Teachers’ knowledge of legislation and education law specifically and its influence on their practice

Abstract

This study argues that education law is of paramount importance in order to be a successful teacher in our democracy where human rights of all stakeholders are protected and as such remains the responsibility of government to ensure that all new teachers are trained in the field of education law. This dissertation reports to the significance the participants attach to education law and to their attitudes and their practice in schools. It continues to answer the question whether knowing the legal rules is in fact changing the game on ground level. There are differing perspectives on the exact essence of education law; however, there seems to be consensus in the literature that the fundamental function of education law is to regulate the rights and obligations of the interested parties in order to make the school conducive for teaching and learning. The education law functionally contributes to the creation of harmonizing relationships and ensuring co-operation amongst all stakeholders. Education law therefore creates a clear framework for the professional role of teachers. The law defines the border of the playfield and actions at stake in the education sector. Education law as module in Higher Education programmes deals with issues that pertain directly to the teaching profession. These include inter alia governance, the Bill of Rights, instructions/regulations, limitations, application of legal principles and expectations regarding the teacher as an employee. It deals with legal applications and the legal balancing of human rights in educational practice. As a result, it is assumed that teachers may feel somewhat overwhelmed by the content of an education law module and its associated outcomes. This dissertation will therefore also deal with the ability of teachers to understand and apply the values that underpin the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Education should lead young citizens towards occupying their place in a democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom. The dissertation argues that insufficient knowledge of education law is impacting negatively on a culture of human rights application in our school system which results that the school system is unsuccessful and do not fulfil its obligations in a democracy. This may result in the DoBE being held accountable for not empowering teachers to develop our young citizens to fulfil their place in our democracy. In light of the impact of education law, this dissertation is essentially divided into three sections:  The first section provides an overview of the issues and challenges of teachers who have had no formal exposure to education law;  The second section focuses on the impact on teachers who have studied education law as part of their teaching qualification, and  The third section seeks to offer policy recommendations as remedy, inter alia to include education law as part of all teachers’ training curricula in South Africa. The legal remedies that this dissertation advocates is that Government should take on their legal responsibilities towards its employees without turning a blind eye on the value crisis in our country. Government is accountable to ensure that each teacher is skilled and have the competencies to apply legal principles and human rights to instil a culture of human rights that is conducive for teaching in our school system.