Browsing by Author "Mujulizi, Mukisa"
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemBlack in white: The private and public lives of black alums in Cape Town private schools(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Mujulizi, Mukisa; Dubbeld, Bernard; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the private and public lives of Black alums in Cape Town private schools. The thesis is interested in understanding whether elite schools are truly becoming more inclusive in 21ˢᵗ century South Africa, or if their attempt to reproduce elite status has meant the transmission of “Whiteness” and the alienation of Black students. I begin by exploring the history of education in South Africa and how elite schooling is rooted to this history in such a way that affects 21ˢᵗ century Black students who attend these schools. I show how Whiteness emerges in this history of elite schooling, and continues to be experienced in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa, even if its meaning may not be fixed or constant. Whiteness takes the form it does because private schools, like the ones explored in this thesis, seek to emulate elite schools that are tied to the British colony. In this pursuit of an ’eliteness’ a set of tones and codes emerge that schools nurture in their students, one that may produce alienation for Black students inside and outside of this space. I therefore look at the ways in which Black students have existed in these spaces that can often be quite hostile to their existence. I further theorise the class experience of students at these schools and try to establish how race and class might intersect at elite schools. I further show that queer students also face similar rigid structures within these schools that force them to interrogate their identities in such a way that cisgendered, heterosexual students do not. This thesis relied on a qualitative method of analysis, drawing on 10 interviews with Black alums of two private schools. I supplemented these data with some of my own experiences of one of the two private schools. This allowed me to recognise the relations and intersections between race, class, gender, and sexuality in these spaces which became the basis for my chapters.