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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Structured literacy practices: towards capacity building in selected communities in the Western Cape |
Authors: | Mai, Magdaline Mbong Bidandi, Fred |
Year: | 2012 |
Periodical: | International Journal of African Renaissance Studies (ISSN 1818-6874) |
Volume: | 7 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 129-144 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | capacity building NGO education xenophobia |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18186874.2012.699936 |
Abstract: | A community without relevant information or public sensitivity to participation in fostering a sense of personal environmental responsibility and greater motivation towards achieving personal goals, becomes problematic. Using poststructuralist theory, this article takes a qualitative approach to analyse discourses and people's reaction to an 'insecure' environment within South African communities. It examines organizations which provide support to empower communities through education in Cape Town, specifically ARESTA in the suburb of Athlone, and the Whole World Women Association (WWWA) in Salt River. One assumption here is that people gain knowledge about themselves, their environment and others around them, if they are empowered. The focus is on educational schemes and activities that communities and organizations undertake to challenge, accept and negotiate their ideological positions. The inventiveness and responses of the organizations considered, through the local communities and pupils, are therefore significant as they enable an understanding of the challenges encountered in democratic South Africa, including the causes of xenophobia. Ultimately, the consequences of ignorance about one's environment are detrimental to both neighbouring communities and people at large. The local communities considered expressed this sentiment while implicating the government's role in depriving its people of vital socio-cultural and politico-economic information. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract] |