Civics and citizenship education in post-apartheid South Africa: Pre-service teachers and teacher educator perspectives

Abstract

Research on civics and citizenship education, known as ‘Life Orientation’ or ‘Life Skills’ in post-apartheid South Africa, has shown that this is largely a narrowly conceived disciplinary area at both the policy and larger societal levels. In the field of civics and citizenship education consulting with both current and future educators is important because, to a large extent, they talk from experience and can provide useful suggestions about school programs and curricula.<br/>Employing an open-ended qualitative questionnaire survey this study collected data from 182 South African pre-service teachers regarding their perspectives on civics and citizenship education within South Africa. Further supporting this exploration was interview data from a teacher educator at the same institution. Findings show that participants have varied conceptions about civics and citizenship education, and are critical of current programs regarding this disciplinary area. Participants make thoughtful suggestions about possible next steps if civics and citizenship education is to be relevant to post-apartheid South Africa, which has implications on educators globally.