A New History of Formal Schooling in South Africa 1658–1910: An Education of Contradictions. Crain Soudien, Charlotte Fischer, Michael Cross and Peter Kallaway

A New History of Formal Schooling in South Africa 1658–1910: An Education of Contradictions is the first attempt to put together a history of South African schooling from the perspective of this country’s subjugated people. It seeks to make the point that education and schooling were an essentially European imposition and ideological project of domination. The subjugated, however, regularly turned this to their advantage for individual and social advancement.

The book presents how schooling developed against the socio-political canvas of its time. It shows how schooling was implicated in making modern South Africa, and particularly in the deep forms of inequality that have taken shape and formed around questions of race and class. The text is distinctive in its attempt to recover the voice of those who were subjugated.

A New History of Formal Schooling in South Africa 1658–1910: An Education of Contradictions begins with the establishment of the first school in 1658 and ends with the period building up to the Union of South Africa in 1910.

The narrative is based firstly on the Dutch period up to 1806, followed by the period of British rule leading to the determinative events of the discovery of gold and diamonds. This is followed by the process of putting in place the elements of the 1910 Union after the South African War (1899–1902.

This book will be of immediate interest to academics, scholars and students in the wider education community, including universities. It will also be of immediate value for policymakers who seek to understand the educational contexts within which they work.

Full title: A New History of Formal Schooling in South Africa 1658–1910      

Subtitle: An Education of Contradictions

Authors: Crain Soudien, Charlotte Fischer, Michael Cross and Peter Kallaway

Publication: HSRC Press

ISBN: 978-0-7969-2680-7

Format: 240 x 168mm

Extent: 296pp

Price: R395