Abstract
M.Ed.
The end of apartheid also marked the end of a segregated schooling system in South Africa and the new challenge of orientating learners to interact across cultural barriers, in keeping with the Constitution’s promotion of respect for diverse cultures. The Learning Area of Life Orientation, introduced to schools under the new dispensation, provides a real opportunity for them to promote cultural diversity within the classroom. In this investigation, the researcher used qualitative research methods to explore how learners at a primary school perceived cultural diversity. Interviews were conducted to explore their views on interactions across cultural groups and the way cultural diversity could be promoted in the classroom through Life Orientation as a Learning Area. Learners were also observed in the classroom and on the playground. The findings indicate that ethnicity is still a defining factor in schools and that learners often confused race and culture. Learners demonstrated an awareness of difference within their school, which they grouped according to race rather than culture. They indicated that their interactions with different groups resulted in both negative and positive experiences, with differences in languages emerging as the most commonly recognised. They also believed that the majority of their teachers were actively promoting a respect for cultural diversity. However, observations of learners revealed that they preferred to group themselves according to gender rather than culture or race, and while most groups were exclusively male or exclusively female all but three contained a mixture of cultural groups. Learners also proposed a variety of suggestions as to how cultural diversity could be promoted in the Life Orientation class room. From the findings it is clear that the Life Orientation Learning Area offers a realistic opportunity to promote cultural diversity in schools. There also appears to be a need to create an awareness of the difference between race and culture, so that learners can move beyond the narrow confines of apartheid classifications. If learners and teachers are encouraged to promote a respect for cultural diversity at school level, it must eventually permeate societal thinking.