Educational Politics in the Transition Period

The article discursively analyses certain dynamics, themselves related to and indeed shaped by developments and debates within the broader political arena, within the education sphere between February 1990 and late 1993. Four issues in particular are singled out for special consideration: the character and trajectory of educational contestation during the first four years of the transition; the changing nature of the educational objectives and strategies of key progressive educational movements; the vibrant debate within South Africa around state and civil society and how this has shaped shifts in the thinking and strategy of progressive educational movements and, finally, the question of policy formation and the important debate as to whether equality or development ought to constitute the essential point of departure for policy formation for educational transformation.