, Peter Kallaway, Thekiso Khati, Mark Mason, Chika Muyebaa, Mary Ochieng and Crain Soudien (Committee Members) Production editor and typesetting: Marion Boers [011 803 2681 words@boers.org.za] Printing: LaserCom [011 699 8300] SARE Southern African Review of Education A journal of comparative education, history of education and educational development Volume 15, Issue 2, December 2009 CONTENTS EDITORIAL NOTES 3 ARTICLES 7 Clarence Williams 7 Employment equity and Western Cape educators, 2002–2007 Adjoa Acquah 27 Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects in the South African labour market MR Montsi and HJ Nenty 45 Preference for teaching as a career among students at the University of Botswana Byron Brown 61 Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching: Global lessons for South Africa Isaac Ntshoe Hidden and subtle effects of racism in law and school policy in post-apartheid South Africa 85 Aslam Fataar 105 Youth becoming across the rural-urban landscape: The case of Fuzile Ali at a Muslim community school in Cape Town Salim Akoojee 117 Scarce skills and public technical and vocational education and training in South Africa: Twin challenges or two sides of the same coin? BOOK REVIEW Yvonne Reed on 139 139 Key Issues in Teacher Education: A Sourcebook for Teacher Educators in Developing Countries SACHES MEMBERSHIP SACHES membership form and information 26 WCCES WCCES 2010 World Congress 116 SARE Contents of previous issues of SARE Notes to contributors 143 IBC Editorial notes This is the last issue of SARE that I will edit. I took up the reins from Sheldon Weeks in 2004 and now hand over to Aslam Fataar at the University of Stellenbosch. Over the last five years, with a team of extremely dedicated and hard-working associate and occasional guest editors, a distinguished international editorial board and an indefatigable production editor, we have managed to bring out the journal on a regular basis twice a year. The end of this cycle bears some reflection on the focus and challenges we have faced over these last few years. These editorial notes are thus also a departure from previous notes. The Southern African Review of Education (SARE) is probably one of the few, if not the only journal focused on education in Southern Africa that is connected to a globally organised community of scholars. It does not owe its existence to this community, but is nonetheless integrally linked to it as the journal of the southern African chapter of the World Congress of Southern African Societies, known as the Southern African Comparative and Historical Education Society (SACHES). Its stature, despite its small size, is recognised in one of its members, Crain Soudien, being president of the World Congress. It is moreover unique in this world community for including in its founding title the idea and construct of history. SARE owes its existence on the one hand to an educational movement based throughout southern Africa of the 1970s and 1980s that was both anti-apartheid in focus and sought alternatives to existing ways of doing education. The predecessor of SARE was the journal of the Foundation for Education with Production – it embodied not only an international approach to the relationship between education and work, but was also based in the development of concrete, experimental educational alternatives open to research, criticism and development. These were explored in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and Tanzania. The relationship between theory and practice was central to the conception and execution of its practitioners. SARE also owes its existence to the effort by local anti-apartheid educationists to reconnect with the global community when the apartheid walls began to crumble through the creation of SACHES in 1995. It is one of the few regional bodies, especially from the South, whose presence at conferences of other chapters, especially in the US and UK, is consistently felt, evidence of the felt need for connectedness. At the time SACHES was founded, there were vibrant education research communities in neighbouring countries; SACHES built a relationship with them, but this relationship can be strengthened. It developed its own membership base in southern African countries and its presence here has meant that SARE has always had a healthy number of contributions not only from South Africa but also from southern Africa. The 4 fact that the journal was edited by Sheldon Weeks from Botswana for many years and continues to maintain a strong link testifies to the cross-border relationships that do exist. He has played a vital role in keeping such links alive. The focus of SARE accordingly reflects its history and situation. The mission of the journal is to bring together contributions from and initiate dialogue among contributors whose approaches provide a critical examination of education and development and range across ethnographic inquiry, survey research, philosophical reflection and historical investigation. Its founders saw the need for a journal that would transcend the boundaries of the countries from which its members came and which would provide an opportunity for scholarship that would locate itself, simultaneously, in national, regional and global contexts. In 1996 it formed a partnership with Education with Production (EWP), the official journal of the Foundation for Education with Production. EWP, in its 11 years of existence, was an important international outlet for research and comment on innovative work-related educational initiatives around the world. Together SARE and EWP constituted a distinctive voice in the family of education journals locally and internationally. As well integrated as SACHES and SARE members and contributors are into the global community of scholars, SARE is fundamentally shaped by the nature of research and reflection in universities on the challenges of education and development and comparative questions and by the realities of unequal development. Let me deal with each in turn. First, the approach to what comparative education is is in part related to the nature of international debates in this area and in part to the limited space of comparative education in teaching at universities and its subordination to courses only tangentially related to development and comparative education. Many of SACHES’s northern counterparts have their roots in the aid relationship; research flows from the funding of research on and in developing countries by international, multilateral and bilateral agencies. SACHES members are sometimes partners in this research, sometimes not. Many submissions to SACHES reflect this paucity of reflection on comparative debates and issues in regional universities and the strength of consultancy research funded by international agencies and sometimes national governments. But many contributors also reflect the narrowness of approach to many of the educational problems facing countries in the region. Contributions often either uncritically accept development constructs and approaches or are devoid of any sense of context or theory and debate in the area of development studies and comparative education. Second, the realities of unequal development impact on SACHES and SARE in its paradoxically simultaneous closeness and distance from global journal publication processes. The closeness is manifest in the immediacy and unmediated character of global discourses in the local context. The distance is painfully obvious in actual processes of journal production and distribution. Integration into the world market of 5 journal publishing, so important for local scholars in universities, depends on integration into global publishing networks. For scholars in the South facing burdensome challenges and workloads in universities, the compensations for involvement in what is essentially a local cottage industry are sometimes simply not worth it. Without integration into these processes, production and distribution processes are extremely onerous. The journal then depends on people who have time, probably the most scarce resource for scholars in the South of Africa. Our connectedness with a global mother body has done nothing for us to date in terms of changing this unequal relationship. We are being required to perform according to much the same procedures as elsewhere in the world and yet we do so under conditions that are vastly different from those in the rest of the world. Journal publication is a microcosm of this. All journals stand in some relation or another to this issue – but it is a particular irony for a journal devoted to the study of development. What are the options about what to do? These follow the same pattern as any approach to globalisation. Abjure participation in global networks and seek local solutions (not an option in my view), or seek entry into markets from which we are excluded through linking up with others in the same boat – finding ways and means through which our distinctiveness is recognised – or some kind of combination of these options. Ultimately, as long as the national scholarly communities of southern Africa are linked to global performativity discourses, resolution of these issues needs to be arrived at through conscious and collective intellectual deliberation on what to do, for which SACHES is one very important forum. SARE should be and can become a critical forum in which these and other issues related to knowledge production in the particular conditions of Southern Africa will become not only discussed and debated but also addressed. Linda Chisholm These notes are based on a panel presentation made at the SACHES conference in Stellenbosch from 2 to 4 November on The Poetics, Politics and Pragmatics of Publishing organised by Aslam Fataar 6 Employment equity and Western Cape educators, 2002–2007 Clarence G Williams University of the Western Cape Abstract The Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998) was promulgated to actualise employment equality and equity in South Africa. While the efforts to actualise equality of opportunity in the South African workplace have gained general acceptance within society, those aimed at ensuring the equitable representation of all sectors of the South African population in all categories and levels of the workplace by means of affirmative action have elicited adverse criticism from many quarters. The main criticism levelled at the Act is that owing to the political imperatives by which it is driven it prioritises outcomes above inputs. This paper investigates the efforts of the Western Cape Education Department to implement the Act during the period 2002–2006. An analysis of its Employment Equity Plan of 2002–2007 indicates that while it was generally Employment Equity Act-compliant, it failed to contribute significantly towards the actualisation of employment equity in its school-based educator sector as it did not take cognisance of national, provincial and local contingencies or individual intentions and decisions that impact on employment patterns. To have expected strict and mechanistic pursuance of the employment equity targets by school governing bodies was unrealistic. Key words: equity, equality, employment quotas, employment targets, fairness, merit, contingencies Introduction Policy is not simply a matter of being written and then being received and acted upon. It is, as Bowe and Ball (1992: 22) point out, ‘subject to interpretation and then “recreated”.’ People do not engage in policy texts as naïve readers or passive recipients. Policies are interpreted differently as the histories, experiences, values, interests and goals of people differ. Fitz and Halpin (1991: 135) speak of the ‘complexities, contin- Williams, CG. (2009) Employment equity and Western Cape educators, 2002–2007. Southern African Review of Education, 15(2): 7-25. 8 Williams gencies and competing interests’ that impact on policy implementation. As a result, parts of policy texts will be ‘rejected, selected out, ignored, deliberately misunderstood, responses may be frivolous, etc.’, according to Bowe and Ball (1992: 22). During the process of moving from central government to institutional level, a filtering thus takes place that could result in a mismatch between the intention of the policy and the implementation of the policy. The policy-makers can thus not control how policy will be implemented in the context of practice. This article focuses on the constraining influence that the provincial context has had on the attainment of employment equity and how the main role-players at school level have interpreted the policy of employment equity and internalised the policy in terms of the context of the schools. The article will thus concentrate on the constraining influence that contextual contingencies have had on the implementation of employment equity policy. South Africa has a history that is characterised by colonialism, slavery, patriarchy and, more recently, blatant racial discrimination manifested in the policy of apartheid. Various racist and sexist laws and practices resulted in systemic, structural discrimination and inequality for a black majority and for women across the racial divides. This discrimination against blacks, women and the disabled was especially manifest in the workplace, where the disadvantaged workers were caught in a ‘web of prejudice and legal discrimination’ that disallowed social and economic opportunities (Coetzee and Vermeulen 2003: 17). A major challenge faced by the post-apartheid government was to achieve moral and practical redress in the workplace. Article 9 of the Constitution makes provision for the promotion of the achievement of equality by legislative and other measures designed to advance persons or categories of persons who have been disadvantaged by unfair discriminatory practices. To give effect to this article, numerous laws were promulgated to eliminate racial and gender discrimination and promote equity in the workplace. Of all the laws the Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998) represents the most significant attempt by the post-apartheid government to achieve equality in the workplace. Cédley (2001: 2) refers to it as ‘one of the most elaborated pieces of legislation worldwide dealing with the highly debated issues of unfair and positive discriminations (sic)’. In the next section of this article the Employment Equity Act is interrogated. In the Act the key concepts of equality and equity are not clearly defined, neither are the processes (targets and quotas) for achieving these or the principles of merit and fairness that underpin these processes. An attempt is made to clarify these concepts on the basis of a literature survey of policy documents, the interpretation of the Employment Equity Act by experts in the field of labour legislation, and public pronouncements of some leading politicians and social scientists. This section is concluded by a broad overview of some of the main criticisms levelled against the notion of affirmative action as it is embodied in the Act. Employment equity and Western Cape educators 9 In the public education sector of South Africa the nine provincial education departments, of which the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is one, were entrusted with the responsibility of implementing the Employment Equity Act. In 2002 the WCED launched its five-year Employment Equity Plan aimed at meeting employment equity targets at education institutions (excluding further education and training colleges). This article provides an analysis of the WCED Employment Equity Plan within the theoretical framework provided under the discussion of the Employment Equity Act. The study indicates that the WCED did not manage to realise its employment equity targets. This study was motivated by the aim of ascertaining what factors had negated the attainment of employment equity for educators in Western Cape state schools during the period 2002–2007. The changing migratory patterns in the Western Cape were certainly a major contributing factor, as they meant that the employment equity goalposts were continuously shifting. However, even if the demographics of the economically active population of the Western Cape, on which the employment equity targets were based, had remained unchanged from 2002 to 2007, the WCED would still not have attained its employment equity targets. A preliminary investigation indicated that the context of practice had played a significant role in the final outcome of the Employment Equity Plan. In 2008 it was thus decided to conduct a qualitative survey amongst an opportunistic sample of 30 school leaders who formed part of a study group. The 30 school leaders consisted of 19 coloured educators (10 school principals, six deputy principals and three heads of department), two of whom were attached to predominantly African schools, 10 African educators (six school principals and four deputy principals) and one white educator (a school principal). Of the 30 school leaders, 18 are male and 12 female, while 14 were attached to primary schools, 13 to high schools and three to special needs schools. Four of the schools to which the school leaders were attached are located in peri-urban areas, and the remaining 26 in an urban area. These 30 school leaders were required to interview a minimum of four school-based educators to ascertain the general perceptions regarding the implementation of their schools’ employment equity plans. The respondents were specifically requested to identify those factors that either hampered or facilitated the attainment of their school’s employment equity target. The responses of the school-based educators are presented in generalised form in the penultimate section of this article. In the concluding section of the article the main research findings are summarised. The Employment Equity Act The purpose of the Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998) is to promote employment equality and equity between the previously advantaged sectors of the South African population and the designated groups of black people (which is a generic term used to denote Africans, coloureds and Indians), women and people with disabilities in the workplace who are deemed to have been disadvantaged by the previous government. 10 Williams Wessels (2005: 125) refers to the concepts of equity and equality as ‘the major transformation-related concepts in the public service’. An analysis of the Employment Equity Act reveals that no clear distinction is drawn between these two concepts. In the next two paragraphs an attempt is made to distinguish between them on the basis of the inferences contained in the Act. The concepts of equality and equity, which are often conflated, can best be described as historical constructions shaped by diverse, competing traditions and ideologies. These concepts are therefore not value-free and neutral, neither do they have universal meaning. What is inferred in the Employment Equity Act approximates what is generally referred to as equality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity can be applied in the civil, political, social and economic spheres. In the social sphere it connotes that ‘… equally gifted and motivated citizens must have approximately the same chances at offices and positions, independent of the economic or social class and native endowments’ (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2009: 11). Stated differently, ‘Equal opportunity prevails when human beings effectively enjoy equal realms of possibility’ (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2009: 14). Officially in South Africa a distinction is drawn between formal and substantive equality (RSA 1997). Formal equality is attained when laws and practices that have caused discrimination and inequality are eradicated, while substantive equality is attained when ‘social and economic conditions that generate disparities’ have been removed. The focus should be on attaining both formal and substantive equality. In the Employment Equity Act affirmative action is regarded as the means of removing artificial barriers to employment that invidiously exclude on the basis of race, gender and disability. When these artificial barriers have been removed the ideal of equality of employment opportunities would have been attained – which in the vernacular is referred to as the levelling of the playing fields. In the Act equity is inferred to connote the proportional representation of all population groups. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009: 5) treatment of others or distribution is proportional when ‘it treats all relevant persons in relation to their due’. In employment terms, proportional equality or equity is achieved when all the sectors of a population are represented in all occupational categories and levels in proportion to their numbers in society. Where members of the designated groups are underrepresented, affirmative action is regarded as the means of achieving employment equity. In essence this means the preferential treatment of those categories of the designated groups who are underrepresented owing to past unfair discrimination. A basic tenet of the Employment Equity Act is that employment equality is a necessary precondition for employment equity. Another basic precept of the Employment Equity Act is that underrepresentation is due primarily to unfair discrimination in the workplace. It minimises the importance of other societal and structural factors that could have contributed towards the underrepresentation. It also ignores the fact that not all women and people with disabilities aspire to Employment equity and Western Cape educators 11 leadership positions to the same extent as their counterparts. By exercising their free choice they might have contributed towards the iniquities that exist in the workplace. Determination of the level of underrepresentation of the designated groups is regarded as a prerequisite for the application of affirmative action: it forms the basis of employment quotas and numerical employment targets. The Employment Equity Act regards numerical goals rather than employment quotas as acceptable for securing employment representation, but does not provide a distinction between the two terms. One has to look elsewhere for such a distinction. According to the American Supreme Court, as quoted by Louw (2006: 337-338), a quota imposes a fixed number or percentage that must be achieved, irrespective of the qualifications of the potential applicants. A numerical goal on the other hand is a realistically determined objective – taking cognisance of the number of vacancies expected and the number of qualified candidates available in the work sector. In determining numerical targets or goals, due cognisance is taken of the prevailing conditions and this is done in consultation with employees. A further distinction between quotas and targets is the fact that quotas are rigid and inflexible and determined by an outside agency (Louw 2006: 338). According to the Employment Equity Act (section 19) employers are obligated to undertake an organisational analysis to determine whether the employees from designated groups are underrepresented. Section 20 makes provision for the formulation of an employment equity plan, which must include numerical goals to ensure equitable representation of employees who are suitably qualified. Numerical targets are thus to a large degree dependent on the level of underrepresentation of the designated groups in the workforce of the organisation, and to a lesser extent on criteria of rationality and fairness. Ideally the determination of numerical goals should be followed by affirmative action measures to achieve these goals. These include preferential recruitment, accelerated development, succession planning and talent management (Selby and Sutherland 2006: 42). Ramphele (2008: 19) refers to this as the ‘broadening of the base from which one recruits staff to ensure that previously excluded sectors of the population are included in the net’. Ramphele (2008) also proposes the establishment of support networks to provide mentoring and coaching for new appointees. In the absence of such measures, the numerical goals deteriorate into quotas, according to Louw (2006: 342). One way to ameliorate the negative effects of affirmative action is to ensure fairness of the policies, procedures and processes used in making appointments. Based on a general survey done by Coetzee and Vermeulen (2003: 18) a number of guidelines should be applied to ensure fairness. These are the provision of advance notice of intent and accurate information as well as sufficient feedback; the support of two-way communication; the explanation and justification of decisions; the provision of opportunities for employees to have an influence on the decision; the consideration of the interest, views and concerns of all concerned; the allowance for appeal, review, reconsideration and where appropriate correction; the treatment of employees with 12 Williams dignity, respect and sensitivity; and lastly the consistent application of administrative procedures. These will contribute towards the fostering of perceptions of fairness. Fairness does, however, have a multidimensional character, and is perceived differently by different employees depending on whether the focus is on motives, outcomes or procedures (Coetzee and Vermeulen 2003: 19). Merit is a concept closely interwoven with that of fairness. According to Louw (2006: 338), merit refers to the skills, attributes and characteristics that are determinants of an applicant’s suitability and ability to perform a specific task. Thus a combination of an applicant’s personal attributes and inherent requirements of the job determines the merits of an applicant. If gender, race and disability are not inherent requirements of a job, questions are raised regarding the merits of the appointment. Perceptions of unfairness often arise from an employee’s belief that appointments were not based on merit. This has resulted in the contention that affirmative action is quintessentially incompatible with merit (Aberson and Haag 2003: 124). The Employment Equity Act is ambivalent regarding the question of merit appointments. On the one hand, it promulgates merit appointment on the basis of formal qualifications, prior learning and relevant experience. On the other hand, it claims that no one can be unfairly discriminated against solely on the grounds of the lack of relevant experience, providing he or she has ‘capacity to acquire, within a reasonable time, the ability to do the job’. Experience is thus not regarded as an essential requirement for appointment to a leadership position. In essence this means that if a person from a designated group has the relevant experience, then this criterion will be applied. Otherwise, the capacity to acquire the ability to do the job should be the determining factor. How this capacity is to be determined is not defined. The Employment Equity Act proposes the appointment of ‘suitably qualified’ people from designated groups – and not necessarily the best candidates. This does imply the justification of the appointment of a lesser qualified person if this is done in pursuance of a legitimate numerical goal. Ramphele (2008: 19) regards the appointment of a less-qualified person in an essential service area such as education as totally irresponsible and against the public good. She proposes a healthy balance between political imperatives and performance requirements. There was general acceptance of the sections of the Act that promote equality of opportunity by the South African public. Kranich (2001) provides an explanation for this reaction: ‘Policies that stress fairness as uniform distribution tend to succeed with the privileged because they appear to entitle everyone; and thus reinforce the dominant construction of fairness as equality.’ The attempt to achieve employment equity has evoked the most controversy. According to De Beer (as cited by Leonard 2005: 74), the maintenance of professional standards is regarded as subservient to political, legal, moral and social aims in the Employment Equity Act, and it prioritises output policies above input policies. In a similar vein, Coetzee and Vermeulen (2003: 18) regard affirmative action as representing compliance with a political imperative. This inevitably leads to the application of affirmative action as an exercise in window Employment equity and Western Cape educators 13 dressing without taking due cognisance of the suitability of the candidate or providing the requisite support and development – the prioritisation of output policies above input policies. This creates general dissatisfaction amongst the other employees, and creates the impression of unfairness. This perception of unfairness impacts negatively on organisational effectiveness (Coetzee and Vermeulen 2003: 19). Another criticism levelled at affirmative action is that it constitutes reverse discrimination. The basis of this criticism is the perception that previously disadvantaged people are appointed ‘at all costs’ – without providing other candidates with a reasonable opportunity to compete and be assessed against predetermined criteria (Coetzee and Vermeulen 2003: 18). According to Alexander (2007: 94) references to blacks, coloureds, Indians and whites contribute to the perpetuation of the racial categories of apartheid South Africa. He refers to these as categories of prejudice (Solopo 2008). According to Boesak (Daniels 2008: 5), the racial categorisation is an example of thinking that perpetuates tendencies towards narrow, ethnic nationalisms. Contrariwise Smuts Ngonyana (2006), a leader of the African National Congress, describes the artificial racial categories as remnants of colonialism and apartheid, but as a necessary evil to measure ‘the extent of our progress towards a truly non-racial South Africa’. Ramphele (2007: 25) provides the most acerbic argument against the use of demographic profiles for setting targets for the various sectors of the South African population. She regards the ‘demographic re-balancing’ approach as ‘social engineering, apartheid-style’, which is divergent to the creation of ‘a non-racial, non-sexist and more equitable, prosperous society’. According to her, the goal of transformation should be to empower everyone to contribute towards the economic and social prosperity of the country for the benefit of all. She avers that deprivation suffered by black men and women cannot be addressed in the short to medium term. ‘Demographic re-balancing’ can be regarded as an attempt to find a quick-fix solution to a deep-rooted problem. For example, the underrepresentation of women – both white and black – can be ascribed to sexism, which is a deep-rooted societal problem that undermines women. Ramphele also cautions that if the ‘demographic re-balancing’ is used as a ‘compensatory mechanism for past wrongs’ rather than a means of creating equal employment opportunities, then it will amount to compensating people for past injustices rather than for the value they add to the workplace, and ultimately the prosperity of the country. Lastly, not all employees necessarily aspire to leadership positions. It would thus not be realistic to expect representation in leadership positions to reflect demographic profiles. In the next section an attempt by one of the provincial education departments in South Africa to attain employment equity by implementing the Employment Equity Act is interrogated. This entails a general analysis of the WCED Employment Equity Plan of 2002–2007 and its impact on employment equity. 14 Williams The WCED Employment Equity Plan of 2002–2007 On 1 April 2002 the WCED employed a total of 28 749 educators and 8 294 employees in the public service sector and was consequently regarded as a designated employer and as such was obliged to meet the requirements of the Employment Equity Act. In compliance with the requirements of the Act, the WCED formulated its Employment Equity Plan of 2002, which was meant to form the basis of all employment equity decisions within the WCED for the next five years. Evidence exists that the WCED generally tried to ensure that the policies, procedures and processes used in making appointments were fair, transparent and consultative. The Employment Equity Plan was formulated in consultation with the main representative educator organisations in the Western Cape, which were also allowed observer status on the selection committees when nominations for appointments were made, thereby ensuring that due process was followed. The WCED also established the Employment Equity Monitoring Forum, consisting of representatives of the WCED and employee organisations as well as interest groups like school governing bodies. The purpose of this forum was to monitor the implementation of the Employment Equity Plan and to make recommendations based on an analysis of emerging trends. The WCED also accepted the responsibility of providing learning opportunities through the provision of requisite funding for learnerships, Advanced Certificates in Education (especially in the areas of school leadership, Mathematics, Science, Technology and language education) and National Professional Diplomas in Education, which were geared specifically for the upgrading of the qualifications of under- and unqualified educators. In these programmes the WCED relied heavily on the collaboration of local universities. In addition, the WCED provided short curriculum and leadership and management courses for educators. In the latter regard obligation was placed on line managers and school principals to expose educators from the target groups to relevant training and development opportunities that were relevant to their aspirations, based on the Personal Growth Plan that was developed in terms of the Integrated Quality Management System. The preferential development and training of employees in order to increase their promotability was also regarded as a form of affirmative action. The Employment Equity Plan also contained directives regarding advertisements, the shortlisting process, the interviewing process, nomination and motivation as well as dispute resolution to ensure that personnel administration measures (PAM) were religiously observed. Whether the implementation of the Employment Equity Plan was perceived to be procedurally fair by the employees will be interrogated later in this article. In its preamble to the Employment Equity Plan the WCED pledged support for the Employment Equity Act as a means of achieving equity in the workplace. More specifically, it pledged to consciously strive towards the achievement of a representative workforce by promoting equal opportunities and fair treatment in employment by implementing affirmative action measures in all occupational categories and levels Employment equity and Western Cape educators 15 in the WCED. In its Employment Equity Plan the WCED did not differentiate between the concepts of equality and equity. In compliance with the directives of the Employment Equity Act, the WCED’s Employment Equity Plan was based on the profile of the economically active population of the Western Cape as on 1 April 2002. According to this profile, males made up 49% of the economically active population of the Western Cape, but only 37% of the education sector. Males were thus underrepresented in the profile of the educator sector, especially African males. On the other hand, females comprised 51% of the economically active population of the Western Cape (according to the figures from the 2001 census), yet represented 63% of the educator sector in 2002. According to the WCED, the underrepresentation of males in the educator sector was not due to unfair discrimination. It was therefore not regarded as a problem that could and should be addressed by means of affirmative action. Seemingly the WCED did not take cognisance of the impact that the underrepresentation of males has on the employment targets – as illustrated later in this paragraph. The WCED regarded the underrepresentation of females in school principal positions as a major challenge: while females comprised 51% of the economically active population in the Western Cape, they represented only 27% of the school principals in the WCED. It is important to state that a school principal can be appointed at post level 1, 2, 3 or 4 depending on the learner population of the school. Post level 1 is the entrance level to the profession, while heads of department are generally appointed at post level 2 and deputy principals at post level 3. A summary of school based-educators (excluding school principals) in post levels 1 to 3 indicates the following facts: at post level 1 females represented 71,28% of the school-based educators, at post level 2 the representation decreased to 51,49%, and at post level 3 this diminished even further to 27,17%. This is in line with national trends in South Africa, and according to the national Department of Education (2005: 43) the gender ratio has not changed significantly from 1998 to 2005. At a national level the Employment Equity Act has thus not had an impact on the gender ratio in the educator sector. Basing the employment targets on the profile of the economically active population of the Western Cape can also be regarded as problematic. Even if the employment targets were to be actualised, male representation at post levels 2, 3 and 4 would be disproportionate in a predominantly female profession. The fact that males are not being attracted to the teaching profession is a major problem, but one which is not addressed in the WCED Employment Equity Plan. The Department of Education (2005) also expressed concern about this state of affairs. Another major challenge was the general underrepresentation of Africans – both male and female – throughout the WCED: while African males and females represented 22% of the economically active population of the Western Cape they comprised only 16% of the educator sector. In 2002 Africans constituted 9,92%, coloureds 60,1%, Indians 0,9% and whites 29,06% of school principals in the Western Cape. At the level of school principal Africans and Indians were thus underrepresented by 12,08% and 16 Williams 1,1% respectively, while coloureds and whites were overrepresented by 4,1% and 9,06% respectively. At post levels 1 to 3 Africans and Indians were underrepresented by 4,2% and 1,54% respectively, while coloureds and whites were overrepresented by 4,9% and 0,75% respectively. The collective representation of the various population groups at post levels 1 to 3 did not seem as problematic as that at the level of the school principal. While the Employment Equity Act did not make a distinction between the various population groups that constitute the collective referred to as ‘blacks’, in the WCED Employment Equity Plan such a distinction was made. This was seemingly done as such a distinction is made in South African courts of law on the basis of the fact that the various population groups did not experience the same level of suffering as a result of unfair discrimination. This is referred to as the rule of preference based on the degrees of past disadvantage (Garbers 2005: 217). It is applied only in the case of comparative underrepresentation at a certain level or category in the workplace. A comparison of the profiles of the educator sector of the WCED in 2002 and 2007 with that of the economically active population of the Western Cape at the time reveals the extent to which the WCED had managed to achieve employment equity. The WCED figures for 2007 have been presented only in percentages and not actual numbers. Efforts to obtain the figures on which these percentages are based have been unsuccessful. Tables 1 to 4 provide actual numbers as well as percentages for 2002, but only percentages for 2007. The Africans comprised the most underrepresented population group in the ranks of school principal. While their representation has increased from 9,92% in 2002 to 10,94% in 2007, their underrepresentation relative to the economically active population in the Western Cape has increased from -2,08% in 2002 to -18,76% in 2007. This Table 1: Racial representation at school principal level, 2002-2007 Race Economically active population of the Western Cape in 2002 Representation as on 1 April 2002 Economically active population of the Western Cape in 2007 Representation as on 1 July 2007 Africans 22% (557 939) 9,92% (154) (-12,08%) 29,7% 10,94% (-18,76%) Coloureds 56% (1 329 000) 60,1% (933) (+4,1%) 51,2% 60,34% (+9,14%) Indians 2% (25 867) 0,9% (14) (-1,1) 0,9% 1,09% (+0,19) Whites 20% (488 410) 29,06% (450) (+9,06) 18,2% 27,63% (+9,43%) The table was constructed on the basis of data contained in the Employment Equity Plans of the Western Cape Education Department (2002 & 2008) Employment equity and Western Cape educators 17 is due largely to the significant increase of economically active Africans in the Western Cape. The representation of coloureds in the ranks of school principals has remained stable, while their level of overrepresentation has increased from +4,1% to +9,14% owing to the fact that their representation of the economically active population in the Western Cape has decreased relative to that of Africans. The WCED is thus further away from achieving employment equity at the level of the school principal owing largely to the influx of Africans into the Western Cape. While the level of representation of whites at the level of school principals has shown a decrease of 1,43%, their level of overrepresentation has remained stable owing to a concomitant decrease of their representation in the economically active population of the Western Cape. Analysis of the data contained in Table 2 reveals similar patterns to the trends that emerged at the level of school principal. While the representation of Africans at post levels 1 to 3 has increased from 17,8% to 20,66%, their underpresentation relative to the total number of economically active Africans in the Western Cape has increased from -4,2% to -9,04%. In relation to the coloured and white educators at post levels 1 to 3 patterns similar to those above emerge. A significant increase has occurred in the representation of economically active males in the Western Cape and a concomitant decrease in the representation of females. This can be ascribed to the fact that the influx of Africans to the Western Cape comprised primarily economically active males. Surprisingly, the representation of males at school principal post level has increased by 1,79% in spite of the attempts of the WCED to achieve employment equity. The increase in the number of economically active males in the Western Cape has, however, resulted in a significant decrease in the overrepresentation of men at school principal level from +23,9% to +20,79%. The WCED is Table 2: Racial representation of school-based educators at post levels 1 to 3, 2002-2007 (excluding school principals) Race Economically active population of the Western Cape in 2002 Representation as on 1 April 2002 Economically active population of the Western Cape in 2007 Representation as on 1 July 2007 Africans 22% (557 939) 17,8% (4617) (-4,2%) 29,7% 20,66% (-9,04%) Coloureds 56% (1 329 000) 60,69% (15781) (+4,69) 51,2% 58,53% (+7,33%) Indians 2% (25 867) 0,46% (118) (-1,54%) 0,9% 0,39% (-0,51%) Whites 20% (488 410) 20,75% (5373) (+0,75%) 18,2% 20,42% (+2,22%) The table was constructed on the basis of data contained in the Employment Equity Plans of the Western Cape Education Department (2002 & 2008) 18 Williams Table 3: Gender representation at school principal level, 2002-2007 Gender Economically active population of the Western Cape in 2002 Representation as on 1 April 2002 Economically active population of the Western Cape in 2007 Representation as on 1 July 2007 Males 49% (1 179 117) 1 131: 72,9% (+23,9%) 53,9% 74,69% (+20,79%) Females 51% (1 222 098) 420: 27,06% (-23,94%) 46,1% 25,31% (-20,79%) The table was constructed on the basis of data contained in the Employment Equity Plans of the Western Cape Education Department (2002 & 2008) Table 4: Gender representation of school-based educators at post levels 1 to 3, 2002-2007 (excluding school principals) Gender Economically active population of the Western Cape in 2002 Representation as on 1 April 2002 Economically active population of the Western Cape in 2007 Representation as on 1 July 2007 Males 49% (1 179 117) 33,5% (8 679) (-15,5%) 53,9% 33,17% (-20,73%) Females 51% (1 222 098) 66% (17 210) (+15%) 46,1% 66,83% (+20,73) The table was constructed on the basis of data contained in the Employment Equity Plans of the Western Cape Education Department (2002 & 2008) thus approximately 3% closer to achieving employment equity at school principal level owing not to its Employment Equity Plan but to the changing demographic patterns within the Western Cape. Table 4 illustrates that the representation of males and females at post levels 1 to 3 has remained relatively stable from 2002 to 2007. The increased underrepresentation of males is due largely to the increase in economically active males in the Western Cape. The profile of male and female representation per post level on 30 September 2005 (WCED 2005: 3) indicates that while females form the majority of educators at post level 1 (71,65%), their representation dwindles to 53,46% at post level 2 and 28,30% at post level 3. During the first three years of the five-year plan the WCED Employment Equity Plan had seemingly not been able to address the underrepresentation of females at promotion levels. Based on an analysis of the statistics contained in the tables above, it is evident that the WCED had not attained its employment equity targets – in some instances the situation had actually deteriorated. The next section attempts to ascertain what factors could possibly have negated the successful implementation of the WCED Employment Equity Plan. Employment equity and Western Cape educators 19 Factors that constrained the actualisation of the WCED Employment Equity Plan At a national level the patterns of teacher graduate production in South Africa have a negative impact on the attainment of the envisaged employment equity targets, as illustrated in Tables 5 and 6. The percentage of female graduates in education at universities and technikons remained constant at approximately 72% from 2001 to 2004. This means that females will dominate the entrance level of the teaching profession in the foreseeable future. It will thus remain difficult to attain an educator profile that represents the profile of the economically active population of the various South African provinces. Even more significant, though, is the percentage of African female graduates at universities, which decreased from 62,9% of the total graduates in 2000 to 57,8% in 2004 – with a concomitant increase of white female enrolment from 7,8% in 2000 to 9,9% in 2004 (Paterson and Arends 2009:47). This means that the South African education system is currently producing relatively more white teachers and fewer African teachers than previously, which will make it increasingly difficult to attain employment equity targets. This will be the case at primary schools in particular, owing to the closure of Table 5: Graduates in education at universities and technikons by gender, 2001-2004 Year Females Males Total 2001 72,7% (17 167) 27,3% (6 458) 100% (23 625) 2002 72,3% (16 821) 27,7% (6 431) 100% (23 252) 2003 72,8% (18 239) 27,2% (6 812) 100% (25 051) 2004 72,2% (20 625) 27,3% (7 931) 100% (28 556) The table was constructed on the basis of data contained in Paterson and Arends (2009) Table 6: Graduates in education at universities and technikons by population group and gender, 2001-2004 Year African F Coloured M Indian White Total F M F M F M 2001 62,9% 14632 24,0% 5665 1,6% 382 1,2% 271 1,3% 309 0,4% 99 7,8% 1844 1,8% 423 100% 23 625 2002 61,7% 14343 22,4% 5227 1,9% 435 1,1% 254 1,6% 374 0,4% 94 8,8% 2035 2,1% 490 100% 23 252 2003 57,7% 14444 23,1% 5790 4,3% 1086 1,5% 372 1,5% 379 0,4% 110 9,3% 2330 2,2% 540 100% 25 051 2004 57,8% 16512 23,8% 6798 2,9% 825 1,6% 446 1,6% 463 0,4% 112 9,9% 2825 2,0% 575 100% 28 556 The table was constructed on the basis of data contained in Paterson and Arends (2009) 20 Williams teacher education colleges that primarily produced primary school teachers. Paterson and Arends (2009:125) tentatively ascribe these counterintuitive changes in the demographics of initial teacher education development to a number of factors: African women do not regard teaching as an attractive professional choice any longer; social, health, financial or other factors in their household environment have made it prohibitive for African women to access higher education; the lack of access to higher education has been exacerbated by the closure of over 90 teacher education colleges that traditionally provided such access to women in rural areas; the impact of adult mortality owing to the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the availability of financial resources; and the proportion of student teachers who might be HIV-positive owing to their low socio-economic status, which places them at a higher risk than their coloured, Indian or white counterparts. Another factor that has militated against the attainment of employment equity has been the changing demographics of the Western Cape. According to recent demographic studies, the Western Cape was one of only two South African provinces that experienced an influx of more than 4% during the period 2001–2006 (Smit 2008:3). The migrants were predominantly Africans from the neighbouring Eastern Cape. This is part of the ongoing process of urbanisation of Africans, of whom approximately 42% of adults over 18 years still reside in rural areas, while 54% of all children are found in rural households (Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town 2009). The migration patterns are likely to continue in the foreseeable future, and have a negative impact on the attainment of employment equity targets. The insistence that all races be equitably represented at all schools is arguably the most controversial aspect of the WCED Employment Equity Plan. In practice this meant that every school in the Western Cape, irrespective of the demographics of its learner population and language policy, would eventually be required to have a staff on which the racial groups are equitably represented based on the racial profile of the economically active population of the Western Cape. A major barrier to the realisation of this aim is the fact that the majority of African educators are not employable at single-medium Afrikaans and dual-medium Afrikaans and English schools. In the Employment Equity Plan mention was made that cognisance should be taken of such extenuating circumstances and that the targets should be regarded as ideals and not fixed. This does seem to suggest that the targets were regarded as numerical employment goals and not employment quotas. However, given the situation that prevailed in the Western Cape the numerical employment targets that were set were not realistic. Furthermore, it is doubtful whether the data in the Employment Equity Plan is the best indicator to determine racial representivity of school principals and other educators. It does not take cognisance of, for example, the racial stratification of schools by race and neighbourhood. To base employment targets on the profile of the economically active population of the Western Cape is reductionist in nature. All 30 school leaders involved in the study mentioned earlier in this article indicated Employment equity and Western Cape educators 21 that there were initial murmurs of dissatisfaction at their respective schools, but no major resistance to the Employment Equity Plan. Generally educators indicated that the promotion of quality teaching and learning should be the main consideration – irrespective of the race, gender or disability of the candidate. All 30 school leaders also reported that the implementation of the Employment Equity Plan was felt by the educators at their schools to have been procedurally fair. Eighteen of the 30 school leaders reported educator ignorance regarding the intended outcomes and finer details of the Employment Equity Plan. This ignorance resulted in high levels of anxiety and suspicion. These respondents reported that the Employment Equity Plan had not been workshopped with the staff members as required and that their schools’ strategic plans regarding employment equity had not been derived from a process of collaborative deliberations. At the remaining schools, where the process had been transparent and fully participative, suspicion and mistrust had to a large extent dissipated. There was also a perception amongst the majority of the 29 school leaders who were attached to historically disadvantaged schools that many members of the school governing body who were responsible for the nomination of educators for promotion positions were generally not acquainted with the requirements of the Employment Equity Plan. All 30 school leaders indicated that male educators generally expressed their support for the Employment Equity Plan. However, when they were vying for vacant positions their personal ambitions tended to override the lofty ideals of fairness and justice. When overlooked for promotion, such males became demotivated and highly critical of the female appointees. In extreme cases the overlooked males made every effort to thwart the efforts of the females who had been promoted above them. A minority view at the schools was that women generally did not have the requisite attributes, knowledge and skills to be successful school leaders, having not had the opportunities to develop these. There was a perception amongst some disgruntled male respondents at 14 of the schools that the general discipline of learners had deteriorated dramatically as a result of the appointment of females in leadership positions. Authority at school level is thus equated with masculinity, more specifically heterosexual masculinity. Some of the other general assumptions that prevailed amongst disgruntled male educators at schools are that female educators were under-qualified, were not interested in promotion and prioritised their children and husbands. This resulted in their not accepting additional responsibilities such as serving on committees. At four predominantly African schools some male respondents regarded women in leadership positions as a violation of traditional African norms and standards. There was consensus amongst the 30 school leaders that these dissenting views were those of a minority of disgruntled male educators. According to the research findings of the 30 school leaders, females showed the widest variety of responses during the survey. At all schools the majority of female educators had welcomed the Employment Equity Plan and regarded it as a long overdue attempt 22 Williams to redress the unfair discrimination to which they had been subjected for so many years. However, at all schools a significant number of female educators expressed discomfort about the preferential treatment given to female applicants. To them it was a form of tokenism. They therefore preferred not to seek promotion. At 18 of the schools there were some female educators who showed no interest in promotion, as the additional responsibilities would detract from what they regarded as their main responsibilities – that of being teachers, housewives and mothers. At all 20 schools where there were male school principals, female educators rued the absence of sufficient role models in leadership positions. Of the 30 school leaders, five found that the WCED Employment Equity Plan had resulted in intensified competition for vacant positions amongst female educators and high levels of stress and mistrust, thereby adding a new dimension to existing micropolitical and interpersonal relationships at schools. This also resulted in variability and volatility as far as the formation of cliques and power structures are concerned. From the responses elicited, it is obvious that the majority of educators regarded the WCED Employment Equity Plan as unrealistic, as there were many reasons why individual schools would not be able to attain staff profiles that were representative of the profile of the economically active population in the Western Cape. They emphasised that their existing staff profiles should be regarded as a legacy of a past when staff members were appointed along racial lines. The eradication of this historical legacy would be a long process, would depend on the natural attrition of existing staff members and their gradual replacement by staff members based on employment equity considerations. This is a process that could and should not be accelerated. This situation was exacerbated by the rationalisation process during the mid-nineties during which thousands of teachers were declared in excess at their schools. Historically, preference was given to males and racial considerations when educators were appointed in permanent positions. When teachers were declared in excess and had to be redeployed, it was mainly the female educators and educators from ‘other races’ who were affected, based on the last-in-first-out (LIFO) principle. The redeployment of those teachers who decided not to accept voluntary severance packages was not based on employment equity considerations. Furthermore, from 1994 until the promulgation of the Employment Equity Act in 1998 appointments were based primarily on the curricular requirements of the school and did not take heed of employment equity considerations. All school leaders also stated that the existing profiles of their schools were also to a great extent the result of the socio-economic and cultural contexts within which the schools are located. According to the educators at the predominantly African schools there is a stigma attached to schools that are located in predominantly coloured residential areas, which have comparatively high crime and unemployment rates that make them unattractive to African educators. There is also a perception amongst many African educators that members of working-class coloured communities are Employment equity and Western Cape educators 23 negatively disposed towards Africans. This makes these schools uninviting to African educators. According to the educators attached to historically coloured schools, most schools that serve working-class coloured communities are either Afrikaans (especially in the rural areas) or dual Afrikaans and English-medium schools where educators are also required to teach through the medium of Afrikaans. This disqualifies the majority of African educators from appointment to these schools. African educators also indicated that they feel unwelcome at predominantly Afrikaans schools, as Afrikaans is the main medium of communication in the staff rooms and staff meetings. The educators at the predominantly coloured and white schools also indicated that they generally do not apply for positions at African schools owing to perceived threats to their safety and security. On the basis of these responses, it is evident that the reasons why the WCED Employment Equity Plan had not attained its aims and objectives are many and varied. Any attempt to effect employment equity has to take due cognisance of these factors. Concluding remarks There is general acceptance within South African society that some measure of affirmative action is required to redress the inequities and inequalities that exist in the South African workplace. According to Habib (2007) there is a moral, pragmatic and instrumental rationale for affirmative action: ‘Without redress, inequalities will continue to replicate in a racial form, forever holding South Africa hostage to polarised politics of fractiousness and ethnic mobilisation.’ However, there are serious misgivings whether the South African Employment Equity Act is the measure by which equal rights, opportunities, benefits and access in the workplace are to be attained. It is geared towards the attainment of formal equality while it ignores the social and economic conditions that generate disparities and are inimical to substantive equality. In the face of major social, economic and cultural disparities, the mere eradication of employment laws and practices that discriminate unfairly is not sufficient to ensure equal employment opportunities. The Act is logically flawed in so far as it regards the equitable representation of the designated groups in the workplace as proof that equal employment opportunities have been attained. It also ignores the fact that the underrepresentation of the designated groups in certain occupational categories and levels of the workforce could be due to factors other than unfair discrimination. It furtively promotes the appointment of less experienced persons in the pursuance of politically driven numerical employment targets, even if this is not in the interest of the public good. In this regard it is overly driven by political imperatives without taking cognisance of performance requirements. Lastly, racial categorisation is an essential element of the Act. This has evoked widespread criticism not only from the ranks of the conservative right but also from some of South Africa’s most respected intellectuals. It is ten years since the South African Employment Equity Act was 24 Williams promulgated, and it has had no meaningful impact on employment equity in the South African education sector. An analysis of the WCED Employment Equity Plan of 2002–2007 indicates that while it was generally compliant with the Employment Equity Act, it failed to contribute significantly towards the actualisation of employment equity in the school-based educator sector of the WCED largely owing to the fact that it was based on an Act that is seriously flawed. What are also required are adequate indices for the measurement of equity – indices that take cognisance of national, provincial and local contingencies as well as individual intentions and decisions that impact on employment patterns. To expect strict and mechanistic pursuance of the employment equity targets by school governing bodies is unrealistic. Furthermore, the plan was unrealistic and did not take sufficient cognisance of the realities of the schools where it was supposed to be implemented. Given the above-mentioned social and economic realities within South Africa and specifically in the Western Cape, it is obvious that existing affirmative action measures are insufficient to ensure the actualisation of employment equity targets. Currently these measures merely serve to prevent existing patterns of inequity and inequality from deteriorating further. References Aberson, CL and Haag, SC. (2003) Beliefs about affirmative action and diversity and their relations to support for hiring purposes. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 3(1): 121-138. Alexander, N. (2007) Affirmative action and its perpetuation in racial identities in postapartheid South Africa. Transformation, 63: 92-108. Bowe, R and Ball, SJ. (1992) Reforming Education and Changing Schools. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Fitz, J and Halpin, D. (1991) From a ‘sketch policy’ to a ‘workable’ scheme: The DES and grant-maintained schools. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 1: 129-151. Cédley, E. (2001) Getting equality to work. The South African Employment Equity Act. The Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies, 3(1): 1-20 [online]. Available at www.ceri-sciences-po.org [accessed 19 May 2009]. Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town. (2009) Urban-Rural Distribution [online]. Available at http://www.childrencount.ci.org.za/content.asp?PageID=60 [accessed 10 August 2009]. Coetzee, M and Vermeulen, L. (2003) When will employees perceive affirmative action as fair? South African Business Review, 7(1): 17-24. Daniels, A. (2008) Ashley Kriel Memorial Lecture: SA has ‘betrayed the poor’. On Campus, University of Western Cape Official Newsletter, August, 5. Department of Education. (2005) Teachers for the Future: Meeting Teacher Shortages to Achieve Education for All. Pretoria: Government Printers. Garbers, C. (2005) Employment equity and affirmative action. In Mischkem, C, Christianson, M and Strydom, EML (eds). Essential Labour Law. 4th combined edition. Pretoria: Labour Law Publications. Habib, A. (2007) Time to rethink affirmative action. Mail and Guardian, 28 October 2007. Kranich, N. (2001) Libraries and Democracy. Chicago: American Library Association. Employment equity and Western Cape educators 25 Leonard, A. (2005) Affirmative action in South Africa: Development approaches and legislative requirements. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Pretoria. Louw, AM. (2006) Extrapolating ‘equality’ from the Letter of the Law: Some thoughts on the limits of affirmative action under the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998. South African Mercantile Law Journal, 18: 336-354. Ngonyana, S. (2006) Race must not divide us again. Cape Argus, 31 July 2006,14. Paterson, A and Arends, F. (2009) Teacher Graduate Production in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Ramphele, M. (2007) Targeting white women would send a terrible message. Sunday Times, 31 August, 19. Ramphele, M. (2008) Job equity needs a lot of work. Sunday Times, 9 September, 25. RSA (Republic of South Africa). (1997) The Green Paper on a Conceptual Framework for Affirmative Action and the Management of Diversity in the Public Service. Pretoria: Department of Public Service and Administration. Selby, K and Sutherland, M. (2006) ‘Space creation’: A strategy for achieving employment equity at senior management level. South African Journal of Labour Relations, 3092: 42-63. Smit, F. (2008) Hou op om met die Westerse oë na ons stede te kyk. Rapport Perspektief, 13 July, 3. Solopo, A. (2008). Alexander’s alternative to race. The Cape Argus, 4 August. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2009). Equality [online]. Available at http://plato. stanford.edu/entries/equality/ [accessed 19 May 2009]. Wessels, JS. (2005) Equal employment opportunities: A conceptual puzzle. Politeia, 24(2):125-141. WCED (Western Cape Education Department). (2002) Employment Equity Plan. Cape Town: WCED. WCED (Western Cape Education Department). (2005) A Policy Implementation Directive for Compliance with Employment Equity Targets at Education Institutions – (excluding FET Colleges). Cape Town: WCED. WCED (Western Cape Education Department). (2008) Employment Equity Plan. Cape Town: WCED. Notes on the author Clarence G Williams is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape. His main research interests are education policy, school governance and employment equality and equity. He is also engaged in leadership development programmes with South African educators at Advanced Certificate of Education, BEd (Honours) and MEd and PhD levels. Address for correspondence Clarence G Williams Faculty of Education University of the Western Cape Private Bag X17 Bellville 7535 E-mail: cwilliams@uwc.ac.za SACHES MEMBERSHIP 2009–2010 Surname ________________________________________________________________________ First name(s)/initials ______________________________________ Title _________________ Department ______________________________ Institution ____________________________ Postal address ___________________________________________________________________ _______________________________ Code ______________ Country ______________________ Tel __________________________________ Fax ____________________________________ E-mail _______________________________ Internet ________________________________ (Tick as applicable) [ ] I have already subscribed/renewed my SACHES membership for 2009-2010 [ ] Enclosed is a cheque/money order for ___________________________________________ Note: You can also join via the SACHES Website: www.saches.co.za [Cheques should be crossed and made payable to SACHES] Send to: Jo-Anne Adams, SACHES, c/o Departmental Secretary, Centre for Corporate Citizenship, PO Box 392, 0003 UNISA, South Africa Fax: +27 (0)86 634 4079 E-mail: joanne.adams@saches.co.za Bank details for electronic transfer: Bank: ABSA, Account type: ACTIVE SAVE, Branch Code: 632005, Acount No: 23527847, Swift code (for members abroad) ABSA za gg, Ref: your name. Subscription rates are as follows (payable in Rand, Euro or USD) Location Individual members Libraries Students Southern Africa R150/USD20 R200/USD22 R75 Rest of Africa R150/USD20 R200/USD22 R75 Europe and UK EUR15 EUR30 EUR10 Rest of world USD30 USD60 USD20 New Institutional Membership in Southern Africa (covers three individual members): R450 If you are a new member please fill in below: Areas of interest/specialization ____________________________________________________ Three recent publications in comparative/history of education (complete citation please) (1) ______________________________________________________________________________ (2) ______________________________________________________________________________ (3) ______________________________________________________________________________ Queries: Jo-Anne Adams 012 429 3701 or 084 929 0170 Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects in the South African labour market Adjoa Acquah University of Stellenbosch Abstract Using appropriate econometric methods and data from the Labour Force Surveys for the sample period 2000 to 2007, this article empirically assesses the extent to which the field of education, race and gender, influence earnings and employment opportunities for blacks and whites in the South African labour market. Both earnings regressions and employment probits (with marginal effects) reveal the increasing importance of progressing through the education system, particularly obtaining a tertiary qualification. The labour market continues to reward tertiary education highly; however, certain fields of education are more highly rewarded than others. Race and gender continue to be important predictors of earnings and employment opportunities, although at tertiary level these differences are significantly reduced. Quality of education continues to contribute to differences in earnings and employment opportunities between blacks and whites with the same tertiary qualification. To reduce these racial earnings and employment differences, it is important that the quality of education be improved, especially at historically black institutions, by improving the quality of lecturers and teachers employed. Key words: field of education, earnings, employment, race, gender Introduction The skills-biased change in the structure of employment has increased employers’ demand for skilled labour in both developed and developing countries. This demand shift makes it imperative for students to pursue higher levels of education to improve their chances of securing employment in the labour market. Owing to the changing trends in the demand and supply of labour, employers’ perceptions about graduates and the skills needed for the world of work have also changed. Harvey (2000: 7) emphasises this point clearly when he says ‘previously a degree would have been a Acquah, A. (2009) Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects in the South African labour market. Southern African Review of Education, 15(2): 27-44. 28 Acquah passport into graduate employment, but these days many employers are looking for various types of experience’. There seems to be a general consensus amongst employers that graduates are poorly prepared for the world of work. Education attainment is one thing and the right preparation for the world of work is quite another (Njoku 2008: 262). This perception by employers is noted in both developed and developing countries. In Botswana, for instance, Njoku (2008: 263) attributes graduate unemployment to a lack of experience, communication skills, analytical and critical thinking skills. In Nigeria, Dabalen, Oni and Adekola (2000: 22) found similar trends. They concluded that a degree is not the only requirement for a job, but job attributes such as independent and strategic thinking, assertiveness and an ability to work overtime and learn new skills were some of the qualities needed in a graduate. In the United Kingdom, graduate attributes such as communication skills, the ability to work well in a team, good social skills and the ability to cope with stress were of paramount importance. ‘Graduate recruiters want a raft of other skills in addition to a first degree and this overrides the degree specialism in many areas’ (Harvey, 2000: 7). In addition to the aforementioned skills required by graduates in the workplace, the field of education specialised in at the tertiary level is also an important predictor of earnings and employment. The field of education combined with the right mix of generic skills has a greater impact on earnings and employment. Depending on the critical skills shortage a country faces, certain fields of education are rewarded more highly in the labour market than others through an increase in earnings potential and/or better employment opportunities designed to attract new labour market entrants into these scarce skills areas. This article focuses on South Africa and assesses how the field of education pursued influenced potential earnings and employment opportunities in the South African labour market between the years 2000 and 2007. Graduate employability and the chronic skills shortage in the South African labour market have become prominent subjects in current labour market debates. There is evidence that upon graduation new labour market entrants still struggle to obtain employment (Pauw, Oosthuizen and Van der Westhuizen 2008: 45). This graduate employment paradox has stimulated further research into the reasons for its prevalence. Authors such as Dias and Posel (2007), Pauw et al (2006) and Moleke (2005a) have carried out research into the area of graduate employability. Their findings show that factors such as the skills mismatch between the supply and demand of labour in the economy, the quality of education at higher education institutions and the field of education chosen by graduates are some of the factors contributing to this employability paradox. The purpose of this article is to examine how the field of education pursued at tertiary level influences the potential for earnings and employability between blacks and Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects 29 whites in the South African labour market. It is important to know the fields of study that are in high demand and also the extent to which the earnings and employability of graduates are influenced by factors such as race and gender. Thus this article contributes to the recent genesis of graduate employment literature, while simultaneously providing new insight into the fields of study that offer the best employment and earnings prospects in South Africa. The article begins with a brief discussion of the skills crisis in South Africa to provide a better understanding of the important role tertiary fields of education play in alleviating the skills crisis. The rest of the article uses empirical findings from the Labour Force Surveys (LFSs) for the sample period 2000 to 2007 to discuss how the field of education influences earnings and employment in South Africa. This is divided into two sections. The first section presents data on ordinary least squares (OLS) regression estimates, which identify the importance of each field of education in determining graduate earnings. In the second section, probit models with marginal effects are estimated to determine the importance of each field of education in determining the employment probability of graduates. To conclude, the findings are summarised and suggestions are made for possible ways forward in terms of research and policy. South Africa and the skills crisis Before interpreting the empirical findings, it is important to contextualise the critical skills shortage in South Africa in order to more clearly observe the role that different fields of education at tertiary level play in alleviating this problem. Woolard, Kneebone and Lee (2003) carried out a study forecasting the demand for scarce skills in South Africa between 2001 and 2006. Their findings show that there is an imbalance in the labour market, with an oversupply of skills in some areas and an undersupply in others. Furthermore, only a small proportion of South Africa’s workforce (about 8%) fall into the high-level human resource category, with the necessary qualifications needed to sustain high economic growth (Van Aardt 2001 cited in Woolard, Kneebone and Lee 2003: 460). Owing to the structural nature of unemployment in South Africa, it is important to forecast the trends of employment within different fields of education in order to better guide students into fields of study that are critically demanded by the economy. This will serve to improve employment prospects and enhance economic growth. Their study identified the high skill areas in critical demand as computerrelated professions, engineering technicians, scientists, educators, engineers, doctors, nurses, managers and finally academics. The future demand for educators was specifically noted to be very high, showing the need for mechanisms to attract more young people into this profession. In addressing the critical skills shortage it is furthermore very important for the education system and its teaching material to be relevant to the needs of employers and the industry. Tertiary education qualifications therefore play a vital role in addressing the skills shortage problem. The following section discusses 30 Acquah empirical findings pertaining to the influence that the field of education has on earnings and employment opportunities in the labour market. Empirical findings This section provides empirical evidence on earnings and employment outcomes by field of education in South Africa. To aid the analysis, pooled data from the LFS is employed for the sample period 2000 to 2007. The Labour Force Surveys between 2000 and 2007 were conducted by Statistics South Africa on a bi-annual basis and were specifically designed to measure the dynamics of employment and unemployment in the country. They also provide insight into a variety of issues related to the labour market, including the level and pattern of unemployment and the industrial and occupational structure of the economy (Statistics South Africa 2005). The discussion of the empirical findings is divided into two sections. First, OLS regressions are estimated to identify the importance of each field of education in explaining graduate earnings on average for the sample period. Secondly, probit models of employment are used to estimate the marginal effects of each field of education on the probability of employment for the average graduate. For easier analysis, the empirical results will focus on comparisons between blacks and whites only. To begin with, it is important first to provide a brief description of the fields of education from the LFS data that will be discussed in this article. Twelve fields are identified by the data set, namely Communication Studies/Languages, Education/ Training/Development (ETD), Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology, Human and Social Studies, Law/Military Science/Security, Health Sciences and Social Services, Agriculture and Nature Conservation, Culture and Arts, Business/Commerce/ Management Studies, Physical/Mathematical/Computer/Life Sciences, Services and Physical Planning and Construction. The contribution of these fields of education to employment and earnings is discussed below. The next section begins with a discussion of OLS regressions and the earnings function. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions Multivariate OLS regression is a statistical method of modelling relationships between a dependent variable and a set of independent variables. For a long time now, earnings functions have been widely adopted to measure the returns to education. The OLS Mincerian earnings function, by Mincer (1974), forms the basic starting point for investigating the factors influencing earnings. In his work on human capital and the earnings model, Mincer derived a standard model of explaining earnings as a function of acquired human capital measured through years of schooling completed and experience. Over time, ‘this model has been expanded to include other factors that may influence earnings, such as gender, race and location’ (Chamberlain and Van der Berg 2002: 1). Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects 31 Proposed empirical model The OLS earnings regression equation for the period 2000 to 2007 is shown below and the output is presented in Table 1. Lwage= ß1 + ß2prim + ß3incsec + ß4matric + ß5tertiary fields of education + ß6age + ß7age2 + ß8union + ß9female + ß10race + ß11province Explanation of variables in regression The earnings regression model above is used to estimate how the wage of graduates is determined by factors such as education, gender, race, geographical location, age and union membership. The dependent variable lwage represents the log of hourly wage rate. Hourly wage rate data is generally used because it treats full-time and part-time workers similarly. The logarithmic transformation is used because wage data has a highly skewed distribution (skewed to the left). The distribution of log wage is close to a normal distribution, resulting in more sensible regression estimates. The variables for primary, incomplete secondary and matric education have been included to illustrate the increasing importance of the returns to education as individuals progress through the education system. Although having a primary or incomplete secondary education is better than having no education at all, a matric qualification is found to increase one’s earnings significantly relative to the previous two categories. In South Africa, the returns to education really begin to ‘kick in’ when labour force participants have at least matric education (Dias and Posel 2007: 11). Keswell and Poswell (2004) show that the returns to education in South Africa are convex, with higher returns expected for tertiary levels of education. Furthermore, Moleke (2005a) shows that tertiary education (mainly explained by the different fields of education in this article) is an important determinant of graduate earnings. It is important to clearly determine the fields of education that are highly rewarded in the labour market and those that are not to be able to address future challenges, particularly in line with the skills crisis inhibiting the development of the country. Age is typically included in earnings models as a proxy for productivity, which comes from experience. The variables age and age2 (age squared) are included in the model to allow for concavity. By including these variables, one can clearly determine at what age individuals reap the highest or lowest returns to education. The variable union is included to assess its influence on earnings. Union membership is expected to have a positive impact on wages owing to the increased bargaining power of union members. It is expected that graduates who have obtained employment and are members of union groups will earn higher wages than those who are not. Gender also plays a role in determining wages earned. In this article, gender has been coded as a dummy variable with ‘0’ representing males and ‘1’ representing females. Empirical studies with regard to earnings by gender show that, on average, being 32 Acquah female has a negative impact on earnings and this trend is also evident in the empirical results in this article. Part of the reason is the low probability of female participation in the labour market owing to child-rearing roles in the home (Bhorat and Leibbrandt 2001: 119). However, it is assumed that in reference to tertiary level graduates, child-bearing roles do not play such an important role in explaining the lower earnings probability experienced by females. Perhaps gender discrimination plays a greater role in determining gender wage differentials. In South Africa, race is a very important predictor of wages owing to the legacy of apartheid. It is important to assess the changes that have occurred with regard to earnings and employment between blacks and whites over time. This seems sensible, given that the starkest differences in earnings and employment opportunities exist between these two groups. Provincial dummies were also included in the regression, with the reference province being the Western Cape. While not included in Table 1, being in any province other than Gauteng and the Western Cape decreased one’s earnings probability, showing that province is also an important predictor of earnings. Although all the above variables were used in determining earnings, the discussion of the earnings regression output in Table 1 only focuses on the schooling variable dummies, tertiary fields of education, race and gender, since these are the prime focus of the study. The rest of the variables will serve as control variables in this model. The earnings regression output in Table 1 is discussed below. Discussion of earnings regression output In Table 1, primary, incomplete secondary and matric education variables over time show decreasing returns to education, particularly in the years 2006 and 2007. This can be seen by the steady decline in the size of the coefficients over time. The size of the coefficient shows the contribution that specific variable makes to one’s earnings. A bigger coefficient size leads to a higher contribution to the wage rate. In interpreting the earning function output, the focus will be on the significance of the coefficients. The primary, incomplete secondary and matric education variables across the years show that schooling is an important variable in determining earnings, but the labour market does not reward lower schooling variables significantly and in order to increase one’s earnings potential in South Africa it is important to progress beyond matric level into tertiary levels of education. The tertiary fields of education are all significant and clearly show that tertiary education greatly increases one’s earnings potential in the labour market. However, these earnings differ by field of education as the labour market rewards each field of education differently. Table 1 on its own is only sufficient to inform the reader that tertiary education is highly rewarded in the labour market; however it is unable to visibly illustrate how the labour market rewards each field of education. To investi- Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects 33 Table 1: Earnings regression for 2000–2007 gate this area further, predicted wages for each field of education are presented in Figure 1. These predicted wages show the average wage rate for each field of education and clearly show which fields of education are highly rewarded in the labour market. A discussion of Figure 1 and subsequent figures considering predicted wages further by race and gender are provided at a later stage in this discussion. 34 Acquah Gender also plays an important role in determining earnings. Across the sample period, the results show that, on average, being female reduces one’s earnings potential in the labour market. There is therefore evidence to suggest that the labour market financially rewards males differently (more) than females. On average, males are more likely to participate in the labour market and are therefore more likely to be employed, which improves their earnings potential (Barnejee et al. 2006: 12). With regard to race, black graduates earn significantly less than their white counterparts in the labour market and this trend remained consistent throughout the sample period despite an increase in access to tertiary education for blacks. Much of this difference can be attributed to differences in the quality of education, which has an impact on the differences in productive characteristics between blacks and whites. This productivity difference is driven by skill differences, especially with employers’ increasing demand for skilled labour (Burger and Jafta 2006: 19). Until this point, the empirical evidence has only discussed the OLS regression output, which has only been able to inform us of the coefficients that significantly increase or decrease one’s earnings potential. However, defining the fields of study that are highly rewarded in the labour market by field of education, race and gender is not distinct from the regression output alone. The following figures illustrate how the returns to education are influenced by field of education, race and gender for the years 2000, 2004 and 2007. These years have been chosen to avoid a plethora of figures in the article yet to provide insight on changes that occurred at the beginning, mid-point and end of the sample period. Figure 1 shows the predicted wages for each field of education. It shows that returns to education differ by field of education. Over the years, this figure shows that hourly wage rates have increased over time. In 2000, the highest wages were paid to graduates from Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology (R33), Health Sciences and Social Services (R33) and Culture and Arts (R37). In 2004, the highest wage rates were given to Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology (R38), Law/Military Science/Security (R45) and Business/Commerce/Management Sciences (R36), and Health Sciences and Social Services (R35), and in 2007 to Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology (R41), Human and Social Studies (R61) and Business/Commerce/Management Sciences (R42). However, there seems to be some discrepancy in 2007 for the Human and Social Studies field that at this moment cannot be explained. An important trend that is observed is that the labour market consistently rewards the Manufacturing/ Engineering/Technology field of education quite highly, which is a scarce skill area in South Africa. Figure 2 assesses how the labour market rewards the different fields of education by race. It clearly shows that there are still significant wage differences between blacks and whites across all fields of education. Across all fields of education, there have been increases in wage rates for blacks, but these changes in the wage rate have not been Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects 35 Figure 1: Predicted wages by field of education Figure 2: Predicted wages by race very significant. For whites, there have been significant increases across the years in returns on tertiary education. Indeed, over the years, returns on tertiary education for whites have continued to increase, whereas those of blacks shows small increments. One reason for this perceived difference in the wage rates is the quality of education. Moleke (2005b: 8) has shown that the type of institution in which one studies is an indicator of quality of education, which is perceived differently by employers. Graduates from historically white or historically black institutions are rewarded differently for the same type of qualification owing to perceived education quality differences. Burger and Jafta (2006: 31) also propose that one of the most efficient ways to narrow the wage gap between blacks and whites is to improve the quality of education at historically black schools. Although much empirical research attributes wage differences between whites and blacks to the quality of education, specifically for these results other factors could also play a role. For instance, although the article focuses on graduates from tertiary institutions, the type of institutions from which graduates obtained their qualifi- 36 Acquah cations was not investigated in this article. Furthermore, the data also does not show clearly within each field of study the specific position held by the prospective employee. For instance, within the Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology field, a black person might be working as a technician whereas a white person may be a professor in the Department of Engineering. Although the LFS categorises everyone with this qualification in the same pool, there could be significant variations within each field of education based on positions held in the industry. To further analyse whether these racial-wage differences were significant, a difference in means test was conducted for the race groups in each year of the sample period. The results showed that the wage differences among blacks and whites were all significant. Figure 3 shows the predicted wages for each field of education by gender. Across all fields of education, males earn higher wages than females. For each given year, the female wage bar lies below the male wage bar. Although the labour market seems to reward males more than females, the wage differential is not as significant as it is with race, suggesting that gender discrimination in the workplace may not be as severe as racial discrimination. Policies such as the Employment Equity Act and affirmative action have been put in place to try and establish equal opportunities for employment and earnings. Women’s employment opportunities in particular have improved over time through these policies. Figure 3: Predicted wages by gender Although males on average had the advantage over females in terms of opportunities afforded to them for education, women are beginning to catch up and this could also account for the reason why the wage bars for both males and females are more comparable than the wage bars for race. In 2000, the fields of education paying the highest wage rates to males were Health Sciences and Social Services (R42), BCM (R39), Physical/Mathematical/Life/Computer Sciences (R36) and Manufacturing/ Engineering/Technology (R34); in 2004 Health Sciences and Social Services and BCM were both at R43, Communication Studies/Languages at R42 and Manufacturing/ Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects 37 Engineering/Technology at R40; in 2007 Human and Social Studies were at R77, BCM at R52, Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology at R44 and Health Sciences and Social Services at R41. In 2000, the fields of education paying the highest wage rates to females were Culture and Arts (R33), Health Sciences and Social Services (R29), Law/Military Science/ Security Studies (R26) and Education/Training/Development (R25); in 2004 they were Law/Military Science/Security Studies (R33), Health Sciences and Social Services (R30), Education/Training/Development (R29) and Communication Studies/Languages (R28); and in 2007 they were Human and Social Studies (R54), Culture and Arts (R35), Health Sciences and Social Services (R31), Agriculture and Nature Conservation (R31) and Education/Training/Development (R31). In summary, it can be deduced that all fields of study significantly increase one’s earnings relative to having no tertiary education. However, the labour market continues to reward some fields of education more than others. With regard to race, the general trend is still that whites observe higher returns to tertiary education than blacks. Much of this could be attributed to the difference in the quality of education. With regard to gender, the general trend is also that males receive higher wages than females. This is because, on average, male participation in the labour market is much higher than that of females, thereby offering them better opportunities to receive higher wages. In fact, women may also face more discrimination in the labour market. The Health Sciences and Social Services field of education offers high returns to education for both males and females. Individually, the labour market continues to reward males who graduate from Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology, whereas for females this happens in Education/Training/Development. The next section assesses how the field of education influences employment prospects using employment probabilities with marginal effects. Employment probabilities (Probits) The probability of employment is a binary outcome, i.e. this variable takes on the value of 1 if the person is employed and 0 if unemployed. The probit model is used instead of the usual ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions as the OLS is not optimal for modelling binary variables. This is because binary variables range between 0 and 1 and the probability of an event (gaining employment) occurring must lie between this range. However, with OLS regression estimates, there is no guarantee that this restriction will be fulfilled (Gujarati 2003: 586). Furthermore, the error terms are not homoscedastic and as such the regression estimates are inefficient and the standard errors biased (cited in Chamberlain and Van der Berg 2002: 11). The results of the detailed probit model for employment from 2000 to 2007 are displayed in Table 2. This detailed probit function has been modelled using education dummies for primary, incomplete secondary, matric and tertiary levels of study, age 38 Acquah Table 2: Probit regression for employment 2000–2007 and age2 (to show concavity in the returns to age), gender dummy, race dummies and geographical location. These variables are included in the model as control variables and are not the focus of this study. The choice of variables for the employment regression is similar to the choice of variables previously discussed in the earnings function. As in the previous section, for interpretation, the variables of interest are the education variables, the fields of education, gender and race. Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects 39 The interpretation of the coefficients of this model will be in terms of marginal effects. Marginal coefficients estimate the probability of employment for the average person in the sample. Unlike the coefficients of OLS regressions, the marginal effects estimated from probit models are dependent on the coefficients of all the predictors in the model, and are generated at the average value of each predictor. In other words, the coefficients estimate the change in the probability of employment given a marginal change in the predictor variable, ceteris paribus, for the average person in the sample. In the case of dummy variables, the coefficient represents the predicted change in employment probability when moving from a ‘0’ to a ‘1’ status on that particular variable. The marginal coefficients for 2000 to 2007 are presented in Table 2. Firstly the results show that having tertiary education increases one’s chances of employment relative to no tertiary education. Assuming equal values for all the control variables, the bigger the coefficient, the more impact it has on employment, i.e. the predicted probability of employment is likely to be higher. The marginal coefficients do not account for the fact that a person in Education/Training/Development for instance is not the same as someone in a different field of study and therefore is not enough to provide a clear picture of the fields of study securing the highest employment probabilities, particularly because they are influenced by the average of all the control variables included in the model. Instead, the predicted probabilities of employment using the results from the marginal coefficients are used. With these results the predicted employment probabilities for the fields of education are presented, including predictions of each field of education by race and gender. The findings are discussed below. Figure 4 illustrates the predicted employment probabilities by field of education. Across all years employment prospects have been more favourable for tertiary graduates relative to people with no tertiary education. Also, employment probabilities for the different fields of education have not changed significantly over time showing that tertiary qualifications continue to be well rewarded in the labour market through increased probabilities of employment relative to those with no tertiary education. In 2000, the fields of education offering the most favourable prospects of employment were Law/Military Science/Security Science (87%), Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology (80%), Health Sciences and Social Services (80%), Agriculture and Nature Conservation (79%) and Education/Training/Development (77%). In 2004 it was Agriculture and Nature Conservation (87%), Education/Training/Development (82%), Health Sciences and Social Services (81%) and Law/Military Science/Security Science (78%). In 2007 it was Physical Planning and Construction (91%), but owing to the small sample size in this field of education this result is unreliable. The others were Education/ Training/Development (86%), Law/Military Science/Security Science (86%), Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology (82%) and Agriculture and Nature Conservation (82%). The Education/Training/Development, Law/Military Science/Security Studies and Agriculture and Nature Conservation fields of education have continually offered 40 Acquah Figure 4: Predicted employment probabilities by field of education Figure 5: Predicted employment probabilities by race some of the most favourable opportunities in employment throughout the years. With regard to ETD, Bhorat (2004: 960) showed that the dominance of this field as an area of degreed unemployed graduates was mostly concentrated among blacks and coloureds. In this study, however, the majority of ETD graduates were blacks and the empirical results show that the ETD field could be one of the fields of education offering the best employment opportunities because of the high demand for teachers in South Africa. Perhaps this difference in relation to the ETD field arises from differences in the data sample and variables used. Woolard, Kneebone and Lee (2003: 472) also highlighted the increasing importance of attracting young graduates from the ETD field into the teaching profession because of the skills shortage. The ETD field is therefore very important in South Africa and graduates from these fields are generously rewarded in the labour market in order to attract more people. With regard to employment probabilities by race, Figure 5 illustrates the common trend evidenced throughout most empirical research on racial employment in South Africa: whites have better employment prospects than their black counterparts and most of this difference may be due to the perceived differences in the quality of their Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects 41 education. Although the employment bars for whites are above that of blacks, the difference is not that significant, showing that employment opportunities are to a certain extent more equal for whites and blacks at tertiary level than at other lower levels of education. Throughout the education history of South Africa, whites have always been ahead on the education ladder; however, over time there seems to be a ‘catching up’ aspect for blacks in the education arena, particularly tertiary education, as evidenced from the results in Figure 5. Figure 6 shows the employment probabilities by gender. It shows that across the years the predicted employment probability for males was higher than for females. Although this was true across all fields of education, the difference is not very significant, implying that to a certain extent tertiary education equalises employment opportunities by gender. The highest employment probabilities for females throughout the sample period were in the fields of ETD and Health Sciences and Social Services. Figure 6: Predicted employment probabilities by gender The discussion above has shown how employment outcomes are determined by field of education, race and gender. The field of education is an important predictor of employment, because certain fields of study are rewarded more highly than others in the labour market. However, the results clearly show that to improve one’s chances of employment it is important to have at least some form of tertiary qualification, as graduates are better shielded from unemployment. Race continues to play a role in determining employment outcomes, although at tertiary level these differences are not as significant as for individuals with no tertiary education. The racial differences in employment stem from differences in quality of education. If the quality of education is improved, especially at historically black institutions, these differences in employment opportunities will reduce. Gender is also an important determinant of employment, particularly because certain fields of study seem to be either more female or male-oriented. More males tend to enrol in areas such as Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology, while females tend to be in ETD or the health sector. However, at tertiary level, differences in employment opportunities are greatly minimised because 42 Acquah tertiary qualifications continue to be highly rewarded in the labour market. Summary The principal objective this article was to determine how the field of education pursued at tertiary level influences the likelihood of earnings and employment outcomes among black and whites in the South African labour market. Earnings regressions and employment probits using marginal effects were used to predict wages and employment probabilities of graduates from tertiary institutions. Field of education, race and gender were found to be important determinants of earnings and employment opportunities. With regard to race and gender, the general pattern of earnings and employment was for whites to receive higher wages and better employment opportunities than blacks, while males on average earned higher wages and were also more likely to be employed than females. Nevertheless, at tertiary level, gender differences with regard to earnings and employment opportunities are reduced compared with individuals with no tertiary education. Racial differences in earnings and employment opportunities on the other hand remain, particularly as a result of the perceived difference in the quality of education at tertiary level. Improving the quality of education primarily at historically black institutions will greatly alleviate this problem. Indeed, with regard to field of education, the labour market continues to reward fields of education differently. Fields such as Manufacturing/Engineering/ Technology, Health Sciences and Social Services and ETD were found to be rewarded highly in the labour market. In terms of policy, it is important for government to improve the quality of education at historically black institutions, as this would greatly reduce racial-employment and earnings differences. One method of achieving this is by improving the quality of lecturers or teachers at historically black institutions. It is important that rigorous selection, recruitment processes and training are implemented to ensure that the teachers employed at institutions reflect the quality of education that is desired. It was also observed in this article that females tend to concentrate on the education and health sectors. In order to improve earnings and employment opportunities, it is important to increase the diversity of female enrolment in different fields of education at tertiary institutions. This can be done using incentives such as higher bursaries and opportunities for further education for certain fields of education that still appear to be male-dominated, such as Manufacturing/Engineering/Technology. This will help broaden their employment opportunities, thereby further equalising the opportunities of males and females in terms of both earnings and employment. Limitations and possible areas for further research As noted earlier, quality of education is an important predictor of earnings and employment. One limitation in this article is that the author did not assess the insti- Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects 43 tutions from which graduates obtained their qualification. This might have identified specific institutions where the quality of education is still a major problem. The clustering of the fields of education did not provide the author with a basis for thorough research on how individual fields of education impact on earnings and employment. For instance, analysing the field of engineering alone might have provided different results on gender differences in earnings and employment and could have contributed to a deeper understanding of the earnings and employment differences in the various fields of education. References Banerjee, A, Galiani, S, Levinsohn, J, and Woolard, I. (2006). Why has unemployment risen in the New South Africa? Working Paper No. 134. Harvard University: Centre for International Development (CID). Bhorat, H. (2004). Labour market challenges in the post-apartheid South Africa. South African Journal of Economics, 72(5): 940-977. Bhorat, H and Leibbrandt, M. (2001). 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Transition from higher education to employment: A case study of graduates of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Botswana. Educational Research and Review, 3(8): 262-274. Pauw, K, Bhorat, H, Goba, S, Ncube, L and Van der Westhuizen, C. (2006) Graduate unemployment in the context of skills shortages and training: Findings from a firm survey. Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) Working Paper 06/115. Pauw, K, Osthuizen, M and Van der Westhuizen, C. (2008). Graduate unemployment in the face of skills shortages: A labour market paradox. South African Journal of Economics, 76(1): 45-57. 44 Acquah Statistics South Africa. (2005) Labour Force Survey. Pretoria: Government Printer. Woolard, I, Kneebone, P and Lee, D. (2003) Forecasting the demand for scarce skills 2001-2006. In Research Programme on Human Resources Development. Human Sciences Research Council. Human Resource Development Review 2003: Education, Employment and Skills in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Notes on the author Adjoa Acquah is a Masters graduate from the University of Stellenbosch. Her current research interests relate to labour markets and education. Address for correspondence acquahaa@gmail.com Preference for teaching as a career among students at the University of Botswana MR Montsi and HJ Nenty University of Botswana Abstract The lack of favourable affective inputs by teacher trainees into their training programme hampers the effectiveness of the programme as well as resulting in products that are psychological ‘misfits’ in the field. Given this problem, the purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which preference for teaching as a career by teacher trainees at the University of Botswana (UB), along with the programme into which they are enrolled, influences some anticipated teachingrelated behaviour among students. Data for the inferential survey study was collected using a validated questionnaire from a sample of 452 PGDE and BEd UB teacher trainees. Analyses using chi-square and two-way analysis of variance and independent t-test statistical techniques were done to test seven research hypotheses in the null form. The findings showed that the programme into which UB teacher trainees have enrolled (PGDE or BEd) significantly determines their level of preference for teaching as a career and this has a significant influence on their affective inputs into the programme as well as into teaching. These findings were discussed and recommendations made. Key words: teaching career, teacher training, achievement motivation, attitude towards training programme, attitude towards teaching, willingness to teach Introduction Psychological factors like attitudes towards and values related to teaching and to the subject taught, motivation and the degree of willingness to teach, commitment and dedication to teaching underlie teacher effectiveness as much as, if not more than, cognitive factors. These are components of the affective competence of a professional teacher. Citing Czubaj (1996), Chan (2005: 1) indicated that: The quality of teaching is not only governed by the qualification, knowledge and skill competence of teachers but also their enthusiasm, dedication and commitment in Montsi, MR and Nenty, HJ. (2009) Preference for teaching as a career among students at the University of Botswana. Southern African Review of Education, 15(2): 45-60. 46 Montsi and Nenty teaching. When a teacher is motivated and loves the teaching profession, the students not only learn the contents taught by the teacher, but the students are also motivated toward learning. The extent to which a teacher possesses these desirable affective characteristics can enhance their professional competence. Nwachukwu (2006) refers to it as motivational competence. Lack of such desirable characteristics renders the teacher a psychological ‘misfit’ in the field as it is these characteristics that define ‘teachers’ psychological attachment to the teaching profession’ (Coladarci 1992: 326). When cognitive competence becomes routine because of repetition, it is only the affective competence that maintains the competency of a teacher. Without initial affective competence, it becomes difficult for one to maintain effectiveness in teaching after the honeymoon period in the field. Teacher trainees without motivation or with a low level of motivation will have little of the enthusiasm and driving force necessary to be an effective teacher. The intensity of the preference for teaching as a career by students registered in a teacher training programme is likely to be influenced by whatever caused them to register, i.e. by their experience in the programme, by their attitude towards the programme or their attitude towards teaching in general. Such preference is also likely to influence the behaviour of teacher trainees. Some teacher trainees may have registered for reasons other than a love of teaching and willingness to teach. Two types of trainees register in the University of Botswana (UB) teacher training programme. One group consists of those who after their secondary education decide, for various reasons, to register for a four-year degree (BEd) programme in education. The other consists of those who after their first degrees in areas other than education are sponsored by government to undertake a one-year postgraduate teacher training programme (PGDE) at the university. Based on the researchers’ experience with UB PGDE students, most would not have entered the programme if after their first degree they had obtained a job in their initial area of training. This experience is supported by Dipapile’s (2005: 84) finding that PGDE students at UB chose teaching ‘because employment is offered after completing the course’. Problem and aim of the study The ability of a teacher training programme to make a desirable impact on trainees depends considerably on their motivation and attitude towards the programme. Some students who register for teacher training programmes do so because of a lack of other employment. Such trainees are often not highly motivated. They are rarely affectively well-disposed towards the programme and towards teaching. This creates a major problem for the effectiveness of the training programme on one hand, and the anticipated teaching-force on the other. It also increases the drop-out rate among teachers. In short, a lack of favourable affective input by trainees not only hampers the effectiveness of the programme but also results in psychological ‘misfits’ in the field. Preference for teaching as a career 47 Given this problem, the aims of the study are to – • investigate the preference of teacher trainees at UB for teaching as a career; • show how the level of such preference relates to or influences their teaching; • show how the programme into which they are enrolled relates to such behaviour. Research questions and hypotheses The questions this study seeks to answer are: ‘To what extent does preference by education students at UB for teaching as a career depend on the programme in which they are enrolled? How does such preference influence teaching-related affective behaviour among these students?’ An attempt will be made to answer these research questions by testing the following research hypotheses: 1. The ranking of teaching as a career by UB education students depends significantly on the degree programme into which they enrol. 2. The achievement motivation of UB education students registered in different programmes depends significantly on their ranking of teaching as a career. 3. UB education students registered in different programmes with different preference levels for teaching as a career differ significantly in their willingness to teach. 4. UB education students in different programmes with different levels of preference for teaching as a career differ significantly in their attitude towards the programme. 5. UB education students in different programmes with different levels of preference for teaching as a career differ significantly in their attitude towards teaching. 6. The perceived usefulness of UB teacher training programmes to education students in different areas has a significant relation to their preference for teaching as a career. 7. PDGE and BEd UB teacher trainees differ significantly in the level to which they perceive themselves as being effective teachers in the future. Literature review Selecting a career path is challenging and exciting, with many issues to consider (Savickas and Lent, 1994). This challenge is a concern for university students as much as for high school students graduating into universities. Coulthard and Kyriacou (2000) conducted a study to explore undergraduates’ views of teaching as a career choice. A total of 298 UK students completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate the importance of 20 possible requirements on their choice of career. They were then asked the extent to which they thought teaching as a career satisfied these requirements. The respondents were divided into three groups: those definitely not considering teaching (n=102), those considering teaching (n=40) and those who were not sure (n=155). The study revealed that all groups rated ‘a job that I will find enjoyable’ as the most important factor influencing their choice of career. The differ- 48 Montsi and Nenty ences between groups came to light in rating issues more closely related to the nature of teaching as a career (e.g. ‘a job which gives me responsibility’, ‘a job where I can contribute to society’ and ‘job mobility’). Similarly, Chan (2005) surveyed the motive and commitment to teaching of 106 inservice teacher trainees in a Hong Kong university. The study found a significant relationship between motive and commitment in teaching. The study saw teacher commitment as ‘a significant predictor of teachers’ work performance, absenteeism, burn-out, and turnover and it exerts important influence on students’ achievement and attitudes towards school’ (Day 2004; Chan 2005: 3). The study found that ‘the motives and teachers’ perception of teaching as a career were important, which affected the psychology and emotions of the teacher towards teaching ...’ (Chan 2005: 17). In a study of the attitude towards teaching of in- and pre-service primary school teachers in Turkey, Duatepe and Akkus-Cikla (2004) found a significant difference in attitudes towards the teaching profession. Pre-service teachers had more favourable feelings towards their profession. They attributed this to the fact that the pre-service teachers have not yet faced any negative aspects of the teaching profession. In a similar study among African-American college students in the US, Shipp (1999) found that majors placed significantly greater importance than non-majors on intrinsic values like contributing to society, while the latter placed significantly higher values on extrinsic values like salary, job security, advancement and prestige. In another study, Richardson and Watt (2005) explored the reasons behind the decision of 74 graduates in a one-year pre-service teacher education programme in Melbourne, Australia, to purse teaching as a career. A survey, with open-ended questions, on the respondents’ reasons for choosing a teaching career elicited rich qualitative data matching the responses from a rating-scale. Five factors relating to social status, career fit, prior considerations, financial reward and time for the family were identified through factor analysis. Respondents’ rankings were independent of their previous level of qualifications. They were also independent of whether they had children or not. There was little evidence of gender difference related to achievement motivation. What do you want to be when you grow up? All too often ‘teacher’ is not the response from high school students about to graduate. Surprisingly, university students in different programmes of study often have the same reaction. In a study addressing willingness to teach, Ruhland (2001) looked at possible skills that teachers possess or experiential factors that influence their willingness to continue teaching. Using a questionnaire adapted from Chapman and Lowther’s (1982) survey study, Ruhland found that there was no significant difference in perceived willingness to continue teaching among Minnesota’s technical college teachers choosing to leave and those remaining in the teaching profession in terms of the 17 independent variables. Similarly Cosser (2008: 20), in a South African study, found that ‘of the 27 students Preference for teaching as a career 49 planning on entering the teaching profession who were enrolled in Education programmes in 2006, two-thirds (67 per cent) indicated that they had been able to choose’ but of the 17 students enrolled in an Education programme in 2006 who were not planning on entering the teaching profession ‘just under half (47 per cent) indicated that they had been able to choose ... their present life situation’. The study also found that education students who did not plan to take to teaching and those who aspired to become teachers but did not enrol in a teacher training programme were less positive about their ability to exercise choice compared with those who planned to teach and those enrolled in such programme. On the other hand, 203 Moroccan students studying to become English and French teachers chose teaching as a career as it is dominated by intrinsic motives (Kyriacou and Benmansour 2002). They saw teaching as a ‘job that is respected’, ‘a job which gives me responsibility’, ‘a job where I will contribute to the society’ and through which they could share their knowledge with others (Kyriacou and Benmansour 2002: 94). Students will perform better if taught by well-qualified, trained and motivated teachers. Hence, the challenge remains to recruit better-qualified young people as a prerequisite to improving the quality of educational provision. In Tanzania, ongoing economic reforms have left teaching as one of the few salaried careers open to secondary and tertiary leavers. In their study of Tanzanian teachers, Towse, Kent, Osaki and Kirua (2002) considered why non-graduate students (aged 20–29 years) choose teaching as a career, their perceptions of the job and their future aspirations. The findings indicate that although many initially regarded teaching as a ‘last-resort,’ low-status, low-paid job, the majority intended to become classroom teachers. Questions remain, however, as to their motivation, commitment and overall effectiveness. This is because the non-graduates students’ level of preference for teaching as a career had no relationship with their attitude towards teaching. On the other hand, about a third of the principals of kindergarten/childcare centres and primary school principals in Hong Kong surveyed (QEC-CUHK, nd: 3) agreed that graduates with BEd degrees were more professionally competent than those with a PGDE. The literature has shown that there is a relationship between the level of preference for teaching as a career and the affective competence of teacher trainees. Furthermore, the type of teacher training programme makes a difference in level of competence. The gaps found in such studies coupled with the lack of related studies in Africa in general and Botswana in particular prompts this attempt to investigate the preference by teacher trainees at UB for teaching as a career, and how the level of such preference, along with the programme into which they are enrolled, relate to or influence some teaching-related behaviour among them. Methodology This study is survey-inferential in design, as it surveyed and analysed the views of a 50 Montsi and Nenty representative sample of teacher trainees in UB and based on the results inferred the general views and perceptions of UB education students. Five hundred students selected through stratified random sampling were envisaged to take part in the study, but 452 actually participated; some refused to participate and some submitted questionnaires that were incomplete and incorrect. A total of 129 of the 150 PGDE students selected took part along with 318 of the 350 BEd students. Five students did not indicate the programme into which they were enrolled. These 318 students were drawn from each of the eight departments in the Faculty of Education in close proportion to their population. There were 261 female and 182 male students, while nine did not indicate their gender. Gender along with the programme into which students were enrolled (PGDE or BEd) and their ranking of teaching as a profession were the independent variables for this study. A 48-item Likert-type instrument with six options – from ‘very strongly agree’ through ‘very strongly disagree’ – was developed and validated for the study. A pilot study of the instrument was carried out on a sample 39 randomly selected students from the study population. A Cronbach alpha analysis of the reliability of the measurement of the variables involved in the study showed that for achievement motivation with 16 items alpha was .945; for attitude towards programme with 10 items alpha was .904; for attitude towards teaching with three items alpha was .759; for willingness to teach with six items alpha was .827; and for usefulness of programme with three items, alpha was .744. These were deemed as good measures for each of these dependent variables. Data was collected with the help of five teaching assistants and mainly at the end of lectures in classes in which the selected students were enrolled. Permission to collect such data was secured from the different lecturers and students had the option of not participating. The general observation of differences in total number of cases across analysis for the different dependent variables is because when summing up the scores on items that define a given variable SPSS drops any individual who did not respond to any of these items, or who has a missing value for any of the items that make up that variable. Hence in this study the number of subjects tends to be lower for dependent variables measured by several items. Data analysis and interpretation of results Data analysis was done for each hypothesis of the study. The first hypothesis which, in the null form, speculated a lack of significant dependence of the ranking of teaching as a career by UB education students on the degree programme into which they enrolled was tested by carrying out a chi-square statistical analysis (see Table 1). This gave a chi-square value of 18,58, which was found to be greater than the critical chi-square value of 7,815 at .05 alpha level with three degrees of freedom, (÷2 (3, N = 435) = 18.58, p < .05). Hence the null hypothesis was rejected, meaning that the preference for Preference for teaching as a career 51 teaching as a career by UB education students depends significantly on the degree programme into which they are enrolled. A close look at the figures in the table shows, for example, that while 52 PGDE students were expected to rank teaching as the first career, only 34 did so; and while 25 were expected to rank it as the fourth career, 37 actually did. Conversely, while 126 bachelor’s students were expected to rank teaching as the first career, 145 of them actually did and while 61 of them were expected to rank teaching as their fourth career, only 49 did. These trends established that the degree programme into which UB education students enrol determines to a significant extent their preference for teaching as a career. While PGDE students tend to rank teaching low as a career, bachelor’s students rank it high. Table 1: Chi-square ( ÷2) analysis of the dependence of ranking of teaching as a career on the type of programme into which UB education students are registered The second hypothesis in the null form speculated that the ranking of teaching as a career has no significant relationship to the achievement motivation of UB education students registered in different programmes. Given two categorically independent variables, this called for a two-way analysis of the variability in achievement motivation among UB education students (see Table 2). The results showed two significant main effects, F (3, 269) = 8.78, p< .01 for the ranking of teaching as a career, and F (1, 269) = 8.17, p< .01 for the programme, and no significant interaction effect. That is, students with different level of preference for teaching as a career differed significantly in their achievement motivation, and PGDE and BEd students also differed significantly in their level of achievement motivation. In other words, level of preference for teaching as a career and the programme into which students are registered both significantly relate to the achievement motivation of UB education students. The two factors and their interaction accounted for about 12,4% of the variability in achievement motivation. The lower their preference for teaching as a career, the lower their achievement motivation, and PGDE students showed a significantly lower achievement motivation than BEd students. Given the significant F-value, a least significant difference (LSD) post-hoc analysis 52 Montsi and Nenty Table 2: Two-way ANOVA of the relationship between the programme into which UB Education students are enrolled, their ranking of teaching as a career and their achievement motivation showed that students that ranked teaching first differed significantly (p< .01) from those who ranked it third and fourth in their achievement motivation. Similarly, those who ranked it second differed significantly (p< .01) from those who ranked it fourth on achievement motivation. A look at the means in Table 2 shows that in case of programme, BEd students are significantly more achievement-motivated than PGDE students. In the null form the third hypothesis posited that UB education students registered in different programmes with different levels of preference for teaching as a career do not differ significantly in their willingness to teach. The two categorically independent variables involved a call for a two-way analysis of the variability in willingness to teach among UB education students (see Table 3). The results showed only one significant main effect, F (3, 269) = 70.12, p< .01 for the ranking of teaching as a career; no significant programme effect and no significant interaction effect were observed. These indicate that students with different levels of preference for teaching as a career differed significantly in their willingness to teach, but PGDE and BEd students do not differ significantly in such willingness. In other words, level of preference for teaching as a career relates significantly to the willingness to teach by UB teacher trainees. The two factors and their interaction accounted for about 40,8% of the variability in willingness to teach. With the significant F-value for ranking of teaching as a career, an LSD post-hoc analysis showed that students in all pairwise groups that ranked teaching first, second, third and fourth differed significantly (p < .01) from each other in their will- Preference for teaching as a career 53 Table 3: Two-way ANOVA of the relationship between the programme into which UB education students are enrolled, their ranking of teaching as a career and their willingness to teach ingness to teach. The fourth hypothesis in the null form posited that UB education students in different programmes with different levels of preference for teaching as a career do not differ significantly in their attitude towards their programme The two categorically independent variables called for a two-way analysis of the variability in attitude towards their programme among UB education students (see Table 4). The results showed two significant main effects, F (3, 301) = 33.39, p< .01 for the ranking of teaching as a career, and F (1, 301) = 4.15, p< .05 for the programme, and no significant interaction effect. That is, students with different levels of preference for teaching as a career differed significantly in their attitude towards their programme, and PGDE and BEd students also differed significantly in their attitude towards their programme. In other words, the level of preference for teaching as a career and the programme in which students are registered both have a significant relation to UB education students’ attitude towards their programme. The two factors and their interaction accounted for about 28,6% of the variability in attitude towards the programme. The significant F-value called for a post-hoc analysis, which was done using the LSD method. This showed that students in all pairwise groups that ranked teaching first, 54 Montsi and Nenty Table 4: Two-way ANOVA of the relationship between the programme into which UB education students are enrolled, their ranking of teaching as a career and their attitude towards the programme second, third and fourth differed significantly (p< .05) from each other in their attitude towards their programme. A look at the means in Table 4 shows that in case of programme, BEd students have a significantly more favourable attitude towards their programme than PGDE students. Expressed in the null form, the fifth hypothesis speculated that UB education students registered in different programmes with different levels of preference for teaching as a career do not differ significantly in their attitude towards teaching. With two independent variables, a two-way analysis of the variability in attitude towards teaching among UB education students was done (see Table 5). The results showed only one significant main effect, F (3, 393) = 53.17, p< .01 for the ranking of teaching as a career, no significant programme effect, and no significant interaction effect. This indicates that students with different levels of preference for teaching as a career differed significantly in their attitude towards teaching, but PGDE and BEd students do not differ significantly in such attitude. In other words, level of preference for teaching as a career relates significantly to the attitude to teaching among UB education students. The two factors and their interaction accounted for about 34,6% of the variability in attitude towards teaching. With the significant F-value for ranking of teaching as a career, an LSD post-hoc analysis showed that students in all pairwise groups that ranked teaching first, Preference for teaching as a career 55 Table 5: Two-way ANOVA of the relationship between the programme into which UB Education students are enrolled, their ranking of teaching as a career and their attitude towards the teaching second, third and fourth differed significantly (p< .01) from each other in their attitude towards teaching. The sixth hypothesis in the null form posited that UB education students registered in different programmes with different levels of preference for teaching as a career do not differ significantly in their perception of the usefulness of their programme. Given the two categorically independent variables involved, a two-way analysis of the variability in perception of the usefulness of their programme by UB education students was done (see Table 6). The results showed only one significant main effect, F(3, 383) = 18.04, p< .01 for the ranking of teaching as a career, and no significant programme effect or significant interaction effect. This indicates that students with different levels of preference for teaching as a career differed significantly in their perception of the usefulness of their programme, but PGDE and BEd students do not differ significantly in such perception. In other words, the level of preference for teaching as a career relates significantly to the usefulness of the programme as perceived by UB education students. The two factors and their interaction accounted for about 13,7% of the variability in students’ perception of the usefulness of the programme. With the significant F-value for ranking of teaching as a career, LSD post-hoc analysis showed that those who ranked teaching as their first and second careers each differed significantly (p< .05) in their perception of the usefulness of their programmes from those who ranked teaching as their third and fourth careers. In the null form, the last hypothesis speculated no significant difference in the 56 Montsi and Nenty Table 6: Two-way ANOVA of the relationship between programme into which UB Education students are enrolled, their ranking of teaching as a career and their perception of usefulness of the programme anticipated level of effectiveness as a teacher in the future between PGDE and BEd students. An independent t-analysis (see Table 7) done to test this hypothesis gave t (445) = -2.45, p<.05, with BEd students showing a significantly higher anticipated level of effectiveness as teachers. Table 7: Independent t-test analysis of the difference between PGDE and BEd students on anticipated level of effectiveness as a teacher Summary of findings The degree programme into which UB teacher trainees are enrolled determines, to a significant extent, their level of preference for teaching as a career. Both the level of preference for teaching as a career and the programme into which they enrol relates significantly to teacher trainees’ achievement motivation as would-be teachers. The lower their preference for teaching as a career, the lower their achievement moti- Preference for teaching as a career 57 vation, and PGDE students showed a significantly lower achievement motivation than BEd students. Similarly, students with different levels of preference for teaching as a career differed significantly in their willingness to teach. Again, the lower their preference for teaching as a career, the lower their willingness to teach. The PGDE students showed a significantly less favourable attitude towards their training programme than their BEd counterparts and level of preference for teaching as a career was found to have a significant relationship with teacher trainees’ attitudes towards their programme. It was observed again that the lower their preference for teaching as a career, the lower their attitude towards their programme. For attitude towards teaching, it was found that level of preference for teaching as a career relates significantly to this variable. Those with a high level of preference for teaching as a career showed a significantly more favourable attitude towards teaching than those with a low level. This last group of students was found to perceive their training programme as significantly less useful than their counterparts with a high preference for teaching as a career. Finally, teacher trainees under the BEd programme saw themselves as being significantly more effective teachers in the future than did their PGDE counterparts. Discussions and recommendations Underlying all career development theories (Savickas and Lent 1994) is the idea that personal interest is fundamental to career choice. A high level of job satisfaction and of quality of life is more likely to be attained by persons who choose their career to satisfy their interest than by those who choose it to satisfy other extrinsic values. Hence the decision about what to do in life should be based on criteria reflecting personal interest, skills, values, experience and personality. Where graduates are sponsored to undertake teacher training because of a lack of jobs, trainees will be produced who rank the career low, are poorly motivated to succeed, show low levels of willingness to teach, show a poor attitude towards teaching and the training programme, have a low perception of the usefulness of the training programme, and perceive themselves as being relatively ineffective, hence affectively incompetent professional teachers. Such people can be said to be professional misfits as teachers. Relative to students who opted at the level of their first degree to register for the teacher training programme, this study has found PGDE students in UB teacher training programmes to be affective professional misfits. Similar feelings underlie the inability to exercise choice by those students in South Africa who did not initially plan to teach compared with those who aspired to become teachers (Cosser 2008). The significant positive relationship between level of career preference for teaching and their motivation to achieve in that career, their willingness to teach, their attitude towards their training programme, their attitude towards teaching, and their perceived usefulness of the teacher training programme to UB teacher trainees found in 58 Montsi and Nenty this study support findings by several previous studies (DEST 2006; Chan 2005; Duatepe and Akkus-Cikla 2004; Savickas and Lent 1994; Coladarci 1992). These variables constitute the affective competence of teaching without which a teacher is said to be psychologically a misfit in teaching. They are said to define a ‘teacher’s psychological attachment to the teaching profession’ (Coladarci 1992: 326). The lack of such attachment poses an insurmountable handicap to teaching effectiveness. Similarly, these behaviours are mainly intrinsic in nature and, as described by Shipp (1999), education majors are more likely to exhibit them than non-education students. While cognitive competence is a necessary ingredient in effective teaching, in many cases it soon becomes routine because of repetition. It is only the affective competence that upholds a teacher’s enduring competence. So without affective competence to start with, it becomes difficult to maintain teaching effectiveness after the honeymoon period in the field. Teacher trainees who lack motivation to teach will have little of the enthusiasm and drive necessary to be an effective teacher. A motivated teacher is a satisfied teacher, committed to pursuing educational excellence for every student. Such a teacher will use all his or her skills, talents and motivations to achieve this (Latham 1998: 82). A high level of affective competence by practitioners is seen as a necessary condition for the growth of any profession. Affective feelings towards their profession, if positive, tend to support enhancement of the profession. For example, according to Duatepe and Akkus-Cikla (2004: 61) ‘when the pre-service teachers’ attitude towards teaching were taken into account, they had strong favourable feelings towards their profession’. Therefore, training teachers lacking or with low levels of motivation to teach, an unfavourable attitude towards teaching, a low level of willingness to teach, and even seeing themselves as likely to become ineffective teachers in the future has dangerous implications. This is bound to continue to encourage the perception of teaching as a low-status job, negatively perceived in the community and ‘semi-professional’ (Stokes and Tyler 2003). Students in the BEd programme had a significantly more positive affective disposition towards their training programme and towards teaching than those in the PGDE programme. Poor affective disposition towards teaching indicates a serious professional deficit in such trainees. Despite the cognitive competence that the PGDE students might have given to completing their bachelor’s degrees in different fields, such comparatively low achievement motivation, unfavourable attitude towards their programme and towards teaching, low willingness to teach, low perception of the usefulness of the training programme and low perception of themselves as effective teachers is tantamount to professional incompetence in teaching. This supports the findings by QEC-CUHK (nd: 3) that graduates with BEd degrees were more professionally competent than those with a PGDE and that at UB postgraduate students come to train as teachers because it will enable them secure employment (Dibapile 2005). Preference for teaching as a career 59 The findings of this study support Dibapile’s (2005) recommendation that the Botswana Ministry of Education (MoE) should interview applicants for the PGDE programme and only students who show some inclination towards teaching should be sponsored for the programme at UB. Recruiting teacher trainees committed to teaching will improve the effectiveness of the programme as well as of the teacher trainees and strengthen the growth of the teaching profession. The UB teacher training programme should emphasise training in the development of affective competence among trainees. This study, exploratory in nature and using only one teacher training programme to look into important issues concerning teaching as a fundamental part of education, needs to be replicated in other populations and across programmes. References Chan, K. (2005) In-service teachers’ perceptions of teaching as a career – motives and commitment in teaching. Paper presented at the AARE International Education Research Conference 2005 at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, 27 November to 1 December. Chapman, DW and Lowther, MA. (1982) Teachers’ satisfaction with teaching. Journal of Educational Research, 75(4): 241-247. Coladarci, T. (1992) Teachers’ sense of efficacy and commitment to teaching. The Journal of Experimental Education, 60(4): 323-334. Cosser, M. (2008) Anyone for teaching? Students, teachers and choices in South Africa [online]. Available at www.cepd.org.za/files/CEPD_TEP_Conf2008_Cosser.pdf [accessed 21August 2009]. Coulthard, M and Kyriacou, C. (2000)Undergraduates’ views of teaching as a career choice. Journal of Education for Teaching, 26(2): 117-126 . Day, C. (2004) A passion for teaching. London: Routledge-Falmer. DEST. (2006) Attitude to teaching as a career – A synthesis of attitudinal research. Surveys and Workforce Analysis Section. 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(1998) Teacher satisfaction. Educational Leadership, 55(5): 82-83. Nwachuchwu, O. (2006) Teacher education, school effectiveness and improvement: A study of academic and professional qualification on teachers’ job effectiveness in Nigerian secondary schools. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Helsinki [online]. Available at http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/kay/sovel/vk/ololube/teachere.pdf [accessed 30 August 2009]. QEC-CUHK. (nd) An independent survey on teacher attributes and teacher education programmes in Hong Kong. Quality Evaluation Centre, City University of Hong Kong. Hong 60 Montsi and Nenty Kong: Institute of Education [online]. Available at www.ied.edu.hk/news/doc/2006/ 200609061_speech.doc [accessed 6 January 2008]. Richardson, PW and Watt, HM. (2005) ‘I’ve decided to become a teacher’: Influences on career change. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(5): 475-489. Ruhland, KS. (2001) Factors that influence the turnover and retention of Minnesota’s technical college teachers. Journal of Vocational Education Research, 26(1): 56-76. Savickas, M and Lent, R. (1994) Convergence in career development theories: Implications for science and practice. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. Shipp, VH. (1999) Factors influencing the career choices of African American collegians: Implication for minority teacher recruitment. Journal of Negro Education, Summer [online]. Available at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3626/is_199907/ai_n8827533/ [accessed 2 September 2009]. Stokes, H and Tyler, D. (2003) Senior secondary students’ attitudes to teaching as a career: Review of teaching and teacher education. Youth Research Centre, University of Melbourne [online]. Available at http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/publications_ resources/profiles/students_attitudes_to_teaching.htm [accessed 5 January 2008]. Towse, P, Kent, D, Osaki, F and Kirua, N. (2002) Non-graduate teacher recruitment and retention: Some factors affecting teacher effectiveness in Tanzania. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18: 637-652. Notes on the authors Dr MR Montsi is a senior lecturer in the area of Counselling and Human Services with the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. Prof. HJ Nenty works in the area of Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. Address for correspondence hjnenty@ 212/231 Education Building Private Bag UB 0702 University of Botswana Gaborone Botswana E-mail: nentyhj@mopipi.ub.bw; hjnenty@yahoo.com Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching: Global lessons for South Africa Byron A Brown University of Fort Hare Abstract The government of South Africa, through the national department of education and various provincial education branches, has called for an upscale in the use of multigrade teaching in primary schools, many of which are located in rural areas where, for various reasons, it is a challenge to get teachers to take up teaching appointments. At the same time as the country faces teacher shortages, there is also a situation of underqualified and unqualified teachers in the school system. Drawing on a literature review and data collected in a qualitative study, this article sampled 25 multigrade teachers in rural township and farm schools in the Eastern Cape and reported on the professional training needs of these teachers and the implications for teacher in-service education and training in a higher education institution. It revealed multigrade teaching skills deficiency among teachers, many of whom were underqualified as professional teachers. In-service education programmes, such as the BEd programme, which are supposed to address practising teachers’ professional training needs, do not have modules or topics on multigrade teaching. The author proposed key areas of training to address multigrade teachers’ needs and ways to incorporate multigrade topics into the BEd in-service programme, but theorised that the absence of multigrade in mainstream teacher training schemes is further evidence of the lack of recognition of multigrade as a legitimate practice in schools. Avenues for further research have been proposed. Key words: multigrade teaching, in-service education, bachelor of education degree, curriculum adaptation, teacher professional development Brown, BA. (2009) Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching: Global lessons for South Africa. Southern African Review of Education, 15(2): 61-84. 62 Brown Introduction The government of South Africa, through the national department of education and its various provincial education branches, has called for an upscale in the use of multigrade teaching in rural primary schools where, for various reasons, it has been a challenge to get teachers to take up teaching appointments (Brown 2006: 4). The Commonwealth Secretariat (1997: 1) defines multigrade teaching (MGT) as a methodology in which learners of two or more grade levels are combined to form one class, which is taught by one teacher. The practice of amalgamating learners of different grade levels into a single class has its origin in the ‘small school’ or ‘one-teacher’ school movement of the 19th century in the United States of America (Miller 1991) and was originally practised as a strategy to save money (Pridmore 2004: 4). Studies of the multigrade arrangement, undertaken subsequent to its early origin, demonstrated that MGT is a viable approach to teaching and indeed serves a much greater purpose than mere cost savings (Kyne 2005; Lingam 2007; Little 2005; Suzuki 2004). Evidence in South Africa, for instance, has shown that MGT is a response to a host of necessities, including (a) unpredictable numbers in annual enrolment among new learners in some schools, (b) teacher shortage, which may be the result of outmigration, redeployment/teacher rationalisation or lower entrants to teacher education programmes, (c) apathy among teachers to work in remote rural and sparsely populated villages, and (d) a post-apartheid surge in demand for education (Brown 2007b, Mathot 1998). Of these reasons, teacher shortage is perhaps the most influential (Kassiem 2007: 1). Education analysts argue that while the number of children seeking access to primary education in South Africa has quadrupled since the start of democratic government in 1994, the number of teachers needed to provide this education has shrunk (Brown 2007b; Kassiem 2007) and fewer individuals are seeking careers in education (SAPA 2006). These necessities evidently go beyond cost savings. Researchers have investigated the practices of multigrade teachers in multigrade classes (Brown 2007a; Juvane 2005; Kyne 2005; Lingam 2007; Little 2005; Ninnes 2006; Russell, Rowe and Hill 1998). These studies have found that teachers do not like to work in multigrade and are often negative in their attitudes toward the use of multigrade methodology (e.g. Lingam 2007; Russell et al. 1998). Evidence from the few multigrade studies conducted in South Africa also confirms this; they show that teachers’ attitudes toward multigrade teaching is largely negative, and attributed this to both a lack of training and the conditions under which multigrade teachers work (Joubert 2007; Juvane 2005; Mathot 1998). But many international studies have revealed that exposure to training in MGT is able to influence teachers to feel positive about teaching in multigrade contexts (Commonwealth Secretariat 1997; Little 2005; Ninnes 2006; Pridmore 2004; Vithanapathirana 2006; Wright 2000). Many South African teachers are not trained during initial teacher education to teach in a multigrade class (Brown 2007a, 2007b) and in-service education and training Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 63 (INSET) programmes in many higher education institutions do not include MGT as a curricula topic (Brown 2007a; Mathot 1998). And while multigrade training should be relevant to teachers’ professional needs (Little 2005: 5), the question of the nature of the training needs of multigrade teachers in many South African schools – or how these needs might be addressed in INSET programmes – remains unexplored. The primary aim of this article is to explore lessons for teacher preparation for multigrade teaching in South Africa. In so doing, it reviews a body of multigrade literature and reports on a study which not only investigated the professional training needs of multigrade teachers but also assessed how an in-service programme (the BEd foundation and intermediate phase) offered in one university might be altered to incorporate multigrade teachers’ training needs. The focus of the research was narrowed to the aspect of training needs and the BEd programme because the National Qualifications Framework, as indicated in the Norms and Standards for Educators, specifies that it is the minimum qualification required for a teacher (DoE 2005a). It would not be feasible to include other in-service programmes such as the National Professional Diploma in Education (NPDE) because this programme is being phased out (UFH 2008). The article begins with a brief overview of the conceptual literature on multigrade teaching and highlights the importance attributed in this literature to teacher preparation for such teaching. It then examines the evidence from research conducted in the Eastern Cape to understand the training needs of teachers in multigrade schools. The article argues that the needs among the study sample in South Africa do not differ from those identified generally in the international literature. These include needs in multigrade methodologies, curriculum adaptation, and multigrade classroom management. The article concludes with a consideration of how teacher preparation can be improved to take account of these needs. It does so using the Fort Hare BEd in-service degree programme as a model. The article is based on qualitative case study research conducted in the Amathole District of the Eastern Cape, with a sample of 25 multigrade teachers, who taught multigrade classes in farm and government-owned primary and combined secondary schools. The teachers were sampled conveniently, with the assistance of the school principals. The majority (85%) were experienced teachers, having been in the service for over 18 years. Both documents and interviews were used as data sources. The document sources included the course modules and materials of the BEd in-service programme. The interviews were semi-structured and covered participants’ demographic factors, multigrade training and multigrade training challenges and needs. All interview scripts were analysed stepwise, following interpretative phenomenological analysis procedures (Smith 1996). Various themes around teacher training needs in multigrade teaching emerged from the data and have been described below. 64 Brown Multigrade teaching Conditions in which multigrade teaching thrives According to Little (2005: 12), multigrade teaching is a distinct classroom configuration, as opposed to single-grade teaching. Multigrade class is distinguished by many factors, including curriculum differentiation and diversity among learners in terms of a wider age range, greater differences in interest, and ability (Little 2005; Manson and Burns 1997; Ninnes 2006). The multigrade/single-grade distinction is most noticeable in the structure of the curriculum, the design of learning resources and assessment requirements (Lingam 2007). Analysts of MGT (Corrigan, Hemmings and Kay 2003; Brown 2007b; Little 2005; Mathot 1998) are in agreement that the contextual arrangements, as well as resources suited to MGT, are different to those of teaching in single-grade. Ninnes (2006) claims, for instance, that one condition of multigrade is that it cannot be delivered in a school context that is premised on single-grade. This is because in a multigrade situation, learners must learn the curriculum appropriate to their grade level, despite being combined as one class (Kyne 2005; Little 2005). Teachers of multigrade classes must therefore understand, as Little (2005: 10) asserts, different ways to modify the traditional single-grade curriculum and classroom practices if they are to teach effectively in multigrade. Pridmore (2004: 4-5) developed a model of curriculum integration approaches that he claims teachers could use to modify the single-grade curriculum to suit multigrade. The model includes the following strategies to organise the curriculum: (a) by multi-year, whereby units of curriculum content are spread across two to three grades rather than one; (b) differentiated structure, whereby the same general topic/theme of the curriculum is covered with all learners, regardless of grade level; (c) quasi monograde, whereby the teacher teaches each grade group, in turn, as if they were single-graded; and (d) flexible learning materials, whereby the curriculum is translated into self-study graded learning guides. LATIMS (2003) applied this model to train multigrade teachers in Nepal and Sri Lanka and reported that it allows teachers to operate with a clearer sense of purpose in the classroom. But this explanation does not indicate whether the teachers were able to perform better or the same, or teach effectively without the exposure to the training. Lingam (2007) underscores the importance of training for effectiveness. Lingam (2007: 186) draws attention to the quality of the teachers involved in teaching multigrade. Lingam (2007: 186) found that teachers trained for monograde class are unable to cope with multigrade teaching, owing to the depth of skills, resource management and assessment expertise required to function effectively in multigrade. Research shows that teachers who do well in multigrade classes are those who are positive in their attitudes towards multigrade as a pedagogical option (Manson and Burns 1997; Russell et al. 1998; Suzuki 2004) and who are not just adequately trained for multigrade teaching and assessment, but possess a firm grasp of their subject Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 65 knowledge and a wide range of group facilitation/teaching strategies to teach and assess learning of two different grade level curricula in one class (Shulman 1992; Hargreaves 2001; Little 2005). At the same time, Kyne (2005: 1-4) argues that for children to learn effectively in multigrade environments, multigrade classes need teachers who can manage the social differences and diversity associated with multigrade. Among the differences and diversity reported are learner age and maturity differentials, differences in subjects taught, difference of input/stimulus, difference of activities undertaken by learners and difference of outcomes expected (Little 2005: 12). Little (2005: 12) contends that the diversity caused by multigrade makes multigrade classes socially different from single-grade. The evidence is strong that the extent to which a teacher manages and makes use of the diversity in multigrade influences the teacher/learner achievement (Kyne 2005; Lingam 2007; Little 2005; Suzuki 2004). In general, the arguments outlined above suggest that effective multigrade teaching requires adjustments in the curriculum and specialised expertise to teach and manage multigrade classes. Challenges teachers face in multigrade classes: Evidence from past research In recent years some significant studies, conducted mainly outside South Africa, have been published that systematise and evaluate the research on the challenges teachers encounter in multigrade classes. Judging multigrade teachers’ professional training needs from these research data is one way this data has been used. In a study of 47 multigrade teachers and principals in London, Little (2005: 14) found multiple challenges, including (a) the age-graded structure of the national curriculum and the associated expectations of curriculum coverage as well as assessment targets; (b) the range of ability of learners in those multigrade classes where learners have been assigned on criteria other than ability homogeneity; and (c) the pressure to prepare one group of learners within the multigrade class for critical public assessments. Reference to challenges related to curricula and learner ability differences points to two areas of the teachers’ work where they have professional concerns and needs. In an Eastern Cape study in South Africa in 1998, Mathot (1998: 17-18) found several school-based and teacher factors such as inadequate learning materials, poor infrastructure, large class size, learner indiscipline, teacher difficulty in multitasking, and handling learner indiscipline as critical challenges to multigrade teachers. In the Peruvian Amazon, Ames (2004: 59) found teachers’ lack of training in multigrade mediated their performance in multigrade, but Beneviste and McEwan (2000) questioned the notion that a lack of skills is a primary factor in the way (multigrade) teachers teach. They contend that when considering the implementation of multigrade programmes, attention needs to be paid to the ‘will’ of the teachers to implement the strategy, and that teacher’s will is often a greater challenge to their performance. 66 Brown There may be merit in this perspective because a person’s ‘will’, according to psychologists (Schunk 2004; Wood 2005), is potentially affected by four factors: faith, isolation and degree of success/failure. When one relates this view to multigrade teaching, one is inclined to believe that teachers’ will can be reflected in (a) a lack of faith in multigrade pedagogy, (b) professional and social isolation of multigrade teacher, and (c) extent of ‘ownership’ of the multigrade teaching approach (Beneviste and McEwan 2000: 34). Little (2005: 15) dismisses the ‘will’ factor, however, saying it is a reflection of attitudes, which can be influenced by training. The overall situation is that the factors challenging multigrade teachers are personal as well as school-based. The personal factors illustrate that multigrade teachers have professional training needs linked to their work in the classroom. Efforts in other countries to train multigrade teachers Unlike the formal teacher education and training landscape in South Africa, a number of Asian, Latin American and European countries – e.g. Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Belize and Finland – have already embedded multigrade teaching in their national teacher education and training curricula (Little 2005; Ninnes 2006; Pridmore 2004; Wright 2000). A common aspect in these training schemes is that modules are designed to address specific work-based needs among multigrade teachers and the contextual situation in which they teach. For instance, in Vietnam, Pridmore (2004) states that multigrade teachers are trained to deliver grade-specific lessons simultaneously – owing mainly to classroom space constraints. In Sri Lanka, training modules are designed to develop teachers’ knowledge on multigrade teaching and address their specific needs, such as school time-tabling and management, curriculum adaptation and resource development (Vithanapathirana 2006: 1-12). Wright (2000: 3) states that the inclusion of multigrade teaching in the Belize teacher education programme was based on recognition that teachers in multigrade were seriously deficient in both content and teaching strategies and also in the approaches to multigrade teaching. Joubert (2004) asserts that while multigrade teaching is not specifically addressed in teacher education programmes in the majority of African countries, there are many examples of ad hoc training schemes, mainly at the school level, directed at meeting the needs of multigrade teachers. These training schemes recognise that multigrade teachers need to be diagnosticians and planners who understand the learning process and have a large repertoire of teaching methodologies at their disposal (Little 2005: 4-8). The above descriptions of multigrade training opportunities in the formal teacher education and training programme of some countries illustrate that education providers attempting to include multigrade training in the curricula must use the experiences and needs of teachers in the multigrade practice as a starting point (Little Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 67 2005). This is largely influenced by the desire to ensure programme relevance (Ninnes 2006). Links between teacher training and willingness to implement innovation Studies of teachers’ work show that trained teachers perform better than untrained teachers and have high expertise in their subject matter and better methodological know-how (e.g. Darling-Hammond 2005). Studies of learner achievement in the state of California (e.g. Goe 2002), Texas (Ferguson 1991), Alabama and North Carolina (Strauss and Sawyer 1986) in the United States of America, for instance, concluded that teachers’ qualifications (based on measures of knowledge, education and experience) generally account for a larger share of the variance in learners’ achievement. This confirms that professional training in any situation is important. Studies have evaluated the extent to which teachers alter their teaching practice following exposure to training. In a large-scale evaluation of the Escuela Nueva multigrade schools in Colombia, Rojas and Castillo (1988) report that the majority of treated schools applied the basic set of inputs. Benveniste and McEwan (2000) report that three-quarters of the teachers who introduced the self-instructional technique participated in the three multigrade training workshops. Benveniste and McEwan (2000) compare teacher-reported usage of instructional techniques in a sample of Escuela Nueva multigrade schools who participated in a training workshop on multigrade methodology and traditional rural school teachers who did not take part in the workshop. They found that the teachers in the Escuela Nueva schools had index values that were one-third of a standard deviation higher than the traditional teachers in using the multigrade techniques. They concluded that the capacitybuilding played an important role. In order to improve teaching in multigrade classes, Veenman and his colleague established a study of the long-term effects of a staff development programme for multigrade teachers (Veenman and Raemaekers 1995). They confirmed the positive effect of training on teacher performance but found no long-term effect. It seems that when teachers are helped to resolve multigrade teaching challenges, their performance in, and attitude towards, multigrade teaching innovations and their willingness to implement these innovations improve (Benveniste and McEwan 2000). It would appear from the evidence above that both personal and curricula challenges to multigrade teaching can be dealt with through training. In terms of the multigrade school situation in South Africa, teachers experience several challenges but the kind of challenges that they face, and the related professional needs that these educators have, seem not to be well understood. Furthermore, suitable ways to address these professional needs in teacher in-service training programmes in higher education institutions remain elusive. Thus, the questions investigated in this article were: 68 Brown • What professional development training needs do multigrade teachers have that must be addressed if they are to teach effectively in multigrade classes? • How might the existing BEd In-service Programme, which targets primary school teachers, be customised to include the training needs identified by multigrade teachers? Method The study was qualitative in nature and involved 25 multigrade teachers, sampled conveniently. All the teachers were teaching multigrade classes at the time of their involvement in the investigation. This was a key criterion for participation, as it was a way of ensuring that the teachers understood the issue investigated. The teachers were in their mid-adulthood (between 38 and 45 years) and were all black Africans, working in farm and government-owned primary schools in the Amathole District of the Eastern Cape. Eighteen of the 25 teachers were female. Both documents and interviews were used as data sources. Interviews were conducted by a trained research assistant. The language used in the interviews was English. All interviews took place at the schools where the teachers worked. Each interview lasted an average of 60 minutes and was tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim, with participants’ permission. The mechanical recording of the data and the verbatim accounts, in the form of direct quotations from the transcribed data, were strategies to ensure trustworthiness of the results (McMillan and Schumacher 1997). The analysis of the data from both the interviews and documents involved identifying recurrent themes (Corbin and Strauss 1990; Miles and Huberman 1994), linked to the research questions posed above. The findings of this process are discussed in the section below. Findings and discussion Training needs of multigrade teachers In the six (government-owned) township primary schools, 20 teachers had classes that were multigrade. Each school had between one and three classes that were multigrade. Among these multigrade teachers, three had BEd Hons degrees and five had a matric plus four or more years’ teaching experience as their highest qualification. On the other hand, in the four farm schools, five teachers had classes that were multigrade. Three of these teachers had a matric plus four years’ teaching experience as their highest qualification (see the accompanying table). Except for the three teachers with BEd Hons qualifications, all the teachers were underqualified, i.e. they did not have the minimum qualification of a bachelor of education degree required for consideration as a qualified teacher (cf. the introduction to this article). The fact that the majority of the teachers in the sample were underqualified is unsurprising because this has been an acknowledged problem constraining the education system in the provinces (DoE 2005a). Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 69 Multigrade school and multigrade teacher qualifications Responses Primary schools and multigrade teacher qualifications Government-owned Farm BEd Hons NPDE SPTD JPTD HED M+4 Total JPTD M+4 Total Frequency 3 5 1 1 5 5 20 2 3 5 Percentage 15 25 5 5 25 25 100 40 60 100 Key: BEd (Hons): Bachelor of Education (Honours); NPDE: National Professional Diploma in Education; SPTD: Senior Primary Teacher Diploma; JPTD: Junior Primary Teacher Diploma; HED: Higher Education Diploma; M+4: Matric plus four years’ work experience One of the main findings of this study is that the multigrade teachers interviewed did not receive any professional training to teach in a multigrade class context. This was acknowledged by all the teachers. The training that teachers receive in South Africa prepares them mainly for teaching in a single-grade class environment. But the multigrade teaching literature stresses the need for teachers to be trained to handle multigrade teaching requirements (Kyne 2005, 2007; Little 2005). Teachers trained as multigrade teachers are more likely to use instructional techniques designed for multigrade teaching (Benveniste and McEwan 2000). Based on this view, it can be seen that the multigrade teachers in this study were at a disadvantage in two ways. First, the majority were either untrained or underqualified as teachers, and secondly none of them had any professional training to teach the multigrade class. One must acknowledge that professional credentials are mere proxy indicators of what a teacher may be able to do, but by their own admission during the interviews all the teachers felt unprepared to perform to expectation in the multigrade class. The teachers described aspects of their teaching that they felt unprepared to perform. These are summarised under the following three themes: (a) pedagogical needs, (b) curriculum adaptation needs, and (c) multigrade classroom management needs. Each of these is discussed below. Pedagogical needs All the teachers noted that they felt ill-equipped, pedagogically, to operate effectively in a multigrade environment. This sentiment is echoed is the following commentary: When I joined the staff, I found people mixing the grades; I was also given mixed grade classes, so what was I supposed to do … we do not have any specific policy on multigrade teaching in the school; they are like any other classes. We need more information on the methodologies, the specific strategies for multigrade, that can help us do better in the class … some of the strategies we used such as rotating between groups are not working. [Nambita] Nambita had been employed at her school for over 15 years, and had an NPDE quali- 70 Brown fication. Her comments reflected a concern about her ability to teach the multigrade class. Nambita had been given a multigrade class to teach and felt she needed to improve her knowledge about multigrade teaching methods. She did not believe she was coping well with the routines of multigrade teaching. Perhaps this is unsurprising given the competency deficiency noted above. The multigrade literature makes it clear that multigrade teaching thrives in a context that is well resourced and led by teachers who have a solid grasp of its methodologies (Lingam 2007). Little (2005) makes the point that an understanding of the different pedagogical strategies is a key ingredient in teaching effectively in a multigrade class and stresses that one of the outcomes of a dearth of these strategies is the pressure to prepare one group of learners within the multigrade class for critical public assessments. Perhaps it was this particular reality that Nambita had to confront that prompted her to submit that she needs more information on multigrade teaching methodology. Furthermore, it seems the teachers may have had little or no involvement in the decision to teach or not to teach a multigrade class. Nambita’s point that she was given ‘mixed grade classes’ draws attention to the view that she might simply have been assigned to the multigrade groups, without the chance to participate in the decision. At stake then is that Nambita may not have had an opportunity to express her interest or disinterest/ discomfort with teaching learners in a multigrade class. Whilst this observation does not necessarily reflect a pedagogical need, it points to a particular attitude that can influence the way the teacher engages in multigrade teaching. Thus, beyond the pedagogical skills competency issue, there might be issues of attitudes that need to be addressed. In any case, the literature shows that teachers are generally negative in their attitudes toward multigrade teaching (Little 2005), especially in schools where single and multigrade classes coexist – which is a context in which many of the teachers in this study worked. Often, one reason for the negative attitude is that teachers compare the workload of teaching in the single-grade and the multigrade classes, with the latter being the more challenging (Kyne 2007; Pridmore 2004). Dunn (2000) and others (Reed and Westberg 2003), for example, claim that when all classes in a school are multigrade, such as in small rural schools, social issues, grade identity [and workload concerns] do not seem to influence attitudes. Indeed, parent and teacher attitudes to multigrade classes in schools where such classes are permanent have been reported as positive (Dunn 2000; Reed and Westberg 2003; Russell et al. 1998). Attitudes are not fixed, and consequently can change. In Nambita’s case, neither the skill competency issue nor the possible attitude about working in a multigrade class can be ignored. Nambita’s sentiments were not dissimilar to those of the other multigrade teachers in the study. Mavuso, who graduated with a BEd Hons in 2007, spoke about the challenges that he experienced in multigrade teaching: I prefer single-grade class because multigrade class means more planning, more preparation, organising and more work, as we have to cater for a wider range of Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 71 abilities and maturity, less time for meeting individual learner needs and for remediation. Multigrade class is an excess of work and sometimes we only do what we can. The classroom space is not suitable for so many learners at once, so that’s another problem. On top of that, our learners are too playful; when you give them work to do in groups, or on their own, they only chat about things that happened on the streets. It is worst when you leave them to work alone. This is a major problem I find. It is difficult to say what strategies you actually use in this sort of situation. But am sure there are ways of dealing with these kinds of class arrangements. [Mavuso] Mavuso appeared to structure his teaching around group and individual tasks, but was challenged by both the space of the classroom in which he worked and the indiscipline of some learners. The whole task of multigrade teaching – from planning to execution – seemed to have overwhelmed and frustrated Mavuso, who felt unsure about the teaching strategies that he actually used in the multigrade class. Class space and indiscipline are the central issues that the participant raised, and in many ways these issues are interrelated. Class space problem may very well be the reason for the indiscipline. Both the indiscipline and the large class size (for the space) can limit pedagogical practices in a class (Schunk 2004). Although issues of classroom space may be reflective of a larger problem to do with infrastructure and resources at the school, Kyne (2007) believes that familiarity with the ways to apply the knowledge and skills relevant and necessary for effective multigrade teaching can improve a teacher’s performance in multigrade classes. The multigrade literature demonstrates that with a good grasp of their subject matter knowledge and the pedagogical skills suited to multigrade teaching, teachers can be more adaptable and flexible in both their approach to teaching and handling discipline in multigrade class, regardless of class size (Lingam 2007). The problems that Mavuso experienced may very well be a result of this skills limitation. This is not to suggest, however, that there are specific pedagogical knowledge and skills for multigrade teaching, as opposed to single-grade teaching. Advocates of multigrade teaching point out that the professional knowledge and skills that are relevant and necessary to teach effectively in single-grade contexts are also relevant and necessary for effective multigrade teaching (Miller 1991; Phillips, Watson and Willie 1995; Thomas and Shaw 1992). But many of these skills need heightened emphasis in the context of the preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching. The literature certainly suggests that there are specific skills and competencies that are more particular to each context, but the differences are more in emphasis than in nature (Kyne 2007). This perhaps helps to explain why Mavuso felt, despite being trained to the BEd Hons level, that the pedagogical issues he faced were problematic. Perhaps it is not so much that he does not know what teaching strategies he actually used in the class but is challenged by limitations in putting an emphasis on the strategies that he knows, to adapt them to the multigrade context. Mavuso mentioned that ‘… our learners are too playful’, and seemed to suggest in this remark that some children are more suited than others to being in a multigrade class. It is highly likely that this remark is centred in the belief that in multigrade pedagogy 72 Brown learners of one grade should be left to work on their own while the teacher works with the other grade. In fact, this belief and practice is widely reported in the literature (Cornish 2006; Vincent 1999), but it is not the most efficient strategy. Changes and/or improvements in classroom practice, especially in relation to pedagogy, ultimately rely on teachers (Borko 2004; Kyne 2007). When the teachers in the study were asked to comment further on the specific pedagogical methodologies that they would like training in, they only mentioned grouping. But grouping is not the only multigrade teaching strategy. The impression of the author was that these teachers have a hunch that there is more about multigrade teaching, and about how to teach multigrade class, than what they already knew or were already doing. The fact that the teachers confined their comments to issues of grouping suggests that they will need to be ‘educated’ about current notions of ‘best practice’ in multigrade teaching, such as cross-grade, frequent and flexible grouping of learners, cooperative learning, peer tutoring, choice and negotiation of curriculum, and an emphasis on metacognition and learning how to learn. In Mason and Good’s study (1996) of mathematics teaching in composite classes, little evidence was found of teachers adopting these progressive strategies. The non-application of these strategies was clearly the case in the present study. This applies equally to teachers who have been trained recently (e.g. Honours and NPDE) or at a time when notions of ‘best practice’ were quite different (e.g. HED, JPTD, SPTD). According to Miller (1994), many teachers need to unlearn strongly held notions of how children learn in order to teach a multigrade class successfully. Curriculum adaptation needs This study found evidence to suggest that the multigrade teachers at the schools in the study were unsuccessful in adjusting the single-grade curriculum to the multigrade context. All the teachers in the study admitted that teaching a curriculum for different grade levels to learners in one class was their greatest challenge. A typical comment was: When you look at the RNCS [Revised National Curriculum Statement], you see that it wasn’t for this [multigrade] kind of class system … learners are supposed to learn by grades … what I mean is that each grade has its own curriculum to follow. When we start combining the grades, the whole thing becomes complicated … people may not say it, but most of us don’t know how to infuse the two [grade level curricula] work. The Department [District Department of Education] doesn’t address this issue; they are more concerned with Integrated Quality Management Systems (IQMS). [Zuki] The central point in Zuki’s comments is a call for a better understanding of how to adapt the single-grade curriculum to multigrade settings. She acknowledges that the RNCS was not designed for multigrade. This is a point on which all the teachers agreed. Because the RNCS is grade-based in its design, multigrade teaching in essence means that the work that would otherwise have been taught to two separate grades of learners must be taught to two grade levels that form one class. In other Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 73 words, the multigrade teacher is usually required to teach several grade-specific curricula in a range of learning areas in the same time that is available to the singlegrade teacher to teach one set of curriculum to one grade level. This is one of the greatest challenges for the multigrade teacher. It is precisely for this reason that multigrade teaching is generally viewed as a difficult strategy to apply (Kyne2007; Mason and Doepner 1998; Veenman 1995). Although the literature proposed different adaptation strategies (Pridmore 2004; LATIMS, 2003), Little (2005) maintains that the adaptation of the curriculum is a technical task, requiring specialised skills and a deep understanding of subject matter integration. The reference to the process being ‘complicated’ may have been an admission by Zuki that, despite her training as a qualified teacher with a BEd Hons qualification, she did not have the ‘know-how’ to undertake the task of adapting the curriculum to the multigrade setting. Thelma, who had an HED qualification, had much the same difficulty. She explained: I combine Grade 2 and 3. Each grade-level has its prescribed curriculum to learn … but I give work to one grade, and then concentrate on the other grade … only when I am teaching language that I combine the two [grades] into one lesson … when I put them in a group, it’s based on their grade because the grades have different assessment standards, but it’s not easy. [Thelma] Both Thelma and Zuki experienced curriculum adaptation challenges that were no different from the challenges that multigrade teachers elsewhere in the world experience (Little 2005). Mason and Burns (1997) suggest that the multigrade teaching environment is ‘difficult, complex, and generally disadvantageous’. However, teachers may avoid negative achievement effects by the extra effort they put into planning and adapting instruction and, further, by taking time from those subjects considered to be less essential. The suggestion by Mason and Burns takes for granted that the multigrade teachers know how to go about adapting the curriculum and planning lessons for effective multigrade teaching. But as we have seen in this study, it is not a given that teachers know how to do these things. Evidence in schools with multigrade classes in South Africa shows that multigrade teachers operate literally alone, with little or no support to adapt the single-grade school curriculum to the multigrade setting (Brown 2008; Mathot 1998; Joubert 2007). In some cases, as Nambita mentioned above, they are even treated in the same way as teachers in single-grade classes, meaning, for example, that the same learning materials used in the singlegrade class are used in the multigrade class. These kinds of problems have been mentioned in the literature. Veenman (in Kyne 2007) found that (a) teachers of multigrade classes tend to be poorly prepared to teach two or more grades at the one time; (b) these teachers tend to use teaching approaches more suited to the single-grade context, and (c) teaching resources suited to multigrade teaching are not made available to them. In Veenman’s view, the best way to assist and support teachers is through training. The common approach to teaching the curriculum in multigrade classes in many South African primary schools is for teachers to teach each grade group separately: a 74 Brown kind of quasi-single-grade arrangement, which involves the teacher hop-scotching between grade groups (Brown 2008). From Thelma’s comments, it was evident that she made use of this strategy, and it was the same approach Mavuso used when he encountered pedagogical difficulties. But Berry (2004) asserts that of the different curriculum adaptation strategies proposed in the literature, the quasi-single-grade arrangement is the least effective, as it involves a high degree of ‘dead time’, as a result of the grade-groups ‘switching’ by the teacher. In other words, research, indicating that learners have lower time-on-task during independent seatwork than during active instruction by the teacher (Kyne 2005), suggests that at least some learners in multigrade classes may be unoccupied for much of the school day. Variation in the curriculum adaptation strategies can minimize these weaknesses in multigrade teaching. While the evidence in this study suggests that the multigrade teachers need to develop a deeper understanding of curriculum adaptation processes, it must be noted that any training in multigrade teaching must be holistic, with expertise in adapting the curriculum being one aspect. The grades combined to form a multigrade class can have a significant influence on how the primary school curriculum is adapted. Thelma mentioned that she combined Grades 2 and 3, while Amanda stated that she combined Grades 5 and 6. The literature considers adjacent grade combination as such reflected in these examples as good practice (Little 2005), but given the phase structure of the primary school system in South Africa multigrade teachers must also take a second dimension, namely, the ‘grade phase’, into account when they combine grade levels to adapt the curriculum to the multigrade settings. Mathot (1998) contends that teachers need to have a deep understanding of curriculum integration because combining a grade level in the foundation phase with another grade level in the intermediate phase (even if they are adjacent) leads to undue pedagogical distress for multigrade class teachers. One reason for the undue pedagogical distress is likely to be the nature of the learning areas that learners cover in the different phases, but another reason may be related to the assessment standards covered in the phases. For this reason, as Little (2005) insists, curriculum adaptation needs to be a carefully planned process. Currently, teacher education programmes in the country do not prepare teachers for this kind of task, although there are signs of a move in that direction (DoE 2008). Multigrade classroom management needs The teachers had more than curriculum adaptation challenges; they also had needs in managing the multigrade class satisfactorily. Except for one instance, there was no report of a satisfying experience teaching in a multigrade class context. A regret expressed by the multigrade teachers was the level of indiscipline that prevailed among the learners in their multigrade class. Mavuso made reference to this concern. Another teacher expressed her sentiment about the issue as follows: Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 75 I found teaching in a multigrade class situation very frustrating and strenuous because I didn’t understand what to do … It is bad. I am teaching Grade 5 and 6 in a single class. For me, I teach in phases: I start teaching with Grade 5 from the morning until break. Then from break to the afternoon I teach Grade 6 materials. I don’t know about other teachers but it’s difficult to leave the learners for a minute in class because the next thing you know they clash and want to fight, or are interfering with others. Some learners finish the work early … It causes problems to clever learners who can easily drop out if they feel they are wasting time. [Amanda] Amanda’ comment about learner discipline in class was a typical response of the multigrade teachers. Namthla, Pamela, Stunky and Thabisa all spoke about the difficulty that they often had with disruptive learner behaviour in their classes. Amanda combined learners of Grades 5 and 6 to form her multigrade class. It must be acknowledged that violence and indiscipline remain serious problems in many South African schools (Brown 2009), and learners in the upper grades tend to be more disruptive than those in the lower grade levels (De Wet 2007), which is perhaps exaggerated in a multigrade class structure where an upper and lower grade are combined. Furthermore, in some cases in primary schools, as the comments of Mavuso suggest, large class size is an outcome of forming multigrade class: in some cases as many as 120 learners (Brown 2007a), contrary to trends in many other countries where multigrade class size is normally small (less than 20) (Pridmore 2004; Suzuki 2004). But as a study by UNICEF (2000) indicates, indiscipline increases with class size. It is hardly a surprise then that the learner disciplinary issue constrained the multigrade teachers in this study. Amanda combined learners of Grades 5 and 6, but acknowledged that when she leaves them to work independently, they bully each other. Mavuso experienced the same problem, though he worked in a different school from Amanda. But it can be seen that both of these teachers used the quasi-single-grade strategy during teaching, resulting in disruptive learner behaviours. The literature is steeped in emphasis that multigrade teaching flourishes where teachers and learners are able to engage in independent seatwork, peer tutoring, individualised instruction, and so on (Kyne 2005; Lingam 2007). Some scholars reason that not all learners might have the temperament to learn in a multigrade class and, consequently, it would be ideal for teachers to actively select learners for multigrade classes (Cornish 2006; Brown and Martin 1989; Lloyd 1999; Mason and Burns 1996; Mason and Doepner 1998; Veenman 1995). Hohl (1991: 23-27) discusses the issue of selection in her report about multigrade classes in Quebec, Canada: ‘Very often it is the high achievers and those without behavioural problems who are selected for multi-program [i.e. multigrade] classes’. The whole point is to have learners who are manageable and can work autonomously in the multigrade class. But while there might be obvious merit in learner selection for multigrade classes, multigrade teachers in South African schools cannot resort to that approach, either as a strategy to bolster performance generally or as a strategy to overcome problems of indiscipline in their class. One reason is that multigrade classes are formed exped- 76 Brown iently as a result of teacher shortages, and so on (cf. the introduction to this article). Consequently, teachers often do not have the ‘luxury’ to disaggregate and select learners, but take them as they are in the different grade levels. The reality then is teachers need to be supported to handle issues of learner discipline in multigrade classes with learners of mixed abilities, interests, background and other characteristics. This is the challenge to the multigrade teachers in the study, and to any training scheme aimed at supporting multigrade teachers to manage their class for effective teaching. One key issue raised by the evidence above is that the formation of multigrade, compared with single-grade, classes has a number of demographic outcomes, such as wider age differences among learners, diverse interests and diverse maturity levels, that teachers need to manage carefully in the school context. Learner diversity and differences in particular are two aspects that increase in any multigrade class context (Little 2005). There was clear recognition of this diversity and difference by teachers in this study. Some stated: I find that the students are not the same … the ones in the higher grade are always sitting together … [Pamela] For my Grade 1s, differences in maturity level are obvious at the beginning of the year … [Stunky] You have to keep in mind which children are in Grade 2 and which are in Grade 3 … [Thabisa] The challenge for me is how to balance my time with them [each grade group] … [Namthla] The comments above illustrate that in the process of managing multigrade classes, multigrade teachers have had to confront more than issues of learner discipline. The aspect of the diversity among the learners is recognised. Pamela’s comments that the learners ‘… are not the same’ and that the older ones formed sub-groups in the class provide an indication of the social interaction dynamics that multigrade teachers need to manage in their classes. Namthla’s comment is an admission that she is not coping well in this respect. Part of managing any multigrade class is structuring the classes to take advantage of the social dynamics in them. The significance of managing the diversity and differences in multigrade classes has been reported in several sources (Hargreaves 2001; Little 2005). It has been shown that careful management of the diversity and differences present in a multigrade context can lead to positive outcomes in the class. The active interaction of the younger and older learners in a learning environment brings into view Vygotsky’s perspective of learning and development (Schunk 2004: 293). This perspective contends that a child’s interactions with older peers in the zone of proximal development (i.e. the difference between what children can do on their own and what they can do with/in collaborative assistance from a more capable person) promote cognitive development or learning (Vygotsky in Schunk 2004: 295). This Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 77 suggests that allowing learners of different age and maturity levels to work collaboratively can lead the learners to experience cognitive change and develop a sense of cooperation and shared responsibility in the learning tasks undertaken (Schunk 2004: 298). Social interactions improve language ability (Wood 2005). When older learners assist younger ones, the older ones get the chance to rehearse materials that they learnt in previous grades. But the fact that many of the multigrade teachers seemed to find it difficult to cope in their classes suggests that they may not be tapping into these aspects to promote their learners’ development. In summary, the discussion above reveals three different areas in which multigrade teachers have professional development needs multigrade pedagogy, curriculum adaptation and multigrade classroom management. The next section explores how teacher education programmes might respond to the challenges and needs that multigrade teachers face. The BEd in-service teacher education programme offered by the University of Fort Hare (UFH) is used as a case study. This programme targets primary school teachers, many of whom teach multigrade classes. First, the programme is described. Case study: The BEd In-Service programme Context of the programme The University of Fort Hare offers a Bachelor of Education degree programme to individuals pursuing an initial teacher education qualification and to teachers in service (UFH 2008: 1-8). The in-service programme is part-time, and is customised for teachers in the foundation and intermediate phase of the school system wanting to upgrade their qualifications (UFH 2008: 78). The programme provides candidates with four years of training. It aims to develop teachers’ subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and professionalism by extending their reflective and research capabilities. The curriculum is subdivided into two strands: a core learning areas strand and a core education studies strand. The core learning areas strand comprises modules in Mathematics and Language, Natural Sciences and Technology Education. The core educational studies strand consists of modules dealing with Learning about Learning, Helping Learners Learn, Schools as Learning Communities, and Learning in the World. In the fourth year of the programme, modules dealing with Curriculum Developer and Assessor, Research and Innovator, Change Advocacy and Member of a Professional Community, and Reflective Practices are covered. The orientation to teaching and learning in the programme can be described as broadly social-constructivist and learner-centred (UFH 2008: 80). Each core module addresses a different aspect in education. For example, the Learning about Learning module focuses on psycho-social and contextual factors in learning and development; the Helping Learners Learn module focuses on classroom management strategies and the interaction between teachers and learning; the 78 Brown Schools as Learning Communities module focuses on the school as an organisation, theories of development and ways of dealing with learner misbehaviours; and the Learning in the World module focuses on curriculum development. The module on Professional Development addresses practical aspects such as research projects and teachers’ personal growth, and is closely linked with the Researcher and Innovator module. In addition, the module on Change Advocacy and Member of a Professional Community focuses on the application of learning, while the module on Reflective Practice promotes journal writing and reflection (see UFH 2008: 80-88 for more information on the BEd programme). In its current status, no component of the BEd in-service programme addresses multigrade teaching. The emphasis in the modules is on preparing teachers to teach in single-grade classes. But as the discussion in the empirical section above shows, there isn’t necessarily a distinct approach to training teachers for multigrade teaching, as opposed to single-grade teaching. The professional knowledge and skills that are relevant and necessary to teaching effectively in single-grade contexts are also relevant and necessary for effective multigrade teaching (Kyne 2007). However, many of these skills need heightened emphasis in the context of the preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching. Using the multigrade training needs of teachers reported in the empirical section above, some of the issues that need to be emphasised or added to teacher education programmes will now be highlighted and the way teacher preparation in the BEd in-service programme in particular might be altered to address these needs will be outlined. Modification of existing BEd in-service programme Teacher trainers at the University of Fort Hare acknowledged that multigrade teaching is not directly addressed in any of its programmes. One explained: ‘… Many of our PGCE [Postgraduate Certificate in Education] students teach classes that are multigrade … when we visit them at their schools, they often complain that they are not prepared … I don’t feel that we [HEI] are addressing the problems of multigrade teaching in the schools … I don’t feel that, as academics, we are paying the sort of attention that is needed to multigrade teaching schools … we say to students that there are multigrade teaching schools in the system but we haven’t addressed it as an issue’ [Academic 1]. There is a suggestion from another academic: ‘I am quite confident that the kind of educational principles and professional studies that we provide would prepare our students to cope in multigrade classes … they should be able to transfer that knowledge to the class’ [Academic 2]. This view seems misplaced because, as the evidence above indicated, such transfer is not taking place, and seems unlikely, given not just the range of issues that multigrade teachers confront above but also the quite fundamental difference in approach between multigrade and single-grade teaching. The programme can respond to the professional training needs of multigrade teachers Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 79 in either of two ways: (a) a new module designed specifically to address these aspects of multigrade teaching can be added, or (b) its existing core-component modules could be extended to include the the areas multigrade teachers identified as problematic. This paper focuses only on the latter, because it represents the more feasible of the two suggestions. Furthermore, changing the programme in either of these two ways has implications for certain technical concerns such as module credits and contact hours. These issues are not discussed in this article; instead it focuses only on module contents. Modification strategy: Extend existing core-component modules to include aspects of multigrade teaching Topics on multigrade could be added to the core-component of the BEd in-service programme. This would ensure that multigrade is covered by all teachers in the programme. Given the training needs expressed by the teachers, three core modules are of relevance: (a) Learning about learning; (b) Helping learners learn; and (c) Learning in the world. The main criterion used to decide on these modules is the extent to which they currently address issues that are similar to the training needs expressed by the multigrade teachers. Learning about learning This module is covered over three years and aims to develop teachers’ understanding of how children learn and develop and the psycho-social issues influencing learning (cf. introduction). Given that learning styles influence teaching styles (Schunk 2004: 12), this module is ideal to accommodate topics on pedagogy in which multigrade teaching methodologies are addressed. The three multigrade teaching methodologies of (a) peer teaching, in which learners act as teachers, (b) cooperative group-work, which involves small groups engaging in collaborative tasks, and (c) individualised learning guide, which involves the learner learning through a self-study guide – as identified by Pridmore (2004) and Wright (2000) – are good starting points for developing the module contents. Specific reference to multigrade should be made through the teaching of these methodologies, so that teachers are able to make the connection between what they learn and its applicability to their own classroom situation. The topics on multigrade teaching methodologies can spread over a one-year or two-year period, with an emphasis on the development of practical skills (see Brown 2008 for a more in-depth discussion of the teaching methodology contents). Helping learners learn The module on helping learners learn is covered over three years, and currently focuses on the interactions between the teacher and the learners and on classroom 80 Brown management, but not from a multigrade perspective. This module is thus ideal to accommodate topics on multigrade classroom management. The major concerns expressed by multigrade teachers in the study discussed above related to indiscipline, class size and the social atmosphere of the multigrade class. These issues can be incorporated into this module through topics such as those recommended by Wright (2000: 4): the nature of multigrade classroom dynamics; strategies to orchestrate multigrade classrooms to promote discipline; sources of indiscipline in multigrade; and classroom diversity management. Topics to ensure that teachers are skilled in managing instruction to reduce the amount of what Berry (2004: 4) calls ‘dead time’, i.e. moments in the class when learners are not productively engaged in tasks, can also be incorporated into this module. Such topics include strategies to promote independent study. Learning in the world The module on learning in the world, in which issues of curriculum development and the principles of education are covered, can be extended to incorporate topics to address curriculum adaptation strategies. It is clear that the national curricula used in the schools are designed for the single-grade classroom. Based on the evidence above, adjusting this curriculum to suit multigrade is one of the major areas in which multigrade teachers need training. Approaches to curriculum adaptation can be incorporated into this module because it already addresses curriculum development. Little (2005: 14) proposes four curriculum adaptation strategies, which can be discussion topics in the module. These are: (a) structuring the curriculum for multi-year spans, where units of the curricula contents are spread over two to three grades, instead of one, and all students do the same topics; (b) structuring a differentiated curriculum, where the same general topic/theme is covered with all students, who engage in learning tasks appropriate to their grade level; (c) structuring a quasi single-grade curriculum, where teachers teach grade groups in turn, as though they were single-grade; and (d) a learner and material-centred strategy, where the curriculum is translated into a self-study guide and students work through it at their own pace. In these topics, teachers can be shown how to produce such self-study materials in a cost-effective way. Since materials relevant for one country situation tend not to be appropriate in another, this topic would also guide teachers on how to customise teaching/learning materials to suit their contexts. Conclusions Multigrade teaching plays a significant part in efforts to open access to education and improve the quality of education provision in rural communities in South Africa, and the number of schools with multigrade classes is likely to increase as efforts are made by government and international agencies to provide primary education on a wider Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching 81 scale, especially in remote rural areas. Teacher preparation for this task remains important if quality teaching is to be achieved. But institutions that train teachers are not preparing teachers for multigrade teaching, per se. The multigrade teachers in this study have professional development needs in three different areas. These are multigrade pedagogy, curriculum adaptation, and multigrade classroom management. Many of these needs are not dissimilar to those of multigrade teachers who operate in schools with a single-grade bias in other countries across the world. Many of the same skills and strategies that teachers use in singlegrade can be applied to multigrade teaching but with an added emphasis to capture the unique elements of multigrade teaching. Existing modules in the in-service programmes can be modified to include the topics related to the training needs that the multigrade teachers report. Multigrade topics have been identified and proposed for inclusion in three core BEd in-service programme modules. The core modules are preferred because they are taken by all students in the programme. Various avenues for further research can be derived from the above. Furthermore, research can assess the mechanisms involved in incorporating the proposed topics identified in this study into specific multigrade modules or developing a new module for inclusion in the in-service programme. 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Paper presented to the Belize Teacher Training College Forum, August 2000. Notes on the author Dr Byron Brown is a senior researcher in the School of Postgraduate Studies, University of Fort Hare. He specialises in educational leadership and management. His research interests include school leadership and teacher development. He is currently conducting two important research projects, one on education access, with an emphasis on the school leadership implications of dropouts’ return to school, and the other on multigrade teaching in schools. Address for correspondence bbrown@ufh.ac.za Hidden and subtle effects of racism in law and school policy in postapartheid South Africa Isaac Ntshoe University of South Africa Abstract Despite major achievements in terms of passing legislation and developing policies to desegregate and deracialise schools globally, hidden and covert racism in the application of law and school policy stubbornly remains a challenge for many nations. The purpose of this article is to examine school desegregation and deracialisation in a school district, referred to as District Two, in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It further draws parallels with Zimbabwe’s experiences of school desegregation and deracialisation. Its focus is on hidden and covert racism in law and school policy and practice. The article argues that the expected disharmony between different pieces of legislation and policies on school desegregation and deracialisation in post-apartheid South Africa has created space for contradictory interpretations of the policies. This contradiction has opened opportunities for some schools to practise racism, albeit hidden, covert and subtle. The article concludes that the neutrality and objectivity of jurisprudence and the decentralisation of policy implementation to schools have the potential to recreate and reproduce historical inequities and inequalities in education in post-apartheid South Africa. The article also demonstrates that implementation will always be subjected to diverse interpretation, even if the law and policy are clearly and unambiguously crafted. Introduction The new South African Constitution (Act 108 of 1996) prohibits overt and covert discrimination against learners on the basis of race, language, culture and/or religious beliefs. In seeking to assess how successful this initiative of the new South African government has been, it is necessary to look at the processes of school desegregation and deracialisation, as well as the policies that are intended to guide processes such as these, against the historical context of recent developments in the country. Central in Ntshoe, IM. (2009) Hidden and subtle effects of racism in law and school policy in post-apartheid South Africa. Southern African Review of Education, 15(2): 85-104. 86 Ntshoe coming to terms with these developments are the persistent class, race and socioeconomic inequalities and other inequities, such as language discrimination, which continue to manifest themselves in the country. This research is predicated on the assumption that while it is possible to prohibit explicit, intentional and overt discrimination through legislation, the more hidden, covert and subtle forms of discrimination experienced against learners in public schools are of a different order of challenge. These types of discrimination are more difficult to identify and eradicate as they are embedded in deep ideologies, stereotypes and mind-sets that cannot be tested and subjected to legal scrutiny (Naidoo 1996a: 21, 23). The substance of this article is drawn from the lived experiences of black parents and teachers in desegregated and deracialised schools. Issues that are highlighted include those of language, the schools’ geographical school zoning policies, the implications that flow from schools’ income level placements – the quintiles – and the challenges that arise from learners being bussed in and out of the townships. The article also compares school desegregation and deracialisation in South Africa with that in Zimbabwe. It is argued that policy intentions are seldom, if ever, translated into practice the way they were intended to be implemented and further that, because policies and legislation are socially constructed and not merely texts, they are often open to diverse interpretations in practice (Stenhouse 1975: 2; Green 2005; Schauer 2005). As a result, the analysis will demonstrate that even with very clear policy pronouncements, the interpretations of policy and laws are unlikely to be uniformly implemented. Specifically, the article argues that the school quintile system, as one such instrument intended to equalise the allocation of resources and to address the questions of discrimination, has little effect in deracialising and desegregating schools as it is based on the principle of ability to pay and therefore encourages poor parents to send their children to quintile 1 (no-fees) schools because of financial difficulties. Further, it is argued that as a result of diverse interpretations of the law, the majority of black parents have limited choices when it comes to choosing a school for their children and that they are comparatively in the same position as prior to democratic rule. The questions underpinning the discussion are thus: where do school desegregation and deracialisation stand in post-apartheid society, and how have the challenges of social difference and particularly those of race and racism been dealt with in law and school policy in the post-apartheid era? Theoretical and conceptual frames This article draws primarily on the Critical Race Theory (CRT). The key assumption made by particular approaches to CRT is that both overt and covert racism and inequities are human rights issues and should thus be located within a country’s Effects of racism in law and school policy 87 particular historical context (Solorzano 1997: 6-7, 1998: 122-123; Taylor 2000: 541; Yosso 2005: 73-74). Consequently, CRT challenges the following policy strategies that have been developed to deal with and analyse racism: 1. ‘Colour-blind’ or ‘formal’ conceptions of equality, which can only remedy the most blatant forms of racism and underplay covert and hidden racism (Delgado and Stefancic 2001: 7). 2. ‘Interest convergence’, which assumes that because racism advances the interests of the ‘white’ elite, this group has little incentive to eradicate it. Regarding Bell’s critique of a liberal discourse (as cited by Taylor 2000), Taylor observes that ‘whites will promote advances for blacks only when such advances also promote white interests’ (Taylor 2000: 542). 3. In this approach to CRT doubt is expressed about the foundations of the liberal order on which instrumentalism is based, including equality theory, legal reasoning, enlightenment rationality and the neutral principles of constitutional law relating to school choice (Delgado and Stefancic 2001: 3). Use is also made of Roithmayr’s (2004) lock-in/lock-out model to investigate how race and racism manifest themselves in policies adopted and in the ways schools and school governing bodies implement the school admission policy. Roithmayr’s model looks beyond traditional texts to unpack race and class, including intentional and overt notions of racism in desegregating and deracialising schools in diverse societies. This model asserts that school policies in diverse societies tend to lock in children of certain races and languages and those from certain geographical locations within these predestined categories. Drawing from Roithmayr’s previous work on the lock-in and lock-out model, black children from the townships are locked-into geographical school zones – which reflect the previously segregated residential policy of South Africa – and locked-out or prevented from being admitted to former Model C schools because of school fees and language barriers (Roithmayr 2000, 2004). Similarly, such children are locked out and therefore denied educational opportunities that may be available in privileged schools because of their race, language and place of residence. Methodology and data collection instruments Consistent with the chosen interpretive paradigm, a variety of methods were employed to collect the data from parents and teachers. These methods included focused and individual interviews with a comprehensive sample of informants and document analysis (Cohen and Manion 1994; Denzin and Lincoln 1994: 12). Purposive sampling guided the selection of the informants. The key consideration was that informants shared the experience of being black South Africans living with discriminatory policies and practices during apartheid and after, and their experiences regarding school desegregation and deracialisation in the new democracy. 88 Ntshoe Twenty-eight informants were chosen. They consisted of four parents who have or had children at former Model C schools: four parents with children attending township schools, three principals of township schools, two principals of farm schools, four deputy principals from township schools, four senior teachers from township schools, three CS1 teachers from former Model C schools and four members of school governing bodies of township schools. Two focus group interviews and a number of individual interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data on the topic. Each informant was allocated a number ranging from 1 to 10 for the first focus group, 11 to 18 for the second focus group, and 19 to 25 for the individual interviews. Four categories of former Model C schools were selected and used to analyse the progress of school desegregation and deracialisation in the Krugersdorp District (hereafter referred to as the District) of the Gauteng Department of Education since 1994. The first comprised former Afrikaans-medium high schools, which catered exclusively for Afrikaans-speaking children; these schools were staffed exclusively by ‘white’ teachers and had all-‘white’ school governing body members. The second category was former Afrikaans-medium schools that have become dual-medium schools in order to accommodate a small number of black children. The school governing bodies and the teaching staff at these schools were, at the time of this research, still predominantly white; the schools generally have a large number of white learners and a small percentage of black learners. The third category consisted of English-medium schools that initially catered for poorer English communities and foreigners. These schools have experienced ‘white flight’ owing to an increase in the number of black learners. The percentages of white and black children in these schools vary considerably. The last category had former English Model C schools, which in many ways remain custodians of the English school tradition in the District. Huberman and Miles’s (1994) strategies were used for noting emerging patterns from responses, establishing convergent and divergent views. The schools and informants were drawn from the Krugersdorp, Randfontein and Western Areas towns/urban areas, as well as the surrounding townships and informal settlements (euphemism for ‘squatter’ camps) in the western part of the Gauteng province. The parents in the sample were drawn from townships, but had children enrolled at quintile 3, 4 and 5 schools, outside the townships. Quintile 3 schools are schools found in impoverished communities including township, rural and farm schools, while quintile 5 are schools in rich communities, usually in urban areas. According to the Gauteng Department of Education, there are 23 schools in quintile 1, 10 in quintile 2, 34 in quintile 3, 27 in quintile 4 and 20 in quintile 5 schools in District 5 of the Gauteng Department of Education (Department of Education 1997). Although the findings of this research are not generalised across the school system in Effects of racism in law and school policy 89 South Africa and other systems, they establish typical and/or atypical narratives of the lived experiences of black people in relation to legislation and school policy and practice with regard to school desegregation in post-apartheid South Africa. Black in the context of this article refers to black African communities, most of whom are still living in townships that were designated for them by the previous government. Admission policy during the transitional period and beyond An alternative policy to replace the ‘separate but equal’ in education of the apartheid era was to create Model A, B, C and D schools (De Lange 1981). Model D schools were similar to Model B, but differed from the latter in that there was no restriction regarding the number of black pupils that could now be enrolled in these schools, which admitted black children but were run by the white Department of Education (Naidoo 1996a: 22). However, while the original features of the different school models may have changed somewhat, some of the original features of each category are still discernible in the contemporary South African system. Since the discussions is about the exclusionary measures in Model C schools, it is necessary to highlight key characteristics of these schools and to underscore some research on various exclusionary measures in the system. Model C schools were state-aided schools that were run by a management committee and the principal and teachers were paid by the state, while the rest of their expenses were borne by the school governing bodies (Naidoo 1996a: 20). Carrim and Mkhwanazi (1993) identified additional conditions under which Model C schools operated: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. All schools had to maintain a 51% white majority in their school population. The cultural ethos of the school was to remain intact. The management council of the school had the right to determine selection criteria. No school was necessarily bound to consider curricular changes. The opening of schools did not necessarily mean the employment of black teachers on the staff of such ‘open’ schools. Accordingly, desegregating white schools, as Christie (1990: 130) has suggested, entailed working with an existing legacy of assumptions and practices in the location and buildings of schools, their staffing patterns, sporting and other extramural activities – what is sometimes called the hidden curriculum. The South African Human Rights Commission (1999: 28) noted the following Model C school characteristics that are still prevalent in post-apartheid schools. 1. 2. 3. 4. Afrikaans as the only language of learning and instruction. Schools are normally situated in a conservative white rural community. School fees are often beyond the reach of local black communities. There is the bussing-in of white learners from peripheral areas to boost the number 90 Ntshoe of white learners and in this way ‘crowd out’ other learners. 5. Schools have hostels that are ‘fully occupied’ by white borders, and have a school ethos including sporting codes, religious activities, extramural practices and initiation rites that are alien to black learners. Critical of the current schools composition, Carrim and Sayed (1991: 28-29) argue that Model C schools were actually an attempt to address the crisis in white education by cutting down on the number of white teaching posts that were in danger, preventing the closure of certain white schools that had become economically unfeasible, and shifting the financing and control of white schools to white parents. Another notable feature of school models in the current school types is the creation of school governing bodies by the South African Schools Act of 1996 to promote community participation in the education of learners (Republic of South Africa 1996b). Three kinds of school governing bodies (SGBs) are discernible in the current system. First, schools with strongly inclusive SGBs were both representative and democratic in their functioning. Second, the category for moderately inclusive SGBs included most schools in the DFID research. While these schools had properly constituted SGBs, they either had stakeholders who were left out or they functioned against the interests of particular groups such as parents, teachers or students. Third, the category for weakly inclusive SGBs included schools that made little effort to include those who were being marginalised by the school, such as former white schools, which were often either unconscious of their exclusiveness or in fact celebrated it (Sayed 2007: 48-49). The breakdown of the ratios of learners of different races in selected schools, ratios of teachers according to race and ratios of governing bodies was as follows: 1. School 209 had 139 black learners and 54 white learners, yet 45 of the 50 educators were white people. Three school governing body members were black (two of whom were representatives of Council of Learners members), and the remaining 13 were white. 2. While 54% of learners at school 505 were black people, 29 of the 30 teachers were white, as were 11 of the 12 SGB members. 3. At school 509, almost half of the body was made up of blacks, yet the 29 educators and the 19 SGB members were white. 4. At school 603, 40% of the learners are black, yet all the staff and SGB members were white 5. At school 409, 42% of the learners were black children, 49 of the 55 staff were white teachers, and 12 of the 13 SGB members were white, yet the principal of this school insisted that the school was faring extremely well with integration (South African Human Rights Commission 1999: 25). These ratios corroborate concerns that the increased enrolment of black learners in former Model C schools has not led to corresponding improved black representatives Effects of racism in law and school policy 91 on the school governing bodies and teaching staff in these schools (South African Human Right Commission 1999: 25). Geographical school zoning and school quintiles Geographical school zoning as a criterion to categorise schools for admission purposes in the South African system is currently used alongside the categorisation of schools into quintiles. Geographical school zoning has implications for school choice and how equity and equal opportunities are determined. One approach to school choice is underpinned by a claim that market forces drive educational standards upwards, so that performing schools will become popular and strong, while underperforming ones will become unpopular and weak. Accordingly, ‘Schools that fail to satisfy a sufficiently large clientele will go out of business or, if subsidised, the latter is becoming increasingly burdensome on their patron organisation’ (Chubb and Moe 1990: 32). Supporters of this approach further assert that school choice promotes equity by extending privileges previously available only to families able to afford houses in desirable suburban catchment areas, or families who could afford to send their children to fee-paying schools (Gorard, Fitz and Taylor 2001; Ryan and Heise 2002). Architects of a contrasting approach recognise heterogeneity and diversity and contend that school choice is a value-laden concept inextricably linked to culture, language, race and geographical location. Accordingly, in South Africa, school choice should be tempered by issues of ability to pay, travelling (bussing system), language of instruction, inherited inequitable allocation of resources to schools for the different population groups, class, student movement, schools’ ethos and culture and separate residential places for different groups. Sekete, Shilubane and Badiri (2001) in their study found that quality education, the fees paid at a particular school and travelling costs are major considerations for parents when choosing schools for their children. Their study also revealed that while children in developed countries are often required to go to the neighbourhood school, policy in South Africa has created a space for parents and children to choose schools which they think provide better quality education (Sekete et al, 2001), most of which are former white schools (author’s emphasis). Sekete et al. (2001: 27) also found that out of 120 selected schools in five provinces, 49% of the students are ‘from other residential areas than those in which schools are located’. Their study further suggests that it is mainly Black and coloured learners who are travelling to former coloured, Indian and white schools. Hoadley (1998) inserted the class factor into the current school composition in South Africa. She writes that: Schooling is … delineated largely in terms of class. The dramatic changes in composition of some schools since the opening up of the school system can broadly be described as 92 Ntshoe follows. Middle class black and white students have moved to independent schools and privileged state schools, freeing up spaces in ‘boundary schools’ (former Model C schools on the borders of historical group areas), which have been taken up largely by middle and lower middle class black, coloured and Indian students. Hoadley (1998) also found that in two secondary schools in Khayelisha, learners who had immigrated from the Eastern Cape were consequently the most disadvantaged members of a disadvantaged community, and attended the poorer performing of the two schools. That pattern suggests that even with a limited amount of information/parents are capable of making choices that optimise the potential for positive outcomes for their children (Woolman and Fleischer 2006: 53). Case studies of nine schools in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa revealed interesting patterns of school choice and student mobility. The following are some of the key features: Firstly, admission to school was largely the result of geographical location, which favours middle-class and white communities regarding entry into former Model C schools. Second, and related to the first, there has been a general migration of white parents and learners from schools where the racial composition of learners changes rapidly. Third, more and more black learners are seeking admission into white schools because of the general belief that these schools offer better education than township schools. Fourth, former white schools seem to be noticing an exodus of white learners from the schools, even though it was difficult to determine with certainty where these white learners were migrating to. Noticeable migration patterns are (a) white learner migration out of schools that are becoming increasingly black; (b) Indian learner migration out of working-class schools; (c) foreign learners who are entering into the South African schooling system; (d) African township learners who have experienced schooling in non-township schools and are now returning to the township (Samuel and Sayed 2003: 93). Fataar (2007: 14) framed the issue of school composition in terms of spacial mobility across the changing city, highlighting in particular cultural and social capitals as key determinants in the movement of learners. Features of this movement are translocal movement and adaptation, which describe the situation where culturally black learners from impoverished, mainly black, coloured and Indian residential areas daily move through the city landscape to enter the culturally dissonant spaces of their new schools. This current movement is contrasted with the apartheid era movement that was transacted in race-based extensions across the city’s landscape (Fataar 2007:15). As a way of mitigating against the adverse effects of school zoning and inequitable allocation of resources for education, the school quintile has now been introduced (Department of Education 1997). The quintile system is a strategy of the Department of Education to provide a framework to operationalise the National School Funding Norms and Standards (NSFNS) as amended in 2006 (Department of Education 1997). The NSFNS guides the allocation of resources according to quintiles ranging from 1 to 5 for 2008/9. Quintiles 1 and 2 comprise weak schools in terms of resources and enrol Effects of racism in law and school policy 93 learners from impoverished families, and are what are called ‘no-fees’ schools in the Gauteng province. These schools are mostly in rural areas, in informal settlements and on farms, most of which service poor communities and learners from these communities. Conversely, quintile 5 schools are all former Model C schools from primary to high school, most of which service wealthy communities and admit white learners not only from the neighbourhood, but also white learners who are bussed in from outside, with few black learners (Department of Education 1997). Constitutional law and school policy and practice in post-apartheid South Africa: Admission of learners to public schools South Africa’s Bill of Rights (chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996) prohibits all forms of direct and indirect discrimination and thus provides the general framework for all educational policies, including the policy on admission to public schools, while at the same time protecting certain rights such as language rights. Guided by the Bill of Rights, the admission of learners into public schools in South Africa is governed and regulated by the Admission Policy for Ordinary Public Schools (hereafter referred to as the Admission Policy) (DoE 1998) and section 5 of the South African Schools Act (Act 84 of 1996) (hereafter referred to as the Schools Act or SASA). Section 5(5) of the Schools Act grants schools and school governing bodies authority regarding admission of learners to public schools. This section states that the admission policy of any public school must, at all times, be consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Schools Act and all applicable provincial laws (DoE 1998). Section 5(1-4) of the Schools Act and sections 9 to 13 of the Admission Policy detail the requirements and limitations for the admission of learners to public schools. The Admission Policy, on the other hand, states that the Department of Education may, in consultation with school governing bodies, create school feeder zones in order to prioritise schools for purposes of learner admission. According to section 34(d) (1-111) of the Admission Policy, the objective of school feeder zones is to ensure that learners who live in the feeder areas or whose parents work and/or live close to where the school is located are prioritised for admission to public schools (DoE 1998). Section 33 of the Admission Policy empowers the head of the Department of Education, in consultation with governing bodies, to determine feeder zones for public schools. This section states that such feeder zones need not be geographically adjacent to the school or each other, and is aimed at regulating the number of learners per school (DoE 1998). Critical areas in which school governing bodies are expected to make decisions include the levying of school fees, development of school language policy, access policy and code of conduct for learners (Soudien and Sayed 2004: 104; Sayed and Soudien 2005: 118). However, given their inherited privileges, school governing bodies of former 94 Ntshoe Model C schools have the financial and human resources capacity to exercise the authority and powers given to all school governing bodies (Pampallis 2003: 148). Karlsson et al. (2001: 77) found it ironic that the very decentralisation that has led to a greater democratisation of schooling through the creation of school governing bodies in South Africa is in effect recreating inequities among schools, albeit unintentionally. However, they assert that inequities seem increasingly to reflect class rather than race, but emphasise that race continues to be a significant factor in limiting the opportunities of black children seeking admission to former white schools (Karlsson et al 2001: 177). The author’s belief, however, is that although geographical school zoning and school choice theoretically serve different purposes, the two concepts have, in practice, become mutually inclusive. Thus, it is likely that poor families will continue to enrol their children in township schools simply because of historical and structural factors of the previous government policy. Results and discussion Geographical school zoning and school choice in public schools A common thread running through the informants’ narratives is that although geographical school zoning and school choice policies in South Africa were ostensibly introduced to regulate admission to public schools, these policies have not had their intended effects. On the contrary, they have unintentionally become a means of barring learners of certain races, classes, languages, religious groupings and socio-economic status from admission to certain schools, either intentionally or by implication. Drawing from their lived historical experiences, informants corroborated previous research in South Africa indicating that school zoning, by definition, excludes those black learners who are currently living with their families in townships. These learners would otherwise automatically qualify for admission to neighbouring former Model C high schools in South Africa if the feeder school policy was still in place (Informants 2 and 6). All informants expressed concern about inconsistencies in the way in which the geographical school zoning policy is applied, emphasising that these inconsistencies mirror hidden racism concealed as ‘neutral’ and ‘objective’ jurisprudence and school policy and practice while perpetuating inequities in education in post-apartheid South Africa. Their views corroborate reservations in previous research raised by CRT, which takes issue with the ability of ‘neutral’ and ‘objective’ jurisprudence to deal with subtle and hidden racism. A deputy school principal argued that ‘given the vagueness of criteria to guide the creation of a school zone, former Model C schools have developed their own criteria, which clearly exclude learners from some population groups’ (Informant 9). Effects of racism in law and school policy 95 This situation with new means of exclusion is aptly described by Soudien and Sayed (2004) as the new form of exclusion in education policy compared with the more blatant and explicit racism based on race and language during the apartheid era. Another deputy principal observed that: The application of geographical school zoning policy has not moved an inch from previous apartheid boundaries and still reflects separate residential areas … although proximity is sometimes mentioned, the majority of black children living in townships very close to zones in which Model C schools are located do not necessarily qualify for admission into these schools. (Informant 10) Similar to attempts to reform the official racial separation of schools in South Africa during the 1990s, the Zimbabwean government (then Rhodesia) introduced school zoning, which resulted in the creation of Group A and B schools, through the 1979 Education Act. Group A schools catered exclusively for non-African children (Kaseke et al. 1998: 26). Comparable to the South African situation, Group A schools resembled Model C schools and did not admit African pupils living in high-density areas into schools in low-density suburban areas that were well equipped for state-of-the-art teaching and learning (Zindi 1996: 44). Correspondingly, Group B schools in Zimbabwe were situated in high-density areas (townships), populated by impoverish black communities, and enrolled children from these areas (much like the current townships in South Africa). As is currently the case in South Africa, urban learners in high-density suburban areas found it difficult to be enrolled in well-equipped schools which were situated in low density areas because of the zoning systems and their socio-economic status (Zindi 1996: 45). The informants support the claim in the literature that many white children residing outside the so-called feeder zones have gained admission to former Model C schools in the District even though their parents reside outside these zones. Similar to the Zimbabwean situation, the informants argued that not one white learner was enrolled in township schools in the District when this research was conducted (see studies by Hoadley (1998), Fataar (2007) and Woolman and Fleischer (2006), which provide a clearer picture on the complexities of student movement). Drawing from the above discussions, it is plausible to argue that geographical zoning by nature may become a controlling mechanism, which assigns children to a particular school on the basis of ‘objective criteria’, albeit unintentionally (Plank and Sykes 2003: viii). Plank and Sykes also warn that issues such as gender, race and/or measured aptitude often come into play (Plank and Sykes 2003: viii). Language as a gatekeeper Section 28(2) of the Constitution and section 6 of the Schools Act – which vests a school governing body with the authority to determine the school’s language policy – have clearly been effectively exploited by former Model C schools to exclude black learners 96 Ntshoe (see South African Human Rights Commission 1999: 15). Thus, in addition to excluding learners from a school using geographical school zoning, many schools use language covertly to exclude black learners living in townships and those whose parents live in the area of the Model C School but who are unable to speak and understand Afrikaans. Furthermore, participants corroborate findings from previous research on the extent to which curriculum admission policy excludes learners on grounds of race, albeit subtly (see Soudien and Sayed 2004: 110; Sayed and Soudien 2005: 121). Their views on this point corroborate Naidoo’s (1996b: 67) observation of a constant refrain from many teachers that the African learners could not cope because of the language problem. This issue came up with regard to questions on admission and selection tests, problems in general, communication, and the need for institutional change (1996b: 67). Sayed and Soudien (2005: 121) highlighted instances where schools not only retained, but nurtured practices that effectively sidelined poorer people by using Afrikaans as a language of instruction and the general school ethos. A deputy principal at one of the former Model C schools observed ‘both English-speaking and black learners at our school are not integrated into the school culture, which is predominantly Afrikaans’ (Informant 12). Drawing from previous research and studies, it is plausible to argue that not only is South African society still divided along racial lines but, more importantly, schools still largely reflect the geopolitical boundaries of the past and will continue to do so for a long time. Endorsing findings of previous research, a parent raised a concern about continued use of Afrikaans in Model C schools by school governing bodies of schools that in practice exclude learners, even though they qualify in terms of zoning (Carrim and Mkhwanazi 1993; Soudien and Sayed 2004; Sayed and Soudien 2005). He expressed his disappointment as follows: ‘Although the school is a few yards from our house, we could not register our child at this particular school because of the continued use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction’ (Informant 23). This particular participant further asserted that ‘it does appear that ethnicity, language and by implication race have once more become criteria for determining the school feeder zoning system in the District’ (Informant 23), even if it is not expressly stated (author’s emphasis). Thus, ‘language continues to be systematically used to exclude children whose home language is not Afrikaans and who are predominately black children from the townships’ (Informant 24, a principal). Two similarities between South Africa and Zimbabwe are that pupils in rural areas did not have access to good-quality education as most learners from rural black communities were still walking long distances of 15 to 20 kilometres each morning in order to attend the nearest school. A principal of a farm school captured this phenomenon thus: Effects of racism in law and school policy 97 Parents from poor farm communities are often excluded from schools, as they cannot afford to take their children to a nearby prestigious Afrikaans high school because of high transport costs, the use of Afrikaans and high school fees charged by the school. (Informant 25, principal at a farm school) The same principal further described the situation thus: ‘These children are forced to attend schools which, to date, have admitted only black learners, or to travel 25 kilometres to attend school at the nearest township’ (Informant 25). This was similar to Zimbabwe, where there was no instance of a white child attending a Group B school in high-density areas (Zindi 1996: 44, 45), while in South Africa no case of a white child attending township schools in the Krugersdorp District could be found at the time of this research. Based on their experiences, informants reinforced findings of previous research in South Africa that given the way these schools essentially retain their strong Afrikaans ethos, the increasing enrolment of black children at former Model C high schools in the District does not seem to be the result of a voluntary move on the part of these schools to deracialise (see Carrim and Mkhwanazi 1993; Human Rights Commission 1999: 25). A senior teacher at a former Model C school concurred and argued that: the increasing number of black children in the former Model C schools is not generally a result of genuine commitment on the part of these schools to accommodate black learners, but rather a result of declining learner numbers and a reduction in teacher posts. (Informant 12) Another informant endorsed this observation that ‘the increase in enrolment has little to do with the deliberate and genuine integration of these children into mainstream school culture, but rather more to do with serving the interests of white children through school governing bodies’ (Informant 9). The informants’ observations endorse the findings by Carrim and Sayed (1991) on the same issue. Embedded in Bell’s concept of ‘convergence of interests’, therefore, the increase in the number of black learners in former Model C schools is a result of a ‘convergence of interests’ (Taylor 2000: 542). Three cases illustrating the non-uniformity in the application of law and school policy on language by the school governing bodies and the courts are presented below. The first case is Matukane v Laerskool Potgietersrus (1996 3 SA 223 (T)), in which the High Court dealt with the alleged discriminatory admissions policy of a public school. In this case, the school wanted to use Afrikaans exclusively as the medium of instruction and stated that admission to the school was based on the ability of the learners to speak and understand Afrikaans. The court’s decision was based on the fact that the equality clause prohibits ‘unfair’ discrimination; although discrimination on the basis of culture and language are not unconstitutional, the school could not prove the fact that the refusal to admit black learners would not further the racist admissions policy (Bray 2005: 80). The second case is Seodin Primary School v MEC of Education of Northern Cape (2004 1177 SA). Here the Northern Cape High Court ruled in favour of the Northern Cape 98 Ntshoe Education Department. The three Afrikaans-medium schools (Kalahari High, Seodin Primary and the Noord Kaapland Afrikaans Higher Schools) were forced, therefore, to become dual-medium schools to accommodate English-speaking children, and the court dismissed the application by the school governing body, which wanted to keep the school exclusively Afrikaans-medium. The third case is the Governing Body of Mikro Primary School v Western Cape Minister of Education (2005 2 All SA 37 (C)). The court dismissed the claim by the Western Cape Department of Education that Mikro Primary School wanted to remain an exclusively Afrikaans-medium school. The court in this case also upheld section 6(2) of the Schools Act, which gives the school governing body, and not the Department of Education, the authority to determine the school’s language policy. Clearly, then, the current protection of language rights by the Bill of Rights and the Schools Act have led to Afrikaans-medium schools developing strategies for exploiting any ambiguities that may exist regarding the language policy for public schools. The discussion so far points to one thing, namely that although various policies have been unveiled and legislation enacted to hasten desegregation, the incidence of racial discrimination in many school communities contributes to the intractable and continuing racialisation of schooling. Bus-in system and fees The informants all concurred and therefore affirmed the findings of previous research that the transport costs borne by parents who take their children to former Model C schools is another example of subtle and hidden racism in the school system. White parents, however, have the choice of taking their children away from some Model C schools once the enrolment of black children increases, and place them in good public schools, which are predominantly white, or in private schools even outside the District or zone. (Informant 10) Furthermore, there was a general convergence from the informants and available literature that parents’ choice and access to education in the District continues to be determined by market forces that clearly favour children from families that can meet the financial obligations of former Model C schools. Some of these forces are race, language and culture. Black learners are usually excluded on the basis of these forces (Informant 8, senior teacher at a former Model C school; Sekete et al 2001; Samuel and Sayed 2003; Fataar 2007). In this regard, Soudien and Sayed (2004: 107) observed that black parents choose to send their children away from township to modest former white, coloured and Indian schools that charge lower fees and have limited resources, and avoid white schools that charge high fees and have adequate resources to provide quality education. Effects of racism in law and school policy 99 Implications for policy and practice Despite notable strides to explicitly deracialise and implicitly desegregate and integrate schools to widen access to education and to address inequities by eradicating various forms of discrimination through legislation and policies, the exclusion of learners on the basis of race, colour, language, socio-economic status and class still continue in many countries (see Solorzano 1997, 1998; Delgado and Stefancic 2001; Soudien and Sayed 2004; Sayed and Soudien 2005). Thus, while it is theoretically possible to legislate and develop clear policies to prohibit segregation of schools on the basis of race, colour, language and culture, the more subtle and hidden forms of exclusion remain much more difficult to deal with through laws and legislation. Accordingly, legislation and policies to deracialise schools have limited effect in reversing school segregation and eradicating other forms of hidden and subtle racism. These include stereotypes, attitudes, biases and prejudices, which are still common practice in education systems. Legislation and policies can at best only go as far as prohibiting institutional discrimination, intentional and covert segregation and racism remain exclusionary mechanisms in the current situation (Fataar 2007; Hordley 1998; Sekete et al 2001). Furthermore, though there may be good intentions behind school zoning, the system by its nature has inherent potential to reinforce previous discriminatory practices. One of the practices is to prevent learners from poor or high-density communities from enrolling at schools that are perceived to provide quality education (former Model C schools). First, although geographical zoning is generally accepted as a politically and racially neutral criterion for admitting learners to particular schools, zoning recreates past policies of segregated residential areas and segregated schools. This recreation of past discriminatory policies occurs because the residential areas were racially created in South Africa. Second, school choice policy in countries where people were historically allocated separate places of residence, such as South Africa, is likely to lock learners into racially determined township schools and lock them out of wellresourced schools in affluent areas. Thirdly, the so-called ‘objective’ jurisprudence on geographical school zoning may well promote equality, but is very weak in promoting equity. Thus, existing high and low-density areas that characterise student movement merely reflect previous geopolitical boundaries and because of social and economic power school zoning is largely controlled by school governing bodies of former Model C Schools. In this way, the negative effects of school zoning may far outweigh its good intentions, including management of overcrowding in some schools and ensuring the safety of learners who walk long distances to other schools outside their zones. The different decisions of the courts in the three cases above highlight the limitations of positivist interpretation of the law and the notion of race-neutral jurisprudence. Conversely, critics of positivist interpretation of the law eschew the notion of neutrality in law, arguing that legal texts are social constructions and not social facts, as Raz intimated in Green (2005). Legal texts are interpreted within particular con- 100 Ntshoe texts and therefore different cultures might hold different interpretations and understanding of concepts of law (Dickson 2001; Schauer 2005). Two lessons can be learnt from this: Although the quintiles system as applied in South Africa goes a long way to promote equitable allocation of resources, this system does not seem to complement other legislation on deracialisation and desegregation of schools. On the contrary, it recreates and implicitly promotes the continued segregation of schools, indirectly encouraging poor black parents to enrol their children in lower quintile no-fee-paying schools often found in impoverished communities in townships, informal settlements and farming communities. Another issue with the quintile system is that quintile 5 schools enrol learners from quintile 1 environments, making the effective implementation of the system difficult. The existence of laws and policies do not necessarily mean that these will be implemented as intended. This is partly because such laws are socially constructed and therefore not uniformly implemented. This explains why the courts came to different decisions in very similar cases. Despite policies setting out the requirements and limitations of admitting learners to public schools, the decentralisation of this authority to school governing bodies and schools seems to contradict some provisions of the Constitution that prohibit discrimination against learners. Thus, while schools are no longer legally allowed to exclude learners from schools on any ground, exclusions on the basis of race, language, culture, religion and inability to pay are used by school governing bodies to subtly exclude mostly black learners. This is still widespread in the system. In many cases these exclusionary measures are enforced by school governing bodies partly by virtue of the powers given to them by the SASA. (South African Human Rights Commission 1999; Naidoo 1996a, 1996b; Govender, 1997). Conclusion This article sought to address the status quo of school desegregation and deracialisation in South Africa’s post-apartheid society and to understand how the challenges of social difference, particularly race and racism, have been dealt with in available post-apartheid school policies and laws in the post-apartheid era. The evidence makes plausible the views and perspectives that, while the majority of black poor people living in townships have, theoretically, an unlimited choice of schools for their children, in fact structural imperatives, including transport costs borne by the parents, fees and residential area, mean that parents have a limited choice of schools that offer better quality education. Furthermore, the argument that school zoning is generally a poor instrument to redress inequalities based on race and class is sound. School zoning inherently tends to recreate inequities, as these zones are still determined using geopolitical boundaries where residential areas were clearly divided, mainly along racial lines and, in Effects of racism in law and school policy 101 some cases, in terms of socio-economic status of communities. Thus, the intended open movement of learners and deracialisation of school have not materialised for the majority of poor black people. If anything, the learner movement continues to benefit white and middle class groups who benefited from the previous arrangement. Similarly, only a small percentage of poor black, Indian and coloured learners move to modest former Model C schools (those that charge low fees), while the majority remain locked in their predestined residential areas and schools and locked out of schools providing better education. Thus the majority of children from townships are locked in quintile 3 schools. A solution could be equitable allocation of resources to individual learners rather than to schools. The author has argued that despite explicit legislation and policies to desegregate and deracialise schools, hidden, covert and subtle racial prejudice in South African schools continue to exist, partly because of the disharmony between the different pieces of legislation and practice. Thus the argument that the current legislation serves as a constraining rather than controlling mechanism to manage the actions of internal state actors is tenable (see Sayed and Soudien 2004). More importantly, there seems to be support for the view of Sayed and Soudien (2004: 117) that the political agenda in the current South African school system is arguably contested around interpretations of law, which in turn results in conflicts between the centre and provinces from the political arena to the judiciary. Conversely, legislation and policies are open to diverse interpretation. A plethora of ambiguities also exists in the various pieces of legislation, which are sometimes deliberately exploited by school governing bodies of some schools to undermine government policies. In this regard, one is inclined to support the view that it is more appropriate to talk of new forms of racism where learners from certain racial, linguistic and social classes are excluded from access to equal educational opportunities and where their exclusion has become accepted as it is no longer as blatant as it used to be. There are two caveats regarding the different decisions in the different cases noted here: 1. Though very capable in addressing equality issues, neutral and objective jurisprudence has been demonstrated in the discussions as unable to address equity issues. 2. Decentralisation of admission to provinces and schools to create space for community participation is complicating the situation further In conclusion, the following issues have been highlighted: 1. Instrumentalism and the belief that superficial changes in school policies will ultimately lead to the total deracialisation of schools 2. The trickle-down approach, which hopes that a few emerging middle-class blacks will encourage residential desegregation, school deracialisation and greater school choice 3. The equality theory, legal reasoning, rationality and neutral principles of legis- 102 Ntshoe lation on schools contained in the Constitution, the South African Schools Act and the Admission Policy References Bray, W. (2005) Human Rights in Education. Pretoria: Centre for Education Law and Education Policy (CELP). Chubb, JE and Moe, TM (1990). Politics, markets and American’s schools. Washington, DC: Brooking Institution. Cohen, L and Manion, L. (1994) Research Methods in Education. 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Teachers College Record, 102(3): 539-560. Woolman, S and Fleischer, B. (2006) South Africa’s unintended experiment in school choice: How the National Education Policy Act, the South Africa Schools Act and the Employment of Educators Act create the enabling conditions for quasi-markets in schools. Education and the Law, 18(1): 31-75. Yosso, TJ. (2005) Whose culture has capital: A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Theory and Education, 8(1): 69-91. Zindi, F. (1996) Towards the elimination of disparities in educational provision: A look at Zimbabwe and South Africa. Journal of Social Development in Africa, 11(1): 43-51. Notes on the author Isaac Nthoe holds a master’s degree in education from the Institute of Education, University of 104 Nsibande and Modiba London, and a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is currently a professor in the Institute for Open and Distance Learning at Unisa and his research interests are education policy, planning and curriculum. Isaac is the editor-in-chief of Africa Education Review, published by Unisa Press and Taylor and Francis. Address for correspondence Isaac Ntshoe Department of Education Studies PO Box 392 UNISA 0003 E-mail: Ntshoim@unisa.ac.za Youth becoming across the ruralurban landscape: The case of Fuzile Ali at a Muslim community school in Cape Town Aslam Fataar Stellenbosch University Abstract The article is motivated by the importance of pursuing research foci that can provide novel sociological insights into subjectivities associated with schooling in South Africa. The article considers the unfolding subjectivity of a young person in light of his school-going at five different schools across the country’s rural and urban landscape. It focuses on his navigation of the affective terrains of his schools’ environments and what he becomes in interaction with these environments. The article suggests that his mobility across the landscape is crucial to his becoming. So too are his readings of, and adaptations to, the different environments in which he lives his young life. The author argues that it is his ability to establish a range of engaged performances that can help explain the type of person he becomes. The article is based on the view that this example of one young person’s becoming can illuminate the subjective terrain of a large of number of children who similarly encounter their schooling across both rural and urban landscapes and in fragmented existences in cities. I have come to understand that research has to be open to serendipity and surprise. I remember starting out on my current research project, entitled Educational Renovation in Urban Spaces, with the intention of understanding the make-up and functioning of school governance in schools in a specific township environment. After a period of two weeks spent gaining access and initial insights at the schools I intended to study, I concluded that the narrow focus on schools as institutions would be insufficient to capture the complexities involved in how governance is lived. It dawned on me that the complex and layered dynamics in the surrounding environment had a Fataar, A. (2009) Youth becoming across the rural-urban landscape: The case of Fuzile Ali at a Muslim community school in Cape Town. Southern African Review of Education, 15(2): 105-115. 106 Fataar decisive impact on the school’s institutional culture. The discourses of my interviewees persuaded me to look in another place. It was to the connections between the sociality of this township and in-school processes that I turned. I encountered a rough diamond during this initial research exploration that convinced me of the necessity of understanding the iterative links between township dynamics and school governance processes. My informants in this study told me about the informal ways in which specific religious denominations colonised the governance mechanisms of the school to secure privileged access for their adherents. This persuaded me to shift my focus to the ways in which informal living in ephemeral circumstances interacted with formal modern arrangements associated with governmental school reform. I decided that governance had to be understood in the light of these interactions (see Fataar 2007). An entirely different set of questions emerged. Openness to influence by the ‘research ground’ had enabled me to take the project into directions different from what was initially proposed, opening up for me a productive scholarly agenda. This article is based on another research diamond that I stumbled upon. It involves the story of a striking young person who attended five schools across South Africa’s post-apartheid geographies. His story opened up a window onto iterative living against the backdrop of vastly uneven subjective terrains, of establishing a ‘desire line’ (Shepherd and Murray 2007) out of the anxious discursive materials of his life experiences. As I discuss below, this young person’s successful entry into modernity was neither straightforward nor inevitable. The sociologies of schooling, culture and religion in changing circumstances are key markers of his youthful becoming. But I suggest that the analytical salience of his story lies in the complex ways that he performs his subjectivity across his life’s geographies. His story brings out into the open difficult questions about youth becoming in challenging circumstances. I draw inspiration from Charles van Onselen’s (1996) magisterial work, The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985. This is an example of how one story highlights a bigger text. Van Onselen presents a portrayal of the life of a sharecropper in the rapidly changing racialised terrain of the colonial and apartheid order. It enables us to understand the dislocations and relocations of black lives against the background of the country’s transforming political economy. The story I tell below allows one to understand the manner in which youngsters in similar situations encounter the unfolding postapartheid order. I present this article as a research note based on a presentation of the story and my initial attempt at analysis. This story unfolds against the backdrop of rapidly changing livelihoods in the fascinatingly complex and unequal city of Cape Town. Fuzile Ali (pseudonym) finished matric at Balaagh Institute (pseudonym) at the end of 2008. I first encountered him at an end-of-school dinner where he was one of three Youth becoming across the rural-urban landscape 107 student speakers. Something about Fuzile Ali’s performance struck me. He made a well-rehearsed speech about his ambitions for his life. He was poised and confident. He said nothing about his conversion to his new religion nor about his adopted school. His discourse was framed by desire and aspiration. I thought then that his story could pierce open one set of understandings, one key cognitive map about how city life is constituted in interaction with rapidly changing school processes in the city. I locate my work at the intersection of educational development and reform, specifically at the point where sociological processes inside schools and other educational institutions interact with, and are shaped by, the normative agendas of the post-apartheid state. My analytical lens is a defamiliarising one that focuses on how people live and experience their schooling, on what they become in interaction with the worlds of the schools they attend. I proceed from the view that city spaces are ‘lived spaces’ encountered and constituted by those who interact with them. The creative articulation between these lived urban practices and schooling practices is at the centre of my work. Schooling practices such as the ones established by Fuzile Ali are an example of some learners’ variegated journeys back and forth across geographic regions of South Africa, across rural and urban spaces, and across the city. The five schools he attended provide the backdrop for his scholarly becoming. His case is not an isolated one but part of a larger urban trend. I completed eight 45-minute interviews with Fuzile Ali over a three-week period. My research assistant and I did a number of peripheral interviews with his family members, friends and some of his teachers at the various schools he attended. He currently attends a madrassah (Muslim religious school) attached to a mosque in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, where he studies Qur’an reading and Arabic. He lives on the premises of and does part-time work for a da’wah (missionary) organisation, Discover Islam, run by a Saudi-trained North American expatriate. He intends studying law next year at one of Cape Town’s universities. His is a complex story of life in post-apartheid society, a young life that spans five schools in sub-regional context, traversing rural and urban areas across the Eastern and Western Cape provinces of South Africa. I would suggest, following De Certeau (1984), that Fuzile Ali’s life can be read as constructions of self in his daily encounters with specific lived spaces. De Certeau’s key insight is that people use cities for constructing who they are, producing a narrative of identity. They write the city without being able to read it – and they don’t know how their individual paths affect the city as a whole. They make a sentence or a story of particular places in the city, while the city is not available as an overview – the city is the way that it is walked (see De Certeau 1984: 91-114). ‘Walking’ the rural-urban divide So how does Fuzile Ali ‘walk’ the rural-urban divide and the city of Cape Town in which he has come to settle? He attended his first school in a rural Eastern Cape 108 Fataar village at the age of six years old, conceptually and geographically miles away from the context of his conversion to Islam years later. His first rural school in 1996 and the three schools he subsequently attended, in Cape Town, back in the village in the Eastern Cape, and then back in Cape Town respectively, were historically intended for black Africans. Fuzile Ali can therefore be said to have established a school desire line across black African space, sutured by the policies of racial separation with their roots in the separatist logics of apartheid. Until his move to Balaagh Institute, he had minimal contact with non-black African people. Theorist of race, David Theo Goldberg (2009), suggests productively that the apartheid/post-apartheid turnover, from a society based on rigid formal racialisation to the formal deracialisation of public life, can be understood in the light of what he describes as the shift from the ‘sacralisation of race’ to the ‘secularisation of race’ (see Goldberg 2009: 309-321). He argues that since 1994 South African society has begun to move away from a situation where racial exclusivism and racial oppression of black people occurred on the basis of a political theology of race. Instead of this ‘sacralisation’, race has now become secularised, wrapped in the politically limiting clothing of neo-liberalism, individualism and a weak decentralising state, which has impacted the re-ordering of the South African social order. South Africa has thus moved from racial exclusiveness to what I would call the flexibilities and limitations of deracialisation where post-racial repositionings are articulated by class, space and the vagaries of material access. Fuzile Ali traverses the dyssynchronous spatialities of the post-apartheid order. He ‘walks’ through this landscape by drawing on a repertoire of internal and external resources. It is the coming together of these internal psychological resources and the material opportunities of the external environment, a particular individual articulation, that points the way for his subjective becoming. His life is knitted together by contingency and strategic readings trumped by an aspirant desire for mobility. This mobility is inflected by the vagaries of the physical spaces he finds himself in, and his assertion of his own meanings, desires and aspirations in these spaces. His is an example of making space, or in the conception of Lefebvre (1971/1991), ‘representing space’ or ‘living space’. Fuzile Ali thus develops a complex subjectivity by actively ‘walking’ through the dissonant post-racial spatial order. Let me explain: His first school in the rural village in the Eastern Cape is a onebuilding school with three teachers. Deeply impoverished, the school performs its pedagogical rudiments in the Xhosa language. Fuzile Ali had completed Grade One, Grade Two and half of Grade Three when in 1998 the reach of the decentralising postapartheid order arrived and dislodged him from his school world. The post-apartheid state arrived in the rural village by way of its school governance reform legislation, in the form of the South African Schools Act (DoE 1996), which enabled the school to charge R20 per annum for school fees, which, in the depressed local economy of a rural Youth becoming across the rural-urban landscape 109 village, was an enormous sum. The school charged user fees to augment a limited state allocation to the school. This reform model in effect dispersed the responsibility for equitable school development onto the rural and urban poor, with deleterious consequences for the life contours of youngsters like Fuzile Ali. He was sent home in July 1998, practically banned from school because of a failure to pay. His maternal grandfather, who was not quite committed culturally to the education of his offspring, was either unable or refused to pay. He commandeered Fuzile Ali to take up the position of looking after his cattle full-time. Cattle play a vital role in the life of such traditional rural communities and at an early age Fuzile Ali had already had his fair share of shepherding, which he had come to hate. Withdrawn from school, he performed his shepherd role dutifully, if ruefully, developing a permanent disdain for this type of work. He nonetheless retained his equanimity, and an image as a respectful and hardworking good boy, who is able to turn adversity into a personal asset, a dimension which characterises his associations and relationships throughout his life. Drawing on Erikson’s (1968) groundbreaking work on youth and identity development, I would argue that Fuzile Ali navigates his life circumstances fundamentally on the basis of simultaneous internal discipline that controls his psychological imprinting, marshalled, sometimes with difficulty, while projecting a cheery, forward-looking disposition that endears him to those with whom he comes into contact, specifically his teachers and students at his various schools. Erikson’s (1968: 35) work suggests that we always have to read young people against the unique historical conditions in which they find themselves. Fuzile Ali has been able to cultivate a number of networks, using them to leverage a productive platform for launching himself into modernity, becoming educated, and accessing particular religious affiliations that position him in ever-evolving physical, conceptual and affective terrains. His networks and relations have nonetheless been unstable, and so has his movement across the geographies of the post-apartheid order. Fuzile Ali was whisked in January 1999 at the age of nine by his paternal grandfather to attend a school in urban Cape Town. As an urban itinerant who worked variously as a labourer and security guard in this city, his paternal grandfather was in a position to take Fuzile Ali with him to Cape Town to live with one of three wives in a black African township. Fuzile Ali felt liberated. He fell in love with the city. Associating his rural village with backwardness and stagnation, he began to associate the city with progress and the chance of becoming educated. He lived with his grandfather’s third wife and her children in a hostel apartment in Langa, the oldest existing African township in Cape Town. Interestingly, his step-grandmother placed him in the only Sotho-speaking school in a predominantly Xhosa-speaking township. The Sotho school was perceived to be a more stable and better-quality school and instruction was in Sotho, a language cognate but different 110 Fataar from the Xhosa language. At age nine Fuzile Ali was placed back into Grade One after failing an informal aptitude test at the school. Reluctant at first, he quickly immersed himself in his school career. With his grandfather paying his fees, he became a teacher’s favourite and completed Grades One to Five between 1999 and 2003. The grandfather’s decision upon his retirement to take a fourth wife back in his home village in the Eastern Cape led to Fuzile Ali’s expulsion from the home of the step-grandmother with whom he was living. He found himself back in the rural Eastern Cape in January 2004. The decision was made that he would attend the school in his grandfather’s rural village, but instead of going into Grade Six he skipped grades to go into Grade Eight. Grade skipping is a common occurrence among black African children who move back and forth between urban and rural schools. The post-apartheid surveillance state has begun to address this incongruence by introducing a very sophisticated IT-based monitoring system that can pick up such gradeskipping. Fuzile Ali was able to skip grades by presenting the village school a story about a burning shack, not an uncommon occurrence in the city, in which everything, including his report cards, was destroyed. The grandfather’s association with the school, as a village elder, helped to secure his place in Grade Eight, which he completed at this school. Fuzile Ali was by then always looking to the city. The move back to the rural village in the Eastern Cape was painful. He described this period in an interview as a wasted year. Changed family arrangements resulted in a situation where he was able to move back to Cape Town to live with his mother’s relatives in Phillipi, another township in Cape Town. He thus migrated back to Cape Town in January 2005, where he attended a black African township school for Grades Nine and Ten. His mother’s relatives provided him and his younger brother with a relatively stable environment. He had to do many daily chores and take care of his sibling’s homework. Grateful for the opportunity to go to school in the city, Fuzile Ali was able to work the formal and informal networks of this township to his advantage. He became an active member of an evangelical church, attending church services three times a week, participating fully in its youth programmes, and making use of its social welfare provisions such as food, health services and clothing. The church environment also presented him with the opportunity to become immersed in his long-standing interest in drama classes through a drama programme provided in association with the church. This interest had initially been piqued by his being given a bit part in an American-produced short film on life in the township. His persona as an actor found expression in this new environment. I would argue overall that Fuzile Ali’s life scriptings can be likened to a Butlerian view of performance. Butler (1990) speaks of performance as scriptings that embed a form of identity, in reference to the ability of the performer to enact and enable a specific identity relative to his specific affective terrains. The religiosity on display has to be Youth becoming across the rural-urban landscape 111 understood in the light of the many associations of which it is a part. Eschatological commitments for Fuzile Ali combine with material need on the one hand, and his youthful navigations on the other, to find sustenance for his aspirations in particular environments and networks. His religious commitments generate certain understandings of life, and the possibilities that inhere in such understandings. It is the specific readings and aspirations that he brings to the exercise of his religiosity that help explain his youthful subjectivity. The attributions of space are crucial, of being inside specific spatialities that organise, articulate and give meaning to his subjective being and becoming. This understanding can be applied to his Christian commitments, his ‘Christianness’, in the space of the black township and his ‘Muslimness’ in the space of a subsequent environment, as I will now go on to show. The spatiality of Fuzile Ali’s ‘Muslimness’ His mother, until then relatively absent from his growing up, migrated to Cape Town in the middle of 2006. She initially went to live with her sister in a deeply impoverished township in Cape Town. Fortuitous circumstances led to her obtaining a rudimentary house structure in an area of this township that was hurriedly laid on for victims of a fire in an adjacent squatter settlement. The South African National Zakaah Fund (SANZAF), which became involved in relief work in this area, had set up a social welfare office in response to the needs of the refugees. They also established a madrassa structure, where they provided basic Islamic education to those people who converted to Islam. Fuzile Ali and his sibling were now required to live with their mother in this new area. They had to travel to school by taxi. He was thus somewhat cut off from his Christianbased youth and other social networks, although the church continued to pay his school fees and his taxi fares. He still travelled to Phillipi township every Saturday for his drama classes. Clearly, becoming Muslim had not cut him loose from his Christianbased networks. Nor had it alienated him from his Christian and traditionally orientated family and friends who were spread across the Cape sub-region. He visited his family in the Eastern Cape regularly and stayed in touch with his many cousins and friends. Fuzile Ali became Muslim after three days of attending the madrassah in his mother’s township. The madrassah was the only religious structure in close proximity to their home. He speaks of having been under the impression that the madrassah was a church, of people worshipping there, dressed in a particular way, reciting in a somewhat strange language. It seems from my interviews that the madrassah provided an affective religious environment in a very depressed situation. The madrassah assisted people with their immediate social welfare needs. Fuzile Ali and his mother were possibly attracted to becoming Muslim because of the access it provided to symbolic and material sustenance in a deeply ephemeral and alienating environment. He 112 Fataar suggested that access to food played a major role in their family’s attendance of the madrassah and in their becoming Muslim. His mother left the faith after three months but Fuzile Ali engaged more actively with the discursive material and opportunities that becoming Muslim in this space offered. He spoke of being moved and inspired in the early days of his conversion by the discipline, unity and simplicity he witnessed when he participated in a proPalestinian march in downtown Cape Town. Donning the skull cap and a white robe, and learning about Islamic rituals and the rudiments of Quranic recitation, provided him with access to new symbols and a new language. He began to associate a successful and moral youthful existence with his becoming Muslim. He explained that his conversion was not based on any strong conviction about the eschatological veracity of his new religion. I asked him at what point he started to fully commit to his new religion and on what basis. His answer bowled me over. I expected a rehearsed answer about the comparative logics of the status of Jesus in both Islam and Christianity, and comparisons between Tawhid (the uni-city of God) and the Divine Trinity. Instead, Fuzile Ali replied thus: ‘When they told me I would go to Cairo to study, I really became committed. From then on I became so committed … I practised so hard to know my lessons, to be a good person.’ It was thus aspiration tied to the conceptual geographies of Islam, of the promise of travelling, of tying mobility to the desire to self-improve and become someone significant, that fired his imagination and motivated his early Islamic becoming. Not as distant as the promised study trip to Cairo, his move from the high school in Phillipi to Balaagh Institute in 2007 proved decisive in his Muslim youthful becoming. This move afforded him the opportunity to step out of ‘black space’ into the cultural and ethnically ambiguous space of a middle-class Muslim private school controlled by Indian ethnic interests and attended by Coloured (mixed race) and Indian children (see Fataar 2004, 2005). Children pay about R12 000 per year in fees to attend Balaagh Institute. The school is situated on a newly built and fairly sophisticated campus. The South African National Zakaah Fund and the missionary organisation, Discover Islam, active in his new township, had decided that it would be in his educational and religious interest for him to complete his high school years at Balaagh Institute. Viewing him as an asset for their missionary efforts, these organisations decided to secure him a place in the school. He was exempted from the annual fees and the missionary organisation paid his taxi fees to travel to school. He was one of the first black African children to attend this school. Fuzile Ali’s resilience, courage and adaptability were severely tested in this new environment. He struggled to adapt to the expected academic rigour and standards of the school. He had to take Mathematics on the higher grade and English as a first language. It is no secret that the gap in quality between a typical Cape Town township school and a middle-class private school such as Balaagh Institute is enormous. His Youth becoming across the rural-urban landscape 113 Mathematics would have been at a Grade Four or Five level compared with the Grade Eleven level at which he was expected to perform at Balaagh Institute. His level of English language proficiency would have been similarly discordant. His teachers spent an inordinate amount of time tutoring him to make up for his educational deficiencies. He attended numerous tutorial support programmes in English and Mathematics after school hours, over weekends and during school vacations. He never wavered in his commitment to his educational improvement. He immersed himself in Islamic Studies, proving much more eager to learn about his new religion than his classmates. This commitment endeared him to his teachers and the school governors, but his presence became unnerving for his classmates, who ended up periodically bullying him. They challenged the school about the fuss it was making about a ‘stupid black kid’ who doesn’t pay school fees, wastes the teachers’ time asking ‘irrelevant’ questions, and doesn’t deserve to be at the school, let alone command all the attention and time teachers spent on him. Fuzile Ali felt deeply hurt and alienated from this environment when he experienced these verbal and physical assaults. The teachers and school management did not countenance the assaults. They managed to establish a tolerable context for him to complete his studies. He eventually succeeded in making friends with many of the students. He kept his eyes on the ball, remained committed to his educational aspirations, and continued to work hard at accessing the educational resources of the school, all the time figuring out and taking on the appropriate religious and educational comportments necessary for success at his new school and in his new religious environs. The decision to have Fuzile Ali live in a Muslim family, that of a director of SANZAF, proved to be decisive in his successful completion of high school and his ‘Muslim becoming’. He lived as a full member of this stable middle-class nuclear family, which consisted of parents and three daughters. They lived in a comfortable home within walking distance of the school. The family followed strict domestic etiquette. He initially struggled to adapt to these vastly different domestic circumstances, to be on time for dinner and prayers, to observe the family’s table etiquette, and its spatial arrangements based on a relatively strict gender separation. Having mastered the domestic decorum of this middle-class religious family, he went on to use the space of his new home to commit himself to his studies, establishing a productive and rigorous routine in its protected confines. Conclusion Fuzile Ali’s story suggests a complex and layered reading of subjective youthful becoming. Space and context are as important to the story as the ability to move beyond the limitations of his environments, of how physical space provides the terrain for subjective engagement, strategic readings and performance. His religious becoming must be understood in light of the ‘sociological stretching’ out of space, across 114 Fataar the post-apartheid geographies of the contemporary Now, as Sarah Nuttall (2004) would say. Central to his story is his enactment of a range of complex performances that stretches across his different urban and rural worlds. In this way Fuzile Ali established one creative path across these dys-synchronous, differently-attributed spaces, ‘walking’ across them, borrowing, adapting, creating. His religious becoming can only be understood in relation to these social transactions, which are trumped by his desire to access the aspirational heights of the city. For him, converting to Islam is an expression of a particular kind of urban imagination. It is the city and what he can become in the city that provides the rough material for his subjective formation, and becoming Muslim was for him a path into his evolving subjectivity. This exploration of youth becoming brings larger decompressing social processes into view. The dematerialisation of the city (see Nuttall and Mbembe 2009), in reference to the impact of changing economic arrangements on local socialities, provides the powerful background text against which subjective processes in schools and other institutions play out. Fuzile Ali’s story is one account of how this text is encountered. It is a poignant illustration of a life lived inside the fissures and fractures of the urban landscape. It shows how he engages the discursive materials of the schools he attends, his religious choices and his living spaces. His story opens up novel sociological vistas into the links between itinerant living and educational processes worth pursuing in future. References Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble. London: Routledge. De Certeau, M. (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: California University Press. DoE (Department of Education). (1996) The South African Schools Act. Government Printers: Pretoria. Erikson, E. (1968) Identity, Youth and Crisis. New York: WW Norton. Fataar, A. (2004) Muslim schooling in Cape Town, Exemplifying creative adaptation to the democratic landscape. Annual Review of Islam in South Africa, 7: 33-40. Fataar, A. (2005) Discourse, differentiation and agency: Muslim community schooling in post-apartheid Cape Town. Comparative Education Review, 49: 23-44. Fataar, A. (2007) Educational renovation in a ‘township on the move’: A socio-spatial analysis. International Journal of Education Development, 27(6): 599-612. Goldberg, DT. (2009) The Threat of Race: Reflections on Racial Neoliberalism. Oxford: Blackwell. Lefebvre, H. (1971/1991). The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell. Nuttall, S and Mbembe, A (eds). 2009. Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. Nuttall, S. (2004) City forms and writing the ‘Now’ in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 30(4): 731-748. Van Onselen, C. (1996) The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985. Cape Town: David Philip. Shepherd, N and Murray, N. (2007) Space, memory and identity in the post-apartheid city. In Murray, N, Shepherd, N and Hall, M (eds). Desire Lines: Space, Memory and Identity in the Post-Apartheid City. London and New York: Routledge. Youth becoming across the rural-urban landscape 115 Notes on the author Aslam Fataar currently lectures in the Education Policy Studies Department, Faculty of Education, at Stellenbosch University. His research concentrates mainly on themes in the sociology of education. His is currently working on an NRF-funded project entitled ‘Education Renovation in Urban Spaces’. Address for correspondence afataar@sun.ac.za WCCES 2010 World Congress SACHES has been a member of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) since 1992. SACHES hosted the 10th World Congress in Cape Town in 1998. The 14th WCCES Congress will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from 14 to 19 June 2010. The Congress theme will be Bordering, Re-Bordering and New Possibilities for Change in Education and Society. The 13th Congress was held in .Sarajevo, BosniaHerzegovina, in early September 2007. The 14th Congress is being organised by the Turkish Comparative Education Society (TUKED), the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) and the Department of Educational Sciences at Bogaziçi University (BU) Further information is available on the WCCES website [www.wcces.net/] or the Congress website [www. wcces2010.org/]. Scarce skills and public technical and vocational education and training in South Africa: Twin challenges or two sides of the same coin? Salim Akoojee merSETA and University of KwaZulu-Natal Abstract South Africa’s acute skills shortage has much to do with the chronic levels of poverty in the country. A substantial skills development initiative is accordingly necessary. The importance of skills to national development has been recognised at the highest level, but despite a plethora of policy pronouncements and initiatives, success has been limited. This article argues that a crucial reason for the lack of any meaningful success lies in a lack of synergy between the supply-side and the demand-side requirements of skills in the market. The role of South African public TVET institutions (referred to as Further Education and Training [FET] colleges), with their potential to serve as primary skills development agencies, therefore needs to be reviewed. The article examines some key challenges faced by FET colleges in South Africa in their quest to deliver on their skills development mandate. It provides an assessment of the structural constraints that prevent FET colleges from maximising their potential in response to the demand for skills development nationally. Key words: South African Education and Training, TVET, FET colleges, Skills development, Governance systems, TVET and national development. Introduction Skills development has been inextricably linked to the success of the current South African development discourse. The skills deficit has been identified at the highest An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Vocational Education and Training Association (IVETA) Conference, ‘Achieving Poverty Reduction through Quality Vocational Education and Training in Partnership with Industry’, Livingstone, Zambia, 10-13 August 2008. Akoojee, S. (2009) Scarce skills and public technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in South Africa: Twin challenges or two sides of the same coin?. Southern African Review of Education, 15(2): 117-xx. 118 Akoojee level: by the former President in various state of the nation addresses in the context of the lack of service delivery (see, for instance, Mbeki 2005); by various private-sector entities to explain why efforts to transform the labour market have been thwarted (Godsell and Faurie 2007); and by various critical voices who have argued that it has been used as a ruse for the lack of commitment to transformation (Manyi 2007). What is clear is the reality of a skills shortage that stands at the forefront of the South African development discourse, as a response both to current social and economic challenges and to the injustices of the past, when skills development was restricted to a select few. Perhaps more significant is the reality that skills development is critical in South Africa’s attempts to respond to national socio-economic and global economic imperatives. This article examines the challenges experienced by the public technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector, referred to as the country’s Further Education and Training (FET) colleges. It examines their institutional context and reviews recent and current attempts by the Department of Education to reinvigorate them. As a component of the South African education and training system designed to respond to intermediate skills development, they need to be part of the overall plan to respond to the skills development challenge. The effectiveness of FET colleges in delivering on their mandate is, therefore, crucial to the capacity of the country to respond effectively to the skills development challenge. The inability of FET colleges to respond effectively to their labour market context has been documented (Cosser et al. 2003; McGrath 2003a; Akoojee, Gewer and McGrath 2005), but little has been written about how their positioning within the education and training hierarchy has negatively impacted on their effectiveness. While much has admittedly been done to engage the numerous challenges faced in the post-apartheid era, the legacy of their second-class status in the tertiary sector persists. It is argued in this article that the structural elements associated with their neglect have not been adequately addressed. An examination of the constraints faced by FET colleges suggests that more attention needs to be given to the structural constraints faced by the sector, as these prevent it from achieving its full potential as a national resource designed to articulate with national skills development imperatives. Issues dealt with in this article include considerations related to FET nomenclature, the structural positioning of the sector between the national and provincial levels, and the peculiar challenges flowing from these, including declining enrolment patterns, funding considerations and the impacts of national legislative incoherence. It is contended that attempts at galvanising the FET college system to respond in a nationally coordinated manner to the country’s skills development challenges is unlikely to be successful as long as these issues are not resolved. The article begins with a review, located in the literature on the political economy of skills development, of the South African skills and national development challenge. Scarce skills and public TVET 119 This is followed by a review of the nature, form and context of the FET college system, which identifies important gains made since 1994 and offers a background to the key challenges that need to be resolved in order for the sector to take its rightful place in the country’s national skills development landscape. This article was written prior to the currently unfolding political developments that split the Department of Education into two. FET colleges are now located in the new Department of Higher Education (DHET), distin- guished from Basic Education. The impact of these developments is likely to be considerable. Overview of the national skills development challenge The national development challenge For many, the initial hope in the post-apartheid era has turned to despair and has in some cases resulted in considerable anguish and rising protests. As Walsh (2007: 1) has pointed out: ‘After the end of apartheid there was genuine hope that the lives of the poor would improve ... But as more than a decade passed, hope turned to frustration, despair and anger.’ The reality of the increasing disillusionment with the government was expressed to newly-elected ANC President Jacob Zuma in Sharpeville, outside Johannesburg, by community members in response to incidents of xenophobic violence. He was urged to ‘go away ... and take the foreigners with you’, in response to a comment made by another member that ‘Life is terrible for us here … We here on the ground elect you to power ...; you people use us as mere stepping stones’ (Makhanya 2008). This sense of helplessness is reinforced by evidence of wide-ranging inequalities, with national statistics revealing the considerable divide between South Africa’s haves and have-nots (Gelb 2003; Landman 2003; Bhorat and Cassim 2004; Roberts 2004). While 10% of the population continue to earn more than 50% of household income, the poorest 40% of the population account for less than 7% of household income (Stats SA 2008). The Gini coefficient for the country is 0,72, with significant racial disparities; it is possible that it would be 0,8 if redistributive policies were not in place. Inequality is also correlated with ethnicity, with one report, citing research conducted for the United Workers of South Africa, showing that whites earn almost 5,5 times more than their black counterparts, down from six times two years ago (Piliso 2008). Rampant poverty reflects these inequalities, as most social indicators testify. Between 18 and 24 million people (45-55%) live in poverty, with between eight and ten million in extreme poverty (Everatt 2003; Gelb 2003; Landman 2003; van der Berg and Louw 2003; Bhorat, Poswell and Naidoo 2004; Meth and Dias 2004; UNDP 2004; PCAS 2007). It has been reported that one in ten Africans is malnourished and that one in four African children is stunted (Woolard 2002; Everatt 2003). Unsurprisingly, this poverty has pronounced spatial, racial and gender dimensions (Woolard and 120 Akoojee Poverty and unemployment in South Africa are extremely serious and have been described as the highest in the world (Rodrik 2006). Estimates from March 2007 indicate that unemployment is as high as 25,.5% on the narrow definition, or about 12 points higher on the broad definition (37,3%), which includes those who are ‘not actively seeking work’, characterised as ‘discouraged’ workers (Stats SA 2008). Between 1995 and 2002, about 1,6 million net new jobs were created in the South African labour market, but during that period more than 5 million people entered the labour market (Bhorat 2003; Landman 2003; Bhorat and Cassim 2004). This has resulted in a recent estimate that youth unemployment is at 65,2% and that the median age of entry into a first job is 24 for men and 27 for women (CDE 2007: 3). Perhaps the greatest challenge to development in South Africa is the HIV/AIDS pandemic. HIV/AIDS infection is estimated at 11% (4,8 million people), and is far higher amongst women (13%) than men (8%). Inevitably, HIV/AIDS is partly povertyrelated: the highest prevalence is among people living in informal settlements (Shisana et al. 2004). The pandemic has resulted in the Human Development Index declining: South Africa is one of the most underperforming countries on HDI when compared with GNP. Skills and national development Research on skills development suggests that it needs to be located within a coherent set of economic and social policies for its optimal development (Crouch, Finegold and Sako 1999; Brown, Green and Lauder 2001; King and McGrath 2002; McGrath 2003b). The fact that the South African national development challenge is intricately linked to skills development makes this coherence all the more significant. McGrath and Akoojee (2007a) have explored in detail how skills development has become particularly important to national development in South Africa since 2004. This heightened importance, accorded primarily through the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), and its skills development component, the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA), has enabled skills development to be placed at the forefront of the development challenge in the country. AsgiSA/JIPSA lies within the international tradition of skills policies that have emerged to respond to the assumed effects of the ‘global knowledge economy’ and reflects the assumption that skills development can play a vital role in both economic competitiveness/growth and social inclusion/poverty reduction (McGrath and Akoojee 2007b). This is consistent with widespread claims of the importance of TVET, which is considered to provide ‘the master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help to achieve sustainable development’, as identified in the Bonn Declaration that followed the UNESCO Conference ‘Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability’ in October 2004 (cited in Burnett 2008: 2). Scarce skills and public TVET 121 The theme of skills development as a national imperative has also been echoed by elements of the South Africa business community (e.g. Godsell and Faurie 2007), and is reminiscent of earlier calls by progressive business interests in the development of the new South African skills system in the early 1990s. Clearly this need is driven in large part by infrastructural needs in preparation for South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 Football World Cup. It is, however, equally likely, given the racialised and gendered constructions of skill, that skills shortages are a way to deflect blame for poor economic performance from capital to the state, organised labour and individuals (McGrath 2004). There is, nevertheless, a widespread discourse of scarce and critical skills as evidenced by the AsgiSA and JIPSA processes (McGrath and Akoojee 2007b), which has dominated thinking in the series of National Skills Development Strategies devised by the Department of Labour (DoL 2001). Objective 1 of NSDS II, for instance, requires sector education and training authorities (SETAs), the 23 sectoral skills development agencies designed to respond to skills development in economic clusters, to identify, prioritise and communicate critical and scarce skills in the research, development and submission of sector skills plans. The latest NSDS III (2010-2015) is unlikely to deviate from this trend (DoL 2008c). Skills development is thus intricately linked to the national development trajectory, which makes its supply a crucial component of the overall national plan. The FET college context: Rationality and gains FET colleges represent the key public TVET vehicles in South Africa. As a component of the education and training system designed to respond to intermediate-level preemployment skills development, they serve as crucial mechanisms for engaging the national skills development challenge. As such, they are appropriately placed to serve as access points into skills for less advantaged sectors, and as a response to labour market needs. Their role as social and economic agents of transformation is therefore unquestionably important. Recent pronouncements by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, for instance, reinforce the importance of skills in an African context: In Africa we face two huge challenges: The first is to be able to re-skill the existing workforce to meet new workplace needs. The second is to educate and train young people to meet new and high-level skills demands. It’s these challenges that place technical and vocational education at the centre of the skills-development agenda (Pandor 2008). This follows similar statements made throughout her tenure as Minister, when it was emphasised that ‘colleges are central to our agenda of developing skills … It is our intention to build and sustain a well-designed set of institutions, offering flexible programmes and ensuring that we have students qualified in critical skills (Pandor 2006). Although these developments have placed FET colleges on the political agenda, the reality of making them adequately responsive to the skills challenge has been less 122 Akoojee than successful. The challenges still facing the sector might well be a product of the apartheid-inspired and accordingly racially aligned education and training college structure inherited by the FET college system. Two aspects particularly noteworthy for their transformative content in the new dispensation include the demographic transformation of the sector and key legislative developments. They have provided the basis for a revitalised and distinct intermediate-level education and training sector, which has set the stage for further transformation. It is too often forgotten that education and training provision before 1994, in addition to its inequity, or perhaps as a consequence of this, comprised 19 racially divided education departments, with nine examining bodies administering about 90 examinations each year. There were 128 racially distinct technical colleges administered by 10 education departments, together with a large number of training programmes and skills training centres coordinated through the Department of Manpower (Kraak 1992: 13). Vocational education provision for blacks (understood as including Africans, coloureds and Indians1) was presumed to prepare them for work appropriate to and defined by the job colour bar (see Chisholm [1992] for a discussion of the historical exclusion of blacks from the sector). The post-apartheid structural reorganisation of FET colleges was successful in a number of ways. This reorganisation of 150 separate colleges into 50 composite units provided an important starting point from which to rationalise the sector. Learner enrolment also increased from approximately 76 000 in 1991 to an estimated 406 000 by 2002 (Table 1). The shift from a predominantly white learner composition (from 67% to 16%) to one dominated by African students (from 15% to 74%) is striking, and provides a basis for suggesting that it has been perhaps one of the most transformed education sectors in the post-apartheid era. Table 1: Enrolment 1991–2002 1 These racial categories indicate the current discourse used in the South African context. Their use is not intended to reinforce these categories, which remain pertinent in a post-colonial context. Scarce skills and public TVET 123 The disparate system also required institutional cohesion by means of national policy review. The range of review committees (DoE 1997b), resulting in numerous legislative discussion documents (DoE 1998, RSA 1998a), set out a new college order. These processes resulted in the promulgation of the FET Act, which was ostensibly designed to ‘establish a national coordinated further education and training system, which promotes cooperative governance and provides for programme-based further education and training’ (RSA 1998b: 10, section 2). The implementation strategy (DoE 1999) resulted in A New Institutional Landscape for Public Further Education and Training Colleges (DoE 2001), which provides the basis for transforming a previously racially segregated technical colleges system into one, which in turn led to the establishment of 50 new institutions, charged with the following: • Becoming more responsive to development goals and to the labour market • Doing this through better partnerships with industry and through curricular change • Having greater, though still managed, autonomy • Providing a higher quality of learning • Addressing equity and access • Improving systems of student support Since then, institutions have increasingly developed their own identities and the sector has seen some notable developments that include a new curriculum, a recapitalisation exercise providing the sector with a once-off funding injection for infrastructural development and, in December 2006, a new Further Education and Training Act (RSA 2006). All of this has been intended to align colleges with the national development agenda. These achievements, however, are still hampered by key constraints and challenges that prevent the sector from providing a sound basis for ensuring that supply-side considerations align with national skills development imperatives. Challenges facing the FET college sector The first part of this section explores ‘structural considerations’, areas related to national design, including nomenclature and the sector’s positioning in the national education and training landscape. The second part discusses the impacts of this positioning, which include issues related to the sector’s governance within the national department, challenges associated with the recent legislative context, funding, and a review of recurricularisation initiatives – all designed purportedly to reinvigorate the sector. Structural considerations Structural constraints include issues related to national positioning of the sector 124 Akoojee within the education and training landscape. Issues related to nomenclature and governance need serious review if the sector is to respond effectively to the national skills development needs and priorities. Each of these is discussed in this section. Nomenclature A key challenge in the South African FET college context relates to nomenclature. Gamble (2003) has identified four components of the Further Education and Training (FET) band, which encompasses all education provision at levels 2 to 4 on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). These are public and private secondary schooling, public FET colleges, private providers and industry-based centres. Gamble (2003: 4) has also contended that ‘These four components do not constitute a coherent system, since there has never been a tradition of co-ordination and planning across these four major components to forge a sense of system’. Furthermore, that range of sub-sectors within private FET provision, identified in terms of programme focus, learner targeting and profitability (Akoojee and McGrath 2008), cannot be accommodated in the FET structure. Indeed, as has already been pointed out, initial policy development did not see FET as a system, ‘but rather as a range of programmes offered by a number of providers (DoE 1997a: 42). The key impetus for change was the desire to ‘align and co-ordinate institutions, programmes and providers in ways that would also link up to issues of economic growth, poverty alleviation and the personal development of learners’ (ibid.). The effect of this misreading of the peculiarities associated with the sector is that the FET college segment in South Africa, which broadly responds to the UNESCO/UNEVOC International Centre for Technical Education and Training’s understanding of TVET (see Burnett 2008), remains amorphous and without any clearly defined form. Reference to Further Education and Training is often related simply to the last three years of schooling, which culminates in a high-stakes politically charged national matriculation (school-leaving) examination, which in turn relegates the college sector to a vocational secondary school option. As a result, little attention is paid to this sector in the national education discourse, except in response to challenges of youth empowerment (see Lolwana 2008) and in reference to an alternative pathway to a highly academic post-school tertiary segment, without much consideration given to how these might be accomplished. Clearly, the lack of a system perspective has enabled the South African TVET sector to fall through the cracks of national provisioning and resulted in its being subsumed under the schooling sector. The distinct nature of the public and private sectors, except in legislation, has provided a basis for its neglected positioning in the South African education and training system. Furthermore, this indistinct nomenclature has consequences for the sector’s structural positioning between national and provincial levels. 125 Scarce skills and public TVET National competence under provincial control Colleges, like schools, are a national responsibility, under provincial management. The system is decentralised, like the schooling system, but unlike its higher education counterpart, which provides for considerable institutional autonomy and resides under a central national departmental branch under a deputy director-general. Like schools, colleges are ‘a concurrent matter’, which makes them a joint national and provincial responsibility, with implementation largely a provincial matter, influenced considerably by provincial legislation. A practical implication of this governance structure is that the responsibility for provision is provincially determined by allocations from the national purse. Although the national education department sets policy and determines funding norms, implementation is very much a provincial matter (Crouch 2005). Like schooling, national education legislation prevails over provincial legislation when it is a matter of correcting inter-provincial matters and when national standards and policies are needed to preserve uniformity. Despite the educator employment responsibility that was granted to colleges in terms of the 2006 legislation (RSA 2006), the appointment of college management is undertaken by the provincial head of education (an MEC – Member of the Executive Council). While it is still possible for the national government to become more involved in the sector if so desired, as was demonstrated by the national government in ‘ringfencing’ FET recapitalisation funding (of R1,9 billion), the ultimate responsibility for college funding is, nevertheless, a provincial one. This political positioning makes it possible for colleges to fall between the bureaucratic cracks of provincial and national responsibilities. The location of colleges as a national responsibility under provincial control means that the sector is easily neglected. The importance accorded to FET colleges within a particular province is thus largely dependent on the provincial significance attached to the sector. While it is likely that post-school education and training provision needs to be decentralised to enable responsiveness to local and provincial priorities, it is clear that the national context of skills development is still paramount in the light of the national skills development deficits. While devolution of responsibility to college councils makes sense from the perspective of increased responsiveness to local labour markets and sustainability, it is premised on an efficient and effective institutional human resource element. The developmental unevenness amongst and between institutions suggests that the need for devolution might well contradict equity considerations (Akoojee 2008). The call for a more autonomous post-school education and training sector needs to take its cue from the higher education sector, which, as a national competence and under jurisdiction of the national department, does not preclude responsiveness to local and regional imperatives. The fact that FET colleges do not have the benefit of 126 Akoojee clearly defined centralised national control means that their ability to respond to provincial or local contexts is considerably compromised. This constraint allows for the disjuncture between national intention and provincial reality. Impacts of structural constraints Structural constraints have been further complicated by poorly understood nomenclature; and the under-importance of FET colleges is evidenced most obviously by their positioning within the organogram of the national department. This is further undermined by a somewhat contradictory legislative context, which in turn is further complicated by poorly defined efforts at responding to declining enrolment patterns in the face of promises of expansion. Funding deficits, a poorly conceptualised recurricularisation initiative and an as yet untested staffing structure all play a role as well. National positioning within the Department of Education The issue of structural positioning follows from poorly defined nomenclature. Public FET colleges represent one component of a programme (branches are broken into programmes headed by chief directors, under whom are directors with directorates) that includes the last three years of schooling and the considerably high-stakes examinations division. The accompanying figure locates the importance of the control of FET colleges in relation to other areas under the control of the national education department. Structural positioning within the national Department of Education (DoE): Chief Directorates and the role of FET Colleges Director-General National Department of Education Chief Financial Office Strategic Coordination and Support Personnel Administration and Development General Education Teacher Education Quality Promotion and Assurance Further Education Educational Management and Public Examinations FET College Programmes and Institutional Support Higher Education HE Planning and Management Social and School Enrichment Financial Support and Services GET – Curriculum and Assessment Administration Social Inclusion in Education Education Human Resource Management National and Provincial Coordination and Administration Health in Education Information, Monitoring and Evaluation Ministerial Services Financial and Physical Planning and Analysis Media Liaison and National and Provincial Communication Legal and Legislative Services International Relations and UNESCO Higher Education Policy FET Schools Corporate Services System Planning and Monitoring Equity in Education Source: adapted from DoE (2008) organogram (http://www.doe.gov.za/organogram>) 127 Scarce skills and public TVET The (in)significance of FET colleges within the organogram is clearly evident. The directorate in which FET colleges are located is positioned logically within the Further Education and Training Branch. The importance of this sector is, however, considerably underemphasised when considered against the backdrop of the whole organogram and especially in the context of the FET directorate. Of the three chief directorates within this sector, only one is dedicated to FET Colleges, FET College Programmes and Institutional Support, with the other two dedicated to the last three years of schooling – FET Schools and Educational Management and Public Examinations. This means that of a total of 23 sub-directorates, only one is dedicated to public FET colleges. The effectiveness of support to a sector of such national importance within this context is therefore likely to be considerably constrained. The argument that colleges are a provincial competence and therefore require less attention is not borne out by the similarity of this kind of management structure for schools. This structural positioning is also further compromised by a somewhat contradictory national policy context. Contradictory legislative context The crucial role of skills development means that colleges need to be linked to skills development legislation and, perhaps more importantly, to the agencies designed to respond to its implementation, the sector education and training authorities (SETAs). The lack of any clearly defined relationship implies that colleges exist outside of the labour market environment in which they operate. Further, the contradictory messages of control and devolution initiated by recent policy proposals (RSA 2006) leave the sector less clear about general policy direction, and in fact signal quite different policy perspectives about their role as skills development institutions. The lack of a clearly defined skills development link between FET colleges, as a Department of Education responsibility, and SETAs, under the Department of Labour, suggests that there is a disconnect between the various arms of government regarding skills development. This means that the purported coherence between various government departments in their response to the challenge is likely to be stunted in the light of the departmental priorities that need to be foregrounded, sometimes to the detriment of national prerogatives. In this regard, the need to ensure that FET colleges function effectively as a Department of Education competence appears to be paramount. The fact that it is less concerned with skills development agencies which fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Labour means that departmental rather than national considerations are much more significant, leaving skills development imperatives that much less significant. For this reason, the recently established Quality Council for Trades and Occupations has contributed to legislative space for the creation of Institutes of Sectoral and Occupational Excellence (RSA 2008), which are destined to become alternative skills development institutes that respond directly 128 Akoojee to the workplace needs of a potential or current working populace. Recent FET policy proposals emphasise institutional autonomy. Particular attention is paid to the responsibility provided to institutions regarding their employment of staff. While this function provides a degree of control to college councils not seen before, the Act attempted a hasty devolution of responsibility, in line with international (and neo-liberal) trends, without carefully considering the likely impact on institutions, especially in the light of capacity considerations (Akoojee 2008). This element of decentralisation is, however, juxtaposed with other more centralised elements of the legislation. College councils determined admissions policies in the 1998 FET colleges legislation (RSA 1998b: 22, sections 17.1 and 17.2), whereas the 2006 legislation (RSA 2006) requires these to be approved by the head of the provincial education department. Similarly, whereas previous legislation required admission requirements to be made ‘publicly available’, recent legislation requires these to be approved by the MEC (RSA 2006: 26, section 17.1) prior to being published. This kind of centralisation suggests only selective devolution and provides evidence to justify the view that decentralisation and selective devolution are being used as a smokescreen to reduce fiscal responsibility in line with an international neo-liberal agenda – especially since the legislation still requires central retention of control in key areas of policy. Indeed, it has been reported that the staffing policy in particular resulted in considerable uncertainty in the sector and that a large number of staff either resigned or opted to move to other parts of the state system (Blaine 2008b). While the deleterious effect of devolving staffing is being felt, and college capacity is being severely compromised by institutional staff devolution, in other quite critical areas of college policy the departmental attempt to centralise control appears paramount. Student enrolment deficits One area in which colleges have less control is that of student intake. The funding norms inherent in the new curriculum have reoriented college student composition by enabling a school-level Grade 10 certificate to serve as a minimum entry point into colleges. The revised entry requirements have introduced a new type of student without seriously considering the human resource implications of this policy development. The missing link in the implementation of effective FET policy development lies with FET college lecturers (see Akoojee 2008). The change in their employment structure from the Department of Education to FET colleges has provided a basis for insecurity in a context that required stability and continuity for meaningful change to be implemented. In a context where student composition was being redefined, the lack of lecturer continuity has had a detrimental impact on the implementation of effective FET policy. A notable decline in student enrolment since 2002 suggested that something serious Scarce skills and public TVET 129 needed to be done to rescue the sector, especially if ministerial promises of increasing student intake were to be realised. Table 2 shows that there was a steady upward enrolment pattern from 1999 to 2002, after which there was 3-4% decline in FET college enrolment.2 If this trend continued, it would render particularly elusive promises contained in ministerial claims about expanding enrolment at FET Colleges to a million students by 2014 (DoE 2008a; Blaine 2008b). Table 2: FET College learner enrolment and staffing trends (1999-2006) The introduction of the National Curriculum Vocational was expected to provide an impetus for the much-needed increased enrolment. Latest reports (JIPSA 2007) make no reference to the progress towards these numerical goals. Ministerial comments suggest that the introduction of the new curriculum with its intake of 25 059 new NC(V) students in 2007 (Pandor 2007) has contributed to increased enrolment. More worrying than the declining student enrolment trend indicated in the period to 2006 was the absolute reduction in college staff in the period up to 2005 (by a cumulative 10% from 2002). The implications of this on quality can only be surmised, but increasing student-staff ratios are likely to impact negatively on education quality. In the context of existing capacity constraints in the sector and the uncertainty resulting from the enactment of staffing devolution in 2006, the reduction was 2. Figures for 2003 repeated the 2002 figures, which might indicate a decline of some degree that was not reported by official DoE data. 130 Akoojee likely to result in considerable uncertainty. Together with the introduction of younger learners and the challenges associated with a new curriculum, the impact on the sector was likely to be highly negative. In this way the intention to align colleges with international norms by making them more responsive to the labour market was actually undermined in the South African context. Funding The prioritisation of FET colleges in official policy outside of the Education Department has not been reflected in its financing structure within the sector. Table 3 identifies the funding priorities of the national education department in its disbursement of allocations. Table 3: Education spending and FET Colleges (2005) The bulk of funding (76,3%) is disbursed to schooling, while higher education expenditure comprises the second significant allocation (13,5%), with FET college spending still a paltry 2% of total education spending. While FET spending represents a steadily increasing proportion of provincial budgets from 1,48% in 1999/2000 to 1,75% in 2002/03 (see Akoojee and McGrath 2008), the overall funding provided is still insufficient to meet the needs of a sector requiring increased resources for a changing labour market. The total spending of a little over R1,5 billion, which constituted 0,1% Scarce skills and public TVET 131 of GDP in 2005, is similar to levels in 1999/2000, which had subsequently declined slightly in the period 2001-2003 to 0,09% (ibid.). This does mean, however, that in relation to the declining number of students, the allocation per student increased considerably. However, the reduced staffing complement implies that funds were used elsewhere and might not have had any direct impact on teaching and learning quality. Overall, the relatively small budgetary allocation to the FET sector is likely to prolong its incapacity to respond creatively and effectively to its historical positioning as a less than significant sector in the overall education and training landscape. As Jansen (2004: 3) has pointed out, the technical colleges will never be able to overcome their apartheid legacy unless there is a massive injection of sustained state funding to take these poor cousins of the post-school system and make them competitive, productive and high-status institutions that deliver on the training needs and priorities of business and industry, and on the aspirations and dreams of adults and youth. The government’s commitment of a once-off grant of R1,9 billion in recapitalisation funding in 2005 (Mbeki 2005) represented an important step, at least from the perspective of establishing the importance of the sector at the highest political level in government. The reality of this importance has, however, not been felt at institutional level, with many in the sector lamenting the inadequacy of the grant to make a meaningful impact on infrastructural backlogs. In this regard, even the much vaunted bursary scheme of R100 million in 2007 (Pandor 2007), intended to encourage less privileged students, has not been effective. The relatively low user fees charged in the sector, necessary for colleges to cover costs and to supplement government subsidies, have not provided the necessary impetus to increase enrolment and enable access. The large number of willing candidates available for skills development in the country means that the sector has needed to pay far more attention to expanding enrolment to accommodate those outside of the education and training system. The funds available for skills development by SETAs could be used to enable FET colleges to supplement government funding. Little was done, however, to encourage this funding stream. Where attempts were made by FET colleges to access these funds, there were accusations of ‘double dipping’, i.e. attempting to obtain funds from two government departments. The second National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS II) encouraged SETAs to engage public FET institutions by supporting Institutes of Sectoral and Occupational Excellence (ISOEs). This development represents a marked shift from earlier policy, when little mention was made of engagement of SETAs with public FET colleges. Recurricularisation (curriculum renewal) In 2006 the national department undertook a radical revision of the curriculum, replacing the traditional NATED (National Training Education Certificates) with a 132 Akoojee National Certificate Vocation (NCV). The new programmes introduced at the start of 2007 were offered in 11 economic sectors: three engineering-related, five businessallied, and various other programmes in information and communications technology, agriculture, tourism and hospitality. It was pointed out by the government that these programmes were designed with the intent of more closely aligning with the needs of business and labour in order to cohere more effectively with the economic needs of the country (Pandor 2007b). They were expected to have taken account of national prerogatives by aligning with both business and national education and training policy in terms of the NQF. While success in this regard was limited, with both business and labour sceptical of its effectiveness, the development of programmes appears to have ignored potential synergies with the key skills development needs identified by the national skills development arms, the SETAs. The new curriculum was hailed as a long-awaited response to the national skills crisis. The public FET college curriculum has been a focus of considerable concern, primarily for its lack of articulation with the labour market (Kraak and Hall 1999; Cosser et al. 2003). The apartheid-inherited NATED curriculum was long overdue for an overhaul in line with the responsiveness agenda (see, for instance, DoE 2004 and Powell and Hall 2004) and while its replacement was inevitable, the manner, form and content of its introduction remain problematic. More importantly, the replacement of the N4-N6 programmes means that the more than 300 000 learners registered for these programmes have been effectively ‘disenfranchised’ from a qualifications perspective. The lack of any institutional replacement for them means that they will be unable to continue learning, at least in the short to medium term, until college programmes are developed in line with the new programme structure. The introduction of the new curriculum for school-level learners effectively signalled that colleges were to take their place as vocational schools. As an alternative pathway for those unable to make the grade in the academic mainstream, the incentive offered by bursaries served as an important mechanism to persuade those less inclined to accept this alternative. This development also came at a time when the national department of education introduced programme-based funding norms for colleges. These funding norms were based on student numbers and enrolments in particular programmes. The effect of this change was that FET colleges were guaranteed a steady income stream, which effectively meant that their promising efforts to encourage a post-school employed learner component (documented in Akoojee, McGrath and Visser 2008) were not necessary anymore. This development effectively ensures that the only options open for workplace learning are private institutions. Colleges were therefore discouraged from any entrepreneurial activity and were relegated to becoming alternative schools. The new curriculum has, therefore, by design inadvertently encouraged neither the lifelong-learning function of colleges nor Scarce skills and public TVET 133 their role as responsive demand-led institutions. By ensuring their financial sustainability, the absence of the need for attracting alternative sources of income is likely to further isolate them from the needs of industry, making them even less responsive and innovative. Importantly, the absence of a clearly defined work-experience component means that ‘graduates’ are still likely to need additional training to be certified for the workplace. In order to be certified, candidates are required to undertake a trade test for artisan status. This means that the key engineering scarce skills fields are still likely to be in need of skilled personnel, even after the introduction of the new curriculum and the increased intake of students. This is likely also to further undermine the colleges’ role as primary artisanal development sites. Perhaps more worrying is that the latest skills development amendment legislation has accommodated this reality by providing for alternative institutions to be established under the jurisdiction of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) under the Department of Labour (DoL 2008b). While nothing prevents FET colleges from becoming proposed ‘artisan development institutes’ and ‘institutes of sectoral occupational excellence’ (DoL 2008b: 26E), the history of the relationship between the Ministries of Labour and Education suggests that this is unlikely to be successful. To make matters worse, the success rate of students taking the new curriculum in its first year of implementation was disappointing. The latest statistics released by the quality assurance body, UMALUSI (the Quality Council for the Further Education and Training Sector), has indicated that in its first year of implementation more than a third (38%) dropped out before writing their final examinations (Blaine 2008b). Of the 25 000 students enrolled for the new programme in 2007, only 23% (3 500) of those who enrolled in the new subjects passed all of them. This means that more than three quarters of the students need to carry over courses. This implies that a considerable number of learners will simply not be able to complete the programme in the minimum three-year period. The 85% failure rate is further compounded by the extremely poor showing in Mathematics Literacy (32,5%) and Mathematics (21,2%) (Blaine 2008a). Official reasons cited for this situation by the Department include the oft-quoted ‘student quality’, logistical problems resulting from the introduction of the new programmes and the poor quality of teaching staff as a result of the exodus occasioned by staff devolution (Blaine 2008b). Clearly, the hasty introduction of a little-tested curriculum on a new cohort of college-level learners by under-motivated staff meant that this disaster was not entirely unexpected. The displacement of vast numbers of lecturers as a result of the implementation of devolution meant that the curriculum was implemented at the worst of times. Policy developments in public FET colleges provide evidence to suggest that key skills development challenges have not been adequately resolved. It is also likely, therefore, that current FET college policy has responded to challenges that have little to do with 134 Akoojee national skills development imperatives. The new curriculum provided an alternative vocational schooling pathway for those less inclined to the academic route, especially since recurricularisation was accompanied by new entrance requirements that allowed school-level entrants to qualify for admission. The dwindling enrolment at FET colleges prior to recurricularisation meant that the ever-present target of a million students was unlikely to be reached unless some radical proposal was implemented to boost college enrolment. The introduction of a school-level student cohort needs to be considered in the light of the very real challenge to increase enrolments to meet identified official targets. The opportunity offered in the introduction of the new curriculum to provide an alternative vocational pathway for schools, rather than effectively responding to the curriculum challenges that colleges were facing, is similarly difficult to ignore. The fact that both schooling and colleges reside within the FET Directorate suggests that it might have appeared as a tempting solution to two complementary challenges – declining enrolments and an alternative vocational schooling pathway. Conclusion While there is clearly much social, economic and political impetus for ensuring that the sector succeeds, there are structural considerations peculiar to the sector that need to be addressed at the highest level. The mix of policy incoherence and the ‘structural disconnect’ between policy intention and operational reality have resulted in a sector that has ‘fallen through the cracks’. The rhetoric of skills development to which the South African government is purportedly committed is not borne out by this ‘locational disjuncture’. The ‘sandwiching’ of the sector between national intention and operational reality without the necessary provincial muscle to ensure that intentions are realised is one problem that needs to be addressed urgently. But this is by no means the only one. The nomenclature used to describe the FET college sector is not helpful either. The schooling component that has been incorporated in the term ‘Further Education and Training’ means that the college component is quite easily relegated in favour of the high-stakes matriculation examination. The systemic failure to address the needs of the ‘post-school’ and ‘part-time’ employed sector means that FET colleges are likely to be relegated to the level of vocational schools. This means that the system has effectively dismissed intermediate-level skills provision. This development has considerable impact on a higher education system that is barely able to cope with an influx of learners having no other option. The inclusion of the universities of technology as higher education institutes means that the pathway from schooling to higher education has been reinforced, leaving little room for intermediate-level skilling in the national education and training landscape. This situation has considerable negative impacts on the possibilities for skills develop- Scarce skills and public TVET 135 ment to respond to national imperatives. Clearly, skills development needs to respond much more coherently to the national development challenges of poverty reduction and unemployment. Colleges have fallen between the cracks of national skills development policy and have effectively been abandoned as an effective skills development supply consideration. As Cloete (2008) has observed, perhaps harshly, with reference to the FET college policy context: The ‘double move’ of abandoning a public college system and imposing impossible conditions on a private college system must rate with HIV-Aids denialism as two of the most pernicious policies in the new South Africa. The opportunity to respond appropriately to the skills development challenge has to be squarely located in effective and coherent FET college policy development and appropriate consideration of the colleges’ role in the national education and training environment. Acknowledgements I acknowledge with grateful thanks the role of Jugs, Mr Narain Nydoo and Ms Adrienne Bird, who commented on earlier versions of this work. Any omissions and incongruencies that remain are mine. I dedicate this paper to the memory of Mr Nydoo, who passed away on 13 November 2009. References Akoojee, S. 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RSA (2008) Draft National Qualifications Framework Bill. Government Gazette, 30778 41, 15 February 2008. Pretoria: Government Printer. Shisana, O, Stoker, D, Simbayi, LC, Orkin, M, Bezuidenhout, F, Jooste, SE, Colvin, M and van Zyl, J. (2004) South African national household survey of HIV/AIDS prevalence, behavioural risks and mass media impact: Detailed methodology and response rate results. South African Medical Journal, 94(4): 283-287. Stats SA (Statistics South Africa). (2008) Income and Expenditure of Households 2005/6. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [online].Available at http://statssa.org.za [accessed 28 June 2008]. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). (2004) Human Development Report: 2003. Geneva: UNDP. Van der Berg, S and Louw, M. (2003) Changing patterns of SA income distribution: Towards time series estimates of distribution and poverty. Paper delivered to the Conference of the Economic Society of South Africa, Stellenbosch, 17-19 September. Walsh, S. (2007) Uncomfortable Collaborations: Contesting constructions of the poor in South Africa. Paper presented to the SANPAD Poverty Challenge Conference, Durban, 27 June 2007. Woolard, I. (2002) An Overview of Poverty and Inequality in South Africa. Briefing paper for DFID (South Africa). Pretoria: HSRC. Woolard, I and Leibbrandt, M. (2001) Measuring poverty in South Africa. In Bhorat, H, Leibbrandt, M, Maziya, M, van der Berg, S and Woolard, I (eds). Fighting Poverty: Labour Markets and Inequality in South Africa. Cape Town: UCT Press. Notes on the author Salim Akoojee is an honorary lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Research and Development Manager at the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (merSETA). His chief research interests include skills development and the role of FET colleges in South and Southern Africa, and their relationship with international trends. Address for correspondence SAkoojee@merseta.org.za Book Review 139 Key Issues in Teacher Education: A Sourcebook for Teacher Educators in Developing Countries Stuart, J, Akyeampong, K and Croft, A. 2009. Oxford: Macmillan. ISBN: 978-14050-7999-0. 237 pages. Reviewed by Yvonne Reed The acknowledgments page indicates that Key Issues in Teacher Education grew out of the experiences and insights gained by the authors while they participated in the Multi-Site Teacher Education Research (MUSTER) project, coordinated by the Centre for International Education at the University of Sussex and funded by the UK Department for International Development. In this project research teams investigated teacher education in Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago. In the introduction Stuart, Akyeampong and Croft outline three different ways in which they imagine the book could be used: • For self-study • As a textbook that is part of an ‘award-bearing’ university course • As a handbook to support professional development short courses or workshops for teacher educators They state one of their major aims as being ‘to give teacher educators a broad perspective on how teachers learn’ (p. vi). Perhaps influenced by their interest in action research (the focus of Chapter 12), the authors construct readers as interested in changing their practices and ideas in order to contribute to quality teaching and learning experiences in universities and schools. The book begins with an overview chapter titled ‘Perspectives on teacher education’, which presents ‘craft’, ‘applied science’ and ‘reflective practitioner’ models of teacher education. This overview is followed by three chapters that focus on learners and learning (‘What student teachers bring with them’; ‘Learning in teacher education’; ‘Student teachers as adult learners’). The first part of the book concludes with a chapter titled ‘Pedagogy for Teacher Education’ in which the authors offer a range of practical suggestions for improving lecturing to make it ‘much more student-centred’ (p. 60), for including discussions and role-play and for introducing project work. In this chapter they are quite definite about their preference for active ‘student-centred learning’ wherever possible. In chapters six and seven the focus shifts to the teaching practicum or ‘school experience’ and to assessment of teacher learning. In chapters eight to eleven the focus shifts again, this time from student and teacher educator interactions to the broader topics of ‘Analysing a teacher education cur- 140 Book Review riculum’; ‘Design and development of teacher education programmes’; ‘Teacher education through open and distance learning’; ‘and Cross-cultural sharing in teacher education’. The final two chapters again focus on individual teacher educators: ‘Improving our practice as teacher educators: From reflection to action research’ and ‘The nature of professional knowledge in teaching’. At the end of the book there is an ‘Activity appendix’, which consists of longer activities based on ideas in its chapters that the authors suggest could be adapted for assignments or for workshops. There is also a glossary of terms from the education discourses that are used in the book and a useful list of suggestions for further reading, many of which are freely available from the listed Internet sites. In Chapter 10 (Teacher Education Through Open and Distance Learning) the authors quote Endean’s (2003) guidelines to distance education materials writers, in which he advises that these writers should – 1. 2. 3. 4. write as if they are having a ‘conversation’ with students; give them things to do or think about; provide a clear structure; set out some outcomes relevant to students’ learning needs. They follow the quotation from Endean with the statement, ‘[I]n this book we have tried to do these things’ (p. 149). With reference to structure, they offer ‘[A] guide to the text’: This book contains a mixture of types of writing; it includes straightforward text, offering presentation and explanation, summaries of research findings, examples and case studies. It also gives suggestions as to how readers can engage with the ideas, with opportunities to think how the concepts could be applied to their own situation, or to carry out an activity (p. vi). Each of the 13 chapters begins with an overview of its content focus, followed by an introduction. It includes a number of activities for readers, some of which take the form of structured reflections, and ends with concluding comments, some of which prepare the reader for the next chapter. These and other design features are similar to those in the Study of Education materials developed by the South African Institute of Distance Education (SAIDE) between 1999 and 2002. These materials were considered by the UK Open University’s Bob Moon to establish ‘a quality benchmark that all of us building new courses should seek to emulate’ (Moon 2002: 27). There is evidence throughout Key Issues in Teacher Education that design features of the SAIDE materials have indeed been emulated. For example, what the distance education literature terms ‘guided didactic conversation’ (Holmberg 1983) is used by the authors throughout the book. They address their readers as ‘you’ and include ‘talking heads’ in most of the chapters. These are head-and-shoulder drawings of male and female, younger and older teacher educators from around the world who ‘speak’ to readers through speech bubbles. In some instances a single talking head is presented as a role model for ‘best practice’, as Book Review 141 in the case of a teacher educator who presents innovative strategies for ‘improving lectures’ (pages 60-62). More commonly, several talking heads offer contrasting positions on a topic, as in these four statements from page 52 : A. Students need to learn so much so quickly; best just to tell them. B. I’d like them to be more independent but they always look to me for direction, so I teach them just like I taught them in high school. C. I agree with Carl Rogers that my role is to stand back from my students and just support them where they need it. D. I want them to become independent learners. I set them tasks to develop such skills. It takes time but it’s worth it. The statements are followed by one of the structured reflections referred to above: REFLECTION Which of these positions do you feel sympathy for? If you are in a group, continue the debate on the role of the teacher educator. How would you ideally like to teach? What is realistic in your context? How can you gradually move towards your chosen position? (p. 52) In the concluding comments at the end of Chapter One the authors emphasize that Key Issues in Teacher Education ‘will not give “right answers” about the best way to teach, but will set out issues for reflection and discussion’ (p. 12). Throughout the book Stuart, Akyeampong and Croft ‘problematise’ knowledge. They encourage readers to reflect on their own experiences as learners, as teachers and as teacher educators and to consider the context(s) in which they work. For example, in Chapter Four (Student Teachers as Adult Learners) the authors summarise and comment on statements made by Knowles (1978) on four interlinked ways in which adult students may be different from child learners and then follow this section with a reflective activity and further comment: REFLECTION. Think of something you learnt in the last five years, either formally or informally. How far were Knowles’ assumptions about adult learners true for you at that point? These four ‘assumptions’ need to be tested against local realities. They may be true for some people, or at some stages , and not for others (p. 45). In addition to didactic conversation and the problematising of knowledge, one of the other design features is the use of drawings and diagrams to aid explanation, to summarise or to introduce content. For the most part readers should find the diagrams helpful, although in a few instances their complexity may be a challenge for some. A further design feature is the inclusion of ‘case studies’. For example, in Chapter Nine (The Design and Development of Teacher Education Programmes) the authors discuss the ‘dilemma of radical or incremental change’ and use case studies from Namibia (radical) and Malawi (incremental) to illustrate some of the challenges arising from the change process. In my view, these and some of the other case studies are a little too abbreviated to be of optimal interest and use to readers but they nevertheless serve to illustrate key points in the chapters or to open up debate. 142 Book Review Loughran (2006: 42) argues that teacher education is where ‘teachers of teaching’ should model how to interrogate ‘deeply held views of teaching and learning; so often implicit in practice but so rarely articulated, confronted and examined’. In Key Issues in Teacher Education Stuart, Akyeampong and Croft have attempted to show teacher educators how to reflect critically on their own teaching philosophies and practices and how to guide pre-service and in-service students of teaching to do likewise. The book’s subtitle is ‘A sourcebook for teacher educators’. In my view it is a resource worth adding to a teacher educator’s bookshelf. References Endean, M. (2003) Learning Materials at a Distance Higher Education Academy. UK Centre for Materials Education [online]. Available at www.materials.ac.uk/guides/distance.asp [accessed 6 June 2006]. Holmberg, B. (1983) Guided didactic conversation in distance education. In Stewart, D, Keegan, D and Holmberg, B (eds). Distance Education: International Perspectives. London: Croom Helm, 114-122. Knowles, M. (1978) The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Second edition. Gulf. Loughran, J. (2006) Developing a Pedagogy of Teacher Education. London & New York: Routledge. Moon, B. (2002) Learners and Learning: A Review. Open Learning Through Distance Education. July 2002: 27. About the author Yvonne Reed is head of Applied English Language Studies in the School of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand. Contents of previous issues 143 Contents of previous issues of SARE Volume 15(1) Editorial Articles Partnerships for educational development in Africa: Evidence from Japanese professional development programmes for science teachers in Ghana and South Africa Zacchaeus Bukari and Loyiso C Jita The school cluster system as an educational reform: Evidence from Namibia and Zimbabwe Vitallis Chikoko and Lydia Aipinge Procedural and substantive knowledge: Some implications of an outcomes-based history curriculum in South Africa Carol Bertram Towards a definition of protocols when embedding the national and the civic in a history curriculum Robert Guyver ‘Nobody says how people died of heartache!’: Constructing a primary narrative in a pedagogical setting Sofie MMA Geschier Curriculum as a product of an activity system: Translating policy in the teaching of History Rejoice Nsibande and Maropeng Modiba Book review Hlengani Baloyi on David Johnson (ed.), The Challenge of Learning: Improving the Quality of Basic Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Quality, Equality and Democracy (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008) Volume 14(3) Editors’ introduction Articles In(sites): Examining early literacy practices at home and school in rural Malawi and South Africa Kerrun Dixon, Jean Place and Foster Kholowa 144 Contents of previous issues Language policy, classroom practice and concept learning in a Grade One Tshivenda classroom Azwihangwisi Muthivhi Postcards from the edge: Exploring multi-modal strategies for reconciliation pedagogy Ana Ferreira Children of democracy: Teaching for democracy in early childhood classrooms in South Africa Lorayne Excell and Vivien Linington The gender sensitivity of Zimbabwean secondary school textbooks Dudu T Washington, Jairos Gonye, Rugare Mareva and Jabulani Sibanda The history of Biology as a school subject and developments in the subject in contemporary South Africa Lesley le Grange Double-shift schooling: Motives for implementation in Namibia and Uganda Godfrey Kleinhans Caught in ideological crossfire: Private schooling in South Africa Shireen Motala and Veerle Dieltens Book review George Makubalo on Andre Kraak and Karen Press (eds), HRD Review 2008 (Cape Town: HSRC Press) Volume 14(1-2) Special Edition on Teacher Education in Southern Africa Articles Teacher education in the Latin American Region: An unfinished business? Beatrice Avalos Critical perspectives on teacher education in neo-liberal times: Experiences from Ethiopia and Namibia Lars Dahlstrom and Brook Lemma Learning to teach in post-devolution United Kingdom: A technical or an ethical process? Moire Hulme and Ian Menter A comparison of Ugandan, English and German teacher education models Proscovia Ssemtamu-Namubiru Contents of previous issues 145 Trajectories of restructuring : The changing context for initial teacher education in South Africa Glenda Kruss Who are we missing? Teacher graduate production in South Africa 1995-2006 Andrew Paterson and Fabian Arendse Towards collaboration rather than co-operation for effective teacher professional development in South Africa: Insights from social practice theory Suriamurthee Moonsamy Maistry The practicum in pre-service teacher education: A survey of institutional practices Chris Reddy, Hannie Menkveld and Eli Bitzer Keeping abreast of changing times and demands in education: Implications for teacher education in South Africa Fanie Pretorius Book reviews Peter Kallaway on David Labaree, The Trouble with Ed Schools (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004) Salim Vally and Carol Spreen on Everard Weber, Teaching in the New South Africa at Merridale High School (Lanham, ML: University Press of America, 2006) Volume 13(2) Articles Lessons from the past two decades: Investment choices for education and growth Martin Carnoy Aid agency support for education: Gaps between intention and action Christopher Colclough Why some Education For All and Millennium Development Goals will not be met: Difficulties with goals and targets Keith M Lewin The role of donors and civil society organisations in the education sector of Malawi. Joseph Chimombo Harnessing private monies to fuel university growth: A case study of Makerere University Bidemi Carroll Education, skills, sustainability and growth: Complex relations Kenneth King 146 Contents of previous issues Decentralizing and revitalizing school-based teacher support and continuous professional development at the primary school level: Why it has failed in East Africa Akim Okuni The developmental state in Africa Dani W Nabudere Book review Matseleng Allais on Elaine Unterhalter, Gender, Schooling and Global Social Justice. (London and New York: Routledge, 2007) Volume 13(1) Special Issue on Assessment and Educational Standards Preface by the guest editor Acknowledgements Articles Making our own modernity: Standards, values and benchmarks in the African school in the age of globalization Crain Soudien ‘Local knowledge’, assessment and international standards Kai Horsthemke Piloting school-based assessment at middle-basic level: The Zambian experience Gabriel Mweemba and Michael Chilala Standards-based educational reform and its implication for school-based assessment: lessons from Zimbabwean schools Francis Chirume Standards – a couple of steps back Mark Potterton Book review Jeffy Mukora on Michael Young and Jeanne Gamble (eds), Knowledge, Curriculum and Qualifications for South African Further Education (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2006) Volume 12(2) Special Issue on Comparative and History of Education in Southern Africa Notes from the Editor Contents of previous issues 147 Articles SACHES and comparative, international and development education in Southern Africa: The challenges and future prospects Sheldon Weeks, Harold Herman, Rouaan Maarman and Charl Wolhuter Recent developments in History of Education in Western Europe and their significance for Southern Africa Charl Wolhuter The institutionalization of comparative education discourses in South Africa in the 20th century Anne-Marie Bergh and Crain Soudien Globalization, knowledge, skills and development: Possible new directions for international and comparative education research in Southern Africa Simon McGrath Knowing others and knowing self: Patterns of differentiated publishing in education journals from the North and South Karen Biraimah Volume 12(1) Notes from the Editor Articles Sociolinguistic research and academic freedom in Malawi: Past and current trends Gregory Hankoni Kamwendo Contextualizing identity in comparative studies after the demise of national character Susara Berkhout A hybrid identity among the Sukuma in the Tanzanian Africa Inland Mission Fabian Maganda Teacher learning: Development in and with social context Lynne Slonimsky and Karin Brodie The academic profession in South Africa Charl Wolhuter and Leonie Higgs Book reviews Sam Govender on Seán Morrow, Brown Maaba and Loyiso Pulumani, Education in Exile: SOMAFCO, the ANC School in Tanzania, 1978 to 1992 (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2004) 148 Contents of previous issues Charl Wolhuter on Mark Bray (ed.), Comparative Education: Continuing Traditions, New Challenges, and New Paradigms (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003) Linda Chisholm on Cati Coe, Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools: Youth, Nationalism and the Transformation of Knowledge (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005) Volume 11 Notes from the Editor Articles The effectiveness of the Zimbabwe School Examination Council in rural day secondary schools GM Steyn and N Ncube Professional identity and misconduct: Perspectives of Tanzanian teachers Angeline Barrett and William Angisiye Teacher power and student resistance to radical pedagogies Juliet Perumal Racial discourse in the Commission on Native Education: The making of Bantu identity Crain Soudien Research note Alternative basic education in Uganda Hannah Kakembo Debate and discussion The challenge for education in these times: War, terror and social justice Salim Vally Volumes 9 and 10 Notes from the Editor Articles Further education and training in South Africa Azeem Badroodien and Peter Kallaway Contents of previous issues 149 Building a quality college sector for the twenty-first century Simon McGrath Increasing access to education CWS Sukati and Chandraiah Esampally Defining competence in student teaching Rob Siebörger and Geoffrey Quick Description of a course on research management at a university in New Zealand CC Wolhuter, K Naidoo, L Sutherland and G Peckham The development of minority languages for adult literacy Lydia Nyati-Ramahobo and Andy Chebanne Research notes Vocational students’ experiences with supervision of home-based agrarian enterprises Comfort BS Mndebele and Zamokuhle Dlamini South African teacher oral histories Alan Wieder Education with Production Introductory Notes by Patrick van Rensburg Education in Exile: SOMAFCO, the ANC School in Tanzania 1978 to 1992 [an excerpt] Séan Morrow, Brown Maaba and Loyiso Pulumani Book reviews CC Wolhuter on Thomas Popkewitz, Barry Franklin and Miguel Pereyra (eds), Cultural History and Education: Critical Essays on Knowledge and Schooling(London and New York: Routledge Falmer, 2001) Daniel Kasule on Violet Lunga, Desperate Choices (Harare: ZPH Publishers, 2003) Books noted/Books received by SARE with EWP Karin Bruns on Linda Chisholm (ed.), Changing Class: Education and Social Change in Post-apartheid South Africa (Cape Town: HSRC Press and London: Zed Books, 2003) Glenda Kruss, Chasing Credentials and Mobility: Private Higher Education in South Africa (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2004) Robert A LeVine, Childhood Socialization: Comparative Studies of Parenting, Learning and Educational Change (Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, 2003) Notes to Contributors Southern African Review of Education (SARE) is the journal of the Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society (SACHES). It was previously published together with Education with Production (EWP), the journal of the Foundation for Education with Production. SARE will appear at least once a year. Contributors are welcome to submit articles on educational issues with specific reference to educational policy, comparative education, sociology of education, history of education and education with production. Beginning with Volume 5 in 1999, articles submitted will be anonymously refereed. Articles are accepted on the understanding that they have not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Articles or review essays should not be longer than 8 000 words and may include maps, figures and tables. Reports on research, book reviews and critical comments should be limited to 2 000 words. Contributions should be submitted electronically. All pages should be numbered. Authors should not use programs like EndNotes to generate lists of references automatically, as these do not transfer for typesetting purposes. The manuscript should be submitted bearing the title of the paper and an abstract of 150-200 words together with key words on a separate page. Maps, figures, tables and illustrations should be supplied on separate pages and not included as part of the text. Their approximate position in the text should be indicated. Maps, figures and illustrations should also be provided as separate electronic files (jpg or tiff) with a resolution of at least 150 dpi. The title of the contribution and the name and address where the work was carried out should be provided on a separate page. The address of the author who will handle correspondence should be clearly indicated. Telephone and fax number(s) and e-mail address(es) for the author(s) should be submitted as well. Authors should supply brief biographical material for the ‘Notes on the author’. In a covering letter the author(s) must state that the contribution has not been published, is not being published or considered for publication elsewhere, and will not be submitted for publication unless rejected by the editorial board of SARE or withdrawn by the authors. Notes Footnotes are not required (‘If it is worth saying, say it in the text, or not at all’). Please cite material in the text as follows: (Hirson 1979: 9) or (Kahn 1997: 202) or (Swartz 1993: 181) or (Brock 1974: 186; Bray & Steward 1998: 66). References For books: Hirson, B. (1979) Year of Fire, Year of Ash: The Soweto Revolt: Roots of a Revolution? London: Zed Press. Morrow, S, Maaba, B & Pulumani, L. (2004) Education in Exile: SOMAFCO, the ANC School in Tanzania, 1978 to 1992. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Bray, M and Steward, L (eds). (1998) Examination Systems in Small States: Comparative Perspectives on Policies, Models and Operations. London: Commonwealth Secretariat. For articles: Kahn, MJ. (1991) Attitudes of Botswana senior school pupils towards agriculture. International Journal of Educational Development, 11(3): 201-208. For chapters in books: Swartz, D. (1993) Curriculum change, certification and assessment: The case of Zimbabwe, 1979-1990. In Taylor, N (ed.). Inventing Knowledge: Contests in Curriculum Construction. Cape Town: Maskew Millar Longman, 169-189. For unpublished theses and papers: Brock, S. (1974) James Stewart and Lovedale: A reappraisal of missionary attitudes and African responses in the Eastern Cape. South Africa, 1870-1905. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh. For sources on the Internet: Furlong, J and Hagger, H. (2006) Review of Initial Teacher Training Provision in Wales: A Report to the Welsh Assembly Government [online]. Available at www.learn.wales.gov.uk/scripts/ [accessed 4 March 2008]. Papers that are accepted become the copyright of SARE, unless otherwise specifically agreed. Neither the editors nor the publishers accept responsibility for opinions expressed or for the accuracy of the data presented. Authors will receive a copy of the journal in which their article is published. All correspondence should be directed to the SARE Editor, Linda Chisholm, at LChisholm@hsrc.ac.za. ISSN 1563-4418 Contents EDITORIAL 3 ARTICLES Clarence Williams Employment equity and Western Cape educators, 2002–2007 7 7 Adjoa Acquah Tertiary graduates: Earnings and employment prospects in the South African labour market 27 MR Montsi and HJ Nenty Preference for teaching as a career among students at the University of Botswana 45 Byron Brown 61 Preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching: Global lessons for South Africa Isaac Ntshoe Hidden and subtle effects of racism in law and school policy in post-apartheid South Africa 85 Aslam Fataar Youth becoming across the rural-urban landscape: The case of Fuzile Ali at a Muslim community school in Cape Town 105 Salim Akoojee Scarce skills and public technical and vocational education and training in South Africa: Twin challenges or two sides of the same coin? 117 BOOK REVIEW Yvonne Reed on Key Issues in Teacher Education: A Sourcebook for Teacher Educators in Developing Countries 139 139 SACHES MEMBERSHIP SACHES membership form and information 26 WCCES WCCES 2010 World Congress 116 SARE Contents of previous issues of SARE Notes to contributors 143 IBC

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