Who We Are
Focus 56 Chapters
Editorial
In keeping with the Foundation’s stated policy of seeking to offer a platform for both seasoned commentators and new and marginalised voices, we present this edition of Focus on Learning and Teaching.
Galvanising Education: Commissioning Editor’s Overview
“Parents and communities will have little say in the education of their children and teachers will have little scope to exercise individuality or originality or experiment” Helen Suzman said in 1966, opposing the Education Bill.
Schooling in and for the New South Africa
We write about schooling in South Africa at a time when most knowledgeable educationalists and practitioners are agreed that the educational system is in a state of chronic crisis.
The Debate about Re-opening Teacher Education Colleges
During 1999, the call for re-opening teacher education colleges was made repeatedly as campaigning for the election gained momentum. It was reiterated and debated at the National Teacher Education Summit held at the end of June 2009.
The Promise and Challenge of University Based Teacher Education
In the last few months the media has focused sharply on failing learners, dysfunctional schools and the downfall of Outcomes Based Education.
How are our Teachers? What teachers and others can do to improve the current situation
In the wake of Graeme Bloch’s (2009) gloomy analysis of the state of education in South Africa, The Toxic Mix, it would be difficult for anyone to deny that there is a crisis in education in our country.
The Language Challenge in the classroom: a serious shift in thinking and action is needed
Most learners in South African schools face a language barrier in the classroom. Any child who cannot use the language which he/she is most familiar with (usually the home language), is disadvantaged and unlikely to perform to the best of his/her ability.
Mother Tongue Instruction
Learners are often referred for psycho-educational assessments as a reactive measure because their scholastic progress is poor. They seem to be experiencing language barriers in spite of being instructed in their mother tongue; and worse, their academic self-esteem is at its lowest because of their awareness that they are struggling to cope.
Befriending Education? Education Partnerships: Initial Reading Instruction and Research at the UJ Institute of Childhood Education
There is an exciting new vibrancy in varieties of partnerships with public education. In other articles in this issue of Focus some of these will be mentioned. In this article I will discuss aspects of an intervention in which practitioners and specialists across sectors come together in an integrated hub of learning, research, service and development.
Private Education for the Poor: More, Different and Better
The private sector is an increasingly important player in providing education services and making high quality education accessible for communities and marginalised groups in developing countries.
Public School Governance in South Africa
Given the painful, complex and controversial history of schooling in South Africa, it was unlikely that any model chosen for the management and control of our public schools would satisfy all role-players.
The Role of Community in Education: A Practitioner’s Reflection
A professional community organiser works with leaders within communities to promote social and economic changes. In this regard the organiser plays diverse roles that are intended to build the capacity of people to gain collective awareness and confidence to confront public issues that impact on their lives.
Bullying: The Monster in the Dark
South Africa, obsessed with violence, has become consumed with false hope. We think we can make violence go away with policies and procedures but we are failing as the problem still persists. Our obsession is understandable, given the soaring crime rate and the increasing number of violent activities dominating the news headlines.
Creating networks of productivity and the third innovation space in education
My contribution has been influenced by previous research on complexities of organisations1 where I examined change management within an educational setting. That research showed unequivocally that the transformation of education in South Africa was a complex exercise.
Education delivery in the poorest nodes
South Africa enjoys a rare distinction of having gone through all the convulsions and outpouring of anger associated with regime change – without actually changing the ruling regime at all.
A Narrative My First-Generation Matric Journey
I made my first stab at schooling at the height of Mangope’s reign of the Bophuthatswana homeland, in Losasaneng village, the mining district of Taung. At that time Losasaneng village possessed only two schools, namely, Retshegeditse primary and Batlanang junior secondary school.
Review - Michael Cardo
Racial reconciliation and “rainbow nation”-building, the dominant themes of Nelson Mandela’s presidency, gave way to a narrow, self-regarding, racially hypersensitive strain of Africanism under Thabo Mbeki.
Review - Thabo Rapoo
This book, according to the author, began life as a doctoral thesis written in the 1980s – the first question that came to my mind was, why not do something new and fresh rather than recycling an old piece of work done twenty years ago?
Review - Bobby Godsell
Everatt tells the story of the role and relationship of individuals drawn from South Africa’s racial minorities (but in particular white) in the ANC-lead struggle to end white minority rule, in the period 1945 to 1960.
Re-Imagining the Social in South Africa: Critique, Theory and Post-apartheid Society
The humanities are experiencing an ongoing existential crisis. When our democracy was born it made intuitive sense to imagine that we could only dismantle our status as one of the world’s two or three most unequal nations by focusing on practical skills development in our education system.
