PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION IN AFRICA

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses what extant research that is relevant for examining the role of Community Learning Centres in assisting people to mitigate gender disparities in their daily lives in the Cacadu district of the Eastern Cape. Related studies that can be seen to address the peoples’s daily lives in the Cacadu district of the Eastern Cape with respect to gender issues have been conducted. However, these studies have not focused on the role of Community Learning Centres in assisting people to mitigate gender disparities. Also, some studies have been done on adult education more generally in South Africa and the Eastern Cape, but again as shown in this chapter, they do not focus on the role of Community Learning Centres in assisting people to mitigate gender disparities in their daily lives in the Cacadu district of the Eastern Cape. There is therefore a gap in the literature as far as this is concerned.
In light of the above, the presentation of this chapter and interpretations are therefore in line with the aims and the main questions posed in Chapter 1. This seeks to: review literature relevant to the role of Community Learning Centres in mitigating gender disparities, and literature on policy on adult learning in South Africa, and also to review literature relevant to creating a theoretical framework that can undergird the study. The focus will be on developed and developing countries and specifically in context of South Africa including the Eastern Cape. The present study directs its attention to the following objectives
1 To explore common factors that perpetuate experiences of gender disparities in the Cacadu district of the Eastern Cape with special reference to their perceptions;
2 To explain how gender disparities are experienced as impacting on the socio-conomic development of women in the Cacadu district of the Eastern Cape;
3 To recommend possible ways in which the Community Learning Centres could assist people (men and women) in mitigating gender disparities in their daily lives in the Cacadu district of the Eastern Cape.

 PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION IN AFRICA

The foundations of the present-day policy and practice of education in Africa are closely related to the political ideologies of the various countries as shown in their national policies on education. In democratic states, educational policy and practice reflect democratic principles. This is because as Higgs (2003) notes, education and practice in Africa including South Africa during the colonial era were identical with those of the colonial masters. With independence, African countries gradually identified the inadequacies of the type of Western education they had inherited and embarked on periodic review of their educational policies. Ramose (in, Higgs, 2003:
6) also notes that colonialism in Africa provided a framework for organized subjugation of the cultural, scientific and economic life of many of the continent. This subjugation therefore ignored indigenous knowledge systems and impacted on African people’s way of seeing and acting in the world. African identity, to all intents and purposes, became an inverted mirror of Western Eurocentric identity (Higgs, 2003:06). With regard to gender, colonialism eroded the position of women. Women’s invisibility in academic writing in the colonial period and later did much to cause their neglect in many development projects, which too often left women both poorer and more burdened than before. Women’s inferior position was also perpetuated when colonial authorities incorporated traditional leaders into the governing systems and introduced customary law that formally instituted the inferiority of women to men (Isichei, 1997; Coetzee, 2001). This distortion was recognized and in part corrected, largely through the writings of feminist scholars

 ADULT EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Post-apartheid Adult education in South Africa clearly stated its purpose of serving a variety of needs. The main aim was to provide good quality education to adult learners. For example, the Constitution of South Africa, Act of 108 of 1996 makes a strong case that “everyone has a right to basic education” including adult education (Republic of South Africa, 1996:6). At the same time social changes such as poverty, inequality and unemployment were seen to be on the increase. In this regard adult education was seen as an agent of social change.
Despite these intentions, the Green Paper for Post-school Education and Training under the Department of Higher Education and Training (2012:px) noted that the system continues to produce and reproduce gender, class, racial and other inequalities with regard to access to educational opportunities and success. Two disadvantaged groups are adults and young people who are outside the formal arena and have little access to first or second chance learning. Walters (2006) points out that adult education in South Africa is still commonly associated with either personal development for the middle classes, or literacy and basic education for the marginalised groups. Personal development on one hand is a lifelong process and it covers activities that improve awareness and identity. Personal development also enhances quality of life and contributes to the realisation of dreams and aspiration. Basic education on the other hand is an evolving programme of instruction that is intended to provide students with the opportunity to become respectful global citizens and to contribute to their economic wellbeing of their families and communities (Ladd, Bading, Hall & Howord, 2015).
Increasingly, as Von Kotze (2007) notes, the notion of learning for sustainable livelihoods is being identified as a helpful, more inclusive conceptual framework as women are among those most vulnerable to impacts of unsustainable practices and climate change. In addition, women often do not have independent income and land rights in many countries including South Africa, although they are at the heart of the household’s nexus of water, food and energy and therefore they often know first about the challenges and potential solutions in these areas. Kabeer and Natali (2013) support this view and further point out that promoting gender equality or addressing issues of redress should be seen as the key to sustainable development. Increasingly, women’s full participation is recognised as central to policy making. Certain aspects of gender equality, such as female education and women’s share of employment, can have a positive impact on economic growth; all this impact is dependent on the nature of growth strategies, the structure of the economy, the sectoral composition of women’s employment and labour market segregation, among other factors.

Adult education for democratic citizenship

Adult learning in South Africa is also embedded in the political, social, cultural and economic processes of society.
Its primary social purposes are to enhance possibilities for women and men to survive the harsh conditions in which they live; to develop skills for people in the formal and informal sectors for economic purposes; and to provide cultural and political education which encourages women and men to participate actively in society through cultural organisations, social movements, political parties and trade unions (Walters, 2006).
Aristotle (in Schoeman, 2006) once reflected that the citizens of a state should always be educated to suit the constitution of a state. Even though this assertion was made in the historic past, it still reflects the current trends and the indispensability of basic education in the entire African continent. Basic education is meant to produce citizens who are loyal to the state, hence, abiding by the constitution of the country and able to contribute to the development of the country. It should produce a good citizen although at times what people regard as a “good citizen is squarely subjective” (Burchell, 1993:19). The difference between citizenship and a citizen is that the former is considered by various authorities as a status or a feeling of belonging to a state, society or community. The latter refers to an individual who has been bestowed with the status or who has the strong feeling of membership of a country or society (Burchell, 1993:19). The goal of citizenship education, according to Olivier (2000:6), is being competent and responsible and participating in local, provincial and national civic and political life. Such participation requires the acquisition of a body of knowledge and understanding: the development of the intellectual and participatory skills; the development of certain dispositions or character traits: and a reasonable commitment to the fundamental values of principles of constitutional democracy.
From the above definitions on citizenship, it can be concluded that the term citizenship has been traditionally understood in relation to the rights and responsibilities of citizens within a given nation state (Richardson & Monro, 2012). This classic model of citizenship is associated with the work of Marshall (1964) who defined citizenship in terms of three stages or sets: civil, political and social rights.
 Civil rights
This domain deals mainly with the Bill of Rights. In other words, granting civil rights to the citizens is a way of making them equal before the law (Marshall, 2009:149}.
The South African Constitution states that everyone has the right to basic education and to further education from the state, through reasonable measures, and individuals rights to these be made must make available and accessible progressively (Republic of South Africa,1996:6). This implies that most countries grant common rights and freedoms to all its citizens in order to make them responsible. During the teaching and learning process, pupils, youth and adults are taught about the rights and freedoms including their responsibilities. In addition, they are taught the major values, norms, standards and traditions which are held supreme within the country. Prevention of political disorders and civil unrest can be made possible through various adult education strategies. A number of policies to promote democracy and peace have been proposed during the fifth international conference on adult education held in Hamburg in 1997. They intend to attain their objectives through strategies that promote an active civil society, reinforce gender democracy and help solve conflicts between different countries and groups.
 Political rights
This refers to the teaching and learning of the political rights and duties in line with a country’s political system (Heater, 2004:32). As such, the political domain instils in learners’ political consciousness so that they can become politically active and take part in the democratic processes of their communities and countries (Marshall 2009:149). This enables the youth and adults to vote or be elected to public office as a way of being involved in the running of the affairs of their countries. This domain therefore legitimises and conscientises the citizens of a country to be politically active. The role of adult education in development is also not limited to the economic and social spheres. It is also a political dimension, that is, ideas are based on upon reason rather than observation and exist in our minds. There is a strong link between adult learning and democracy. For democracy to be achieved in adult education, masculine democratic discourses would need to be transformed for women to achieve full political integration.
 Socio-economic rights
The idea of socio-economic rights relates to the relationship between the individual in society and the socio-economic activities in the particular society. Thus, social rights guarantee a certain quality of life and the wellbeing of citizens, for example, by providing access to the system of the welfare state (Roche, 2002:76).
This implies that the teaching and learning which informs this domain is based on making the youth and adults understand their roles, responsibilities and obligations as citizens of a country. As a result, adults tend to understand issues regarding the rights they have towards their economic well-being, social security and environmental protection. According to Roche (2002:76), adult education also plays a major role in social development. It is now widely admitted that growth will not reduce poverty unless poor people are able to actively participate in it. Such participation can become effective to a large extent through adult education. Indeed, the African population will need some kind of formal and non-formal education and training to be able to benefit from basic health care, including sexual and reproductive health services, the development of new medicines and thus be in a position to free themselves from diseases that devastate poor people such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and other parasites.
The other traditional model of citizenship that has been characterised as the ‘town hall’ model, to include participation of citizens in civil society is associated with communitarism. That is, the model emphasises the responsibility of the individual to the community, in contrast to the traditional liberal conception of citizens as autonomous individual where individuals can make choices. Advocates of civic republicanism see citizenship as communal, where citizens are people whose lives are interlinked through shared traditions and understanding that forms the basis for the pursuit of the ‘common good’ (Delanty, 2000).

CHAPTER 1  INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.3 CONCEPTUALISING THE PUBLIC ADULT LEARNING CENTRES IN SOUTH AFRICA
1.4 RATIONALE AND RELEVANCE OF THIS STUDY
1.5 CLARIFICATION OF CONCEPTS USED IN THE STUDY
1.6 RESEARCH DESIGN
1.7 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
1.8 RESEARCH PARADIGM
1.9 RESEARCH METHODS
1.10 SAMPLE
1.11 DATA ANALYSIS
1.12 TRUSTWORTHINESS
1.12.1 Credibility
1.13 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
1.14 SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS
1.15 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 2  LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION IN AFRICA
2.3 ADULT EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
2.4 ADULT EDUCATION FOR LIFELONG LEARNING
2.5 STUDIES RELATED TO THE ROLE OF ADULT EDUCATION IN DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
2.6 THE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT BILL
2.7 WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID, WAD and GAD approaches)
2.8 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.9 Feminism
2.10 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 3  RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.3 RESEARCH PARADIGM
3.4 RESEARCH METHODS
3.5 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE STUDY
4.4 RESPONSES OF THE SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
4.5 RESPONSES OF THE FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS
4.6 DISCUSSION OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS
4.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5  CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY
5.5 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
ANNEXURES
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