Conference:
ECER 2008
Format:
Paper
Session Information
PRE_C3, Preconference; Paper Session C3
Paper Session
Time:
2008-09-08
13:15-14:45
Room:
C E38
Chair:
Michael Hansen
Contribution
Democratic Values in Post Apartheid South African and Swedish
Compulsory School Curriculums.
South Africa is a country with a long history of colonialism and apartheid. After settling its major conflicts politically, in 1994 the country transformed itself from apartheid administration to a democratic system. Since then the country has been involved in reforming different sectors of its political, economic and social lives. Education was also touched by these reforms since the transition to a democratic system. At present there is a Revised National Curriculum Statement from 2002 that is in use in all schools in the country.
In the new curriculum in South Africa the questions of democratic values, social justice and constitutional rights are included in a subject called Life Orientation. Life Orientation is given in the nine years obligatory school. These school years are divided into three phases, “Foundation Phase (Grades R -3)”, “Intermediate Phase (Grades 4-6)” and “Senior Phase (Grades 7-9)”. Grade R in the foundation phase is not obligatory. In “Foundation” and “Intermediate” phases, Life Orientation education has four components: health promotion, social development, personal development, physical development and movements. The “Senior” phase includes one more component called, orientation to the world of work. My focus will be on the Foundation Phase specifically on social development aspect of it, which focuses on democratic values, social justice and constitutional rights.
The Swedish society is in many aspects different from the South African. For centuries it was an agrarian society with sparse population Density. The culture was relatively homogeneous and the country was not involved in a war for the last two centuries. The education system has undergone a long process of reforms through the last centuries. However, it is difficult to say that the education system was free from conflicts and based on equality.
During the last century a lot of reforms have taken place in the education sector. Even if there are different critics, the Swedish school system is by far advanced compared to many educational systems in both developing and developed countries. One of the recent school reforms is provided through LPO 94 (Curriculum for the compulsory school System, the pre-school class and the leisure-time centre), which focuses on democratic values and norms. In the Swedish official school curriculum there is no special subject dealing with educating democratic values, instead all school subjects are obliged to reflect democratic norms and values.
In this article I would like to go through both the South African and the Swedish curriculum reforms of the last two centuries as background, the characteristics of the curriculums, the time democratic changes started to take place and the present curriculums in both countries. I will use the Revised National Curriculum Statement of South Africa (2002) and the Swedish Curriculum for the compulsory school system, the pre-school class and the leisure-time centre Lpo 94 (1994).
Getahun Yacob Abraham
PhD Student
Department of Education
University of Gothenburg
getahun.abraham@ped.gu.se
Method
- Review of documents on education reform.
- Comparative - Critical Policy Analysis.
Expected Outcomes
- Not yet known
References
- I did not start looking at materials for the study.
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