History of Education Assignment 4 - Mini Research Project

ASSIGNMENT 4:
THE IMPACT OF CHANGE POST-APARTHEID ON A SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL




MINI RESEARCH PROJECT




IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS IN POST GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN EDUCATION
(FOUNDATION PHASE) (PGCE FP)
FOR




HISTORY OF EDUCATION ED4 – HIST1 FP


AT


CORNERSTONE INSTITUTE




BY




SHANNON JADE SCHOFIELD
(50393)


30 MAY 2022

, TABLE OF CONTENTS




1. INTRODUCTION…………...……………………………………………………………3
2. METHOD………….……………………………………….……………………………..3
3. INTERVIEWEE BACKGROUND………………………………………………………4
4. SCHOOL HISTORY AND CONTEXT…………………………………………………4
5. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS…………………………………………………………..5
5.1 External factors that have impacted the school……………………………....5
5.1.1 Curriculum changes………………………………………………………………5
5.1.2 Demographics of learners and educators……………………………………...6
5.1.3 External policies……………………………………………………………...…...7
5.2 Internal factors that have impacted the school………………………….….....8
5.2.1 Sports and Cultural activities…………………………………………………….8
5.2.2 Behaviour management………………………………………………………….9
6. THE IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION…………………………………….................10
7. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………….12


REFERENCES
APPENDIX A




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, 1. INTRODUCTION
Since becoming a democracy in 1994 South Africa has experienced continuous
changes within the education system and in particular, the national curriculum which
started with the implementation of the Curriculum 2005 or OBE in 1997 to the
amended National Curriculum Statement in 2002 and finally the Curriculum and
Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) in 2011 that is currently used in public schools
across the country. Under the apartheid regime, education was used as a tool to
perpetuate social inequalities based on race, strengthen the white supremacist’s
place in society, and control the lives of non-white peoples (Ndimande, 2016: 34).

Post-1994 education played a major role in undoing the injustices faced by the
majority of South Africans, the government took action by introducing the South
African Schools Act (SASA) of 1996 which aimed to abolish all forms of
discrimination in education and address the needs of disadvantaged schools that
were neglected during apartheid (Nkomo, 1990; Samoff, 2001 as cited in Ndimande,
2016: 36). The newly empowered government faced the momentous task of
dismantling apartheid structures and reconstructing a fragmented education system
that was linked to international economic developments and underpinned by the
democratic values of equality, human dignity, non-discrimination, and the right to
quality education for all South Africans as stated in the Constitution (Act 108 of 1996)
(Asmal & James: 2001: 185).

This research project aims to understand and analyse how a primary school in
Lansdowne, Cape Town which the researcher will refer to as PPS, responded to the
changing educational landscape post-1994 and how globalization has impacted the
school. The research will primarily focus on the school’s experience of the newly
implemented Curriculum 2005 (c2005) as the interviewee was based at PPS when it
was first introduced before moving onto a high school position.

2. METHOD
For this research project, I chose to work from an interpretivist paradigm, that is
concerned with understanding the world from the subjective view of individuals and
uses qualitative research methods that allow the researcher to gain a holistic
understanding of the relative study by focusing on gathering information on people’s
beliefs and experiences about a social situation or issue from the point of view of
those who lived it (Azam, 2012: 86). The purpose of this research paper is to gain a
deeper understanding of how schools and teachers experienced the educational




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