Workplace literacy practices of clerks in the South African Police Services (SAPS)

Adonis, Bernice

Workplace literacy practices of clerks in the South African Police Services (SAPS)

Master Thesis

2019

Abstract

This thesis examines the patterning of literacy practices of clerks in the South African Police Services (SAPS) and how power relations are perpetuated through institutional structures and associated divisions of workplace tasks, within a workplace like SAPS. An ethnographic-style case study approach was used to examine the literacy practices of three clerks at three different SAPS sites. The data collected included participant observations, interviews, analysis of texts and photographs of documents. The data was then analysed using thematic analysis and discourse analysis. The qualitative data analysis indicated fragmentation of literacy tasks into “bits and pieces” reflecting the “old” capitalism of the traditional workplace. The fragmentation of the clerks’ literacy tasks also resonated with the decontextualized, skillsbased approach of literacy and language curricula and pedagogies that still dominate formal education and literacy learning. Furthermore, it would appear as if the literacy tasks were used as mechanisms to regiment workers since the paper trail served as a means of accountability for compliancy. The problem was compounded by the disjuncture between what is prescribed by SAPS language policy and what was happening in practice, namely, that English is the only “working language” used by SAPS in all official documents despite its claim to facilitate “functional multilingualism” (in Government Gazette, 8 March 2016). Thus, the study concludes that SAPS work-based literacy practices, like the literacy and language practices of the schooling system, are not conducive to producing students and workers who could apply critical and holistic thinking to make sense of disparate literacy tasks. Hence, the patterning of the literacy practices within the workplace serves to perpetuate institutionalized power in a context where needs for compliancy and accountability are high. The study points to the importance of the development of a language and literacy curriculum in the training of members of SAPS that is a hybridization of principles of the skills based and social practices approaches, especially where critical literacy skills still have to be honed. It argues that enabling workers to fulfil tasks with a more holistic understanding of the nature of their work could improve their efficiency, effectiveness and work satisfaction. Clarity, and I daresay, the political will, around the implementation of the prescribed “additive multilingualism” would go a long way to challenging the hegemony of English in powerful institutions of the state.

Keywords

education

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