Student or educator? Sign up with your school email and get 6 months of Pro free.
CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 41Educational Theory and Curriculum StudiesGlobal Educational Policies and ReformsEducation in Diverse Contexts

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

The Persistence of South African Educational Inequalities: The Need for Understanding and Relying on Analytical Frameworks

Open access
De Clercq, Francine·2020·Education as Change
DOI 10.25159/1947-9417/7234
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

It is acknowledged that educational inequalities persist in South Africa 25 years after the advent of democracy in 1994, but the debate about the causes and solutions to poor education performance continues. Could the education system be fundamentally improved and mitigate somewhat the socio-economic inequalities from one generation to another? This article argues that the debate will benefit from the use of theoretical frameworks about the role of education in society, especially since many analyses do not engage explicitly with theories. This article summarises the theoretical debates to remind scholars about the need to compare and explore the arguments of different theoretical paradigms on the role of education and assist sociology of education teaching. It concludes with analytical examples, which argue that the best explanatory power comes from the post-structuralist theoretical position.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.25159/1947-9417/7234

Cites

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

No references could be resolved yet.

Research works printed but not linked: 39

  1. Allais, S., Y. Shalem, and A Cooper. 2019. "Rupturing or Reinforcing Inequality? The Role of Education in South Africa Today". Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa 101 (1): 105-26.
  2. Bourdieu, P. 1979. "Symbolic Power". Critique of Anthropology 9 (13-14): 77-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X7900401307. · DOI
  3. Bowles, S. 1972. "Schooling and Inequality from Generation to Generation". Journal of Political Economy 80 (3): 219-51. https://doi.org/10.1086/259996. · DOI
  4. Carrim, N. 2011. "Modes of Participation and Conceptions of Children in South African Education". Perspectives in Education 29 (1): 74-82.
  5. Chisholm, L., S. Motala, and S. Vally, eds. 2003. South African Education Policy Review: 1993-2000. Johannesburg: Heinemann.
  6. Christie, P. 2001. "Improving School Quality in South Africa: A Study of Schools That Have Succeeded against the Odds". Journal of Education 26: 40-65.
  7. Christie, P., and C. Collins. 1982. "Bantu Education: Apartheid Ideology or Labour Reproduction?" Comparative Education 18 (1): 59-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305006820180107. · DOI
  8. De Clercq, F. 2010. "Meta-Analysis of South African Education Policy Studies: How Have We Fared So Far and What Needs to Be Expanded?" Journal of Education 49: 91-112.
  9. De Clercq, F. 2013. "Professionalism in SA Education: The Challenges of Developing Professional Knowledge, Practice, Identity and Voices". Journal of Education 57: 31-54.
  10. DoE (Department of Education). 2003. Ministerial Review Report of School Governance in South African Public Schools. Pretoria: DoE.
  11. Elmore, R. 2005. "Agency, Reciprocity, and Accountability in Democratic Education". In The Institutions of American Democracy: The Public Schools, edited by S. Fuhrman and M. Lazerson, 277-301. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  12. Engelbrecht, P., M. Nel, S. Smit, and M. van Deventer. 2016. "The Idealism of Education Policies and the Realities in Schools: The Implementation of Inclusive Education in South Africa". International Journal of Inclusive Education 20 (5): 520-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2015.1095250. · DOI
  13. EE (Equal Education). 2018. "2018 Year in Review". Equal Education, December 5. Accessed October 22, 2020. https://equaleducation.org.za/2018/12/05/equal-education-a-year-in- review/.
  14. Fleisch, B. 2006. "Bureaucratic Accountability in the Education Action Zones of South Africa". South African Journal of Education 26 (3): 369-82.
  15. Heystek, J. 2011. "School Governing Bodies in South African Schools: Under Pressure to Enhance Democratization and Improve Quality". Educational Management Administration and Leadership 39 (4): 455-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143211406149. · DOI
  16. Hirsch, A. 2005. Season of Hope: Economic Reform under Mandela and Mbeki. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
  17. Jansen, J. D. 2002. "Political Symbolism as Policy Craft: Explaining Non-Reform in South African Education after Apartheid". Journal of Education Policy 17 (2): 199-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930110116534. · DOI
  18. Jansen, J. D. 2003. Review of South African Education Policy Review, 1993-2000, by C. Chisholm, S. Motala, and S. Vally. Education as Change 7 (2): 169-70.
  19. Makoelle, T. M. 2012. "The State of Inclusive Pedagogy in South Africa: A Literature Review". Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology 3 (2): 93-102. https://doi.org/10.1080/09766634.2012.11885569. · DOI
  20. Moore, R. 2004. Education and Society: Issues and Explorations in the Sociology of Education. Cambridge: Polity.
  21. Motala, S., and D. Carel. 2019. "Educational Funding and Equity in South African Schools". In South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality: A Study of the Present Situation and Future Possibilities, edited by N. Spaull and J. Jansen, 67-85. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18811-5_4. · DOI
  22. Pretorius, E. J., and N. Spaull. 2016. "Exploring Relationships between Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension amongst English Second Language Readers in South Africa". Reading and Writing 29: 1449-471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9645-9. · DOI
  23. Psacharopoulos, G. 1994. "Returns to Investment in Education-A Global Update". World Development Update 22 (9): 1325-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(94)90007-8. · DOI
  24. Pudi, T. 2006. "From OBE to C2005 to RNCS: Are We Still on Track?" Africa Education Review 3 (1-2): 100-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146620608540445. · DOI
  25. Rogan, J. M., and D. J. Grayson. 2003. "Towards a Theory of Curriculum Implementation with Particular Reference to Science Education in Developing Countries". International Journal of Science Education 5 (10): 1171-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690210145819. · DOI
  26. RSA (Republic of South Africa). 1996. South African Schools Act, 1996. Government Gazette Vol. 377, No. 17579. Cape Town: Government Printers. Accessed October 22, 2020. https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/act84of1996.pdf.
  27. Sayed, Y. 2002. "Democratising Education in a Decentralised System: South African Policy and Practice". Compare 32 (1): 35-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057920120116517. · DOI
  28. Sayed, Y., and S. Motala. 2012. "Equity and 'No Fee' Schools in South Africa: Challenges and Prospects". Social Policy and Administration 46 (6): 672-87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9515.2012.00862.x. · DOI
  29. Shalem, Y., and F. De Clercq. 2019. "Teacher Development and Inequality in South Africa: Do We Now Have a Theory of Change". In South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality: A Study of the Present Situation and Future Possibilities, edited by N. Spaull and J. Jansen, 243-61. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18811-5_13. · DOI
  30. Shalem, Y., and U. Hoadley. 2009. "The Dual Economy of Schooling and Teacher Morale in South Africa". International Studies in Sociology of Education 19 (2): 119-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620210903257224. · DOI
  31. Spaull, N., and J. Jansen, eds. 2019. South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality: A Study of the Present Situation and Future Possibilities. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18811-5. · DOI
  32. Taylor, N. 2007. "Equity, Efficiency and the Development of South African Schools". In International Handbook of School Effectiveness and School Improvement, edited by T. Townsend, 523-40. Dordrecht: Springer.
  33. Taylor, N. 2019. "Inequalities in Teacher Knowledge in South Africa". In South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality: A Study of the Present Situation and Future Possibilities, edited by N. Spaull and J. Jansen, 263-82. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18811-5_14. · DOI
  34. Taylor, N., and P. Vinjevold. 1999. Getting Learning Right. Cape Town: Pearson Education Publishers.
  35. Thrupp, M. 2001. "Sociological and Political Concerns about School Effectiveness Research: Time for a New Research Agenda". School Effectiveness and School Improvement 12 (1): 7-40. https://doi.org/10.1076/sesi.12.1.7.3459. · DOI
  36. Van der Berg, S., C. Burger, R. Burger, M. de Vos, G. du Rand, M. Gustafsson, E. Moses, D. L. Shepherd, N. Spaull, S. Taylor, H. van Broekhuizen, and D. von Fintel. 2011a. "Low Quality Education as a Poverty Trap". University of Stellenbosch, Department of Economics Research report for the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD) project for the Presidency. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2973766. · DOI
  37. Van der Berg, S., N. Spaull, G. Wills, M. Gustafsson, J. Kotze. 2016. Identifying Binding Constraints in Education: Synthesis Report for the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD). Research on Socio-Economic Policy, Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2906945. · DOI
  38. Van der Berg, S., and M. Gustafsson. 2019. "Educational Outcomes in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Signs of Progress Despite Great Inequality". In South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality: A Study of the Present Situation and Future Possibilities, edited by J. Jansen and N. Spaull, 25-45. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18811- 5_2. · DOI
  39. Walton, E., N. Nel, A. Hugo, and H. Muller. 2009. "The Extent and Practice of Inclusion in Independent Schools in South Africa". South African Journal of Education 29: 105-26. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v29n1a234. · DOI

Cited by

See all 41

Metadata

Authors
De Clercq, F.
Venue
Education as Change
Publisher
UNISA Press
Published
2020-11-19
Volume
24
ISSN
  • 1682-3206 (ISSN-L)
  • 1947-9417
DOI
10.25159/1947-9417/7234
OpenAlex
W3108356466
Cited by
41
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2
FWCI
4.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
Education as Change (publishedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Global Educational Policies and Reforms
  • Social Sciences › Education › Education in Diverse Contexts
Keywords
educational inequality, South African education, education and society, theoretical paradigms, poststructuralism, socioeconomic disparities, academic performance, post-apartheid education

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Persistence of South African Educational Inequalities: The Need for Understanding and Relying on Analytical Frameworks. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.25159/1947-9417/7234
The paper
De Clercq, F. (2020). The Persistence of South African Educational Inequalities: The Need for Understanding and Relying on Analytical Frameworks. Education as Change. https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/7234