Browsing by Author "Fataar, Aslam"

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    A conceptual exploration of values education in the context of schooling in South Africa
    (Education Association of South Africa, 2011) Solomons, Inez; Fataar, Aslam
    This article is based on the assumption that values education has much to offer to a country that is struggling to overcome a fractured moral landscape. Pursuing a modest agenda, the focus of the article is on values and values education in the context of schooling in South Africa. We suggest that debates about what constitutes values and values education raise important philosophical and pedagogical questions about what values are and which values should be prioritized. We contend that it is unlikely that values education will in any significant way meet the expectations of South Africa's Constitution and its national school curriculum intentions, if it is not underpinned by conceptual clarification of what values are in relation to the role that values education is expected to fulfil in South Africa's schools. Intended as a conceptual investigation, the article explores different interpretations, tensions and assumptions that confront the notions of values and values education. We suggest that the insights from such a conceptual clarification could provide an appropriate platform not only for a coherent approach to values education, but also for the more effectual transfer and take up of values in schools. We favour a pragmatist conception based on the notion 'shared goods' in terms of which values education in schools can lay the basis for dialogical encounters necessary for addressing our country's diverse and even divergent values orientations. © 2011 EASA.
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    Countering testimonial injustice : the spatial practices of school administrative clerks
    (University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2018) Bayat, Abdullah; Fataar, Aslam
    This article discusses the phenomenon of how people’s voices or opinions are taken up in relation to their professional status. We focus on administrative clerks in school contexts, people who occupy a professional category that is regarded as one of voicelessness and therefore easily ignored. Their low occupational role and status mean that their testimonies are deemed less credible than the testimonies of school principals and teachers. We refer to this situation as a form of ‘testimonial injustice’ that is visited daily on these clerks. This article illustrates how selected administrative clerks go about exercising their agency in the light of their experiences of such testimonial injustice and go on to establish a range of spatial practices that confer on them a credible professional status. Methodologically, this article is based on a qualitative study of three administrative clerks in selected South African public schools undertaken over a 12-week period, followed up by further interviews and site observations. Combining the theoretical constructs ‘testimonial injustice’ and ‘rhetorical space’, we argue that the administrative clerks we studied engendered transformed rhetorical spaces – which are negotiated social spaces – that allowed for their voices and opinions to challenge the testimonial injustice they experience. We suggest that these rhetorical spaces are achieved by them through their continuous and active presence in their work environments. They engender rhetorical spaces in which their voices are deemed legitimate by forming close relationships with others in their work environments, enhancing their professional capacity by furthering their educational qualifications, and the successful accomplishment of additional role tasks. Our main argument is that these clerks, despite occupying a marginalised occupational status and suffering testimonial injustice, are able to exercise their reflexive agency to improve their credibility and thereby resist the testimonial injustice visited upon them. This article contributes to nascent scholarship on school administrative clerks’ contributions to their professional environments at their schools. We argue that their contribution is undergirded by spatial practices that can partly be understood as a type of resistance to their negative status and position at their respective schools. We suggest that while they are discursively projected as peripheral figures in their school environments, they nonetheless make valuable, yet under-valued, contributions to the functioning of their school.
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    Decolonising education in South Africa : perspectives and debates
    (Faculty of Education, Nelson Mandela University, 2018-06) Fataar, Aslam
    The politics of knowledge in South African universities has recently witnessed a radical discursive rupture. The call for decolonising education was a cornerstone of students’ recognition struggles at universities. Mobilising on the basis of their demand for free education, students across the university sector expressed the need for change in university knowledge and curricula in the light of what they described as their exposure to Eurocentric, racist, and sexist knowledge at untransformed institutions. They argued that such a knowledge orientation is at the heart of their experience of alienation at the university. They suggested that only the complete overhaul of the curriculum on the basis of a decolonising education approach would provide them the type of educational access that addresses their emerging African-centred humanness.
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    Doksa en verwerkliking van leeridentiteitspraktyke van hoerskoolleerders in 'n landelike werkersklasdorp
    (LitNet, 2015-12) Fillies, Henry; Fataar, Aslam
    Hierdie artikel fokus op die aanpassings wat werkersklasleerders maak om hul leerpraktyke te bou. Die kernfokus is op aspekte van hoe die werkersklasleerders hul leeridentiteite in ’n spesifieke landelike werkersklasdorpskonteks konstrueer. Die navorsingsmateriaal vir hierdie artikel spruit uit ’n uitgebreide navorsingstudie oor die gekose leerders se leerpraktyke in ’n landelike werkersklasdorp in die Wes-Kaap. Gefokuste semigestruktureerde onderhoude was die belangrikste data-insamelingsinstrument vir die studie. Die artikel is gegrond op die stories van die leerders oor hul eie lewens. Ons bied insig in wat dit verg om ’n leerder in ’n landelike werkersklasdorp te wees. Die artikel bied veral begrip van hul produktiewe leeridentiteitspraktyke te midde van diepgewortelde armoede. Pierre Bourdieu se konsep doksa (“doxa”) dien as teoretiese lens vir die ontleding van hierdie praktyke. Wat ons aanvoer, is dat hul landelike geleefde konteks sentraal is tot die aard van hul leerpraktykvorming, meer spesifiek die manier waarop hulle hul doksa genereer en gebruik om dit aan die vorming van hul leerpraktyke te koppel.
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    Embodying pedagogical habitus change : a narrative-based account of a teacher’s pedagogical change within a professional learning community
    (University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2018) Feldman, Jennifer; Fataar, Aslam
    Situated in the context of teaching in South Africa, this article narrates the journey of pedagogical change and adaptation of one teacher who participated in a professional learning community (PLC). It discusses the durability and malleability of this teacher’s pedagogical disposition by arguing for a conceptualisation of teacher change that moves beyond a cognitivist approach, i.e. one that is driven primarily by knowledge acquisition, to one that engages the embodied practices of teachers in the light of the shifts and adaptations that they undergo when trying to establish augmented pedagogical approaches. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, bodily hexis and doxa, this article argues that sustained pedagogical change involves an engagement with the teacher’s embodied pedagogical habitus which has formed over time given the educational spaces they have inhabited. The article is based on data collected over a two-year period from PLC transcripts, observational school visits and multiple in-depth interviews with the teacher. This article describes the constraints or ‘hardness’ of change as the teacher engages with his embodied pedagogical habitus which has developed over time. However, this article further argues that possibilities of embodied pedagogical adaptation and change exist in the reflexive, on-going dialogical space that a professional learning community offers.
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    Exploring agency in marginalised occupations : school administrative clerks’ deployment of participatory capital in establishing practice-based agency
    (University of the Free State, 2020) Bayat, Abdullah; Fataar, Aslam
    Popular conceptions of school administrative clerks and school secretaries imply that they have little agency because they are deemed as subordinate support staff. However, the literature across a range of fields suggests that these subordinates exercise agency. We set out in this article to explore the workings of subordinate agency. The article suggests that it is through their involvement and interaction in the socio-cultural context of the school that school administrative clerks, are able to expand the range of their agency and thereby reposition themselves at school. We employ the analytical construct ‘participatory capital’ to analyse how these clerks establish their agency and renegotiate their roles and places in the school. Based on a qualitative research study, we interviewed and observed three purposively selected administrative clerks in three primary schools in Cape Town. This article argues that, while the occupational identity of administrative clerks remains one of subordination within the bureaucratic discourse and their places of work, the selected school administrative clerks were able to extend the scope of their agency through their participatory capital.
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    Foundation phase teachers' experiences of teaching the subject, coding, in selected Western Cape schools
    (Education Association of South Africa, 2021) Geldenhuys, Cindy Jean; Fataar, Aslam
    Several teachers have recently started introducing coding into their teaching in primary schools. This comes on the back of the emerging prominence of educational technology and the teaching of computational skills at school level, in light of the country’s policy commitment to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Coding has been punted as 1 of 2 essential subjects to be launched in schools countrywide from 2020; the other being robotics. In this article we focus on the implementation of coding as a subject in selected Foundation Phase classes in the Western Cape. We aim to gain an understanding of coding as a subject from the perspective of teachers who are implementing this very new subject in the Foundation Phase. We specifically discuss the experiences and challenges of teachers who have been teaching the subject over the last few years, based on in-depth qualitative interviews with 4 Foundation Phase teachers. Overall, we provide a set of considerations for the optimal implementation of coding as a subject in Foundation Phase in South African schools. The participants’ experiences highlight the challenges associated with implementation, teachers’ pedagogical skills and competences, and resource requirements. We raise the following areas that need to be addressed for the successful implementation of coding: professional development addressing teaching methodologies on the development of computational thinking skills in young learners, providing support for teachers, addressing time constraints in the teaching of the subject, and providing resources.
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    Historical continuities in the education policy discourses of the African National Congress, 1912-1992
    (Education Association of South Africa, 2015-02) Govender, Sam; Fataar, Aslam
    This article considers the nature and trajectory of the African National Congress’s (ANC) education policy discourses from its founding in 1912, until its repatriation from exile by 1992. The broad issue that this article considers is how to explain why the ANC was inadequately prepared to address the educational challenges of a democratic South Africa. The article considers the relationship between its political struggles against segregation and apartheid and the particular educational focus that it favoured during this period. From its inception, the ANC was actively involved in the political arena, with the purpose of opposing racist rule. The article suggests that its involvement in the education arena was subordinate to its political focus, with consequences for the type of educational change and curriculum orientation that it favoured. Employing a historical-sociological perspective, we divide ANC involvement in politics and education into two broad and distinct periods. The first period from 1912 to 1960 examines ANC involvement within South Africa. The second period from 1960 to 1992 examines the ANC in exile. We end the article with some discussion of the ANC’s education reform trajectory from 1992 to 1995, in other words, its educational orientations during the context of political negotiations, and the first years of a democratic South Africa. It will be argued that during both periods, the ANC focused on struggle politics that relegated education to a position ancillary to its political struggle, which resulted in discursive continuities in its educational orientations. Despite some contestation, these continuities were characterised by their remarkably consistent support for a traditional liberal education across the existence of the organisation.
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    Knowledge-building and knowers in educational practices
    (University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2021) Rusznyak, Lee; Hlatshwayo, Mlamuli Nkosingphile; Fataar, Aslam; Blackie, Margaret
    The South African education system continues to be confronted with calls for free decolonial quality education. Sparked by the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protests in 2015 and 2016, students pushed for the need to re-think and reimagine teaching and learning and the kinds of knowledge(s) that are valued and legitimated in curricula (Fataar, 2018; Heleta, 2018; Maxwele, 2016; Ngcobozi, 2015). Part of realising a more inclusive education system requires paying attention to knowledge-building in practices and intellectual fields.
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    Die leerpraktykvorming van hoërskoolleerders op 'n plattelandse werkersklasdorp
    (LitNet, 2016-05-17) Fataar, Aslam; Fillies, Henry
    Gegrond op etnografiese metodes bespreek hierdie artikel die leerpraktykvorming van plattelandse werkersklasleerders in en oor hul leerruimtes heen. Ons huldig die mening dat alhoewel die invloed van armoede op die opvoedkundige geleenthede van landelike leerders belangrik is, armoede nie die deurslaggewende faktor om is die verskille in die opvoedkundige geleenthede en uitkomste tussen stedelike en landelike leerders te verklaar nie. Die doel met hierdie artikel is om te toon hoe arm plattelandse werkersklasleerders hul woonbuurtomstandighede gebruik om hul leerpraktyke te bou. Wat ons dus bied, is ’n bespreking van hoe landelike werkersklasleerders betrokke raak by die vorming van hul leerpraktyke in hul verarmde woonbuurt. Ons belangrikste uitgangspunt is die siening dat daar ’n gaping tussen die ryk opvoedkundige verbintenisse van plattelandse werkersklasleerders, soos hierdie leerders, en hul leefwêreld buite die skool is. Die gevolg is dat die perspektief heers dat hierdie leerders dikwels ontkoppel is van hul opvoedkundige prosesse. Hierdie artikel bied dus ’n ontleding van die wyses, sowel as die “ruimtelike” en konseptuele grondslag, waarop hulle hul leerpraktyke bou. Ons voer aan dat arm plattelandse werkersklasleerders sterk refleksief met hul omstandighede omgaan tot die bou van hul leerpraktyke. Ons wend ons tot Bourdieu (1977, 1986, 2006) se sosiologiese konsepte van habitus, veld, praktyke en kapitaal as teoretiese lense om die aangeleenthede van hul leerpraktykvorming te verwoord. Sentraal tot ons bespreking is die invloed van hierdie leerders se habitusvorming, dit wil sê die rol wat hul optredes, interaksies en denke in verhouding tot hul leerpraktykvorming speel. Die gevolg is dat hulle strategieë implementeer en ontwikkel, en ook netwerke skep, om hul leerpraktyke in hul omstandighede te bou. Dit is hierdie aangeleenthede wat hulle in staat stel om op koers te bly met betrekking tot hul opvoedkundige prosesse.
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    Die leerpraktykvorming van plattelandse werkersklasleerders gegrond op hulle fondse van kennis
    (LitNet, 2017) Fillies, Henry; Fataar, Aslam
    Hierdie artikel handel oor hoe vyf landelike werkersklasleerders hulle fondse van kennis (FvK) gebruik vir die vestiging van hulle leerpraktyke. Met fondse van kennis verwys ons na die noodsaaklike kulturele praktyke en die vorme van kennis en inligting wat huishoudings en gemeenskappe gebruik om te oorleef of om vooruitstrewend te bly (Moll 1992:21). Die vraag wat ons verken, is: Hoe gebruik die leerders hulle fondse van kennis in en oor hulle geleefde ruimtes vir die bou en vestiging van hulle leerpraktyke? Met antwoorde op hierdie vraag poog ons om insig en ’n verduideliking te bied rakende die multidimensionele aspekte betreffende werkersklaswoonbuurte se sosio-ekonomiese dinamiek en hoe dit leerders se leerprosesse beïnvloed. Ons probeer toon hoe vyf leerders, Cherry, Ruby, Musa, Sally en Tom (skuilname), deur hulle eie ondervindings, netwerke, wisselwerking en agentskap hulle fondse van kennis bekom ter ondersteuning van hulle leerpraktyke in hulle geleefde ruimtes. Die belangrikste argument wat ons aanvoer, is dat die konstruering van werkersklasleerders se leerpraktyke begryp moet word deur op verskeie en onderling verweefde sosioruimtelike samestellings sowel as verskeie diskursiewe praktyke wat dit beïnvloed, te konsentreer. Ons probeer dus illustreer hoe die geselekteerde leerders dit regkry om deur middel van diskursiewe praktyke, wat ook hulle fondse van kennis binne hulle geleefde ruimtes behels, hulle leerpraktyke te vestig.
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    Die rol van linguistiese kapitaal in plattelandse hoerskoolleerders se opvoedkundige prosesse
    (LitNet, 2021) Groenewald, Emma; Fataar, Aslam
    Hierdie artikel fokus op die wyse waarop leerders hul linguistiese kapitaal in opvoedkundige prosesse by ’n plattelandse hoërskool benut. Leerders betree die Afrikaansmediumskool met verskillende vaardigheidsvlakke. Die gepaste taalvaardigheidsvlak vir ’n betrokke graad is egter belangrik. Aangesien die medium van onderrig by hierdie skool nie met die gemeenskapstaal ooreenstem nie, maak leerders aanpassings ten opsigte van taal om hul skoling te bevorder. Hierdie studie oorweeg die navorsingsvraag: Hoe benut leerders linguistiese kapitaal in die navigering van hul opvoedkundige prosesse by hul skool in die Noord-Kaap? Semigestruktureerde onderhoude is gebruik om die data van twee Namibiese leerders, naamlik ’n Ovamboseun en ’n Damara-Namadogter, te versamel. Bourdieu (1977) se Teorie van praktyk en Yosso (2005) se Model van kulturele rykdom van gemeenskappe is gebruik as lense om die data te interpreteer. ’n Narratiewe metodologie is as data-insamelings- en ontledingstegniek gevolg. Die narratiewe van die deelnemers word aangebied met verwysing na: (1) die leerders se vroeë biografieë; (2) hul ervaring en vergestalting van opvoedkundige weë; en (3) hul navigering van hul skoling deur linguistiese kapitaal aan te wend tot voordeel van hul opvoedkundige prosesse. Die artikel fokus nie as sodanig op die verband tussen veeltaligheid en opvoedkundige sukses nie. Die fokus is op hoe die leerders hul veeltaligheidsvermoë uitbou as deel van hul opvoedkundige pad by die skool. Die ontleding van die data het getoon dat die linguistiese kapitaal van minderheidsgroepe by ’n skool positief kan inwerk op hul opvoedkundige prosesse.
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    The role of leadership practices in establishing a curriculum policy platform at working-class schools
    (Education Association of South Africa, 2018) Terhoven, Rene; Fataar, Aslam
    This article focuses on the way in which the school management teams (SMTs) of three selected working-class schools have developed and implemented a range of leadership practices within their schools in order to provide a platform for optimal teaching and learning. The article is based on qualitative research conducted in schools on the outskirts of Cape Town. Employing the policy enactment theory advanced by Ball, Maguire and Braun (2012), the article illustrates the way in which the context of these working-class schools impacts on the type of leadership practices that are employed; these practices, in turn, have an impact on the type of curriculum policy platform established in these schools. The article elucidates how governmental curriculum policy reform is ‘received’ by the SMTs, which are the schools’ formal leadership structures, and implemented in the ‘messy’ reality of the selected schools. We present the argument that the leadership practices of the selected schools’ SMTs are determined by the schools’ ‘materiality,’ in reference to the impact of the schools’ contextual circumstances on their curriculum processes and leadership practices. The findings show that the schools’ leadership practices are based on a narrow and one-dimensional enactment of the curriculum policy, which has negative consequences for teaching and learning in the schools. This article contributes to an understanding of the challenges of leadership practices in working-class schools and the enactment of curriculum policy reform in them.
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    The search for ecologies of knowledge in the encounter with African epistemicide in South African education
    (UNISA Press, 2015) Fataar, Aslam; Subreenduth, Sharon
    This article discusses the manufactured absence of African epistemologies, that we refer to as ‘epistemicide’, in formal education in Africa. The exemplifying case for our argument is the western hegemonic positioning of university and school-based knowledge in South African education during the past 20 years. This is taken up in the first half of the article where we illustrate how this (westernised) knowledge form is instantiated in the education body politik. The article concludes with a consideration of an ‘ecologies of knowledge’ approach which we argue opens a radicalising space for the inclusion of African-centred epistemologies. The pluralisation of knowledge traditions, via an ‘ecologies of knowledge’ approach, is the fulcrum of such an epistemological orientation. Keywords: post-colonialism, epistemicide, higher education, cognitive in/justice, ecologies of knowledge, knowledge pluralisation, epistemology
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    Searching for Islamic ethical agency in post-apartheid Cape Town : an anthology
    (AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, 2019) Fataar, Aslam
    "The compositions brought together in this book began a quarter of a century ago in 1994, with the onset of South Africa’s non-racial democracy, and in one way it may be viewed as the critical observations of an organic intellectual’ engaging the exigencies of life during the first 25 years of South Africa’s democracy. The book’s compositions are presented in chronological order, so the reader is able to follow the ebb and flow of life in post-apartheid South Africa. It is also fitting that the book commences with an excellent sermon about the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) that was delivered at the Claremont Main Road Masjid (CMRM) in 1994, since the core of the compositions are sermons which were delivered here. These were all outstanding sermons, as those who witnessed their public performance can attest to. Their inclusion in this book thus provides a wonderful opportunity for a wider audience to benefit from Prof. Fataar’s profound insights."
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    Skoolhoofde se leierskapspraktyke wat betrekking het op die skep van “fisiese ruimtes” om gesonde leeromgewings by hul skole te vestig
    (LitNet, 2018) Burger, Johann; Fataar, Aslam
    Hierdie artikel fokus op hoe twee skoolhoofde, deur middel van hul leierskaps- en ruimteskeppende praktyke, produktiewe leeromgewings by hul skole skep. Die artikel bespreek die wyse waarop twee geselekteerde skoolhoofde, wat as suksesvolle ruimteskeppers bekend staan, hul leierskapseienskappe en eiesoortige praktyke aanwend om die ondersteuning én samewerking van hul skoolbestuurspanne (SBS‘e) en skoolbeheer-liggame (SBL‘e) te verkry. Die ondersteuning wat hulle op hierdie wyse vir hul ruimtelike en ander projekte bekom, lewer ‘n belangrike bydrae om leer en onderrig by hul skole te bevorder. Die geografiese kontekste van die twee skoolhoofde verskil egter grootliks van mekaar, aangesien die een op die platteland, en die ander een in ‘n stedelike gebied werksaam is. Beide skole word hoog deur hul onderskeie onderwysdistrikte aangeslaan. Die konseptuele vraag gee aandag aan die wyse waarop die twee skoolhoofde verwelkomende en inspirerende skoolruimtes wat in die twee uiteenlopende geografiese gebiede én kontekste geleë is, skep. Ons studie ondersoek hoe die fisiese ruimtes wat hulle skep ‘n direkte invloed op die denke, gemoed, gedrag, motivering en kreatiwiteit van beide hul leerders én personeel het. Om hul ruimteskeppingsvermoë en leierskapspraktyke van nader te bekyk, het ons van Lefebvre (1991) se ruimtelike teorie, maar veral van sy ruimtelike triade, gebruik gemaak om die ontleding te doen, en om te verstaan hoe hulle fisiese ruimtes in verwelkomende, inspirerende en produktiewe leeromgewings omskep. Die navorsingsmateriaal vir die artikel is afkomstig uit ‘n omvattende navorsingsprojek oor ruimtelike en leierskapspraktyke in die Wes-Kaap (Burger 2013; 2017; Fataar 2007; 2010; 2015). Die hoofnavorsingsbevinding is dat alhoewel elk van die twee skoolhoofde in hierdie studie van ‘n verskeidenheid leierskapstyle gebruik maak, hul biografieë en hoe dit op hul leierskapstyle inwerk, ‘n deurslaggewende rol in die skep van gesonde leeromgewings by hul skole speel. Ons het bevind dat hierdie skoolhoofde hul leierskaps- en ruimtelike praktyke instinktief en intuïtief aanwend. Hulle besit ‘n buitengewone vermoë om inspirerende en kreatiewe leeromgewings vooraf te visualiseer, te artikuleer, en dit met die ondersteuning van ander suksesvol te skep. Hierdie skoolhoofde bevorder professionele interaksie onder hul personeel, wat tot verhoogde kollegiale samewerking en ondersteuning en die bereiking van hul skole se doelwitte lei. Die ander belangrike bevinding is dat hierdie skoolhoofde kreatief te werk gaan om fisiese ruimtes by hul skole in nuwe voorgestelde ruimtes (―mental spaces‖)1 te omskep, wat ten doel het om hul leerders se verbeelding te prikkel en denke te stimuleer. Terwyl hulle voortgaan om hierdie voorgestelde ruimtes te skep, skep hulle ook terselfdertyd sosiale ruimtes (―social spaces‖) om hul leerders se emosionele en sosiale behoeftes te bevredig. Die resultaat van hul ruimtelike en leierskapspraktyke is die vestiging van veilige en gesonde leeromgewings wat ‘n positiewe uitwerking op leerderprestasie by hul skole het. Trefwoorde: klaskamerpraktyke; leeromgewings, leierskap; leierskapspraktyke; ruimtelike praktyke; skoolleierskap; transformerende leierskap
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    Towards a humanising pedagogy through an engagement with the social–subjective in educational theorising in South Africa
    (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2016) Fataar, Aslam
    This article is an attempt to bring the social complexity of education into a conversation with what is referred to as a humanising pedagogy. In the article, I work with a definition of humanising pedagogy based on a three-dimensional conception of social justice. Drawing on Nancy Fraser (2009), I suggest that such a pedagogy should involve 1) the question of knowledge redistribution, 2) recognition of the knowledges, literacies, and identities of students, and 3) an emphasis on participation that brings process pedagogical orientations back into view to counter the rigid pedagogical orientation that informs South Africa’s curriculum approach. The article unpacks what it means to insert a conception of the social–subjective into educational theorising in South African education academic work. I argue that this dimension is largely absent in hegemonic educational academic orientations, the consequence of which is a thinned-out focus on curriculum and pedagogy, devoid of how the complex social–subjective frames the subject’s access to education. Based on my ethnographic work in urban sites, the article offers a view of the social–subjective that is aimed at disrupting South African educational theorising and provides a “pedagogical justice” view of education that may, conceptually, be able to account for the complex social–subjective in education—and thereby better enable the emergence of a humanising pedagogy in our educational discourses.
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    Die verhewe simboliese kapitaal van skoolhoofde op 'n plattelandse dorp
    (LitNet, 2014-12) Spies, Japie; Fataar, Aslam
    Hierdie artikel fokus op die inwerking van ’n plattelandse-dorp-konteks op skoolhoofde se leierskappraktyke. Skole in Suid-Afrika verskil drasties van mekaar ten opsigte van konteks, en skoolhoofde se leierskappraktyke is konteksverbonde praktyke. Die fokus is op aspekte van skoolhoofde se identiteitsvorming in ’n spesifieke landelike-dorp-konteks. Die navorsingmateriaal vir die artikel is afkomstig uit ’n omvattende navorsingsprojek oor die skoolhoofde van plattelandse skole op ’n dorp met die skuilnaam Cogmans in die Wes-Kaap. Gefokusde semigestruktureerde een-tot-een onderhoude is gebruik om inligting te versamel deur na skoolhoofde se eie stories oor hul eie leefwêreld te luister ten einde dit moontlik te maak om die storie van elkeen se sosiale leefwêreld te kan konstrueer. Op hierdie wyse is professionele verhale oor skoolhoof wees op ’n plattelandse dorp verbind aan die kritiese ontleding van die skoolhoofde se vorme van kapitaal, in besonder simboliese kapitaal. Die artikel is geskoei op die toepassing van die teorie van Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu se konsepte van veld, kapitaal, praktyke en habitus word aangewend as teoretiese lense om die ontledende fokus van hierdie artikel uit te lig, naamlik hoe die skoolhoofde van die skole op ’n plattelandse dorp se plattelandse konteks en elke skoolhoof se eie habitus hulle op ’n bepaalde wyse posisioneer wat meewerk in die manifestering van ’n verhewe mate van simboliese kapitaal van die skoolhoofde. Ons wil aanvoer dat “landelikheid” sentraal is in die aard van hulle habitusvorming, meer spesifiek die wyse waarop hulle sosiale kapitaal gegenereer word in wat ons beskryf as die verhewe simboliese kapitaal van hierdie skoolhoofde in hierdie spesifieke plattelandse-dorp-konteks.