| Summary: | This research was undertaken against the background of the world-wide phenomenon that
school education and politics are related in a special way. What is characteristic of this
relationship is that different forces are at work on an ongoing basis (this includes
ideologies and political philosophies) which attempt to gain control of education. This
competition for ideological and political hegemony can, given specific circumstances,
culminate in what can be called an education crisis.
In South Africa there has, since 1976, been a national education crisis. In a society which
has for a decade or more been exposed to reform, transformation and transition, political
demands have been in the forefront at the expense of education. Although there has been
relative calm within certain sectors of national education (that is, within the so-called
white section), a totally different situation obtained within the communities which had,
until 1990, been totally excluded from political decision-making processes. The aim of this
research was to find answers to the following questions: what should a Reformationally
principled view with regard to the relationship school education and politics look like?;
what is involved in the notions "school education" and "politics"?; what is/has been the
relationship of politics and school education through the ages?; what has the relationship
been like in South Africa in the period 1983-1990, and what roles did pupils and students,
parents and teachers play in the midst of the political developments in the period 1983-
1990?
In carrying out this research a variety of methods were used. In the first place a literature
survey in all its facets was applied, especially involving the consultation •of important
primary sources, for the sake of evaluating the statements found in secondary sources.
Philosophical methods, described as the principial-reflective and the principial-descriptive
method, the transcendental-critical method and the structural-empirical methods, were used
throughout. In close conjunction with the alreadymentioned methods, the method of
interviewing, the exemplary method, the comparative method, the problem-historical
method and the method of conceptual analysis were also used. In the reportage of the research the following fields of research were explored. In the first
place, attention was given to construction of a Reformational perspective on the
relationship school education and politics. In the second place, an attempt was made to
provide a conceptual exploration of the notions "school education" and "politics". In the
third place, cognizance was taken of different formulations of aspects of the relationship
school education and politics by way of exemplar. Following this, attention was shifted to
contemporary South African education and the political situation (1983-1990), in which on
the one hand cognizance was taken of a totality view of the development of school
education and politics, and on the other hand note was taken of the different roles of
pupils, students, teachers and parents in their participation in school education and
political developments.
In the course of the research certain findings were made. One of the key findings includes
the facts that school education and politics each represents a different and distinguishable
sphere of life, each with its own sphere of competence; through the acknowledgement of
both the principles of sovereignty in the own sphere and universality in the own sphere
can in principle ensure a harmonious relationship between school education and politics;
school education and politics are concepts which each has its own conceptual framework
and clusters which, if these differences are not adequately accounted for, will of necessity
lead to ambiguity, misformulations and big misunderstandings; the state constitutes the
irreducible whole within which the relationship school education and politics should be
studied; a Christian view with regard to school education and politics presupposes that
such a relationship is characterised by the fact that it does not necessarily strive in the first
place for state citizenship, but for the Kingdom of God; school education has, because of
its central position in the community and in society, an important role to play in the
education and teaching of future citizens of a country, the crisis which, in the framework
of education and teaching in South Africa, is largely attributable, in the period 1983-1990,
to the ideological and political power struggle which can broadly be typified as having
occurred between those who stood outside the political decision-making processes
(including the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress, the United
Democratic Front, the South African Communist Party, the Azanian People's Organization
and other ideologically related groupings and factions), and those within the process (the
National Party, the Progressive Federal Party - later the Democratic Party - the
Conservative Party, the lnkatha Freedom Movement and other groupings) and school
pupils, students, teachers and parents, in line with the different ideological and political
points of departure for the period 1983-1990, all had a role to play in the promotion and
advocacy of stated ideals.
In general the conclusion was reached that the school education and politics stand in a
clear and describable relationship to each other. School education in South Africa in the
period 1983-1990 was deliberately used and eventually abused in what can be regarded as
an ideological and political power struggle which reminded of a revolutionary struggle
fought between the mainstream ideologies such as embodied and advocated by the African
National Congress (ANC) and the National Party government respectively.
Among the most important recommendations are the following: all those involved in
education (pupils, teachers, parents, students, education planners, the state, political
parties, the private sector, the church, trade unions, community leaders and so forth)
should take note of the fact that school education and politics always stand in a particular
relationship towards each other. There should be development of adequate training
programmes in which the school and the broader community can be educated in what is
involved in both education and politics. There should be a permanent watchdog attitude
among all those involved in education (teachers, parents and the broader community) to
ensure that education is not abused for party-political purposes. This is not intended,
however, to deny the broad ideological consensus base in which any political or
educational dispensation should function.
The following fields have been identified as needing research: the role and task of the
teacher in a pluralistic political milieu; an educational-philosophical determination of the
role and the task of the school in a pluralistic political milieu; the way in which different
ideological and political viewpoint/points of departure in a school can or could be dealt
with; a continuation of the investigation of conceptual frameworks in the understanding of
school education and politics; state view(s) and school education; state power and the
realization of school education; individual rights and school education; citizenship and the
school in a new political dispensation; the idea of a social contract and implications for
school education; politically-ideological source documents and school education; political
consciousness among the youth; the militarization phenomenon in school education and
trade unionism in school education. === Proefskrif (PhD)--PU vir CHO, 1994
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