OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Millar, Clive"

Browsing by Author "Millar, Clive"

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Open Access
The African adult education movement in the Western Cape from 1945 to 1967 in the context of its socio-economic and political background
(1988) Wilson, Daphne May; Millar, Clive
At the end of World War II, volunteers from the University of Cape Town began literacy and post-literacy evening classes for African adults near the Blouvlei squatter settlement in Retreat. From this small beginning a significant voluntary adult education movement developed until, at the peak of its expansion, there were night schools located at fourteen different sites in the Cape Peninsula from Sea Point to Simonstown. The thesis studies the twenty-three year lifespan of this movement which provided tuition at both primary and secondary level and from 1950 called itself the "Cape Non-European Night Schools Association" (CNENSA). The history of the organisation deals chronologically with three distinct periods: (1) 1945-1948, the opening phase, when in the aftermath of a Commission of Enquiry into adult education, volunteer groups undertaking adult night classes were encouraged and were granted small subsidies; (2) 1949-1957, a period of continuing and rapid expansion; (3) 1958-1967, the years in which the government reduced, restricted and finally eliminated all the CNENSA's schools. While the movement is studied with regard to its educational programme, choice of subjects, curricula, text-books and general organisation, much of the central interest derives from an examination of its origin and operation in relation to the political and socio-economic developments in the country. The study is thus concerned with the causes of African poverty and illiteracy and the continuous backdrop of major external events during the existence of the Association. In the inter-relatedness of the two historical themes thus pursued, the participants in the education movement, both teachers and pupils, are seen to reflect the wider society, and the study in its broad survey refers to many events of profound historical significance; these include the setting up of Bantu Education and the other pillars of apartheid, the development of major protest organisations and trade unions, the staging of the Civil Disobedience Campaign and the Congress of the People, the events at Sharpeville and in Langa in 1960 and the eventual emergence of underground movements and armed resistance. There is a strong focus on the motives and attitudes of both the learners and teachers in the movement and on their perceptions of their times and of each other. In this respect an interesting liberal-radical continuum is seen running right through the history of the Association. In the concluding chapters, to question the evidence from an alternative viewpoint before final evaluations are made, the work of the CNENSA is examined in the light of a Paulo Freirian perspective.
Open Access
An analysis of policy development within the Centre for Adult Education at the University of Natal (1971-1991)
(1995) Mackie, Robin Duncan Alfred; Millar, Clive
The construction of macro level policy is made more difficult by the absence of a reservoir of analytical accounts which raise issues which policy at that level must address. This study is concerned with the development of policy within a very specific context and as such it is a modest and limited contribution to the development of that reservoir of theorised practice of adult education in South Africa. In this it is both a documentary record of the development of adult education at the University of Natal and an exploration of the dynamics of the policies which were evolved to direct that development. The study is thus a descriptive and analytical account of the work of the Centre for Adult Education at the University of Natal over the 20 year period from 1971 to 1991 set against the context of the broad development of adult education in South Africa in general and developments in university based adult education development in particular.
Open Access
Art and the development of dialogic skills: an ethnography of art in Waldorf teacher training
(2005) Van Alphen, Catherine; Spiegel, Mugsy; Millar, Clive
Waldorf Schools emphasise the use of art in education. This interdisciplinary dissertation demonstrates how Waldorf teacher trainees are prepared to work with art in the school classroom. It does that by documenting the ways that three different art media are introduced to students in a Waldorf teacher training programme in Cape Town, and those students' responses and experiences in working with those media - relying quite heavily on students' oral and written comments about those experiences. The data presented come from the writer's own involvement as a teacher trainer cum researcher who has adopted an ethnographic-style approach to data collection and analysis. The data show that a primary goal of introducing Waldorf teacher trainees to art is to develop what is here described as a dialogic capacity - an ability to be able simultaneously to immerse oneself in the teaching process and to stand back and reflect on everything that that process involves so that, as teachers, they are able to be flexible and open to change. That this can be done through cultivating a teacher's feeling for art through requiring its practice, it is argued, helps to bridge an apparent paradox in Rudolf Steiner's work between his call for practising art for its own sake and his recognition that art should be practised in schools to facilitate the development of the individual.
Open Access
Education in South Africa : towards a postmodern democracy
(1990) Richmond, Keith; Millar, Clive
The requirements of social and educative justice are examined further in the light of John Rawls's conception of justice as 'fairness'. In particular, critical response to his notions of 'the original position', 'veil of ignorance' and 'overlapping consensus' misrepresents the critical and creative capacity that these concepts properly denote and preserve in the interests of participants' 'strong' democratic capacity. The ethical implications of a non-authoritarian relationship between learners and existing discursive formations are then discussed with reference to Philip Wexler's 'textualist' theory of social analysis and education. His advocacy of 'collective symbolic action' is found to be compatible with an uncoercive discourse ethic, oriented to mutual understanding and contextualised hypothesis formation by self-reflective agents. Inferences for education are proposed, in conclusion, emphasising the teachers' role as agent provocateur of the 'liminal imagination' (generating non-formulaic symbolic movement and self-formative struggle by the learners themselves), which qualifies the usual obligation to approved curricular content. Education for a postmodern democracy is sustained by, and sustains, both context-relative knowledge - publicly educed - and an ongoing 'desublimation' of discourse, in the interests of participatory self-critique and renewal.
Open Access
Extra-mural programmes and adult education at the University of Cape Town : an analysis of policy
(1984) Walker, Douglas, 1935-; Millar, Clive
This study examines and analyses the events associated with, and development of policy in, the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies at the University of Cape Town. Three phases of task, role and associated policy can be discerned. From the earliest days of extra-mural activities at the University in the mid-nineteenth century until the present, the most visible of the Centre's activities has been the presentation of university-level courses and lectures to the public. This has been a phase of liberal, nonvocational tradition, aiming at personal fulfilment and enlightened discussion. Despite open access to these programmes, low fees and efforts to encourage a wider support, there has been very little response from the working class, African or "Coloured" communities. Following consultation with community groups and strenuous fund-raising efforts, the Centre launched a series of community education projects in the mid-1970's, some of which were managed initially by the Centre. In 1979 the University established a Chair of Adult Education and the first Diploma Course for the Educators of Adults was launched in 1980. From this point the Centre saw its community function as part of a broad programme of providing University-based professional education and support for adult educators and community workers in an indirect mode. The study has attempted first, to show how each of these phases, acquired in an historical sequence, is rooted in a previous phase; is reactive to previous phases or is a critique of them. Secondly, the study examines the problem of a proper balance between the more traditional task of extra-mural programmes and the more recently acquired adult education role. The University's own examination of this question of balance is highlighted together with the constitutional changes that were deemed appropriate in order to promote development of adult education while protecting the older tradition against radical change or diminution. Thirdly, the study shows that the staff of the Centre have to maintain an uneasy equilibrium between the academic acceptability of their programmes to the University on the one hand, and the relevance of those programmes to communities in a fractured society on the other. Finally, the study concludes that while the major constitutional and policy changes of 1903, 1949 and 1982 were appropriate responses to changes of circumstance, there was not the same degree of recognition of the need for adequate resources to meet the challenges of the vast and unmapped area of adult education in South Africa.
Open Access
Institutional accountability : a phenomenon examined through a case study located within University of the Western Cape, 1987-1989
(1989) Raynham, Sarah-Anne; Millar, Clive
The dissertation sets out the perspectives and terms of the study as a frame for an empirically-based inquiry into the phenomenon of institutional accountability. The inquiry is conducted through a naturalistic case study located within the University of the Western Cape (UWC) between November 1987 and July 1989. The case study is understood to be an indeterminate product of contextual and historical circumstances. The contexts of the case are presented through chronological description of the environment of educational practice within UWC and through focusing on the viewpoints of seventeen university office holders. The contexts of analysis are presented as five positions on institutional accountability held as valid for 1987-1988, and as a field of discourse located within the Western Cape for the period 1986-1989. The aims of the study are firstly, to resolve in authentic case study practice the problems of scientific justification and of providing access to the social, cognitive and cultural processes of the Inquiry. Secondly, the aims are directed towards generating ideas and hypotheses, through examining the meanings of the phenomena under study, which could be used and examined by educators in relation to their own circumstances and contexts. There is no presentation of findings or recommendations. The study achieves its aims through explicit presentation of assumptions, propositions and arguments contextualized within the body of the dissertation.
Open Access
Investigating popular writing : the theory and the practice
(1989) Schuster, C R; Millar, Clive
This dissertation attempts to illustrate and analyse the theory and the practice of popular writing in South Africa. Within this study popular writing is seen as an example of innovative educational practice, attempting to establish creative alternatives to traditional, hierarchical knowledge-production. This subject has been chosen for investigation as it is seen as an important integral part of an alternative educational focus, which has come about due to oppositional "popular" pressure questioning and challenging hegemonic control of educational structures. The first part of the dissertation constitutes an analysis of the theoretical debate characterising popular writing in South Africa. It attempts to highlight the problems and tensions inherent in the defined purpose of popular writing, as well as investigate the realisable potential of that purpose. The second part of the dissertation focusses on the practice of popular writing. The INTERNATIONAL LABOUR RESEARCH AND INFORMATION GROUP has been chosen as an illuminative case study of popular writing practice. An attempt is made within this section at a fusion between theory and practice evidencing both tensions and points of agreement. The conclusion highlights the problematic nature of this research as it essentially focusses on "work-in-progress" and therefore constitutes too static a framework for realistic, up-to-date analysis. The need for further research is emphasised, focussing especially on the most important and most complex element in popular writing: the readership.
Open Access
The Langa enrichment programme : a study of students' perceptions of the performance of the programme, undertaken to improve its functioning
(1993) Ismail, Salma; Millar, Clive
This study focuses on the Langa Enrichment Programme an educational support programme for black students studying under the Department of Education and Training in the Cape Peninsula. The study aimed to determine students' reasons for attending the programme, their perceptions of its strengths and weaknesses and their recommendations for improvements. Student expectations of the programme and reasons for the high dropout rate especially amongst Standard Nine and female students were explored. To contextualise the study and to give further insights into student views a brief summary of the apartheid education crisis is given. Educational support programmes are reviewed as is liberalism's response to the crisis in education and the history and culture of the South African Institute of Race Relations. The methodology used was two-fold: self-administered questionnaires to 126 Standard 10 Mathematics students and a series of focus group interviews with small groups of students. The findings may be summed up as follows. Students were generally positive towards the teachers, teaching methods and administration of the programme. They requested that teachers should teach and complete the syllabus, emphasizing exam questions, revision and scientific experiments, and explore alternative small group teaching with critical discussions. Students also requested a comprehensive career guidance programme, bursary information and increased financial assistance. Students expressed a reluctance to pay fees and this, coupled with increasing requests for financial and educational supp01t, raises the issue of welfarism on the programme. Reasons for the high dropout rate amongst Standard Nines included that they write an internal examination. Social pressures from boyfriends and peer groups and regarding clothes were given as reasons for female students dropping out of the programme. The students appear to determine the direction of the school in that as a result of their demands the programme has changed from an enrichment programme to a compensatory one. Recommendations in the concluding chapter of this study are that the Enrichment Programme should draw up clearer policy guidelines in conjunction with staff and students; liaison with DET secondary schools, tertiary institutions and other enrichment programmes should be improved; career guidance programmes linked to bursary information should be implemented; bursaries and other incentives should be linked to attendance and academic performance on the programme; a full time co-ordinator should be employed.
Open Access
Student nurse perceptions : a case study to illuminate the perceptions developed by student nurses which result in absenteeism as the behaviour of choice in response to difficulties in their educational programme
(1990) Heighway, Valerie; Millar, Clive
The problem which prompted the undertaking of this study was that of increasing absenteeism amongst student nurses at one South African Nursing College. The information, obtained from individual and group interviews, was analysed to identify the perceptions developed by student nurses. Absenteeism is shown to be a behavioural response to environmental and other factors in the world of the student nurse. A theoretical model is proposed to explain three main types of absenteeism and the factors which contribute to absenteeism and attendance.
Open Access
Understanding teachers' authority in Black schools in chronic crisis
(1989) Petje, Mallele Ian; Millar, Clive
Black schooling has been plunged into deep crisis following persistent political and ideological assertiveness by users' against the intransigent State. Assertive practices in the State black secondary schools climaxed with the refusal by students to sit for examinations. Accompanying these assertive practices were the disintegration of order and the alarming failure rate, all of which put teachers in the midst of accusations from both the State and some users. The State blamed teachers for disorderliness, the lack of discipline of students and for not doing their work efficiently. Some users accused teachers of incompetency and often of sustaining the State hegemony. Teachers, however, redirected the accusations at the State for its authoritarianism. These labellings reflect the impact the interminable education crisis has had on teachers working within State schools which are the site of race and class struggle. The crisis bears heavily and negatively on teachers' authority to an extent where some scholars highlight that teachers have become professionally dysfunctional and have since lost authority (see below). The study takes these charges seriously and is geared towards understanding teachers' authority within the context of South African education system whose bias favours white, in particular Afrikaner supremacy and the domination of the ruling classes. This could mean that teachers' authority is either a creation of this supremacy/domination and its maintenance or a product of resistance towards such domination. In order to test this theoretical supposition, particular attention was given towards understanding the significance of teachers' authority, its social bases, the way it is exercised and its stability or instability in the context of the current education crisis. What came to light was the fact that teachers exercised a form of authority predetermined by the State whilst at the same time there were attempts to move away from that practice and establish an alternative authority. The new form of authority was interpreted as being influenced by an ideology whose ultimate aim was to transform the imposed status quo. The conclusions were that teachers' authority remained in crisis as did the schools, due to teachers' work which either conflicted with the educational policy or which propped up the system in the face of insurmountable resistance from users. It was suggested that teachers are likely to thrive in the crisis if they were able to collectively amass political professional power in alliance with the community to engage in counter-hegemony.
Open Access
University involvement in adult worker education
(1984) Morphet, Anthony Richard; Millar, Clive
The presented dissertation studies the character and conditions of university-based engagements in the field of adult worker education. In procedure, the study is a contextualized case presentation and analysis of a worker education project initiated at the University of Cape Town in 1981. The contexts of the case are presented through a historical assessment of worker education in Britain and South Africa; and through a consideration of the social forces operating in the field of contemporary South African labour organization. The argument of the dissertation is that educational events are constituted by social and historical forces. In order to grasp the meaning and significance of events within an educational field analysis of the educational practice through the use of social and historical frameworks is required. The aims, and conclusions, of the study are directed towards understanding the relations between the educational curricula and the social purposes of the participants. The findings of the study concern, in the first instance, the continuation and forms of the Cape Town project. Their wider relevance is discussed in terms of the ways in which nonformal educational curricula operate as codes through which broader social goals and interests are given specific forms of purpose and action. The implications of the concept of the curriculum as a coded social process are detailed with reference to educational design, planning and evaluation.

Browsing by Author "Millar, Clive"

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