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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Teacher militancy in the rural northern Transvaal community of Zebediela, 1986-1994 |
Author: | Lekgoathi, Sekibakiba Peter |
Year: | 2007 |
Periodical: | South African Historical Journal |
Issue: | 58 |
Pages: | 226-252 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | teachers trade unions rural areas 1980-1989 1990-1999 |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582470709464751 |
Abstract: | This article explores the reaction of teachers in the northern Transvaal to the conflicting pressures posed by students and the State in the period from 1986 to 1994. Focusing mainly on high-school teachers, it examines the rise of militancy among teachers in Zebediela, a rural community in Lebowa, now part of Limpopo Province. Its main argument is that while petty-bourgeois notions of politically neutral 'professionalism' had a firm grip on rural teachers before the mid-1980s, two main factors explain why a significant number of them became uncharacteristically militant and took radical political positions towards the end of the decade. These are, first, the infusion of younger and politicized teachers into the profession who identified with other workers as they became more 'proletarianized'; and, second, a broader sociopolitical context that provided space to challenge the educational authorities. After the end of the apartheid State, more youthful and politicized teachers joined the more 'progressive' teachers unions, while the older teachers continued to accept the more established associations recognized by the government. The article pays attention to the Transvaal United African Teachers' Association (TUATA), the National Education Union of South Africa (NEUSA), the Northern Transvaal Teachers Union (Nottu) and the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU). Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |