| Abstract: | This research captures the personal experiences of Black student teachers at the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa, who were asked to write about one significant experience in their schooling careers. About 1,000 such individual stories, collected between 1991 and 1996, were analyzed and recast as broader portraits of Black schooling in South Africa before and after the transition to democracy in 1994. Five major themes were identified in these stories: (1) violence at school, (2) authoritarian climate at school, (3) learning as memorizing, (4) difficulties in schooling related to poverty, and (5) difficulties in schooling related to the language medium. The methodological strategy was influenced by the Dutch school of phenomenological pedagogy that takes the ordinary life-world as a starting point for inquiry. The findings of this research suggest that new education policies, to be effective, must take account of very significant continuities in students' experiences through the political transition. |
