Abstract
M.Ed.
South African education is emerging from one phase of history, the phase of a segregated education system, into another phase where the nature is still to be defined. This emergence will bring along with it transformations unknown over the previous phase of educational history which lie mainly on the level of humanity, that is to say changes affecting the beliefs, attitudes, norms and values of the individuals and the community they belong to. The whole concept of man-in-the-world as the establishment of the world, the environment of the educator as well as the educand in this total situation, leads us to conceive of education as an interhuman phenomenon. The establishment of relationships in the world is a continuous effort to give completeness to man's existence by appropriating and adopting the historical development of the cultural situation. The interaction and the close relationship of culture and education in general is indisputable. For education to succeed, man comes to the fore while his culture forms the background.
The opening up of "white schools" to all the population groups in South Africa did not bring about a greater understanding of the complexity and pluralistic nature of the South Africa society. The cultural factors in education play an important role in the application of universal educational and cultural principles in the provision of education. The cultural position of the black learner in Model C or multicultural schools has been eroded and is being marginalised by socio-political and educational issues quite beyond his area of competence as a learner. As a result, the expectations the teacher has of the black pupils are too great and are daunting for the pupil. Both the teacher and the learner are not competent enough, they are being dis-empowered. It is at this point that problems in the teaching-learning situation manifest themselves. The
transformation process currently taking place in most multicultural schools has many problems relating to this. There are definite areas of concern which need to be looked into, solutions to be found and implemented in order to assist the black pupil. and his teachers to find their feet in the new education dispensation.
Essentially a ground motive in every community is a motive of that particular community, the driving force behind all activities, including educational activities - the spiritual root of a particular community, so to speak. The cultural aspects in education will probably remain one of the most critical areas determining whether South Africa can in fact achieve the same education through one and the same department, one and the same curriculum, one and the same examination format. This study will attempt to research the cultural aspects of education concentrating on Model C schools and will put forward some recommendations for the implementation of solutions to the problems the black learner is confronted with.