Suchergebnisse

According to Habermas, the contemporary public sphere is post-secular. In other words, the continuing presence of religious communities within a secular society is indisputable. However, the significance of this is not entirely clear, despite intensive discussion by social scientists, journalists, policymakers and politicians regarding the role of religion in the public sphere. Understanding contemporary religious phenomena requires serious academic and public engagement. Drawing on theoretical approaches from sociology (Max Weber), philosophy (John Rawls) and religious studies (Abdulkader Ta

The quality of an education system and the quality of its teachers and teaching are interconnected. Learning to teach and teach meaningfully and equitably is a core priority of education reforms. In this article we reflect on what the process of learning to teach might mean for teachers in an education system. We ask how and to what extent initial teacher education mitigates and reduces education inequities. In particular, we examine the relationship between teaching practice as a core component of initial teacher education and education inequities. The article draws on data examining the nature of student teachers' experiences of teaching practice in the Western Cape of South Africa. We argue that the data illustrates that teaching practice does indeed invest future teachers with pedagogic authority. As such, it does indeed legitimate the position of student teachers in the classroom and within the education system, albeit with varying and differentiated outcomes for equity.






Zahraa McDonald, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Email: zahraamcdonald@hotmail.com
Yusuf Sayed, University of Sussex and Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Email: sayed.cite@gmail.com
Tarryn de Kock, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), South Africa. Email: tarryngabidekock@gmail.com
Nimi Hoffmann, University of Sussex and Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Email: nimi.hoffmann@gmail.com

In an important scholarly intervention on African publics, Raufu Mustapha argues that the multiplicity of publics is not an obstacle but instead a creative resource that can be used to forge common purpose through public deliberation. However, he does not elaborate how common purpose operates and to what effect. In this article, we examine the dynamics of common purpose among student teachers in South Africa. Teachers inculcate the dispositions and habits of public deliberation in young people. How teachers are trained and where they teach is therefore crucial to understanding the constitution of publics. We analyse data from a cohort of student teachers regarding their reasons for becoming teachers, their future plans and their anxieties about their profession. We find little evidence of race and class differences among student teachers. Instead, the evidence suggests that student teachers shared a common purpose informed by hyper-particularistic notions of the public, which was not only raced and classed, but also limited to a narrow understanding of their own community. In light of this, we seek to explain how policy contributes to the conditions under which common purpose leads to segregated publics, closing off the generative possibilities of multiple publics.