Extra-mural programmes and adult education at the University of Cape Town : an analysis of policy

This study examines and analyses the events associated with, and development of policy in, the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies at the University of Cape Town. Three phases of task, role and associated policy can be discerned. From the earliest days of extra-mural activities at the University in the mid-nineteenth century until the present, the most visible of the Centre's activities has been the presentation of university-level courses and lectures to the public. This has been a phase of liberal, nonvocational tradition, aiming at personal fulfilment and enlightened discussion. Despite open access to these programmes, low fees and efforts to encourage a wider support, there has been very little response from the working class, African or "Coloured" communities. Following consultation with community groups and strenuous fund-raising efforts, the Centre launched a series of community education projects in the mid-1970's, some of which were managed initially by the Centre. In 1979 the University established a Chair of Adult Education and the first Diploma Course for the Educators of Adults was launched in 1980. From this point the Centre saw its community function as part of a broad programme of providing University-based professional education and support for adult educators and community workers in an indirect mode. The study has attempted first, to show how each of these phases, acquired in an historical sequence, is rooted in a previous phase; is reactive to previous phases or is a critique of them. Secondly, the study examines the problem of a proper balance between the more traditional task of extra-mural programmes and the more recently acquired adult education role. The University's own examination of this question of balance is highlighted together with the constitutional changes that were deemed appropriate in order to promote development of adult education while protecting the older tradition against radical change or diminution. Thirdly, the study shows that the staff of the Centre have to maintain an uneasy equilibrium between the academic acceptability of their programmes to the University on the one hand, and the relevance of those programmes to communities in a fractured society on the other. Finally, the study concludes that while the major constitutional and policy changes of 1903, 1949 and 1982 were appropriate responses to changes of circumstance, there was not the same degree of recognition of the need for adequate resources to meet the challenges of the vast and unmapped area of adult education in South Africa.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

1984

Author dc:creator

• Walker, Douglas, 1935-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Millar, Clive

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17032

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17032