ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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	Abstracts

Possibilities and problems in mobilizing parent power: the arena of school governance as a vehicle for building civil society in South Africa
by
Crain Soudien
School of Education, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, Cape, 7701, South Africa

Awash with policy reform measures, South Africa presents itself as a case study for understanding the complexity that accompanies social and political transitions. Within South Africa #8217;s transition, and in some ways characterising it, is an ongoing process of contestation, resistance, accommodation and compromise over civil, political and economic rights. The stakes have been high for particular groups, particularly white people, who have had to cede their monopoly of the political terrain to groups that were excluded by law during the apartheid era. People of colour, as a result, have moved into positions of authority and have begun to take responsibility for key areas of social life. This has been particularly the case in education where black children have moved into the formerly white system in large numbers supported by legislation encouraging them to take ownership of their new schools. How this process of including people in the governance and control of the schooling process has taken place, however, has not been without its difficulties and problems. Evident in these processes are signs of old interests, often expressed in racial ways, resisting the entry of previously disadvantaged groups into formerly white schools. Evident, also, is the emergence of new interests, particularly that of the expanded multiracial middle-class, articulating positions based on exclusionary attitudes with respect to the poor.

The focus of this paper is the commitment of the now not-so-new government to democratising the education system. In 1996 it passed the South African Schools Act (SASA) to deal explicitly with undoing the country #8217;s discriminatory past and to facilitate the coming into being of an open, just and equitable system. The essential philosophy behind the Act was to vest ownership and control of schools in the hands of parents. Politically the Act constituted one of the new government #8217;s most powerful measures for building civil society capacity. The Act mandated the establishment of a School Governing Body (SGB) at every public school in the country. These SGBs were given responsibilities for, inter alia, recommending teacher appointments, developing mission statements, codes of conduct, developing policy for admission, and in special cases, administering school finances and property and so on. The intention of the law was to build the democratic capacity of the South African people. In 2003 the third cycle of SGB elections took place in the country. These have come to be the third largest public elections in the country after those for national and local government. They involve almost 5 million South African adults who have children at schools who vote for the people they wish to represent them at schools. They participate in meetings where their children #8217;s educational futures are deliberated and decided upon. In addition, they involve more than 150, 000 parents, at any one time, giving of their services and time voluntarily to govern the schooling system.

But how well is the system working? Is it building democracy? Is the system inclusive? The paper, based on a multi-level study consisting of a large scale survey of over 250 schools, 36 in-depth case-studies and reports from 26 public hearings and tens of interviews with key stakeholders in the school governance arena, argues that there certainly are signs of a vibrant new civil society presence in South African schools. Parent communities, even in poor and marginalized areas, have stepped up to, and taken on, the challenge of developing budgets, making teacher appointments and so on. The gains have been large and no doubt will spill over into other areas of their civic lives.

The conclusion to which the paper comes, however, is that the heritage of the country persists. The research evidence suggests that in schools that are mainly African, teachers dominate SGBs, despite parents having the majority voice. In the formerly white schools, even those that are now predominantly black (African, Indian and coloured), white professionals dominate. The outcome of this situation is that a particular form of inclusion has transpired in South Africa - the poor is having its interests articulated and defined for it by the middle-class (the black teaching middle class in black schools and the white professional middle class in mixed schools). As a result, parents in particular, and black parents specifically, either experience limited forms of participation on SGBs and in many instances are either silenced within them and/or withdraw their participation from SGBs. Briefly, what this is pointing to is the difficulty, in contexts of social and economic diversity, of building deep and durable cultures and practices of democracy. While the policy has the potential of building civil society capacity, this potential will always be challenged by groups and individuals pursuing their own interests against that of the public good. In closing the paper suggests a number of ways of dealing with these difficulties.

Date received: September 26, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # camk-21.