Critical teaching under the Bantu education system

Abstract

Bantu Education is a part of the overall, well-considered policy of systematically maintaining white hegemony over blacks so that the former may continuously exploit the latter. This study examines, in general, how Bantu education serves the economic, ideological and political functions of maintaining, reinforcing and producing the relations of production under apartheid. It specifically looks at the complexities of teacher classroom practices at how these practices are influenced by government policy on education and by the pressures exerted on teachers by students, parents and their own political consciousness. In this study, I explore the ways in which some teachers struggle to make learning under apartheid more 'empowering'. I conclude, however, by arguing that because of the lack of a critical awareness by teachers and the level of ability of teachers based on lack of training and exposure, such empowering practices are minimal and controversial. In order for any meaningful changes to occur within the education system, it is essential for teachers to develop a 'critical consciousness', in which the inequalities of apartheid South Africa are recognized and addressed in pedagogical practices.