Opening the Doors of Learning: Changing Schools in South Africa PDF

Opening the Doors of Learning Changing Schools in South Africa Pam Christie TITLE PAGE TO COME Open Rubric PRELIMS-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 1...

Opening the Doors of Learning Changing Schools in South Africa Pam Christie TITLE PAGE TO COME Open Rubric PRELIMS-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 1 1/25/08 9:59:22 AM  Published by Heinemann Publishers Heinemann House, Grayston Office Park 128 Peter Road, Athol Ext 12 Sandton 2196 PO Box 781940, Sandton, 2146, Johannesburg, South Africa HYPERLINK “http://www.heinemann.co.za” www.heinemann.co.za © in text: Dr Pam Christie © in published edition: Heinemann Publishers (Pty) Ltd, 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, republished, reused, photocopied, reprinted, digitised, adapted, performed in public, broadcast, transmitted, disseminated or stored in any manner or form by any means, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without the prior written authorisation of the Publisher or DALRO. Contact the Dramatic, Artistic, and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO) for permissions and authorisations of any kind. Telephone +27 (0)11 489-5000, fax +27 (0)11 403-9094, e-mail HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]” \o “mailto:[email protected]” [email protected] or write to SAMRO House, 73 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2017, South Africa. First edition published in 2008 12 11 10 09 08 87654321 ISBN 0 79622 508 7 ISBN 978 0 79622 508 5 Book design by Opulent Design Typesetting by Stacey Gibson Illustrations by Rudi Elliot Cover design by Opulent Design Printed and bound by Acknowledgements While every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of materials used, this did not always prove possible. Copyright holders are therefore requested to contact the publisher in cases where formal permission could not be obtained. PRELIMS-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 2 1/25/08 9:59:22 AM  cONTENTS Chapter 1 Schooling and social change: framing the challenges 1 Chapter 2 Goals and purposes of schooling 12 Chapter 3  lobalisation, the ‘knowledge economy’ G and education 41 Chapter 4 Development and education 72 Chapter 5 Education policy 115 Chapter 6 Schools and classrooms as places of learning 163 Chapter 7 Facing the challenges: a framework of ethics 209 List of Acronyms 218 Index 220 PRELIMS-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 3 1/25/08 9:59:22 AM  Acknowledgements My special thanks to Dawn Butler, Orenna Krut, Adrienne Bird, Sanet Lombard, Mark Potterton and Colin Collins for their sustained engagement with the ideas of this book and for so generously reading the text. Thanks also to a number of people who provided critical comments and reflections on different sections of the book: Heather Jacklin, Ravinder Sidhu, Maree Hedemann, Wayne Hugo, Thiatu Nemutanzhele, Veerle Dieltiens, Viv Linington, Francine de Clercq, Volker Wedekind, Aslam Fataar, Ruksana Osman and Brahm Fleisch. Thanks all – and the usual disclaimer applies! The staff and editorial team at Heinemann offered superb support. Thanks in particular to Orenna Krut, Claudia Bickford-Smith, Josie Egan and Silvia Raninger. Not least, my thanks to the graduate students and their advisors in the PhD Consortium operating between Wits, UCT, UWC and UKZN with Stanford University, and also my graduate students at the University of Queensland and CPUT. Their critical engagement with a range of ideas stretched and sharpened my thinking. Two significant people who supported my work on this book did not live to see its completion: Cathie Christie and Ann Levett. I take this opportunity to thank them, as well as my sister, Pat Klopper. This book was made possible through the loving support of Dawn Butler, to whom it is dedicated. PRELIMS-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 4 1/25/08 9:59:22 AM  chapter 1 Schooling and social change: framing the challenges This chapter locates the launching of a new democracy in South Africa within the global context of change. It outlines the major changes in schooling after the end of apartheid, and raises the question of why the Freedom Charter’s dream that ‘The doors of learning and culture shall be opened!’ has been so hard to realise. It outlines the approach taken in various chapters of the book, and also the key conceptual tools of structure/agency, ethics, equity and social justice. It sets out the framework for the book as a whole. 1 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 1 1/25/08 9:59:52 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning A time of change In 1994, a new democracy was launched in South Africa, and 40 years of apartheid were brought to an end. It was a moment of great achievement for all those people who had struggled – in many different ways – to achieve a fair and more equal society in South Africa. Many people had given their lives and many had died to achieve human dignity, rights and equality for all. Many of them were school and university students. This was a time of great achievement, and a time of great hope. In human history, there are highpoints of change after which nothing is the same again. For South Africa, 1994 was a highpoint of this sort. But it was also a highpoint for the rest of the world. The South African example showed that it is possible to bring an unjust system to an end without major bloodshed. It showed that opponents could negotiate with each other successfully to reach a settlement, and that they could share a government of national unity. It showed that people could work together to achieve major social change. There were also other reasons why the 1990s were a highpoint of change in world history. The victory of democracy in South Africa happened at the same time as the fall of Eastern European communist states, which crumbled one by one, starting with East Germany and the Berlin Wall in 1989. The Cold War was over. Capitalist market economies were seen as victorious over communism and state-controlled economies. It so happened that the Communist Party of South Africa was unbanned and relaunched at the same time as Communist parties in many other countries of the world were closing down. And at the same time, other changes were taking place in the economies, societies and cultures of the world – changes associated with globalisation. New technologies were changing the face and pace of communication across the globe. Economic and financial transactions were taking place at a speed that had never been imagined. Capital, finances, ideas, images – and people – were flowing across the borders of countries as never before. The new South Africa was born in a time of great change. It was born in circumstances that could not have been imagined when apartheid was designed in the 1950s nor when the armed struggle was launched in the 1960s. The new government came to power with a mandate to build a just and equal society. It had to do so on a terrain of great global change, of which it was also a part. However, building a new society does not start on clear ground. Change emerges from what already exists. In South Africa, the new government was faced with the challenge of having to run the country and change it 2 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 2 1/25/08 9:59:53 AM  Schooling and social change: framing the challenges at the same time. It had to build a democracy, develop the economy, and regulate society in line with the values of human dignity, equality and justice. South Africans’ expectations were high, and the challenges facing the government were enormous. One of the most important tasks facing the government was to rebuild the education system. Forty years of apartheid had left deep inequalities in schooling. Among these, racial inequalities were most obvious, but there were also inequalities between urban and rural schools, between rich and poor, and between boys and girls. HIV/AIDS brought an unanticipated ingredient into the mix. How could the old apartheid system be transformed to reflect the values of equality and justice? How could education be redesigned into a system of quality to prepare all young people to share a joint citizenship and also take their place in a rapidly globalising world? How could the new government run the education system and change it at the same time? Where to start and what to do? In 1994, a new government of national unity took power in South Africa, with the mandate of transforming the racial apartheid state into a modern democracy. The new government moved to bring the racially divided education departments into provincial departments. It developed a system of funding which would make it possible for the poorest provinces and schools to receive more than their wealthier counterparts. The government built more schools and classrooms, and improved the resources in the poorest and most disadvantaged schools. Soon, all primary age children were in school, and more and more children were in secondary schools. Unlike many other countries, girls and boys appeared to be attending school in more or less equal numbers. Governing bodies were set up for all schools, and a measure of self- management was progressively introduced. A new curriculum was put in place and revised when difficulties were encountered. Teachers’ conditions of work and pay were regularised and a new system of teacher appraisal and whole school evaluation was put in place. A great achievement was that the system kept operating at the same time as fundamental changes were introduced. However, several shadows fell over the achievements of change. First, test scores suggested that the system was not serving all of its students equally, or even well. Matriculation results told a mixed story of success and failure. Comparative international tests were equally – if not more – problematic. South Africa’s performance was disappointingly poor, even in comparison with countries in the Southern African region. Internationally, even the best performances in South Africa were no more than average in comparison with top performing countries. 3 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 3 1/25/08 9:59:53 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning A second, deep shadow was the poverty and poor functioning of many – if not most – of the country’s schools. It seemed that for the majority of young people, democracy had not brought better prospects in education. Patterns of inequality in education remained the same: poverty, race, gender and region mark out different educational experiences for most South African children. Why had this not changed? For decades, since its adoption in 1955, the Freedom Charter had provided a vision for a future society based on human dignity, democracy, equality and sharing of wealth. The Freedom Charter famously declared that The doors of learning and culture shall be opened! This vision was given legal status in the new South African Constitution of 1996, which declared that: Everyone shall have the right: (a) to basic education, including adult education; and (b) to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible. Why was this vision so hard to put into practice? After 10 years of democracy, despite many changes in education policy, why were improvements so uneven? Why has it been so hard to ‘open the doors of learning’ and to provide education for all as a basic human right? What can be done about this situation? These questions have puzzled educators, policy makers and social reformers in South Africa. Interestingly, other countries have also faced similar puzzles about how to reduce educational inequalities and how to change schools. South Africa’s experience is not completely unique – though, of course, its specific forms are. This book addresses the puzzle of educational change, from the perspective of South Africa. It does not aim to provide a narrative of the change processes in South Africa – what was done, by whom, when, and why. It is not primarily a book written about South African education, but a book written for educators grappling to understand the forces of change in the South African context. Scale and educational change This book approaches the puzzle of educational change by looking at what change might involve from the perspectives of a series of different scales. 4 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 4 1/25/08 9:59:53 AM  Schooling and social change: framing the challenges Each scale engages with its own debates, discourses, and logics, and each offers different approaches to education and educational change. The scales explored in this book are: the global scale, and the challenges that globalisation poses for educational change the scale of nation state development, and how decisions about economy, society and government at the scale of the nation state pose their own challenges for educational change the scale of state policy, and how the policy processes of modern states open possibilities for educational change, but also face limits in changing schools the scale of the school and classroom, and the importance of providing learning experiences of high quality for all students, so that the doors of learning may be opened for all. The different scales of change offered here might have the appearance of a telescope, with each scale growing smaller and smaller and providing greater detail. But a telescopic logic is not the only one at work, and is not necessarily the best one to use. An alternative logic is to recognise that each scale opens up a terrain of its own. The terrain opened at each scale has its own concepts, ways of arguing, central concerns and focal points. The different scales of each terrain do not necessarily come together neatly to fit with other scales in a telescopic manner, so as to bring a sharper focus on a particular issue. In fact, the concepts and logics of each scale may be too different to fit easily together. It may take great effort for us as educationists to bring the insights of the different scales to bear on a single issue, such as school change. Yet the effort is worthwhile – indeed it is necessary – because the issue of schools and change is too complex to understand on a single scale. Nor is it useful to see the scales as competing with each other to provide ‘the truth’ about educational change. It is more useful to view the scales as complementary. When read side-by-side, they provide a more comprehensive understanding of events than each would as a single account. Nor are these scales and the terrains they open up the only ones that could explain education in post-apartheid South Africa. Put together, however, they provide a particular account of events, a particular explanation of why things are as they are, and a particular set of possibilities for future change. 5 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 5 1/25/08 9:59:53 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning Conceptual frameworks for educational change This book draws on a tradition of research and theory which takes as its starting point the idea that human beings make their own history, along with others, though not in circumstances of their own choosing. The interplay of human agency with social structure in time and place is essentially creative, and is a source of identity and meaning for people. Each of the chapters of the book draws on this set of assumptions. Each chapter also draws on an approach to ethics, which calls for continual engagement with questions of how we might best live in the world we share with others. Achieving greater equity and social justice are values that this book aspires to contribute towards. A closer look at the concepts of structure and agency, and of ethics and equity, provides a useful basis for discussions in later chapters. Structure and agency This book teases out a central question that the humanities and social sciences pose – and help us to address. Put simply: How do individuals live in and change their shared social worlds? To what extent are individuals able to shape their lives as they would like to? To what extent are their opportunities shaped by the circumstances they are born into – social structures and historical time? What ‘agency’ do individuals have to influence their lives and their societies? This is sometimes termed the ‘structure/agency’ debate. To take an example from schooling: To what extent is success or failure at school the result of individual effort and capabilities? Can everyone succeed if they try hard enough? To what extent is success or failure already predetermined by a person’s family background or the quality of the school they attend? Are some people destined to fail because circumstances are against them? What freedom of choice and action do individuals have? In answering questions such as these, this book starts from the position that human beings actively create their social worlds, but they do so in particular conditions and circumstances that are already structured by 6 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 6 1/25/08 9:59:53 AM  Schooling and social change: framing the challenges history. An analysis of structure and agency in time and place underpins each chapter of the book. The sociological imagination The American sociologist C Wright Mills, writing in the 1950s, developed the concept of ‘the sociological imagination’ as a way of thinking about structure, agency and history. Each of us has our own individual life, our own hopes and dreams, our own relationships and decisions, our own careers, achievements and failures. At the same time, each person lives in a particular society at a particular time. What happens to us often happens to other people as well. We fit into social categories (sometimes without knowing it) and we experience ‘structures of opportunities’ that are similar to others like ourselves. In fact, says Mills, we can’t really make sense of our own experiences and chances in life until we are aware of other individuals who are in the same circumstances as we are. The sociological imagination, Mills suggests, helps us to see relationships between our own lives, the lives of others, and the times in which we live. In Mills’s words, the sociological imagination helps people ‘to grasp what is going on in the world, and to understand what is happening in themselves as minute points of intersection of biography and history within society’ (2000/1959:7). At the intersection of individual biography, social structures and the ‘push and shove’ of history lie the possibilities for engaging with change. Developing his argument further, Mills makes a useful distinction between personal troubles and social issues. Personal troubles are problems that have to do with ourselves alone. Social issues are problems that have to do with broader social patterns and opportunities. Mills gives several examples of this: Unemployment: When, in a city of 100,000, only one man is unemployed, that is his personal trouble, and for its relief we properly look to the character of the man, his skills, and his immediate opportunities. But when in a nation of 50 million employees, 15 million are unemployed, that is an issue, and we may not hope to find its solution within the range of opportunities open to any one individual. The very structure of opportunities has collapsed. Both the correct statement of the problem and the range of possible solutions require us to consider the economic and political institutions of the society, and not merely the personal situation and character of a scatter of individuals. (2000/1959:9) 7 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 7 1/25/08 9:59:53 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning War: The personal problems of war, when it occurs, may be how to survive it or how to die with honour; how to make money out of it; how to climb into the safety of the military apparatus; or how to contribute to the war’s termination. In short, according to one’s values, … to survive the war or make one’s death in it meaningful. But the structural issues of war have to do with its causes; with what types of men it throws up into command; with its effects upon economic and political, family and religious institutions, with the unorganised irresponsibility of a world of nation-states. (2000/1959:9) These concepts of personal troubles and social issues, of personal biographies and social structures, are useful in thinking about education. They are tools for analysing our social – and personal – circumstances. They may be helpful in understanding what our scope for action is: what the possibilities are, and the limitations. To what extent individual lives are determined by social structure, and to what extent they are shaped by free choice and human agency, is a matter that needs careful consideration. Looking back to our earlier question about schooling: Whether students succeed or fail at school is partly a reflection of their personal biography, individual capacities and choices. Success may well be the result of personal effort, and failure may be a reflection of ‘personal trouble’. At the same time, success and failure are also influenced by structures of opportunity that lie beyond the control of single individuals: what school an individual attends; his/her levels of wealth or poverty and the resources he/she has at home; his/her networks of social relationships; how well he/she speaks the language of instruction; his/her teaching and learning experiences in classrooms and so on. When groups of people fail in predictable patterns, this is a ‘social issue’ that goes beyond the individual person. Understanding the interplay of these two – the personal and the social – helps us to understand the scope for action at that time and in that place. On the one hand, it is important not to ‘blame the victim’ by holding people responsible for circumstances over which they have no control. On the other hand, it is important that we don’t assume that people are simply ‘victims of their circumstances’. We need a more dynamic analysis of this interplay if we are to understand success and failure at school. In thinking about theories of education, it is also important to think about ethics. What does ethics entail? 8 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 8 1/25/08 9:59:54 AM  Schooling and social change: framing the challenges Ethics Ethics entails thinking about what counts as a good life, and how we should live together with others in the world we share. Schooling is full of ethical considerations. Schooling is a shared human activity (and so is theorising about schooling). It involves judgements of all sorts: about what is good and what is bad achievement; about what is correct and incorrect performance; about what is normal and what is deviant behaviour. In fact, schooling practices are saturated with judgements about the actions of human beings in relation to each other, and about what is good and right. In other words, they inevitably involve ethics. Some theorists see ethics as a set of abstract principles about good and bad, right and wrong. However, the approach taken here is that ethics is an ongoing practice, rather than a set of ideal principles. It involves continuously being open to others and being prepared to think about how we should live together in the world. The theorist Anna Yeatman (2004) sets out this position well: Ethics refers to the practice of thinking about what living as a human subject in relation to fellow subjects, and the world that they share, demands of us. To open ourselves to ethical demands is to open ourselves to the challenge of thinking well and in ways that make our thoughtful engagement with the human condition both open and accountable to our contemporaries as fellow co-existents. It means being willing to listen to their objections to how we have represented the demands ethics poses for us and them, and when we have listened to those objections, to reconsider our position and to continue to engage in the dialogue… This approach to ethics will be woven through our discussions of schooling in the rest of the book. Hopefully, this will be evident not so much in a fixed set of principles as in a continuous engagement with issues of human consequences as we consider different dimensions of schooling. Equity and social justice As a starting point, it is useful to distinguish equity from equality. Briefly, equality means sameness of treatment. The problem arises, however, in that people do not have equal capacities and resources. How then, might 9 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 9 1/25/08 9:59:54 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning societies recognise this? Some theorists argue that societies should not interfere. Others argue that social goods should be unequally distributed in order to benefit the least advantaged. This is the subject of much philosophical debate. Another response is to argue that instead of equality, societies and education systems should aim for ‘equity’, or fairness. The question then becomes, how might societies and their education systems be more fair? For example, it may be fair to give more to some individuals or groups than to others, because they start out at a disadvantage. This brings us to considerations of justice, which is a philosophical concept with a long history of debate in western thinking. According to Plato, the famous ancient Greek philosopher, justice is about the right and the good. Social justice, then, is about how societies may act in terms of what is right and good. Using the approach to ethics suggested above, this book does not seek to find abstract principles of equity and justice. Rather, it attempts to think with these concepts in continually open ways, working towards building education systems for the greater benefit of all. Outline The chapters that follow address a set of questions, within the conceptual framework set out above: What are the purposes of schooling? Why do societies have schools? What should we expect schools to do? What sorts of changes are currently taking place due to globalisation, and how should schools respond to these changes? How do global patterns relate to local conditions? What development policies did the post-apartheid South African government adopt to change the economy, society and politics, and how did these affect education? What policies were developed to change the education system? How was the policy process understood? What can policy achieve and what are its limits in terms of educational change? What can be done at the level of schools and classrooms to make a difference to students’ learning? Let’s move, then, to look at the goals and purposes of schooling. 10 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 10 1/25/08 9:59:54 AM  Schooling and social change: framing the challenges References Mills, CW (2000/1959) The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press. Yeatman, A (2004) Ethics and contemporary global society. On-line opinion, posted 18 October [Accessed 1 March 2005]. 11 1-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 11 1/25/08 9:59:54 AM  chapter 2 Goals and purposes of schooling This chapter sets the foundation for discussions about schools and change. It argues that the goals of schooling are multiple and sometimes competing, and it introduces the concept of ‘discourse’ as a way of working with these different approaches. It suggests that we read different discourses as operating alongside one another, offering partial insights. Ultimately, the chapter does not attempt to reach certainty or closure about the goals and purposes of schooling. Instead, it suggests that we work across ‘binary distinctions’ without jumping to either side, and we try to hold both sides of seemingly contradictory positions. This is a task of intellectual rigour, not sloppy reasoning. The chapter argues that the doors of culture and learning are not likely to swing open in front of us. It suggests that we try to understand what is entailed in opening doors of learning, and to push strategically where we can. 12 12 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 12 1/25/08 10:00:23 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling Imagine a society without schools. You may be surprised to learn that schools are very recent social inventions in western societies. Two hundred years ago, there were no schools as we know them today. Education took place in other ways. Most children lived and worked alongside their families, in the countryside and in households, and did not read or write. Children of wealthy families were taught by private tutors or were educated by the church. But over the last 200 years, schools developed in Europe and the United States, and spread across the world to all modern countries. Most societies today have schools, and schools across the world look much the same. They have the same basic institutional forms, such as classrooms and timetables, and groups of children organised by age, taught by adults. And most primary schools, at least, teach more or less the same curriculum areas: languages, mathematics, science, social studies and religious or moral education. Of course, what happens inside schools, classrooms and the curriculum is another matter – that’s where we see great variations within the same institutional form. It’s hard to imagine a modern society without schools. And given how fixed and certain schools appear to be, it’s easy to forget that they are social constructions of fairly recent origin. If schools are constructed by social activity, then logically, it should be possible to change them. Yet schools around the world have proven hard to change. Societies appear to be committed to keeping schools much the same, even in times of considerable social change. Why is this? This is a puzzle which is explored throughout this book. This chapter focuses on the goals and purposes of modern schooling. It explores in a systematic way the questions raised so far: Why do societies have schools? What purposes do schools serve? What should we expect schooling to do? In addressing these questions, the chapter also suggests how we might ‘read’ and engage with different theories about schooling. 13 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 13 1/25/08 10:00:23 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning 1 Why do societies have schools? Let’s look briefly at two different answers to the question of why societies have schools. We’ll see that different narratives of schooling provide different explanations and different possibilities about what schools may and may not achieve. A sociological narrative: First, a narrative about the history of schooling using sociological discourses: If we look at the history of schooling in different societies, we see that schools developed at the same time as societies were changing from being ‘traditional’ to being ‘modern’. Mass schooling developed alongside industrialisation. It served two main purposes. First, as traditional social structures were breaking down, schools were agents of socialisation. They taught the cultures and values that were once taught in families and kinship groups. They were important institutions for building social cohesion. Second, as economies were changing, schools prepared people for different forms of work. They taught the skills and knowledges necessary for participation in modern economies. In serving both these purposes – social cohesion and preparation for work – schools at the same time sorted and sifted students. Those who completed only a few years of schooling were prepared to do the less skilled, less valued work in society. Those who stayed longer were prepared for clerical and white collar jobs. And those who completed schooling could go on to university and to higher paid, professional or managerial work. When western powers colonised other countries, they introduced schooling. Often, this role was taken on by missionaries who were keen to spread their religions. Schooling disrupted traditional social patterns, and imposed the worldviews, values and skills of colonisers. It prepared most colonised people for subservient roles and often gave them a sense of inferiority. But it also opened doors for a small group of people who formed the elites of their societies. Access to education has been part of independence struggles in many countries, and education has been important in the formation 14 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 14 1/25/08 10:00:23 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling of postcolonial states. It is an important signifier of modernity. Increasing access to education – Education for All – is a global goal promoted by nation states as well as international organisations. This is a typical ‘functionalist’ account of schooling. It views schooling as serving particular social – and perhaps individual – functions or purposes. Schools teach individuals the skills and values that are necessary for social functioning in their particular historical times. They pass on valued knowledge to young people. They prepare students for different social and economic roles, for civic participation, and to take up different places in the economy. And people are able to use schools to meet their own social goals, particularly goals of social advancement. Depending on their value-orientation, these theories view the role of schooling as part of a pattern which needs to be maintained, or modified, or broken altogether. Those who broadly support existing arrangements in society view schooling as important for social stability. They stress the role of schooling in social cohesion, and favour the expansion of schooling in order to socialise people and prepare them for civic and economic life. In this approach, schools have a conservative role in maintaining traditions and passing them on to future generations. Using the same broad approach, other theorists suggest that schools may also function to improve societies. They may provide equal opportunities to people of different backgrounds to enable them to advance themselves. Improving access to schooling, and to higher levels of schooling, may be a way of reducing inequality and improving the quality of life both for individuals and societies as a whole. In contrast to these views, theories that favour social change – for example, Marxist theories – see schooling as part of the problem of inequality, rather than a solution to it. These theories point out that schools appear to offer equal opportunities to students, but in practice, they don’t. Schools reproduce class inequalities and at the same time make these inequalities seem fair and natural, the result of individual abilities rather than social position. In this analysis, schooling functions to reproduce society. Thus it needs to be changed as part of broader social change. 15 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 15 1/25/08 10:00:24 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning A sociocultural psychology narrative: Here is a second narrative about the history of schooling, this time drawing on discourses of sociocultural psychology: To understand schools, we need to start by looking at human beings and how they learn. The human mind develops biologically as part of the body, but it also develops through social contact with others. We experience a physical world, but we make sense of the world through our interactions with other people. Human conscious thinking requires language, and language is part of culture. Culture provides us with shared meanings, language and symbols, through which we understand the world and communicate with others. Different languages and cultures provide different understandings of the world. Human understanding is ‘culturally mediated’, that is, it takes place within culture. Thus, human beings experience a ‘double world’: a natural world, and a cultural world of human making. Where does schooling fit in with this? All cultures have language and symbols that they transmit from generation to generation, but not all have written language. Schools originated hundreds of years ago in those societies which had developed written language. Writing is the central cultural practice associated with schools, and it is the particular form of ‘cultural mediation’ that schools use and promote. Children learn and develop outside of schools, but schools in the western world have a particular structure of learning. They teach written symbol systems (such as reading, writing, arithmetic); they teach abstract, coded, systems of knowledge; and they do so in particular ways. Material to be learnt is sorted and sequenced; category systems are used; and students practise mastery through repetition and recitation. Classroom language tends to follow the same pattern, called ‘initiation – reply – evaluation’, where a teacher asks a question, a student responds, and the teacher gives feedback on the response (see Cazden, 1988). Schools use formal modes of expression and tend to exclude everyday experience. They focus on formal and abstract thinking, and develop certain kinds of problem solving. In short, there is such a thing as ‘school knowledge’, generally understood, and school-based forms of thinking (or cognition). 16 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 16 1/25/08 10:00:24 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling Put simply, the purpose of schooling is to teach ‘school knowledge’ and ways of thinking. Whether or not this has application outside of schools, or brings personal advancement and social change, are matters of considerable debate. Some theorists view literacy as a set of technical skills to be learnt. They talk of ‘functional literacy’, and assume that it is ‘a good thing’ for everyone to have these skills, which open up possibilities to the world beyond the school. Others dispute this, saying that literacy is not a neutral, value-free set of competencies. What counts as literacy depends upon social context and power relationships. Not all literacy provides people with the critical skills needed to understand the world and how power relations work. Some theorists argue that school knowledge and ways of thinking are important in themselves, and that they bring positive changes for individuals and societies. Others argue that students’ school knowledge and cognitive operations ‘become rusty’ if they are not used. Learning literacy through schooling may be a waste of time and money if there are no opportunities to use it in the wider world. School knowledge is not necessarily valuable in itself. We can’t assume that it is associated with positive change, either for individuals or societies. The sociocultural psychologist Mike Cole (1990) draws the following conclusions about these debates: Where writing is the medium of public life, learning to write at school may help students to perform in many settings outside of school. Where the content of schooling is relevant to their circumstances, schools may help students to understand their social and historical contexts. Where language capacity is expanded, schools may help to deepen students’ cultural understanding. For, as Cole points out, every language ‘carries within it the culture’s theory about the nature of the world’. An expanded language capacity may give access to the meaning systems embedded in the language, and students may acquire understanding that may be applicable outside the school walls. 17 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 17 1/25/08 10:00:24 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning But, according to Cole, if these conditions are not present, learning literacy through schooling may be of doubtful benefit. Cole agrees that schooling is associated with the development of urban centres of trade and technologies of production. However, his view is that schooling was neither the cause nor the effect of these changes. Rather, schooling was an enabling condition which helped changes to occur. He suggests that schooling in less developed societies has been ‘an alien form’, imposed by colonialism. Schooling may well be associated with modernity, but, in his view, ‘there is little doubt that widespread adoption of formal schooling has also been a source of social disruption and human misery’ (1990:107). Comparing the two narratives These two narratives about why schools developed and why they persist, tell us different stories. Both use the elements of the sociological imagination that we discussed in Chapter 1 – the individual life, the social context, and the historical times – but they do so in quite different ways. It’s not that they contradict each other, or that we necessarily have to choose between them. What is important, rather, is to understand the way theories operate as explanations, and how we may work with them. Each theory has its own particular concepts and concerns, and its own methods and logics of analysis. In an important sense, theories themselves set the terms within which they provide explanations. Theories use different discourses, or sets of language practices. In fact, some people argue that theories themselves are discourses. Discourses, in this sense, are patterns of language use (speaking, listening, thinking) which provide us with shared social meanings. They position us as subjects in relation to others and to the world (for example as ‘teachers’, ‘students’, ‘illiterate adults’ and so on), and provide us with social identities. Discourses demarcate what ‘makes sense’ (and counts as knowledge) from what ‘makes no sense’ (and therefore cannot be ‘true’). They link knowledge to power in specific ways. What counts as knowledge, who has access to it and how – these discourses involve power relations. Analysing discourse enables us to explore the relationships between language, power, meaning, and subjectivity or identity. Looking back at the two narratives on schooling presented earlier, we can see different discourses at work. 18 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 18 1/25/08 10:00:24 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling The first uses discourses of social function, social cohesion and socialisation, where schools prepare individuals to fit into and contribute to complex modern societies – a pattern to be supported, worked with, or broken. The second uses discourses of human learning, of mind and cultural mediation, where schools provide access to written symbol systems and codified knowledge. The usefulness of this narrative depends to a large degree on social context. Both explanations seem coherent in their own terms – though they make little or no reference to each other. In each discourse, the school (which is familiar to us) is presented quite differently. In other words, each discourse provides the terms within which we may understand the school. In this sense, we could say that the discourse itself ‘creates’ the school. The French theorist Michel Foucault has famously made the point that ‘discourses create the objects of which they speak’. Why are these points useful to understand? They open up considerations about how we might work with theory in understanding the social world. Working with theory This book starts from the premise that, in the humanities and social sciences, many different explanations are possible. Different theories and discourses use different central concepts, methods and logics of argument. They start at different points, and develop along different lines. Following these different lines brings us to different outcomes. No single narrative or discourse can account for everything. There is no single answer or single ‘truth’ waiting to be discovered. There are different answers, depending on different theories and discourses. Of course, this doesn’t mean they are all equally good answers, or equally useful. But it is helpful to know that we can analyse each approach within its own terms, and put different approaches side-by-side and understand them in relation to one another. The approach in this book is that it is useful to explore relationships between language, power, meaning and subjectivity in different discourses. This position should not be confused with simple relativism, where ‘anything goes’ and the rules of logic may be set aside at whim. Instead, it supports the position that all knowledge is situated, and is governed by the perspectives of the ‘knowers’ (this perspectivalist position is well described by Yeatman, 1994). 19 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 19 1/25/08 10:00:24 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning The two narratives of schooling we have looked at are both ‘grand narratives’, in the sense that they tell overarching stories that explain the world. However, these narratives tell us nothing about particular schools in particular times. To get a sense of the texture of a particular school, in its community, at a particular social and historical moment, requires a different sort of analysis. It requires detailed research of the kind usually carried out by historical and anthropological studies. Some further comments are necessary. First, the two narratives presented here, from sociology and psychology, are just two among very many. They are by no means the only narratives in those two disciplines. Second, it is worth noting that a lot of scholarly activity is concerned with delving into greater depth and detail to understand apparent social and historical patterns – or exceptions to these patterns. A third observation concerns a point of change in theory. In the last few decades, important work in the humanities and social sciences has challenged the certainties of ‘grand narratives’ as a form of explanation. This ‘destabilisation’ in theory is partly associated with ‘post’ theories: post-modernism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and so on. ‘Post’ here is used to indicate that these theories are questioning and moving beyond the mainstream theoretical work that they have drawn on. However, not all theorists who analyse discourse, who look at relationships between knowledge and power, and who question the nature of ‘universal truths’ would identify themselves as ‘post’ theorists. Michel Foucault and Edward Said are significant examples. The theories clustered here generally favour a multiplicity of narratives, voices, meanings and subjectivities. This book draws on and explores a number of these theories in an open rather than dogmatic way. And it invites you, as reader, to question and to position yourself ethically where you judge best. To sum up … In unpacking the question of why societies have schools, we started by looking at two sets of explanations, and moved from there to think about the nature of explanations themselves. The sections that follow will build on the narratives of schooling, as well as on the ideas raised about the nature of theory, discourse and ethics. As we move to our second question on the goals and purposes of schooling, we’ll see how different discourses formulate different goals and purposes, which highlight different dimensions of schooling. 20 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 20 1/25/08 10:00:24 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling 2 What purposes do schools serve? In exploring this question, it is important to ask ‘Whose purposes?’ Purposes don’t float free, like butterflies, waiting to be found. Purposes depend on people who have different perspectives and interests, different ethical understandings and different relationships to power. In talking of schooling, are we interested in the purposes of children, or teachers, or parents, or social interest groups, or governments? Purposes are socially constructed; they are never neutral or interest free. Here are some statements that you’ll recognise about the purposes of schooling: The primary purpose of a school is to provide an environment where teaching and learning take place. An important purpose of schooling is to prepare people for the world of work beyond school. Nation-building and citizenship – political goals – are the key purposes of schooling. In a democracy, public education – schooling – is one of the major vehicles for teaching the values of a society to children and young adults. Education is about the development of the individual. These are very broad-ranging and sometimes grand claims. How might we assess them? To explore these statements further, it is useful to look in greater depth at the discourses they represent – discourses about teaching and learning; about economics, politics and values; and about individual purposes of schooling. This chapter has touched on some of these already, particularly in the two narratives of schooling provided earlier. Hopefully, in tracing these discourses and placing them side-by-side, different pictures of the purposes of schooling will sharpen and fade, in ways that are complex but also recognisable. Teaching and learning in schools Let’s start by looking at the first statement of purposes from the list above: The primary purpose of a school is to provide an environment where teaching and learning take place. 21 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 21 1/25/08 10:00:24 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning In unpacking this statement, a good place to begin is with schools themselves, and what happens every day in schools. Everyday life in schools The sounds and smells of schools – everyone who has been to school has their own memories. Sitting at a desk next to a friend. Waiting for the bell to ring and the class to end. Punishment for breaking a rule or talking in class. A favourite teacher. A teacher who hits students. The Science teacher’s dog. Break times. Tests. Reports. Being anxious about not knowing the right answer to the teacher’s question. Embarrassment. Doing homework. Playing sport. Library periods amidst the books. Reading under the desk. Being with friends. Other kids – those who always did well, those who did badly. Bullies. Popular kids. The sinking feeling of going back to school after holidays. These are some of my memories that surface when I think of my school days. What memories do you have of school? Some people have memories of walking long distances to school, being hungry in class, being abused by teachers or other students. These experiences are part of everyday life in school for some children. Our particular experiences differ, but they also fall into patterns. Students – and teachers – do many things at school. We play as well as work. We learn outside of the classroom as well as inside, informally as well as formally. We learn from our friends – and from our foes – as well as from our teachers. Sometimes we learn very little from our teachers (in fact, sometimes we learn in spite of them). We learn worthwhile things, and things we would be better off not learning. For a long period of our childhood and youth, we are placed in groups of our own age under the tutelage of adults. Our days are structured in particular rhythms which we may conform to, or resist. Along the way, our identities are shaped and formed, in a particular social institution alongside our peers. Amidst the wide range of things that schools do, they have one defining purpose of their own that makes them distinctive: they are the only social institutions that are dedicated to formalised teaching and learning for young people. Though people learn in many different social institutions and activities (churches, sports clubs and so on), schools are the only social institutions whose central purpose is the formalised transmission of knowledge, skills and values. 22 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 22 1/25/08 10:00:25 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling The narrative from sociocultural psychology presented earlier provided a brief description of school knowledge and ways of thinking. ‘School knowledge’ is by no means all the knowledge a society has. It is a particular selection and ordering of knowledge, and it gives priority to some ways of knowing and learning while downplaying others. Some students are better than others at dealing with school knowledge. Social background and context are big factors. For some students, what happens in school is similar to what happens at home, in terms of classroom language, activities and learning objects (such as books and computers). For other students, there are large gaps between home and school experiences. Some schools provide better learning environments than others; some contexts are easier for schools to operate in than others. International research in sociology of education over many years has shown that there are patterns to performance, relating to home background and socioeconomic context (as well as language, race, gender and so on). These findings pose huge ethical and practical challenges in terms of social equity and fairness. In the light of this, how might we respond to the statement ‘The primary purpose of a school is to provide an environment where teaching and learning takes place’? A strong response, proposed by Ivan Illich in the 1970s, is that we should ‘deschool’ society, because schools do more harm than good. Another response is to try to bring different knowledge and learning approaches into schools, so that they reflect a broader selection of social interests. Yet another response is to argue that if school knowledge is related to social power, then it is important for schools to open this knowledge to the very students who do not have easy access to it in their homes and neighbourhoods. What these responses have in common is ethical positions which engage with, rather than accept, the status quo in society. Calling into question the relationship between school knowledge and social power is an important starting point for an ethics of engagement. The position favoured in this book is that schools should be held accountable to their mandate of teaching school knowledge – the formal, codified knowledge of the society. Taking this further, they should do so in ways that open up possibilities for students to understand their worlds, and change them. And they should provide surroundings that are safe and show respect for teaching and learning. 23 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 23 1/25/08 10:00:25 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning As well as teaching and learning, the purposes of schooling are also framed in terms of economics, politics and values or ethics. Let’s move on to look at these, one by one. Schools and the economy Economic discourses play across schooling in two main ways. First, education systems involve costs and need to be funded. How are decisions to be taken about the production and distribution of resources for education? What proportion of a government’s budget should be spent on education? Should governments meet all or most of the costs of schooling? Should people pay fees? What is the optimum balance between the state and the private sector (or market) in providing education? Given that some forms of education are more costly than others (it is much more expensive to teach with science laboratories and vocational training facilities, for example, than to teach in primary schools), how much should be allocated to different activities and sectors of education? What education should governments fund to enhance economic development? And so on. These are not simple questions. And as we address them, they give way to further questions. Certainly, they give way to questions about interests and values, political arrangements and power relations, as well as important questions of ethics. There are also questions about what further knowledge we may need to answer them. Some people suggest that this process is like peeling an onion, where there is a layer underneath each new layer. But this gives the impression that we would come to an end at some point – and the theoretical position suggested so far is that the process is a continuing one. There is no end point waiting to be discovered, no single truth or solution. Of course, some social arrangements are better than others – they are fairer and less oppressive. The task is to work continuously towards better solutions, without assuming that there is one ideal solution waiting to be found and put in place. A second set of economic discourses is more directly concerned with the link between schools and the economy. Among the many questions that could be raised here, two stand out as important for educators. What is the link between schooling and the jobs people get after school? What role do schools play in individual and social development? Let’s look briefly at both of these. 24 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 24 1/25/08 10:00:25 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling Schools and the labour market Common sense suggests that there is a link between the amount of schooling that people have, and the jobs that are open to them. In general, less schooling is associated with unskilled work, and sometimes unemployment. More schooling is associated with better-paid, and higher- level skilled work. This suggests that an important purpose of schooling is to prepare people for the world of work beyond the school. Of course, we can think of instances where the link does not operate, but the general pattern seems self-evident. However, as the Italian theorist Gramsci (1971) warns us, common sense is not always good sense. It requires further refinement. If we think more carefully, it is evident that people often don’t use the actual knowledge they learn at schools and universities to do their jobs. In fact, new knowledge is being developed at great speed, and a lot of what we learn is soon out of date. We could counter this point by saying that schooling teaches people how to think, and this is what is important for work performance. But here we need to bear in mind the point made earlier by sociocultural psychologists – that school knowledge may ‘become rusty’ if there is no context in which to use it. In some cases, higher qualifications are required for jobs that have not changed. Think of all the jobs where a senior certificate was once enough, and now a university degree is required. We could counter this point by saying that schools and universities help to sort people according to their credentials, which are based on their suitability for the job market. The issue then becomes one of credentials, rather than competencies. Social institutions – like schools and labour markets – aren’t neutral sites that offer equal opportunities to everyone. People don’t enter these institutions as equal participants, and they aren’t simply given equal life chances through them. The problems are more complex. People can’t always get the jobs they want. Sometimes, this is what Mills would call a ‘personal trouble’; sometimes it is a ‘social problem’. More careful thinking is needed to understand the reasons. And there are ethical implications if social institutions operate unfairly. 25 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 25 1/25/08 10:00:25 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning People sometimes blame schools and the education system for unemployment. But this transfers the problem from the economy to schools. Schools don’t create jobs – economic activities do. Schools may prepare people for jobs, and they may make people more employable. Certainly, modern economies rely on schooling as well as on skilled workers. But schools alone cannot make economies productive. A simple functionalist argument does not take us far enough in explaining the link between schooling and jobs. As Mills’s sociological imagination reminds us, there is a structure of opportunities that individuals encounter at any historical time, and individuals make choices and take actions as they live their lives. Gender plays a role. So does race. So does the place where an individual lives. And there are many other variables too. We need a more dynamic analysis linking individuals to social structure and time. We also need an analysis that looks at different meanings, subjectivities and power relations. In modern industrial societies, the link between schooling and the labour market has become increasingly tighter. As mass schooling has expanded, its social and economic significance has grown. The Australian sociologists, Teese and Polesel (2003:12), point out that currently, ‘practically all avenues to economic advancement’ are linked to schools. This does not mean that schools work in democratic ways to open all avenues equally to all students. As well as providing avenues to advancement, schools also provide avenues to failure and marginalisation. Though the link is obvious, it is not quite as simple as it may seem, and it has proven very difficult to change. Certainly, this raises ethical issues about what schooling can and can’t be expected to do in relation to students’ life chances. Holding this analysis in mind, let’s turn to another discourse that links schools to the economy. Schools and economic growth A major theory linking schools to the economy is human capital theory, which is part of neoclassical economics. This theory views education in economic terms, and analyses schooling as a ‘production’ factor contributing to economic growth. Human capital theory argues that education should be viewed as investment (rather than consumption) which brings rates of return to individuals and societies. Individuals who invest in their education, and forego opportunities to earn money by going to school instead (that is, bear opportunity costs), reap the rewards of their investments by getting better, higher-paid jobs. Societies that provide education for their members are able to develop their economies by having better prepared workers, and they reap social benefits as well in terms of healthier, more prosperous citizens. 26 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 26 1/25/08 10:00:25 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling Human capital theory quite obviously uses a discourse of economics – of inputs and outputs, costs and benefits, investments and rates of return, production and consumption. Notably absent in this discourse is any detail about what actually happens inside schools and classrooms. Human capital theory has strong supporters, particularly among economists, and strong critics, particularly among those who resist the treatment of education as ‘goods’ in economic terms. This discourse may appear misleadingly simple to those who disagree with it, but in practice, human capital theory is a sophisticated and influential set of research undertakings. And it has had important policy implications, particularly in developing countries. A good example of research using human capital theory in South Africa is Charles Simkins’s study with Andrew Paterson, Learner Performance in South Africa: social and economic determinants of success in language and mathematics (2005). The study contains data on households and test results, as well as detailed accounts of the statistical procedures and methods used to analyse the data. First, a summary of the study: South Africa has done well to systematically expand its educational system and to lengthen the schooling experience of successive learner cohorts. But the quality of the output from the school system has been questioned. In seeking to identify the reasons for this, it is important to relate educational outputs (competencies, as measured for instance by examinations or standardised tests) to inputs. Determining the relative contributions of the inputs – of the school, the household and the individual learner – to educational outputs is not straightforward, particularly since very little educational production function analysis has been undertaken in South Africa. Until recently, no South African school data has incorporated test results, school characteristics and information on the household circumstances of individual learners necessary for this kind of analysis. However, the results from a survey of a sample of schools involved in the large-scale Quality Learning Project (QLP), funded by the Business Trust, have yielded such data. The QLP data set offers a new analytical opportunity to address the question: What are the effects of social and economic variables on educational outcomes in the QLP schools? (Human Sciences Research Council, 2005) 27 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 27 1/25/08 10:00:26 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning Now, two extracts from the summary of its findings: The general assessment is that social and economic variables at the household level do not play an enormous role in academic performance, with the exception of language variables. Pupils whose home language is an African language are at a considerable disadvantage in the language of instruction by the time they reach Grade 11 if the language of instruction is never spoken at home. This can be offset somewhat if the language of instruction is sometimes spoken at home and it can be offset considerably if the language of instruction is often spoken at home. (Simkins and Paterson, 2005:33) … The rules to be followed by parents if they want their children to do well at school are Victorian in their simplicity: Feed them as well as you can; Equip them with a full range of inexpensive study aids; Talk to them often in the language of instruction; Don’t fret about your somewhat richer neighbour – household wealth does not give much edge in school performance. (Simkins and Paterson, 2005:34) Studies such as these provide important, research-based knowledge about schooling. The picture is an important one, but it is a partial one – particularly for those who are interested in learning and teaching inside schools. Development and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund A discussion of the economics of education would be incomplete without considering the influence of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). These two bodies, established after the Second World War to provide development assistance to countries, have linked their financial aid to their preferred education policies. These policies reflect human capital assumptions. For example, over time, the World Bank has supported countries to build up primary education, or vocational education, arguing that these give good rates of return on investment. These funding decisions have been made with little consideration of the policy preferences of people in the countries concerned. They have been driven by a particular understanding of economics and education, and reflect a particular power/knowledge 28 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 28 1/25/08 10:00:26 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling position. They favour an economics of structural adjustment, which means cutting down what governments spend on social services, and opening up markets. There is much debate about the effectiveness of these policies. Economists such as Joseph Stiglitz (2002), a former chief economist at the World Bank, argue that they actually lead to poverty and social disruption. Certainly, these policies are not neutral or value-free; they reflect particular interests and power relationships. To sum up … Without going further into this debate, let’s link back to theories of discourse. It is important to note here that all discourses are constructions of a particular sort. They make assumptions about what is important; they provide particular social identities and meanings; they draw on and expand their own bodies of knowledge; and they justify actions in terms of these. Assumptions about the purposes of education and about how funding is appropriately spent can never be value-free. They always need to be considered in terms of power relations, social interests and ethics (as well as in terms of their scholarly worth). This does not mean that educationists should try to avoid discourses on schooling and the economy. On the contrary, these discourses are valuable and in a certain sense, indispensable. Schools do have links to the economy, and we cannot talk about these things without discourses. What is important, rather, is to continually explore their meanings, to probe them for their inconsistencies and cracks, and to work with and against them towards goals we value. After all, this is what they do themselves, and what they invite us to do. Moving on from this picture of economic purposes of education, let’s now consider the political and social purposes of education. Schooling and political cohesion Building the modern state Around the world, schooling is associated with the modern state. Governments have set up education systems, and state education departments regulate a whole range of activities, from financing, to curriculum, to conditions of employment of teachers, to performance of students. Governments monitor school enrolments and attendance. And they commonly turn to schools to solve all sorts of social problems – or to blame them for the existence of problems, which may have nothing to do with them. 29 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 29 1/25/08 10:00:26 AM  Opening the Doors of Learning As the institutional theorists Bruce Fuller and Richard Rubinson (1992:4) note, states across the world, and particularly in developing countries, ‘hold the school institution sacred; they regard it as being the organisational mechanism for delivering mass opportunity, economic growth and national integration’. Fuller and Rubinson see schools as an important indicator of western ideology. However, in their view, schooling is neither the result, nor the cause, of economic development or state organisation – a position compatible with that of Cole, as stated earlier. Stephen Heynemann, a World Bank adviser, argues strongly that schools play an important role in ‘building social cohesion’. In his view: Nation-building and citizenship – political goals – are the key purpose of schooling. In an article entitled ‘A renewed sense for the purposes of schooling: the challenges of education and social cohesion in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Central Asia’ (2000), Heynemann and Todoric- Bebic emphasise the following three points about schooling: The first is that the social cohesion function of education is at the heart of each nation’s education system, and one of the main reasons why nations invest in public schooling. The second is that some school systems accomplish this better than others. In fact, it is possible to judge the performance of an education system as much on the basis of its contribution to social cohesion as on its attainment of learning objectives. The third is that the social cohesion objectives and concerns are not uniform around the world. There are countries in some regions that are concerned primarily with ethnic identity, while countries in other regions might be concerned with public corruption or illegal behaviour. But, regardless of the emphasis placed on social cohesion in different regions, one element appears to be true throughout: countries, when faced with a tendency to splinter, use public education to reduce the risk of that happening. (2000:146, original emphasis) Heynemann and Todoric-Bebic identify the following nation-building approaches that have been adopted by African states: Developing common nationality while preserving minority languages and cultures (e.g. Nigeria) 30 2-OPENING THE DOORS OF LEARNING.indd 30 1/25/08 10:00:26 AM  Goals and purposes of schooling Quickly developing a unique new culture resulting from the synthesis of previously existing groups (e.g. Chad, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania) Gradually developing a national culture (e.g. Zimbabwe) Developing unity within diversity (e.g. South Africa) (2000:147–48) These authors identify the following issues to be addressed by education and social cohesion in Africa: Language of instruction Equality of opportunity Universal primary education Administration, organisation and school governance The role of the teacher in political socialisation (2000:148–50) This discourse of social cohesion – its language, priorities, interests – stands alongside human capital theory in stating the purposes of education. It provides a different, but not incompatible, account. And it has a familiar ring in post-apartheid South Africa. Both discourses are more concerned with broader social issues than with what happens in teaching and learning in schools. In this case, building the nation state, reducing conflict and enhancing citizenship are foregrounded. As we read earlier, Heynemann and Todoric-Bebic go so far as to say, ‘In fact, it is possible to judge the performance of an education system as much on the basis of its contribution to social cohesion as on its attainment of learning objectives’ (2000:146). Schooling and values A similar – and familiar – discourse of the purposes of schooling foregrounds the transmission of values. To quote the Report of the Working Group on Values in Education (2001): In a democracy, public education is one of the major vehicles by which the values of a people are acquired by the children and young adults who mak