Schooling, 'culture' and class : a study of White and Coloured schooling and its relationship to performance in sociology at the University of Cape Town

This thesis is an exploratory endeavour to investigate 'white' and 'coloured' schooling and the relationship between this schooling and performance in Sociology at the University of Cape Town. It investigates these aspects using a number of methodologies. The first chapter reviews the South African literature on the relationship between schooling and university performance and how schooling is generally portrayed. It then proceeds to lay a theoretical basis for investigating schooling and how schooling influences performance in Sociology. The theoretical framework was significantly influenced by my empirical research. In this chapter, although the primary focus is on white and coloured schooling, some attention is also given to African schooling. The theoretical framework stresses the relative autonomy of the school and the importance of the social class origins of pupils. It illustrates that the social class composition of a school is crucial in shaping the pedagogical process and academic achievement. It shows that schools in the same educational authority can be very different primarily due to the differing class origins of their pupils. This is illuminated firstly, by reviewing the literature in this area and secondly, empirically; for example, by showing how matric results are clearly related to a school's class composition. The second chapter is a statistical investigation of the relationship between schooling and Sociology results at the University of Cape Town. It examines the Sociology results of students who have emerged from schools under the white educational authorities and compares them to the results of students who have emerged from schools under the Department of Internal Affairs educational authority. It indicates that the differences are often not statistically significant and thus that the racial structuring of the educational system does not necessarily lead to students who have emerged from the white educational authority schools being academically superior. It also investigates the relationship between matric aggregate/matric English symbols and Sociology results. It illustrates that although a relationship generally does exist there are also many individual exceptions. The third chapter is based on in-depth interviews with Sociology students, school teachers and principals. Drawing on the interview material it argues that different types of schools can be identified. Each type is dominated by a specific pedagogical process and students who attend one type are more likely to be prepared for Sociology than students who attend another type. This section thus draws on, substantiates and develops the theoretical framework outlined in chapter one and moves beyond the purely statistical approach of chapter two. The fourth chapter summarises the results of a questionnaire survey. It endeavours to assess the relationship between social class, schooling and Sociology results. It thus complements the proceeding chapters. An important finding is that a very small proportion of students who enter the Sociology Department are of working class or lower petit bourgeois origins. A second important finding is that very few students felt that they were prepared by their schooling for Sociology.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Sociology

Year dc:date.issued

1985

Author dc:creator

• Morris, Alan

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16994

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/16994