Abstract
D.Phil.
In South Africa, teachers have a particular legacy derived from the historical, social, political, cultural and economic past. Despite the power of education authorities, teachers have established strong traditions of overt and covert resistance. Education management is not entirely in control of what happens inside the classrooms and in the vanguard of policy implementation. Therefore, the study on teacher subjectivities was a crucial lever to unpack the mysteries inside the teachers‟ personal professional world.
There is inadequate knowledge and understanding in the macro-education environment about teacher subjectivities in education management, policy development and implementation. In this regard, the study sought to answer questions about the role of subjectivities in policy implementation by establishing whether teachers understood the change processes at national, provincial and institutional level. It sought to trace the impact of teacher subjectivities on teaching, learning, curriculum and examinations; establish whether teachers described the new educational dispensation as neutral; whether teachers‟ perceptions of their role in policy implementation in general and curriculum and educational assessment policy in particular affected implementation; whether teachers‟ aligned themselves between educational discourses and teacher subjectivities when it came to the implementation of policy; and whether teachers were able to deal with the complexities of practice regarding the new curriculum and assessment policies.
The study traced in literature the notion of subjectivity within the discourses of early thinkers and in particular through the lens of Michel Foucault‟s post-structuralism. Teacher subjectivities were tracked from whence they were moulded at home, social and cultural institutions, early and tertiary education as well as in the context of teachers‟ personal and professional life histories.