Resilience In South Africa

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“The best of all the most beautiful creations in the world is an educated person.” - Epictetus. Many people view education as the key that is handed to a child to unlock the rest of his or her life. But educating a child is not a simple act of standing in front of the classroom and imparting knowledge. There are many issues which plague schools in South Africa. This essay will first expand on the culture of teaching and learning in schools in South Africa, as well as the reasons for its breakdown. Secondly, this essay will discuss the need for schools to become resilient, what resilience is, and how resilience can be developed. Lastly, this essay will focus on teachers as agents of change, and what makes a great teacher. According to Pam Christie,…show more content…
From the observations that were made during this bus trip, it is evident that in today’s society, there is a clear divide between high performing and poor performing schools. High performing schools usually have few, if any, social, political and economic issues affecting the teaching and learning process. On the other hand, in the poor performing schools, all of these issues affect and impact the teaching and learning process. “The breakdown of a culture of teaching and learning in South African schools is reflected in multifaceted socio-educational problems encountered in schools and communities.” (Weeks, 2012). Culture is a vague word, and in order to fully understand what is causing the breakdown in the culture of teaching and learning, one needs to first understand what this culture is. “Culture could be a paradigm for understanding organizations and ourselves. Paradigm is a grand word, signifying a cluster of basic assumptions that form a world view, a way of filtering knowledge and experience…the bringing about of the conditions and disciplines of compulsory schooling such as regular attendance, punctuality and acceptance of authority”. (Weeks, 2012). This implies that the culture of learning is built on “an infrastructure of discipline.” (Weeks, 2012). Ultimately, what Weeks is suggesting is that the culture of a school and the teaching and learning…show more content…
There is a direct relationship between socio-economic factors and education which must be recognised. It’s easy to quote the Freedom Charter and say, “The doors of learning and culture shall be opened, this vision was given legal status in the new South African constitution of 1996, which declared that everyone shall have the right (a) to basic education, including adult education, and (b) to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures must make progressively available and

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