Abstract
Curriculum reforms can be useful in aiding the fight against poverty and inequalities in post-apartheid South Africa if its goals are properly defined, understood and executed. Traditionally, education is supposed to empower the citizenry to become critically conscientised and creative individuals who can function effectively within democratic spaces. This implies that education institutions do not only function as spaces for acquiring skills-based knowledge, but also as forums where students acquire knowledge that develops them into full humans. This study argues that the persistent poverty and inequality in South Africa may be attributed to the weaknesses inherent in the design and implementation of various curriculum reforms South Africa has undertaken. The assumption also is that, the many transitions so far done, have not yielded any positive impact towards the alleviation of poverty and inequality, contrary to the expectation of society.
Essentially, there has always been efforts by the state to address inequalities and poverty in South Africa even though such efforts have not been effective. Signs of frustration and disillusionment among South Africans, particularly the youth and hooligans, have been common. For example, looting of public infrastructure, xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals, racism, armed robberies, rape, violence and public shootings, all point to a disillusioned society trying to express its anger to the authorities and elites. While these events have been linked to various theories; for example, the apartheid legacy theory; the lazy society theory; the social conflict theory and nationalist theory, the truth might be that the education system in South Africa has not been able to create a society befitting of contemporary democratic citizenship. Much as these schools of thought hold some substance, they are simply offshoots of a bigger problem than what is seen; the root that needs to be uprooted, if these problems are to be addressed. This root problem is the education system itself, particularly curriculum designing and implementation processes. Failure to understand that education has got a role to play in nurturing creative and critically conscientised citizens who can prudently function within civic and democratic space is as good as preparing to fail the very same efforts that can promulgate human well-being and equality. Further arguments presuppose that previous curriculum reforms have failed to address these problems because they did not pay much attention to democratic and just education principles inherent in critical pedagogy, which has the abilities to entrench creativity, criticality, total human development and emancipation.
This study therefore sought to interrogate the various curriculum reforms for policies and practices that might have contributed towards the reproduction of social fractions, poverty and
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inequalities, especially among disadvantaged communities. Each curriculum transformation process was investigated for its strengths, weaknesses and potential to contribute towards curriculum (in) justice and equality. Through these analyses, it emerged that such transformations possessed a lot of grey areas which have the potential to reproduce social stratification, poverty and inequalities in society. These conditions were compounded by skewed resourcing and financing models; previous and post-apartheid social structural arrangements, and lack of voice and dialogue during curriculum designing, development and implementation stages. Central to these issues, remain, neoliberal globalism policies which have not only forced nations to reduce funding towards public goods but has also plunged nations and citizens into deep recessions, poverty and inequality. Similarly, neoliberalism has brought in fusion cultural identities characterised by individualism and selfishness, and competition for resources, much similar to neo-capitalism. Within these contexts, no one cares about the other as schools and teachers compete for the limited resources for their own survival and rankings. While this competition may be considered as innocent and good for neoliberalists, for critical theorists, this could be the basis for social stratification and inequalities in the short and long-term basis. Since schools help shape students’ dispositions (habitus), identities and positioning in society, subjecting students to stratifying, subjugating, unequalising and inhuman conditions may simply imprint in them undemocratic, passive, uncreative, cowardice, violent and antisocial dispositions. And since education also serves to reproduce inequalities and domination, it is not surprising that poverty and inequalities in South African schools continue to devour disadvantaged communities, because education has failed to do its homework properly.
The study adopted qualitative research designs, particularly phenomenological tradition. It therefore adopted Critical Interpretivist research paradigm (Critical Hermeneutics) as advanced by Edmund Husserl. Critical Hermeneutics is a branch of critical theory which is mainly concerned with digging into repressive ideologies and practices that subjugate and seeks to keep the marginalised on the margins of poverty and suffering. It assumes that in schools and society, there are powerful forces that try to dominate the spaces and push their agenda in order to sustain domination and exploitation. As a conceptual study, the study used curriculum documents, policy documents, journal articles, books, magazines and personal experience as a teacher. These sources were then investigated for policies, statements and practices that could have the potential to reproduce and create poverty and inequalities in society.