Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Post-Schooling'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 5, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Economics." Discipline: Economics; Department/School: Economics.

Current cries for accountability nearly always result in some form of testing. For critical race theorists, most of the standardised tests that poorer-blacker children experience in schools inevitably legitimise their so-called ‘deficiencies’. Critical race theorists contend that the high stakes testing game is more accurately an endorsement of the dominant culture’s superiority, and policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act continue to instantiate inequity and validate white supremacy, despite well-published claims to the contrary. The empirical data reported in this study were collected during a mixed- method in-depth case study in one diverse high school in Florida (2010- 2011). This study’s findings suggest that far from being a relic of the past, segregation by race in schools is alive. Permissive segregation of poorer- blacker ‘mainstreamed’ students and wealthier-whiter ‘magnet’ students, under the veneer of meritocracy and ‘magnet schooling’, was based almost exclusively on a student’s performance on standardised tests. This study also claims that magnet students as group have significantly benefitted from the induction of NCLB, with black students controversially loosing ground since its inception. The Social Studies curriculum, said to be a multicultural intervention through which issues of racial inequality could be challenged, was found to be fundamentally Eurocentric in approach; offering only ‘legitimate’ and ‘privileged’ white narratives as the ‘official knowledge’. Finally, this study finds limited support for ‘oppositional culture theory’. Although black students did recognise the value of education, it was usually in a theoretical sense, as black students were conscious of the white hegemonic barriers they faced in school. Although traditional methods of analysis could translate the black group’s rejection of traditional scholastic rewards as being ‘oppositional’, critical race theory contends that black students more accurately utilised their Afrocentric agency to resist, survive and succeed within and beyond the institutionally racist climate of schooling in ‘post-racial’ America.

The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the value of an approach to the study of identities as a socially embedded multidimensional process that is affected by political, economic and social conditions, institutional discourses, enunciative strategies, popular (re)presentations, specific policies and mechanisms of marking difference and exclusion, as well as dynamics of acceptance and rejection. `Identisation' is presented as an amalgamation of factors, forces and interests that should not be analysed in isolation or reduced to a mono-causal approach. These theoretical claims are based on an in-depth and long term empirical exploration of the processes of identisation in the specific institutional context of Tatar and non-Tatar gymnäsias (secondary schools) in the Republic of Tatarstan, part of the Russian Federation. Data generation consisted of semi-structured and unstructured interviewing and long- term participant observation in Kazan (the capital of Tatarstan) during a period of seven months (between 1999 and 2000) with the support of a pilot study conducted over six months during the winter of 1997-98. Analysis of the data shows that a complex dialectic emerges between political discourse, institutional praxis and quotidian representations, a dialectic and interrelation that often has been ignored in the study of identities. In Tatarstan it is a dialectic between processes of Russification, Sovietisation and Tatarisation which show the need to devote special attention to the historical background in order to be able to analyse the current dynamics and representations. This work aims to stimulate and open up further research and studies in the field of identities and the regions and contexts that were part of the former Soviet Union.

This thesis critically examines the ordinary, everyday practice of streaming working-class students into vocational education and training pathways in public high schools in Western Australia. The thesis challenges existing social and educational hierarchies in a country that prides itself on the myth of egalitarianism. Schools under the influence of neoliberalism are forced into fierce market competition which impacts on the kinds of knowledge working-class students can access, thus affecting their future career aspirations. Drawing on the tradition of critical ethnography, the reflections of eleven young adults studying in the Tertiary and Further Education (TAFE) system on their post–high school years are examined to better understand the processes of streaming and the factors that influenced their decisions. Analysis of these narratives draws on social class theory to shed light on how students are artificially divided into academic and non-academic streams. Based on the students’ narratives, six emergent themes provide a focus of discussion: “the suicide six” – academic competition; “I really should just do the childcare course” – subject selection; “other kids were the smart ones” – the ideology of meritocracy; “they said I wasn’t fit enough to do it” – low aspirations; “I used to spend most of my time in English classes asleep” – disengagement; and finally, “they label you from the start” – the self-fulfilling prophecy. Finally, the thesis attempts to advance a set of alternative possibilities for a socially just education system based on the ideas of critical hope and optimism. It provides critical insight into providing engaging, relevant and meaningful opportunities for working-class students. It seeks to interrupt stereotypical expectations, experiences and career pathways for working-class students and instead, reimagine the nature, purpose and processes of education in more socially just ways.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies at the University of Zululand, 2018
This study aimed at determining the role that Life Orientation teachers (LO) play in preparing Further Education and Training (FET) phase learners for Post schooling education (PSE) in Bhekuzulu circuit, Zululand District. The objectives of the study were to (a) establish the role that LO teachers play in preparing FET phase learners for post schooling education in Bhekuzulu circuit, (b) find out whether there are support programmes available to enable LO teachers support their learners for their post schooling education, (c) establish the type of challenges that LO teachers face which hinder them from supporting and preparing FET learners for post schooling education. A mixed-methods research approach was used in a case study constituted of 70 participants. To this end, the questionnaire and focus group interviews (FGIs) were used to collect data. A qualitative thematic content analysis was used to analyse data, by grouping similar themes. Furthermore, a quantitative data analysis was used to quantify the phenomenon by analysing patterns and trends of the respondents. The findings reveal that teachers do support FET learners in preparation for PSE with the little skills and knowledge they possess. However, the major challenge that prevailed in this study is that LO teachers are not trained to provide CG; most of these teachers do not have specialisation in teaching LO and/or CG. Other challenges that prevailed were the insufficient time allocated to teach LO, lack of CG resources, negative attitudes towards LO as subjects by teachers as well as school management teams. Moreover, the study found a lack of CG programmes in schools and poor implementation of these programmes, poor subjects groupings offered in schools, poor learners’ efficacy in career choices and lack of community support. The study recommends that the Provincial Department of Basic Education should train all LO teachers using accredited service providers to enable teachers to provide CG to learners in a meaningful way. Secondly, more time should be allocated to LO especially in the teaching of careers and career choices. Lastly, schools should be provided with common basic CG programmes to be implemented by all schools and be monitored intensively by the CG officials.
National Research Foundation Of South Africa (Grant Number:CP160513164973 and 105246)

Magister Educationis - Med
Since the 1980s several different forms of privatisation had been introduced into the South African educational system by the De Lange Commission. Since the 1990s a raft of neoliberal policies has been implemented under the banner of "educational transformation" by the post-apartheid state. This qualitative exploration will apply a critical policy analysis approach to analyse the impact of neoliberalism on post-apartheid education policy discourse in the public schooling system in South Africa from a historical, social and critical perspective. More specifically, I will apply the insights of critical education theory to interrogate the impact of the neoliberal orthodoxy and its concomitant values on the public schooling system with regard to the delivery of accessible, quality public schooling in post-apartheid South Africa.

Although the policies and practices of special education are openly constructed around a premise of mobility and opportunity, students from low income backgrounds (‘at risk’ youth) are twice as likely to be labeled “special.” Moreover, of all the special educational categories, learning disabilities (a diagnosis deeply contested) account for the largest group of special educational students who are ‘at risk’ learners. This project is hinged on addressing how those students who are apparent beneficiaries of special educational policies and programs (evidenced by post-secondary enrolment) make meaning of their prior and current educational experiences in relation to special educational policies, services and programs. The author begins by theorizing that such disabilities may medicalize social problems while still preserving a veneer of equality. However, since not all labels have universal meanings when applied to specific social agents, they may both hinder and help some in gaining access to post secondary education. With the support of a group of four enrolled post secondary students located in the Canadian urban west-coast, who identify as learning disabled and the recipients of related interventions, this thesis provides a complex reading of the everyday that draws upon how the students’ specific cultural and material locations inform their understanding of education, ability, disability, meritocracy and normalcy. Collecting data through semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted during the Spring and Fall of 2007, the students actively engage and challenge the author’s original theoretical and methodological assumptions. Anticipating critiques of special education, the author is surprised by the students’ support of such programs. Expecting responses to interview questions to be based on a reading of meritocracy as normalcy and disability as deficit, these students weave understandings of meritocracy and normalcy to articulate their abilities without rejecting their disability labels. In terms of policy where the emphasis is placed on disability as deficit, the findings imply that policy-makers neglect the energy and labour students invest in emphasizing their abilities. For educators, this reveals an important pedagogy of inclusion by inverting assumptions that special educational students are ‘at risk’ of educational failure without unfolding the complex ways in which they actively demonstrate their abilities.

This qualitative, multiple methods case study concerns the effectiveness of Revitalising Education Participation and Learning in Conflict affected Areas-Peace Education Programme (REPLICA-PEP). There is currently limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of peace education programmes in the context of post-conflict formal schooling. This study therefore set out to explore the effectiveness of REPLICA-PEP and to gain insight into the reality of the current practice of peace education in schools in a post-conflict context in Northern Uganda. The school is one of the places where children learn values, attitudes and behaviour, schooling is often criticised for using symbolic violence to maintain and reinforce different forms of violence including physical violence. This study explores theoretical and practical aspects of peace education and key issues relevant to the effectiveness of peace education programmes, including the role and influence of formal schooling in a post-conflict context. A combination of qualitative methods (interviews, observation and documentary analysis) were employed to examine REPLICA-PEP effectiveness and its impact on pupils’ knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviour. The results show that, although some traces of impact were found in pupils’ awareness of: the dangers of using violence; non-violent conflict resolution alternatives; and attitude change to non-violent conflict resolution, pupils did not develop empathy, self-control, competences and skills for non-violent conflict resolution. Interrogation of qualitative data about the REPLICA-PEP implementation process and activities in the schools have led to the generation of theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded recommendations which integrate and accommodate the nature of formal schooling in a post-conflict context and programme design features for improving the effectiveness of peace education programmes. It has also laid the ground for future research on what is possible in terms of strategies to facilitate and promote pupil peace building activities in post-conflict formal schooling contexts such as peace-related pupil voice, documentation and action.

Over the past decade, the world has witnessed the highest number of forced displacements in history (UNHCR, 2020). Regardless of the complexities of displacement and the country of arrival, education has played a vital role in refugees' effort to rebuilding their life. However, education in permanent settlement countries, such as Australia, is problematic, adding to residual complexities of the individual’s previous displacement experiences. Australia’s policies and practices in the provision of education have been characterised by multifaceted problems despite its long history of refugee intake. Refugees’ voices and presence in education have been largely ignored, and their schooling experiences are yet to be adequately understood. To address these issues, the current study aimed to obtain an understanding of schooling experiences from refugees’ own voices who were former students aged 18-26 years. This qualitative study is informed by interpretive phenomenology (IP). The methodological, theoretical, and practical implications of the study’s findings enhance understanding of schooling experiences. Methodologically, the findings show the importance of IP in the co-construction of knowledge between the participants and the researcher. Theoretically, the findings reveal the participants’ analysis, expectations, and contributions throughout their schooling. They analysed and contextualised their experiences to make sense of their everyday schooling. Their navigation of schooling showed their active contributions to the improvement of the educational and social conditions of refugees. Acknowledging refugees as contributors, rather than beneficiaries in education, can inform refugee education policies, practices and research, which can ultimately reduce the challenges and increase the quality of education.

Muslims have the starring role in the mass media’s curriculum on otherness, which circulates in-between local and global contexts to powerfully constitute subjectivities. This study inquires into what it is like to be a female, Muslim student in Ontario, in this post 9/11 discursive context. Seven young Muslim women share stories of their high schooling experiences and their sense of identity in interviews and focus group sessions. They also respond to images of Muslim females in the print media, offering perspectives on the intersections of visual media discourses with their lived experience. This interdisciplinary project draws from cultural studies, postcolonial feminist theory, and post-reconceptualist curriculum theorizing. Working with auto/ethno/graphy, my own subjectivity is also brought into the study to trouble researcher-as-knower and acknowledge that personal histories are implicated in larger social, cultural, and historical processes. Using bricolage, I compose a hybrid text with multiple layers of meaning by juxtapositing theory, image, and narrative, leaving spaces for the reader’s own biography to become entangled with what is emerging in the text. Issues raised include veiling obsession, Islamophobia, absences in the school curriculum, and mass media as curriculum. Muslim females navigate a complex discursive terrain and their identity negotiations are varied. These include creating Muslim spaces in their schools, wearing hijab to assert their Muslim identity, and downplaying their religious identity at school. I argue for the need to engage students and teacher candidates in complicated conversations on difference via auto/ethno/graphy, pedagogies of tension, and epistemologies of doubt. Educators and researchers might also consider the possibilities of linking visual media literacy with social justice issues.

The original purpose of this thesis is to explore the possibility of setting up a school in Aotearoa (New Zealand) that operates according to the principles and philosophies of Summerhill School in Suffolk, England. An examination of Summerhill School is therefore the purpose of this study, particularly because of its commitment to self-regulation and direct democracy for children. My argument within this study is that Summerhill presents precisely the type of model Māori as Tangata Whenua (Indigenous people of Aotearoa) need in our design of an alternative schooling programme, given that self-regulation and direct democracy are traits conducive to achieving Tino Rangitiratanga (Self-government, autonomy and control). In claiming this however, not only would Tangata Whenua benefit from this model of schooling; indeed it has the potential to serve the purpose of all people regardless of age race or gender. At present, no school in Aotearoa has replicated Summerhill's principles and philosophies in their entirety. Given the constraints of a Master's thesis, this piece of work is therefore only intended as a theoretical background study for a much larger kaupapa (purpose). It is my intention to produce a further and more comprehensive study in the future using Summerhill as a vehicle to initiate a model school in Aotearoa that is completely antithetical to the dominant neo-liberal philosophy of our age. To this end, my study intends to demonstrate how neo-liberal schooling is universally dictated by global money market trends, and how it is an ideology fueled by the indifferent acceptance of the general population. In other words, neo-liberal theory is a theory of capitalist colonisation. In order to address the long term vision, this project will be comprised of two major components. The first will be a study of the principal philosophies that govern Summerhill School. As I will argue, Summerhill creates an environment that is uniquely successful and fulfilling for the children who attend. At the same time, it will also be shown how it is a philosophy that is entirely contrary to a neo-liberal 3 mindset; an antidote, to a certain extent, to the ills of contemporary schooling. The second component will address the historical movement of schooling in Aotearoa since the Labour Party's landslide victory in 1984, and how the New Zealand Curriculum has been affected by these changes. I intend to trace the importation of neo-liberal methodologies into Aotearoa such as the 'Picot Taskforce,' 'Tomorrows Schools' and 'Bulk Funding,' to name but a few. The neo-liberal ideologies that have swept through this country in the last two decades have relentlessly metamorphosised departments into businesses and forced ministries into the marketplace, hence causing the 'ideological reduction of education' and confining it to the parameters of schooling. The purpose of this research project is to act as a catalyst for the ultimate materialization of an original vision; the implementation of a school like Summerhill in Aotearoa. A study of the neo-liberal ideologies that currently dominate this country is imperative in order to understand the current schooling situation in Aotearoa and create an informed comparison between the 'learning for freedom' style of Summerhill and the 'learning to earn' style of our status quo schools. It is my hope to strengthen the argument in favour of Summerhill philosophy by offering an understanding of the difference between the two completely opposing methods of learning.

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that, during the post war and early Cold War years, the US Federal government, and in particular the Executive branch, was inspired to increase the role which it played in the US Education system. It also seeks to chart the methods it utilised in order to do so. One inspiration was the desire to direct the US education system towards a curriculum which better benefitted the nation’s Cold War effort, including placing a greater emphasis upon scientific education and training, more tightly regulating the discussion over democratic vs. communist ideologies in the classroom and the pursuit of a greater equalisation in opportunity for African American students. Further inspiration was provided by both the widespread expansion of centralised government programs and the increased importance of education to social progress witnessed across the world after the Second World War, and both President Truman’s own personal commitment to the equalisation of education opportunity, and the Democratic Party’s pursuit of black votes during the Truman Administration. This thesis charts the Executive and Judicial branches’ innovative and unorthodox usage of the powers available to them in order to garner greater influence over the education system, and assesses the varying rates of success of these programmes in order to demonstrate the significant and irrevocable shift in the relationship between the US Federal government and the US education system which occurred during the early Cold War.

The aim of this case study project was to understand the factors that determine the effectiveness at Groupe Scolaire APEFE Mweya, a parent private school in Rubavu District, Rwanda. It was motivated by a persistent decline in school quality for many public elementary schools in Rwanda while on the other hand some private schools have recorded very good results in national examinations. The review of the literature revealed the important attributes of school effectiveness research in developing countries. An enquiry was conducted using personal interviews of a small sample of fourteen participants together with observation and analysis of school documents. The findings suggest that Mweya School owes its success to adopting the moral inclusion of Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups as a sign of overcoming historical racial discrimination, and secondly to its committed teachers (work ethos) and learners; organisation and accountability of teaching and learning; private supplementary tutoring; the recognition of work done and the motivation of the teachers and learners. The findings also found that the leadership style of the principal was not delivering according to expectations and suggestions were provided to maintain the momentum of good results.

To understand how Aboriginal youths’ access to post-secondary schooling opportunities is created and constrained, structures of inclusion and exclusion are examined. In particular, the legitimization of unequal treatment and disparate outcomes is problematized; making the case that public schooling systems limit the opportunities of youth. In this study, youths’ post-secondary aspirations are contextualized on the basis of racial identity, gender, programs of enrolment, graduate destinations, parent’s level of schooling, parental income, and community size; binary analyses evaluate the relationships among these variables. The variables were accessed from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Findings of this research counter other studies that demonstrate Aboriginal youth with lower post-secondary opportunities relative to their peers. This study substantiates that barriers to aspiration achievement and post-secondary opportunities are not from a lack of ambition or academic preparedness among Aboriginal youth attending Canadian public schools.

As a teacher in early childhood education, I was delighted that within the EDiTE program. I could choose my dissertation topic from my field – elementary education – and even do interviews with elementary teachers in Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic, where I conducted my research. All three countries have had recent experience with authoritarian regimes. After the fall of these regimes, the three could seize the opportunity to adapt to new conditions in society and bring new democratic principles into education. After three years of research, reading and studying on these issues while also monitoring current education issues in various European countries, I know that this is not an easy task and that calls for transformative education do not always sound clearly. Society and political conditions are constantly changing, and schools and teachers have to respond. Education and schooling are a picture of the society we live in. They are part of politics. But teachers cannot be solely responsible for the state of education. That is why it was interesting for me to describe and find out, with critical pedagogy as the background, how teachers respond to change: whether they are passive or active, what they consider important, whether they are solving problems and reflecting changes, whether they have a need to teach in other ways. My research problem is generally about teachers’ consciousness (at the elementary level in education) of change: to what extent they carry the post-communist burden with themselves; their relation to tradition and innovation; how and why they are willing to accept and create new ways in teaching in daily practice, and whether they are willing to do so at all. Elementary teachers are crucial creators of school culture, with great influence on pupils and other participants in the children’s learning process. In my interviews, I wanted to point out problems, things teachers are missing in their practice, issues they try to solve. I addressed my main research question: What kind of “Grammar of Schooling” is internalized and practiced by teachers in the Polish, Portuguese and Czech schools? The “Grammar of Schooling” metaphor, originated by David Tyack and William Tobin, is a conceptual framework for my project. They defined “Grammar of Schooling” as “the regular structure and rules that organize the work of instruction,” including standardized organizational practices such as “dividing time and space, classifying students and allocating them to classrooms (grading) and splintering knowledge into ‘subjects’” (Tyack and Tobin, 1993, p. 454). All these features are common and natural for children, teachers and parents. But are they right for today’s world nowadays, or can they be replaced? Tyack and Tobin tried to illuminate why some educational reforms take strong hold while other efforts at changing the “Grammars of Schooling” – the way the schooling process is organized and proceeds – remain unsuccessful. The challenges for teachers seem enormous. Many teachers can feel comfortable in the everyday school practices they are used to, even though the social and political context has changed. This dilemma – between the comfort of the customary and the challenge of innovation – is one of the sources of “Grammar of Schooling.” To describe these aims, I chose Paolo Freire’s theoretical approach to teachers’ consciousness – their ability to think about established, traditional, conservative paradigms of schooling and education. Teachers believe in myths and stereotypes about school education. They have their own experience, but they probably have mental and emotional obstacles to changes in their teaching, within the democratization of education. According to Freire’s theory, they don’t even know they are at a certain stage of oppression and serving the existing system (Freire, 2005). Freire tried to explain how school is important to awakening pupils’ perception of their own uniqueness. Similarly, I see the problems in teachers and their thinking; hence my work refers to all three of Freire’s types of consciousness: naïve, magical and critical. Critical thinking engages the essence of human consciousness. I have linked Freire’s critical theory with phenomenography as research approach because phenomenography investigates the content of consciousness – subjects’ thinking about particular phenomena. I have tried to describe how teachers’ consciousness strengthens and how it limits their attitudes toward change. Phenomenography as the method of qualitative research uses interviews and observation as its main research methods. I conducted a total of 28 semi-structured interviews: 10 in Poland, 4 in Portugal and 14 in the Czech Republic. In addition, I relied on teachers' narratives, asking them to describe important changes during their practice – how they had to adapt to the changes from above (system, Ministry, administration) and what changes they made in their own practice, in their approach to work and their teaching. Based on these research methods, I expected to discover the prevailing opinions of teachers in early education, how teachers reflect changes and how they are involved in them. I have described, interpreted and explained the role of “Grammar of Schooling” and the content of teachers’ consciousness as a basis for keeping tradition or making changes. As my main finding, the answer to my main research question, I can plainly say that “Grammar of Schooling” – the kinds of traditions that are internalized and then practiced in the consciousness of Polish, Portuguese and Czech teachers – are influenced most by educational policy, teachers’ personal experience and role, and their relationships with parents, who are very often obstacles to change. Teachers are willing to make many changes, and I have introduced them in my categories of description (space, time, evaluation, parenting, relationships in the schools, authority, self-criticism, curriculum, hidden curriculum, inclusion). Nonetheless, teachers often follow traditional approaches or make changes temporarily. They have no clear signal; they do not have a free hand, and thus more autonomy or the conditions from educational policy to work in an innovative way. The reasons teachers’ attitudes toward change seem obsolete and passive are often similar in all three countries. Unfortunately, the frequent explanation for why teachers are passive is that they are tired. In Poland, for example, teachers are tired of frequent changes in fundamental rules. In the Czech Republic, teachers are tired because of their low incomes, constant criticism and the underestimation of the teaching profession. In Portugal, teachers are tired from increasing paperwork and the competitiveness among them engendered by the system, which exacerbates relationships in the workplace. Teachers’ conditions are not improving in comparison to those in other professions, nor is the prestige of the profession. Their work is often questioned and criticized; they are expected to perform miracles. It is not their fault, but the system’s. Over the last 30 years, new laws found both opponents and adherents; they have brought advantages and disadvantages for individuals in society. Just as there is no ideal society or regime, there can be no ideal education system that suits everyone. I believe my thesis points to the shortcomings in educational systems of these three countries, contributes to thinking about important issues in schools and can help in initiating relevant stakeholders. Or, at least, my work serves as a reminder, according to Freire's critical theories, that schools cannot support the culture of silence and oppression. It is important to say the teachers’ opinions in a loud voice and to support these views from their practice, thus improving teaching, bringing satisfaction to pupils, and helping to create a democratic community of social actors in education.

Grounded in the qualitative tradition, the aim of this study was to explore how principals perceive the processes governing, tensions inherent in and consequences, of the secularisation of public schools in South Africa, against the backdrop of the old apartheid system. Principals are key informants who bridge the gap between the political arena and the individuals who are affected at the implementation level and therefore provide a valuable lens through which the process of secularisation can be explored. Eight principals, who had been in this position of leadership for at least eight years, participated in semi-structured interviews, which were then subjected to a thematic content analysis. Principals perceived the process as characterised by a lack of consultation and transparency, with no clear guidelines provided to them and no follow-through from the education ministry. They also perceived tensions in the manner in which principals continued to embrace Christian principles in the management of their schools. Tolerance and respect of different religions were identified as positive outcomes of secularisation but these were perceived to have been offset by the negative consequences of a moral collapse, an ungovernable school and a loss of identity among the students. Through exploring the nature of key socialising agents, in the educational arena, it became evident that the participants often conceptualised themselves as martyrs and perceived parents as morally neglectful. The changing role of the school, as an agent of religious education, was also explored. Overall, all the principals strongly agreed that despite the good intentions of the government in fostering a democratic society, the impact of secularisation had resulted in some unintended effects, including a negative impact on the moral development of the students. In sum they perceived that the negative consequences of secularisation outweighed the promises of the government’s overall secularisation vision.

It is widely agreed that effective citizenship, whether in well-established democracies or in those in transition to democracy, require some educational preparation. In post-apartheid South Africa, education policy and subsequent curriculum development placed participatory democracy and active citizenship at its centre. Although South African education policy documents have a maximalist tone in places, they collectively reflect a minimalist conception of citizenship and of citizenship education. The focus of my critique of citizenship education policy is the tendency manifest in the state policy documents to undermine democratic participation and active citizenry, conceptions first developed and put into practice in the Greek city-state of Athens. The conception of education for citizenship does not guide the practice in terms accessible to the school’s democratic community. State policy’s concept of students’ democratic participation and representation does not reflect a representative model of democracy in South African schools. Furthermore, extant policy does not envisage democratic citizenship education that is enjoyed by a significant proportion of the South African learners. This minimalist conception of citizenship and of citizenship education is not appropriate for the South African context. This thesis, further, mounts a defence of compulsion, arguing that within the theoretical framework of current theories of the Athenian prototype of democracy, deliberative and representative democracy, compulsory schooling and compulsory citizenship education can be justified on the grounds that they promote individual autonomy and build social cohesion ― towards the common good in South Africa. The recently proposed compulsory citizenship education programmes are not compatible with compulsory citizenship education that is designed to promote active, critical and inquiring South African citizens. These value-based education documents promote obedience, if not unquestioning loyalty, to the South African government. Moreover, neither the Bill of Responsibilities nor the School Pledge offer possible strategies for getting from where we are to where we ought to be. In the final analysis, post-apartheid citizenship education policy’s lack of conceptual clarity, coherence and consistency can be attributed in large part to the conflicting forms and conceptions of citizenship in South Africa. The goals of citizenship education in South Africa would be better served by cosmopolitan ideals, that is, preparing South African learners to act in a local, national and global scale.