“Good schooling” in a race, gender, and class perspective: The reproduction of inequality at a former Model C school in South Africa

Amy Hiss; Amiena Peck

doi:10.1515/ijsl-2020-2092

Article

“Good schooling” in a race, gender, and class perspective: The reproduction of inequality at a former Model C school in South Africa

Amy Hiss and Amiena Peck

Published/Copyright: August 17, 2020

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From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2020 Issue 264

Abstract

After the first democratic elections in 1994 in South Africa, many Model C schools were opened for Black, Coloured and Indian learners. Model C schools that used to cater solely for White female learners had now entered the democratic period, and while the Cape Town Model C school in our study swiftly became populated with Black middle-class female learners, little was known of other transformations on the ground. In 2016, a protest by Black female learners quickly found favour on Twitter. They claimed that differentiated racialised treatment was directed at them and enshrined in the school’s Code of Conduct (COC). In order to investigate these claims, we employ an intersectional discourse analysis to investigate the 2015 COC prior to the protest, as well as the post-protest 2017 COC. Drawing on theories of social reproduction, cultural capital, symbolic violence and habitus, we endeavour to show how Black learners’ embodied capital and lack of cultural capital ensured their inability to be accommodated at the school. We investigate the outcomes of the COC in terms of empowerment, as measured by equitable school access, and the reproduction of inequality, indicated by the implementation of “school rules” directed at Black female learners whilst maintaining the status of the dominant (White) group of middle-class students. We conclude that analysis of the COC reveals an attempt at cultivating a particular White middle-class womanhood through the guise of “good schooling”.

Keywords: education; Model C school; racism; intersectionality; South Africa

Corresponding author: Amy Hiss, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa, E-mail: 3068511@myuwc.ac.za

Funding source: National Research Foundation

Award Identifier / Grant number: UID: 107534

Funding source: VLIR-UOS-RIP

Award Identifier / Grant number: Project number ZEIN2016RIP2016

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the National Research Foundation (NRF) for their support UID: 107534. We would also like to acknowledge Profs Christopher Stroud and Rodrigo Borba for affording us the opportunity to present our research in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2019 at the Language in Media conference. The conference exposure was indeed fulfilling, and we were able to network with prolific scholars in the field as well as familiarize ourselves with the local culture. I, Amy Hiss, would also like to acknowledge Dr Peck for her encouraging words and guidance during this research journey, she has inspired me in many ways and for that I am grateful. Lastly, we would like to acknowledge the reviewers and editors for their generous input in shaping our article and giving an academic voice to the students’ protest.

Funding: This work was funded by the National Research Foundation (Award Number UID: 107534) and VLIR-UOS-RIP (Project number ZEIN2016RIP2016).

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Published Online: 2020-08-17

Published in Print: 2020-08-27

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2020-2092

Keywords for this article

education; Model C school; racism; intersectionality; South Africa