Every Generation Has Its Struggle: Learning in the Context of a Social Movement for Education Equality in South Africa

• In Event: Social Movements, Learning Sciences, and Possibilities for Transformation

Abstract

Purpose
Although it has become a truism in learning sciences research that we must understand and study learning in context, the question of which contexts to foreground and how to conceptualize the relationship between contexts, learning environments, and human agency varies widely. In this poster we examine “The Struggle” as a context for learning in a contemporary South African social movement for educational justice. Our objective is to make visible the ways in which contemporary youth activists wove histories of The Struggle (the South African anti-apartheid movement) into their work to build a social movement.

Perspectives
Current theories of civic or political learning are limited because they do not conceptualize learning and development at the proper scale. When selecting sites for research they tend to privilege classrooms rather than networks, or discrete action projects rather than social movements. This may in part reflect the preponderance of research in the global north, where youth participation in mass social movements is associated with the 1960s rather than today. Countries such as Chile, Tunisia, or South Africa, however, are hosts to vibrant mass movements led by young people focused on educational equity and political rights. In this paper we draw on social movement and frame theory (Benford & Snow, 2006; Srivastava, 2010) to examine the role of historical narratives in the construction of an educational social movement, primarily among Black youth and parents, in South Africa called Equal Education (EE).

Methods and Data Sources
Claims are based on data collected during 18 months of ethnographic and archival research, including field notes from meetings with youth, interviews with youth leaders, organization documents, newspapers, and historical analyses. Data analysis followed a sequence of memos, systematic iterative coding, research team discussions, and member checks.

Results
Members of EE drew on narratives about and references to The Struggle as tools for organizing and learning. For example, EE claimed the ongoing relevance of struggle to gain political legitimacy in a national context where the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s governing party and the leader of the anti-apartheid movement, remains beloved by the majority of Black South Africans. Members of EE framed issues and their work as a continuation of, rather than departure from, the Struggle.

We also observed the construction of historical narratives in EE’s approach to political education, including discussing original texts from the anti-apartheid movement as a way of bridging past and present.

The creation and singing of songs at meetings and rallies was another example of the effort to find continuity with the Struggle. The songs often appropriated old melodies from “struggle songs” and add new lyrics written by youth.

Significance
This work is important for the broader learning sciences field because it shows the role of historical and political context in young people’s learning to become activists. Social movements in the Global South offer powerful contexts for learning that depart from neoliberal assumptions that reduce learning and education to individual achievement or access to material wealth.

Authors

• Ben R. Kirshner, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Tafadzwa Tivaringe, Equal Education