My relationship with education really started before school. My parents, especially my mother, played a very significant role in my education. My mother herself had wanted to become a teacher, but did not complete her qualification. She taught for one year but could not pursue her training any further as her grandmother would not let her accept a post outside of Cape Town. She then went to work in a clothing factory. So, as a working mother, she nurtured my learning through play. My child minder was an old lady who
lived opposite us, and it is from the time spent at this house that I have my first memories of playing at “school” with an imaginary friend. This lady would watch me without my knowing it and report everything I did and said to my mother. She also exposed me to a religion different than ours, namely Islam. My multicultural awareness consequently started very early in life.
The memories of Square Hill Primary School in Retreat suggest that I was a happy learner, but nothing really exciting stands out. My most creative moments were spent in the art class with a very strict ‘sir’ who thought that Afrikaans-speaking children like me, were inferior. What I do remember is that, except for three, all my teachers were women. When I mimicked them in play, it was always very serious, unfriendly and with a cane in hand, but that is not really what they were like. They all actually were very sincere, hardworking, encouraging and sympathetic. The male teachers were much more traditional in their approach to teaching, using fewer learning materials and not many varying teaching strategies. The communication was mainly between teacher and the whole group. Opportunities for peer communication only presented themselves when it was time to recite a poem, read aloud, tell a story or ‘do oral’, which was a prepared oral presentation on a specific topic. Peer interaction inside the classroom was very limited.
During playtime, however, we had started a tradition of boys and girls playing together at games like soccer – much to the disapproval of our teachers. They had no problem with the boys playing soccer, but it was an ‘inappropriate’ activity for us girls. However, we did not conform. During these years we would also sing ‘Die Stem’ (the apartheid era national anthem) and hoist the old South African flag without question. Critical thinking and learning to question were not part of the curriculum.
The roles of my teachers at Crestway Secondary School were different. Some teachers would prompt questioning of the issues of the day. This was not reflected in the curriculum, but I experienced this as an alternative line of thinking running alongside what the ‘real work’ was. This was common practice, more so because of the
called content subjects were taught exclusively from the textbook. A typical lesson would entail the teacher reading from the textbook and indicating what we had to underline and rewrite in our notebooks. Sometimes notes and sketches would be written and drawn on the board, and we had to copy, learn and reproduce these in tests and exams. The only time additional reading material ever found its way into the classroom was through the projects that we had to do from time to time. These experiences did not really contribute to the development of critical thinking, or to the confidence to ask questions. The images of and roles played by people classified as ‘Coloured’ in the texts from which we were required to work also did not stimulate a sense of self-worth. In fact, a subservience role was portrayed, especially by characters in the literature we had to study. The school erected a wall between me and the community in which I lived (Botman, 1995: 17).
The school plays an important role in forming the self-image of learners (Du Preez, 1982: 11). Du Preez contends that, when the symbols of the dominant group are reflected it will necessarily have an impact on those members of society who do not belong to this group. Some teachers did make us aware of the exclusivity of the curriculum, but did not include any alternative learning experiences. I find it interesting that I decided to continue
studying Afrikaans at tertiary level while being dead set against History because of the content of the syllabus. There was no aspect of the Afrikaans syllabus that included my community, and really nothing and nobody that I could identify with in the prescribed literature, as it only included Afrikaner characters. One of the master symbols in
apartheid textbooks is that white people are superior and black people always inferior Du Preez, 1982: 75). This observation that black people would always play the role of worker or marginal characters proves the fact. Even the grammar textbooks did not use the names common in my community in texts for comprehension and sentences in grammar exercises.
Despite all this, I decided to pursue my studies with Afrikaans as a major subject. My motivation was that the language did not belong only to the Afrikaner, although this was how it was being presented. I was criticized for studying Afrikaans but my contention
was that the community in which I grew up and lived in was mostly Afrikaans-speaking, and this validated my decision to study to become an Afrikaans teacher.
This decision was also greatly influenced by the experience of 1976. I was at a school designated for coloureds (according to South African laws on race classification) which was also in Retreat. I was in standard 8 and, at that stage in my life, politically naïve and a strong conformist. I tried to please my teachers as much as possible and therefore was quite favoured by them. I was not quite clear what the students in Soweto had against Afrikaans. It was only later that I realised that they were in protest against Afrikaans being used as a medium of instruction (Christie, 1985: 238).
In August 1976 our school also participated in protest actions. This was mainly in the form of protest marches at school, and later in the city centre. However, I did not participate in the marches away from school. During that year we did not write the September exams. I think it is important to note that our school was newly established and that I was a senior in standards 8, 9 and 10. We, therefore, were seen as the ones to provide leadership. I had very strong feelings for justice, but these never transferred into action. The role of the police deterred me from that action. Christie (1985: 239) had this to say about the police:
They used dogs, guns, teargas, armoured cars (hippos) and helicopters. They raided houses and searched people at roadblocks. They prohibited gatherings. They detained without trial. And they shot.
Christie (1985: 239) has identified four main reasons for the 1976 uprisings. The first was the crisis in education. There was a shortage of classrooms and teachers and the buildings were in a poor state. Added to this was the compulsory implementation of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction. The second reason related to the poor economic conditions. The country was in recession, the unemployment rate was high and the majority of South Africans were living below the bread line. Thirdly, the implementation of apartheid laws became more and more problematic. The following were problematic: pass laws, influx
control and compulsory homeland citizenship2. The fourth reason was that the political conditions in the neighbouring states like Mozambique, Angola and Namibia were also volatile.
Kane-Berman (1978: 48) gave more reasons for the uprisings in 1976. Black
consciousness, which was related to the ‘black power’ movements in the United States of America started to develop locally. This was seen as a psychological liberation (Kane- Berman, 1978: 103). Black people rejected the mostly negative, inferior images and stereotyping. These images were replaced by positive self-consciousness: a pride in black culture and history, as well as a pride in being black. In addition, black people, and this included groups labelled coloured, Indian and African, were weaned from the notion of dependence on white people. The youth in these areas also needed to be presented with positive role models with whom they could identify and at school, these ideas were well received at schools.
I think this is when my political consciousness was stimulated. The things I thought differently about were that black people actually were also South Africans and that the Afrikaans language community included many communities. At this stage I still regarded the Cape variant of Afrikaans as inferior. The Afrikaans teachers I had were mostly Afrikaners who held a similar view. Although the standard variant was held up as the only acceptable one, I never used it in informal conversation.
The influence of my teachers led me to register for a BA-degree at the University of Cape Town, where I majored in Afrikaans Nederlands and Sociology. It was the drive to take up my place in society and make a difference that made me determined to succeed. The choice of the University of Cape Town over the University of The Western Cape was also due to the influence of my secondary school teachers. The latter university was rejected because it was an institution created for coloured people and controlled by Afrikaners, and therefore was seen to be inferior.
2 Apartheid legislation determined that all black people living in the wider borders of South Africa were not
South African citizens. Therefore homelands like the Transkei, Ciskei and Bophuthatswana were created. Black people were forced to become citizens of these homelands.
During the years 1979 to 1982 and again in 1987 and 1988, I studied at the University of Cape Town. During the class boycotts in 1980, I found myself at a historically white, English institution. The protests started in Cape Town in April and spread throughout the country. The issues of 1976 were still valid. The great slogan of the time was “Down with gutter education”. Participation in protest actions was not the norm at the institution in which I was enrolled. The majority of the students and staff were apathetic to the cause. The Faculty of Education was especially against protest actions. Once again, the
conditions in education were a rallying factor for protest.
It was during my Higher Diploma in Education (HDE) year (1982) and especially my Bachelor of Education (BEd) years (1987 to 1986) that I developed a critical view of the use and place of the variant of Cape Afrikaans. In his book ‘Taalapartheid en Skool- Afrikaans’, Esterhuyse (1986) addressed the issue of standard versus variant language usage. What impressed me most were the sections of the course that dealt with standard language and its political and socio-political position of power in society. It was then that I gained respect for my own mother tongue and realised that I could switch codes without having to negate my own language.
These perspectives greatly accommodated my approach and thinking about the language Afrikaans and how it was being used in different geographical and social settings. The understanding gained also prepared me for my first appointment in a school where the community was predominantly Afrikaans-speaking and working class.