Education policy studies in South Africa, 1995–2006

Abstract

This article reports on findings pertaining to scholarship in education policy drawn from a wider study on all education research in South Africa from 1995 to 2006. This study, which defined education research as broadly pertaining to teaching and/or learning, obtained extensive data from a wide range of sources, including universities, public institutions, NGOs, Education and Training Authorities, museums, publishers, donor agencies, trade unions, conferences, journals and electronic databases. The levels, scale, educational sectors and disciplinary areas of each entry in the resulting 10,315‐strong database were identified, and a random sample of 600 texts was analysed in order to distinguish primary research themes. This article summarises seven themes in education policy studies, including policy idealism, policy critiques, language in education policy, higher education policy, further education and training policy, the nature and effects of educational decentralisation and the relationship between education policy and the market.

Keywords:

• education research
• education policy
• South Africa

Notes

1. Sources included all 23 universities, the National Department of Education and 15 other government departments, public institutions and councils, 15 education NGOs and research units, 27 SETAs, eight museums, 18 publishers of education books, 24 donor agencies, seven education sector trade unions and an education labour service NGO, seven sets of annual education conference proceedings, 10 South Africa‐based education journals and the ERIC, NEXUS, AHERO, Blackwell, InformaWorld, Ingenta, Sage and Taylor & Francis electronic databases.

2. It is important to note that disciplinary area, level and educational sector categories are not mutually exclusive and many texts can and do fall under more than one area, level or sector. Only the ‘scale’ categories (large scale, case study and small scale) are exclusive and do not overlap; all other categories (level, educational sector and disciplinary area) overlap to a greater or lesser degree. (This is the more so the finer and more exact the distinctions being made; for example, there are significant overlaps between disciplinary areas like ‘health education’ and ‘HIV/AIDS education’.) Nevertheless, it is possible to distinguish texts which do not straddle categories, that is, which focus exclusively on a single level, sector or disciplinary area. 3839 texts, or 37% of the database, have only a single disciplinary area of focus, and of these, 145 texts deal exclusively with education policy. See also the definitions of each category, and Note 16, below.

3. It follows from this that most education research remains an individualised activity. A follow‐up study to more closely examine the characteristics of these individual researchers, including their gender, race, age and institutional locations, is currently in the planning stages. Preliminary findings, supported by other research, suggest that the education research community is not representative of the demographics of the country, that the participation of women and blacks, while growing, remains highly skewed, and that the bulk of research is produced by white male academics over the age of 40 working in traditional university settings (Mouton 2006; Holtman, Mukwada, and du Plooy 2008).

4. These are Africa Education Review (formerly Educare), African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, Education as Change, Journal of Education, Per Linguam, Perspectives in Education, Pythagoras, South African Journal of Education, South African Journal of Higher Education and Southern African Review of Education.

5. Systemic level refers to learning and teaching activities across a number of institutions on a regional, provincial or national scale. Institutional level refers to learning and teaching environments, from a school, an FET college or a university to an NGO or a government department of education. Classroom level refers to specific teaching and learning situations, ranging from early childhood to higher education. Out‐of‐school level refers to all learning and teaching situations and environments outside the bounds of formal schooling, and thus includes adult education and training, vocational training, home schooling, and programmes aimed at managing those who leave or have never been to school. It does not include formal higher education.

6. Small‐scale research ranges from textual exegesis through policy analysis to conceptual studies and from experiential micro‐studies through small‐scale surveys to reflections on projects or on research undertaken by others. It is very eclectic and often (though not exclusively) qualitative in nature. In terms of the CEPD/NRF study, research which could not be definitively categorised as either large‐scale research or case‐study research was categorised as small‐scale research, and to this extent the category of small‐scale research also functions as a default category (which may inflate its numbers to some degree). Future research should attempt to further disaggregate this category.

7. Case‐study research is defined as a detailed, clearly bounded and in‐depth analysis of an educational issue specific to a limited number of teachers or learners, or of one, or at most a few, particular classrooms, institutions or projects. It may be either quantitative or qualitative in nature, or both.

8. Large‐scale research is defined as focusing on problems or issues which extend across multiple educational institutions, sectors or systems, or involve large numbers of research subjects. It is frequently costly and time‐consuming, and has a tendency to be (but is not exclusively) quantitative in nature. It is often provincial or national in scope, and may also have an international dimension. In terms of the CEPD/NRF study, research involving 450 or more subjects, 40 or more schools, one or more educational sectors in their entirety, a province, the country or several countries, was labelled large‐scale research.

9. Educational theory encompasses philosophy and sociology of education.

10. Education management comprises governance, management, leadership, discipline, punishment and safety at all levels of the education system, as well as whole school development, school efficiency and school choice.

11. Education policy includes education planning, policy development and policy implementation.

12. Higher education studies refers to research into any and all aspects of teaching and learning, curriculum development, institutional change and management at the tertiary level, both public and private. (However, while all ‘higher education studies’ are located in the higher education sector, not all research that takes place in the higher education sector is ‘higher education studies’, because it may well fall instead under another disciplinary area.)

13. Teacher education includes all research, practice, policy and programmes, formal and informal, involved in teaching, training and/or developing teachers at all levels of the education system (except, specifically, teaching in higher education).

14. Language studies includes linguistics, literature, literacy in general, multilingualism, reading and writing.

15. Educational psychology includes guidance and counselling, career education, life orientation and emotional intelligence.

16. Academic development includes academic support, academic literacy, supplementary instruction, tutoring, mentoring, supervision, school–university transitions, and selection, admissions, access and retention issues and procedures. Most of this research pertains, but is not confined, to the higher education sector.

17. As mentioned above, disciplinary areas are not mutually exclusive and many texts fall under more than one area. If one considers only those 3839 texts in the database which do not straddle categories, that is, which focus exclusively on a single disciplinary area, then 42% of all such discipline‐dedicated education research from 1995 to 2006 inclusive is concentrated in the disciplinary areas of educational theory (15%), education management (12%), educational psychology (8%) and language studies (7%). In comparison, discipline‐dedicated education policy studies constitute only 3.7%, behind technology education, academic development and mathematics education.

18. In comparison with the final database, books, chapters in books and journal articles were overrepresented, while reports and conference papers and proceedings were underrepresented in the sample.

19. Constructivism, associated with learner‐centred approaches and qualitative, experiential and participative forms of research, looms large in educational theorising in South Africa and extends across the entire field of education. As a primary theme, the nuances of constructivism are addressed in detail elsewhere (see Deacon, Osman, and Buchler, forthcoming). However, while few dispute constructivist tenets like empowerment, participation, tolerance and equity, concerns are expressed about whether constructivism weakens teachers’ authority and commitment, which in turn may undermine social transformation, or even abandons learners to the potentially unscrupulous power of non‐professionals. A common criticism is that only well‐resourced schools, and more experienced and better trained teachers, are able to take advantage of constructivist methodologies. Some critics (e.g., Muller 1999, 2000; Bensusan 2001; Horsthemke 2004; Young 2004) adopt a realist position and actively defend objectivity against what they perceive to be constructivist relativism, but constructivists and critics alike share the view that knowledge is a human construct and that a proliferating diversity of roles and identities has become the norm.

20. This paragraph is drawn from a separate paper arising from the broader study of education research in South Africa (see Deacon, Osman, and Buchler, 2009b).