The impact of South Africa's new educational expectations on Mamelodi teachers role perceptions

Abstract

The main aim of the study is to investigate black teachers’ perceptions about their role in Mamelodi a township east of Pretoria. It argues that policy changes at macro level, that do not take into account the school and classroom settings, do not lead to a proper understanding of their implications and, subsequently an improvement of classroom practice. Findings are drawn from the accounts of twenty teachers from the primary and secondary sectors. The study concludes that even though teachers were using the terminology related to new policy expectations when talking about change, they were unaware of the essential skills related to such expectations. As a result they failed to appreciate what is required to develop the proposed critical skills for the learners. The teachers’ understanding of the new curriculum policy is limited. The study recommends that for effective implementation relevant preset and inset programmes need to be provided. Key words. Mamelodi, teaching-practice, role perception, policy, consciousness.