The Teacher protest movement in Lebowa : 1989-1992

Abstract

This study was carried out in Lebow a Bantustan, situated in the Northern Transvaal Region of the Republic of South Africa. This study covered the period 1989 to 1992. This period was marked by considerable unrest and upheaval in Black education. The Black education crisis was compounded by a political climate created by the unbanning of political parties, release of political prisoners and the return of exiles in 1990, whereby several petitions for demands were handed over to the LED's Head Office and Circuit Offices, among others, by teachers (LED Annual Report, 1990: 20). The following factors were, inter alia, identified as having contributed to the educational crisis in Lebowa bantustan (LED Annual Report, 1990: 22): - * * * * * * * general campaign waged by some teachers for lawlessness, defiance and intimidation of authority; the influence of external organisations on the schools; backlogs in the provisioning of basic educational facilities; irrelevant school curriculum; teacher's low morale; lack of meaningful parental involvement in education; and limited participative decision-making and management in the schools. The mentioned factors aroused dissatisfaction and discontent among teachers. Furthermore, teachers considered education provided by the LED as perpetuating apartheid, characterised by vast disparities and uneven distribution of resources. The protesting teachers started to share this discontent. In the words of Jenkins and Perrow (1977: 250) when widespread and shared discontent increases, collective efforts to alleviate this state of affairs occur. In the case of protesting teachers the South African Democratic Teachers' Union was founded. The focus of this study, therefore, will be to describe and analyze the occurrences and effects of teacher protest activities in Lebowa for the period between 1989 and 1992. The more specific research questions will concern: * Socio-political, administrative, demographic, physical, financial and educational conditions existed, in which a teacher protest movement could take root. These factors aroused discontent and a resultant general belief among some teachers that the education received by blacks was inferior; * Transformation of collective beliefs into collective actions and mobilisation. * Teachers became convinced that movement participation was an effective way of redressing grievances. As such SADTU attempted to mobilise consensus among the protesting teachers. Consensus mobilisation was done through the aid of frame alignment processes (e.g. bridging, amplification and transformation) and four group processes (e.g. consciousness-raising, collective empowerment, polarisation and collective decision-making). The latter created a willingness to sacrifice personal welfare for a collective cause; and the impact of teacher protest activities on the Lebowa government, the LED's official duties, pupil/student performances and the parents. Not only did the disruptions and protests retard the learning process in schools, but also contributed towards the poor std 10 examination results. The LED officials were adversely affected by these actions. Some teachers and principals were intimidated and threatened (Case Register no's: 123/11/91 at Police stations and 48/10/92 at Gompies Police Station). Protesting teachers advocated for defiance campaigns against LED's authorities, inspectors and principals (TUATA, 1990: 26). Parents and community at large lost trust and confidence in the teachers for the education of their children.