REQUISITOS PARA LA CONSTITUCIÓN DELA EMPRESA

The concepts ‗disadvantaged‘ and ‗underprepared‘ are understood to mean (in most instances) that the students have some academic proficiency ‗deficit‘, and need ‗academic support‘ (see discussion earlier under Section 3.3.2). Boughey (2009:2-3) refers to this mode of thinking as ―an ‗autonomous‘ model which locates the capacity to learn within individuals‖. As mentioned already in Section 3.3.2, the critics of this assumption argued that it was not ‗a student-only problem‘ as some historically white universities wanted to

49 make it out to be, but a rather ‗narrow-minded approach‘ to address a problem that was much broader than individual students and that required a more integrated and holistic approach to academic development and successful student learning (Boughey 2000, 2009; Leibowitz 2001; McKenna 2004; Volbrecht & Boughey 2004).

Moreover, because the terms ‗disadvantaged‘ and ‗underprepared‘ are understood to mean a ‗deficit‘ on the side of the students, the real cause of the problem — the socio- economic factors and, to a larger extent, the power relations between the subordinate and dominant groups in South African society are overlooked (Masenya 1995). Masenya (1995:101) challenges what he refers to as ―…the superficial issues relating to the academic underachievement or cognitive deficiencies of black students as emanating only from apartheid education‖. Masenya (1995:101) argues that it goes much deeper and that the root of the problem lies within the apartheid ideology in terms of which white people were viewed as being superior to black people, and where the whites had, and controlled, the economic, social and political power in SA (see also Letseka & Maile 2008:4-5). It is the same power relations that exist in capitalism that Vygotsky (1994) describes (see Section 2.3).

In addition, Boughey (2009:8) states that Bourdieu‘s early works on the construct of ―cultural capital‖ that include the knowledge, practices and values that allow people to access and succeed in prominent social groups and institutions, provides a good explanation of why there are such major differences in the success and graduation rates between white and black students in South Africa. Berger (2000:97) adds that Bourdieu‘s theory ―…lays out several constructs that can be used to explain student attrition at institutions of higher education‖. What Bourdieu‘s theory of social reproduction implies is that a student‘s success or failure in the learning process can be ascribed to the student‘s cultural and economic capital history. Bunting (2004:20) raises the same issue where he states, ―[t]he racial composition of the different groupings of institutions is a major element in the differences in retention performance. In the current South African context, white students continue to be more privileged than the majority of black students, in terms of both educational and socio-economic background‖. Similarly, Scull and Cuthill (2010:61) state that students ―[f]rom low socio-economic backgrounds might lack the social and cultural capital required‖ to adhere to the demands made by academe. The educational and socio-economic backgrounds are inclusive of the students‘ schooling histories, their family situations, their skills and abilities, their levels of self-confidence, their options and

50 choices, and their home language (Berger 2000; Bunting 2004; Scull & Cuthill 2010). It is the same social construction and the influence thereof that Vygotsky (1994) and Bandura (1986) explain in their respective social theories.

For many white students, these elements (education and socio-economic status) are in place and serve as support structures and enabling factors for success in the learning process. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the majority of black students. Many black students, because of the schooling system and social and economic conditions that they are coming from are ‗disadvantaged‘ and ‗underprepared‘ and, because of apartheid and the deprivation of economical and societal resources, they are growing up in households and families with limited options and choices, and limited resources (CHE 2010; Letseka & Maile 2008). Within this context, most black students‘ pre-university circumstances are already an indication that they will experience more challenges to learning than their white counterparts (Bunting 2004:20) and that some of them will not be successful in the learning process.

This supports Masenya‘s (1995) argument that the terms ‗disadvantaged‘ and ‗underprepared‘ are the end results of a deeply rooted problem that had to do with the moral, social, economic and political powers that were withheld from the majority of South Africans during apartheid. Webb (2002:9) expresses the same sentiments in his discussion of the non-democratisation of knowledge and skills in South Africa and points out that the educational development of the majority of black South African learners was far below its potential during apartheid, and that this is still the case for many today. Webb (2002:9) provides reasons for what he calls the ―distressing situation‖ and starts with the ―...enormous impact of colonialism and apartheid on the belief of black youth in their own abilities...the fact that many school children grew up in an illiterate or semi-literate environment with almost no exposure to the world of learning...‖.In short, apartheid and its effects on every sphere of black South Africans‘ lives could be blamed for the current state of affairs in education which black South Africans find themselves in (Letseka et al. 2010:32).