Growing sustainable rural schools in South Africa

Developing sustainable rural schools lies at the heart of broader global goals for education and rural development. In South Africa, approximately forty percent of students attend rural schools, which battle infrastructural... [ view full abstract ]

Developing sustainable rural schools lies at the heart of broader global goals for education and rural development. In South Africa, approximately forty percent of students attend rural schools, which battle infrastructural deficits, complex human development challenges and wider systemic malaise - all shaped by the country’s troubled history. Much education research since the demise of apartheid has centred on describing the problems faced by schools; however, there is little research exploring why problems persist and how they might be remedied, particularly in rural contexts.

This paper is based on a study of 25 schools in the rural Eastern Cape Province, a region characterised by some of the worst historical deprivation. The study draws on School Effectiveness and School Improvement research, and particularly the work of Bryk and colleagues (2010), to develop a framework for understanding improvement in rural schools in this context. It combines findings from a survey-based Rasch analysis of school ‘organisation for improvement’ with a sociological analysis using Bourdieu’s notions of doxa and habitus to make sense of the persistent lack of change. The study proposes an approach to school improvement that makes sense of the complexities of rural schooling, and suggests how rural schools might better prepare children for a sustainable future.