Class-Based Communities: The Postcolonial Reform of School Education in South Africa
Domain:
educationCreator:
Ale
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Abstract When the African National Congress (ANC) assumed governmental powers in South Africa in 1994, it needed to confront the enormous educational disparities created by apartheid and colonial rule. However, remaining true to the ideals of the democratic struggle while also following neoliberal prescriptions of fiscal austerity presented a massive contradiction. To appease anxious white middle-class parents and offer new opportunities to its non-white constituency, the new government adopted the language of communitarianism, popular throughout the Anglophone world. The concept of community-run schools served to reconcile the contradictory demands of economic neoliberalism and political deracialisation. However, the poor and overwhelmingly non-white population was effectively still excluded from the elite, formerly white schools.
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