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School of Education

Players or pawns? : "professionalism" and teacher disunity in the Western Cape, 1980-1990

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Focussing primarily on black teacher groups, this dissertation will describe the remarkable events within teacher politics in the Western Cape in the 1980s, following from the Soweto uprising of 1976. The decade of the eighties marked massive changes in the political and educational context within which teachers worked. After 1976, schools became the focus of opposition to the apartheid state. The atmosphere within schools changed as many students rejected the schooling proffered them by the state, and the "professional" implementation of state schooling by teachers. The liberation movement grew as the decade progressed, bolstered by a militant black trade union movement. The liberation struggle expanded and community-based protest drew schools into a broader, societal opposition to the state. The nature of schooling changed, as students and other elements of the liberation movement rejected apartheid education, and began fostering alternative education. Most notably, People's Education articulated both a rejection of state education and a desire for relevant, democratic schooling.

Degree

thesis:*
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
School of Education
Year dc:date.issued
1993

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Kihn, Paul

Rights

Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17361
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17361

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Cape Town
Base URL
open.uct.ac.za/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
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citation

Kihn, Paul. Players or pawns? : "professionalism" and teacher disunity in the Western Cape, 1980-1990. School of Education, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17361