Social justice in previously disadvantaged areas in the post-1994 South Africa : distributive justice and learner-capability in Vulindlela rural schools.

Abstract

Education and education-related themes are topical in contemporary South Africa. The struggles and campaigns for socially just education in South Africa have as their background, colonial and apartheid systems that discriminated against the colonized who were variously categorized as Black, Coloured, and Indian. However, the continuing negative impact of the colonial and apartheid educational system is mostly felt by the groups that are labelled as Black Africans and Coloured. While there is extensive research on social injustice and education in South Africa, most of the existing research does not incorporate the ideals and values of learners and their parents. To contribute towards filling this knowledge gap, the current study adopted the ubuntu framework and the Capability Approach as theoretical lenses to explore the issue of social justice among previously disadvantaged groups and areas in Post-1994 South Africa. Notably, the two frameworks emphasize the idea of social justice anchored on the notions of agency, values, and ideals of participants. Grounded on these notions, this study focused on the following objectives: firstly, to elicit and interrogate education-related values and ideals held by learners, their parents, and teachers; secondly, the research inquired about resource distribution that would facilitate the achievement of these values and ideals; finally, the research inquired if the achievement of these values and ideals would contribute to a socially just education system. The study adopted the mixed-methods research approach, utilising primary data generated from both semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires. The study sites are located in Vulindlela District, Northwest of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Study participants included learners, school principals, and parents of Vulindlela rural school learners. Generated primary data were analysed guided by different analytical approaches including interpretive approach, content analysis, and grounded theory. The study’s findings concur with extant literature regarding challenges faced by South Africa’s Basic Education but contributed new knowledge towards understanding the impact of these challenges on the values, ideals, beings, doings, and agency of learners. Specifically, the study found that South Africa’s basic education system does not contribute positively towards enhancing learners’ capabilities and the realisation of ideals, values, and agency at Vulindlela rural schools. The study’s recommendations suggest among other points, the need to restore the equilibrium in South Africa’s education sector, through constructing an education system premised on 1) actions and beings upheld by learners and their agency, 2) the presence of capability inputs relevant to their values and agency, 3) cognizance of human diversity at school, family, and community levels and the impact these dynamics have concerning the values, ideals and agency of the learners.