TY - JOUR
T1 - Institutionalized inequities and the cloak of equality in the South African educational context
AU - Wiseman, Alexander W.
AU - Davidson, Petrina M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the external reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. All inaccuracies remain the responsibility of the authors alone. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The spread of neoliberalism in the South African education system provides a template for ways that regimes co-opt the values of excellence and equality while implementing policies that contradict these values. Specifically, South Africa’s education system is “cloaked” in equality, although institutionalized inequality persists long beyond the end of the Apartheid system. Neoliberal education policies legitimize the expectation that “excellence” (i.e., quality) and “equality” are synonymous, which is what leads to the development of a “cloak of equality.” But, in practice, these equivocations become mutually contradictory, as the South African context suggests. This paper examines selected elements of neoliberalism as they are embedded within the South African education system and connects those elements to the development of a symbolic “cloak of equality” that masks institutionalized inequities within the broader system.
AB - The spread of neoliberalism in the South African education system provides a template for ways that regimes co-opt the values of excellence and equality while implementing policies that contradict these values. Specifically, South Africa’s education system is “cloaked” in equality, although institutionalized inequality persists long beyond the end of the Apartheid system. Neoliberal education policies legitimize the expectation that “excellence” (i.e., quality) and “equality” are synonymous, which is what leads to the development of a “cloak of equality.” But, in practice, these equivocations become mutually contradictory, as the South African context suggests. This paper examines selected elements of neoliberalism as they are embedded within the South African education system and connects those elements to the development of a symbolic “cloak of equality” that masks institutionalized inequities within the broader system.
KW - South Africa
KW - educational equity
KW - institutionalization
KW - neoliberalism
KW - scientization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103159786&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1478210321999197
DO - 10.1177/1478210321999197
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85103159786
VL - 19
SP - 992
EP - 1009
JO - Policy Futures in Education
JF - Policy Futures in Education
SN - 1478-2103
IS - 7
ER -