The democratization of schools and the politics of teachers’ work in South Africa

As the South African state begins to democratize, so questions are raised about how this process might be mediated by schools and teachers or how schools’ and teachers’ practices might inform the wider process of social change. This paper explores these issues through an examination of how teachers sought to alter relations of authority and the nature of their work within schools, and how these have interacted with new managerial and state initiatives. It examines the conditions of teachers’ work under apartheid, the challenge to these by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union and the struggles in schools over changing relations of authority and teachers’ work in the crucial transition years of 1990-1997. It argues that alternative conceptions and practices were developed and institutionalized. This paper uses the results of both a 3 year longitudinal study and research conducted on teacher appraisal with the teachers’ union.