Working-Class High School Learners' Challenge to Change: Insights from the "Equal Education" Movement in South Africa

• Published in: Education as change Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 145 - 162
• Main Authors: Robins, Steven Lance, Fleisch, Brahm
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Education as Change 01-01-2016; Unisa Press
• Subjects: Case Studies; College Students; Educational Change; Educational History; Educational Improvement; Educational Quality; Equal Education; Foreign Countries; Humanities, Multidisciplinary; learning power; Organizations (Groups); Public Education; Secondary School Students; Semi Structured Interviews; Social Action; Social Change; social movements; Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary; Working Class; South Africa; Educational change; learning power; social movements
• ISSN: 1682-3206; 1947-9417; 1947-9417
• DOI: 10.17159/1947-9417/2016/877

Hargreaves (2002) suggested that vigorous social movements have the potential to improve the quality of (and increase the equity in) public education. This paper explores the role of Equal Education, an education social movement in South Africa led by university students and secondary school learners, in the process of educational change. Drawing on interviews with the organisation's founding members, organisers and secondary school learners, the paper examines how the organisation/social movement embodies what Oakes and Rogers (2007) describe as "learning power" and in the process contribute to improvement in public education.