3. IVAN ILLICH’S VIEWS ON SCHOOLS
Questions the necessity/value for schools and schooling
Children who are deprived of schooling are seen as
seriously disadvantaged
Equal schooling opportunities continue to create an
unequal society
• This is because the child from a poor home lacks the
intellectual stimulation available to children from middle
class home. Such stimulation includes conservation,
books and travel opportunities.
4. Continued…
ii. The poor child will generally fall behind because of his
dependence on the school only for learning. Schooling
therefore perpetuates social class distinction
(dehumanizing effect using money and manpower for its
task.
Schools monopolize the function of education using
money and manpower for its task
iii. This discourages other institutions from assuming
educational tasks.
iv. Work, leisure, politics, city living behaviour patterns and
knowledge, instead of becoming themselves the means of
education
5. …continued
Equal compulsory schooling must be recognized as
economically unrealistic and impossible to achieve
ii. The inadequate financing of schools by the state does
not provide the quality of schooling expected by parents,
teachers and pupils.
iii. This discourages the motivation and financing for the
provision of learning outside the school.
Teaching may contribute to certain kinds of learning, but
most people receive most of their knowledge outside the
school
6. continued
..
Problem with certification which constitutes a form of
market manipulation which brought about job and
admission requirement, employment and learning
centres.
The problem of language which most of the time is
foreign to some pupils and teachers.
END OF LECTURE: 20-23/02/2012)
7. WESTERN EDUCATION
AIMS OF WESTERN EDUCATION
Establish hegemony (control) over the indigenous African
people
Transmit the political values, economic interests, cultural
priorities associated with the Europeans brought with them
to Africa
The ability to read the bible was the ultimate aim
8. …continuation
To change the then African mode of production through
missionary attempts
To persuade the Khoikhoi and the San to relinquish their
nomadic way of life
To teach children trades and handcrafts in the economy
of the then ‘new society’
Anglicize the Dutch speaking inhabitants of the colony
and also making English the official language at work,
business and in schools
Schooling was seen as a vehicle for ‘instilling social
discipline’
9. THE PERIOD BEFORE 1652
No Formal education system took place before the
arrival of the colonists and very little formal education
was offered through initiation schools.
Group solidarity and traditionalism were the most
important values that were inculcated by education.
10. Education during the Dutch (1652 – 1800)
Education was overseen by the Dutch Reformed Church
Farm children were provided with education by teachers
Mission schools provided education for the African
population. The intention of the missionaries was to
make the African child to despise his culture and no
mother tongue instruction was given on any academic
learning.
11. …continued
The British introduced Anglicization as one of the aims of
their education after taking away control of schools from
the church.
12. IDEOLOGY DEFINED
IDEOLOGY
ii. It is a comprehensive vision
iii. It is a set of aims and ideas that directs one’s goals,
expectations and actions
iv. It is a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of
society to all members of society (socialization)
v. Are systems of abstract thought applied to public matters
(political)
13. Types of ideologies
v) They are a set of ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or
symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large
group that explains how society should work, and offers
some political and cultural order
vi) Are largely concerned with how to allocate power and to
what extend it should be used.
14. IDEOLOGIES AND SCHOOLING
• Christian National Education
• This is the official ideological position of Afrikaner
Nationalists on education and it has had a very important
impact on educational policy and practice
• Is a unique cultural development that combined the
Calvinist religion with the political aspirations of the
White Afrikaans speaking people of South Africa
• Emphasis on ‘separation is strength’ or the need for
racial segregation
15. IDEOLOGY CONTINUED
Central features of CNE
That all education should be based on the Christian
Gospel
That mankind was divided into nations and that
education should reflect these national differences
According to this movement, Afrikaans schools were not
only to be mother tongue schools, but they were also to
be in every sense of the word Christian and National
schools, they were to be places where their children
were steeped and nourished in the Christian National
spiritual culture
They also did not want to mix languages, cultures,
religion and race
16. Ideology continued
They believed that qualities that characterize a nation
are a common language, history, culture, philosophy of
life, customs, political traditions and legal system
Believe that a child should be schooled to adulthood
within the context of a specific community, with its
distinctive cultural character and tradition
The importance of the authority of norms and to be
‘obedient to authority’
The teacher had enormous authority in the pedagogic
relationship
The Christian National conception of schooling is one
which views the process as essentially one ‘moulding’
(the aim being to mould children into the image of their
adults)
17. NCE AND SCHOOLING
• CHE view South Africa as a country inhibited by different
national groups who do not share a common language,
origin, culture, religion, political tradition or world view –
separate education system
Legislation passed to effect that:
The Bantu Education Act (1953)
The Extension of Universities Act (1959)
The Education and Training Act (1979)
18. …continued
• The CHE had the view point that the Whites, as the
possessors of the Christian faith had a civilization
mission – to Christianize the Natives through Education
and to also help them culturally
• Native Education was to be based on the principals of
trust ship, non-equality and segregation. The aim should
be to inculcate the white man’s view of life which is their
senior trustee (1948:29)
19. THE CURRICULUM
• Is the planned educational experiences which pupils
undergo in their formal schooling
• The nature of any curriculum is very heavily influenced
by ideological factors
• ‘the spirit of all teaching must be Christian Nationalist’
• Mentioned that religious education was to take place in
accordance with the religious convictions of the parents
as expressed in their church creeds
