While reading Stephen Grootes’ article, “The politics of navigating the English Language”, I became increasingly annoyed. In a country with 11 official languages why are we overly concerned with how well people speak English? Grootes’ article looks at prominent political leaders and how they fair when presenting themselves in English. The unintended consequence of writing […]
Athambile Masola
A teacher in Johannesburg.Interested in education,feminism and sometimes a bit of politics (with a small letter p).
Posted inEquality
Education reform: Raising the floor or raising the ceiling?
“Wealthy parents choose [private schools] for their children, at least in part, as a risk-management strategy. If you look at the list of successful [private school] alumni, you’ll see some impressive names on it … but for a school that has been producing highly-privileged graduates for many years, it boasts very few world changers. Traditionally, […]
Posted inEquality, General
On being mis-recognised: Julian Hewitt and the angry black woman
People think I’m an angry black woman. People who know me well, know that this is a misrecognition of me. I’m a nice person. I hate foot-in-mouth interactions: that awkward moment when someone says something they shouldn’t have said, and someone else has to salvage the situation or we all walk away. I save face. […]
Posted inEquality, General
Education: What’s the point of it all?
A few weeks ago, I read an article to my grade 11 students with the headline “Youth unemployment in South Africa – apartheid is alive and well”. My students are usually opinionated when it comes to certain issues, but not this time. They walked out of the classroom in silence. I noticed their quizzical looks […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The problem with being previously disadvantaged
“But we’re not previously disadvantaged … we’re not underprivileged” my students tried to reason with me recently. We were talking about school issues and the issue of the school’s identity came up. I teach at a fairly new school in Cape Town which has been dubbed as a maths and science-focused school for students from […]
Posted inGeneral
Reimagining dialogue
I used to love going to church. Growing up in a traditional black Methodist Church meant that for each service I knew what to expect. People would arrive 15 minutes before church began, wait in the pews silently or sing a few hymns while we waited for the choir to usher in the preacher for […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
#Bringbackourgirls, Lwandle, Gaza and detaching from this world
It started with the #Bringbackourgirls campaign. I hadn’t followed the story closely, but when I read articles to make sense of what had happened, I couldn’t make sense of it. I tried to imagine people coming into my school and taking away the students and there being no sense of security or outcry. I tried […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Where you from Van Damme?
“Every black African everywhere is rightly or wrongly perceived to originate — a contentious concept in itself — from somewhere. Almost overwhelmingly that somewhere is consensually assumed, indeed believed, to be an idyllic village perched somewhere far away in rural crevices. Even today, when someone asks you in the city, or at a dinner table […]
Posted inEquality, General
Thank you Maya Angelou
I found out about Maya Angelou’s passing from a new friend while visiting Uganda. Access to the internet was sporadic and I hadn’t checked Twitter for a glimpse of what was happening in the world. When he told me I slapped him on the arm (a terrible reflex I have when I’m shocked or angry) […]
Posted inEquality, Media
Lines of privilege
“I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.” These are the words that played over and over in my mind while I was at the Franschhoek Literary Festival (FLF) this past weekend. Two friends and I attended two sessions on the festival’s final […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The EFF ‘hooligans’ in Parliament…
“Who are these idiots who voted for the ANC and the EFF?” I heard this question in passing while the election results were trickling in. The aftermath of the elections has been focused on a few issues but I would like to focus on these two: – Does the EFF have what it takes to […]
Posted inEquality
On teaching ‘creatures’
For the past two months I’ve been writing about the lives of teachers and their students from across the globe (for a project called #TeacherTuesday). All these stories have been highlighting the complexities in classrooms and policies that often underpin what happens in the classroom. Most of the reflections I’ve written for #TeacherTuesday have largely […]