Teacher-pedagogies for Peace-building in poor rural and urban township schools in post-apartheid South Africa

This paper examines teacher-pedagogies for peace-building in poor rural and urban township schools in two provinces in South Africa. It considers how teachers are framed as agents of change in post-Apartheid South African... [ view full abstract ]

This paper examines teacher-pedagogies for peace-building in poor rural and urban township schools in two provinces in South Africa. It considers how teachers are framed as agents of change in post-Apartheid South African education by analysing how teachers’ pedagogic practices are influenced by educational policies and intended outcomes. The goal of the paper is to highlight how the positions of government on issues of peace-building impact on what teachers teach, what textbooks they use, the conditions they teach in, and how this relates to fundamental questions about equity and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa. Specifically, the paper focuses on empirical evidence drawn from a recent study with case-studies in nine South African schools, located in two provinces, which show how spatial differences, class, race and gender shape teachers’ pedagogies for peace-building in specific ways. The paper shows how competing notions of what constitutes peace-building in the schools sector instantiates different kinds of conflict between local communities and schools. From the schools case-studies data it reveals that teachers’ racialised identities amid severe resource inequities in various schools invariably undermine state-initiated peace-building initiatives in post-apartheid schools, and that this adds further dimensions of violence in already traumatised societies. In the current South African context, the paper seeks to strengthen the knowledge base on the key policy issue of teacher policy and practice in conflict affected contexts. In doing so it highlights the need for context-and-conflict-sensitive teacher policies that redress educational inequalities, promotes peace-building, and that contributes to resilient communities in the pursuit of reducing inequality and transforming one of the most unequal societies in the world.