The Western canon in a multicultural education system for South Africa
Date
2014-05-28
Authors
Meyer, Beryl Patricia
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Abstract
This report confronts the issue of the globalisation of European culture and its
significance for the Western canon in South African education. It considers the difficulty
of defending the canon as cultural resource for a local minority while avoiding the
imposition of the globally dominant Anglophone culture on all South Africans.
It is argue-d that whatever in the canon can be freely accepted as advancing the interests
of all South Africans should qualify for inclusion in a common curriculum, but that other
canonical works should be regarded as minority culture in the same way as aspects of
traditional African culture. An attempt is made to establish a perspective from which
Africanism and the defence of the canon can be seen as congruent and compatible aims,
equally deserving of accommodation within a multicultural curriculum.