The History of Education Under Apartheid, 1948-1994

The issue of education in apartheid South Africa has provided one of the most fascinating anomalies in modern educational history. For those of us who were schooled under apartheid, who were teachers in government schools, and who marched with the teachers and scholars in the seemingly endless cycles of resistance and repression, it was often difficult to imagine a world without the injustices, the restrictions, and the suffering that apartheid education wrought. For the critics in the international forum, apartheid education became a symbol of all the injustices of colonialism and racism in the Post-War world. The struggles of the students of SOWETO in 1976 became the struggles of all democrats and committed educators throughout the world. Yet the analysis of history of education under apartheid has ironically only attracted limited attention from historians and educators. This collection has drawn together twenty-five of the foremost scholars in the field in the hope that their contributions can provide the foundation for a comprehensive investigation of this topic. Greater critical insight into the legacy of apartheid education can only enhance the quality of contemporary policy development.