Conceptualising the historical tradition of radical workers’ education in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article sketches the contours of the particular tradition of radical workers’ education that emerged in South Africa in the context of the re-emergence of militant trade unionism in the 1970s and 1980s. It draws methodologically on Cultural Historical Activity Theory and its view of education as an activity system to present an analysis of the some of the distinctive features of this tradition of radical workers’ education. These include its transformative purpose, its internal ideological contestation, and the combination of an ideologically directive pedagogy with learning in “praxis.” Contextual conditions that supported the emergence of this radical tradition have shifted in more recent times, undermining its historical practices. The article concludes that recognising and reclaiming this radical tradition can enrich our knowledge archive and our education practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Workers’ education
• labour movement
• Cultural Historical Activity Theory
• ideology
• South African labour history

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For comprehensive histories of these shifts, see Noble (1990) and Johnson (1990) on the United States, and Fryer (1990) and Field (1988) on Britain.

2. Historical writings on radical workers’ education include those of London, Tarr and Wilson on the United States (London, Tarr, and Wilson 1990), Johnson (1979), Lovett (1988) and Phillips and Putnam (1980) who wrote about the British labour movement; and Welton (1991) on Canadian workers’ education.

3. Freire described this as a way of conceptualising education where “knowledge is (seen as) a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing” (Freire 1970 cited in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banking_model_of_education).

4. See the article by Orr in this issue for more detail on this research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Linda Cooper

Linda Cooper is Emerita Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. She has a lengthy history of involvement in trade union education. Her research interests have focused on workers’ education, the relationship between informal and formal knowledge, and the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Her most recent publications include Workers’ Education in the Global South: Radical Adult Education at the Crossroads (Brill/Sense Publishers, 2020) and Renewing Workers’ Education: Towards a Radical Alternative Vision (HSRC Press, 2020).