a discursive formation that undermined integration at a historically advantaged school in south africa1 DEVikA NAiDOO Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand devika naidoo@wits.ac.za This paper provides an analysis of the extent of integration at a historically advantaged school. A qualitative multi-method case study allowed for in-depth analysis of integration in the school. Bernstein’s theory of code, classification, boundary and power framed the study. Data analysis showed that: racial desegregation was achieved at student and level one staff level and lacking at management and administrative staff level; staffing integration was minimal; institutional culture integration was not evident; social boundaries enacted maintained previous race based power relations; weaker boundaries between instrumental and non-instrumental forms of knowledge legitimised students’ experiences and interests but did not facilitate access to non-instrumental forms of knowledge and thinking; the dominant discursive frame of teachers was one of student deficit. These regularities point to a discursive formation (Foucault, 1977) that undermine integration and would reproduce previous racialised inequalities. Finally, an explanation of the discursive formation is touched on followed by recommendations. keywords: integration, code, boundaries, discourse, discursive formation, regularities introduction While South Africa’s national approach to integration explicitly aims to use education to unify society, studies of the process of integration have overwhelmingly shown that school practices converge to subvert the goal of integration. The process of integration has been described as non-reconstructive and slow (Carter, 2009), as assimilationist — either aggressive, benign or by stealth and not multiculturalist or anti-racist (Soudien, 2004). The longer experience with racial integration in schools in the US is not encouraging. After more than 50 years, schools continue to face challenges with regard to integration, and recently white parents have sued schools to eliminate their racial equity plans. Within schools, the strength of racial boundaries undermines the integration agenda (Carter, 2009). Although South Africa’s apartheid past is still very much alive today, there is a compelling need to open the doors of learning to historically disadvantaged students in terms of access to academic resources, such as non-instrumental forms of knowledge and thinking, a rigorous curriculum, high quality teaching, computers and books, acquiring a questioning, critical and democratic attitude, and a teaching and learning environment that reflects diversity. To determine whether the doors of learning have been opened to historically disadvantaged students and whether all students are being afforded equal opportunities to access socially valued academic resources an understanding of what transpires daily in schools and classrooms is necessary. Jansen (2004) holds that observations suggest that whereas the first level of integration — racial desegregation is easily achieved, schools and universities struggle with achieving higher levels of integration such as the staffing integration, curriculum integration and institutional culture integration. According to Jansen the institutional culture is reflected by a range of practices and visual images evident at a school - such as whose portraits and paintings appear in the corridors, who dominates the school governing bodies and who gets relegated to the status of observers, whose language dominates public 1 Naidoo, D. 2010. A discursive formation that undermined integration at a historically advantaged school in South Africa. Perspectives in Education, 28(2):19-30. Perspectives in Education, Volume 28(2), June 201020 meetings and whose is excluded, what appears on the emblem of the institution, what the content of school songs are, and the metaphors for talking about others (Jansen, 2004:122). With reference to curriculum integration, a pertinent point made by Jansen is the need for empirical investigation of the extent to which curriculum content and practices of teachers have changed, the key issue being “what has counted as worthwhile knowledge” in racially desegregated classrooms since 1994. Each level of integration has been the subject of analysis in recent studies. For example, Weber (2009) analysed social relationships in desegregated Gauteng schools; Carter et al. (2009) analysed social boundaries that undermine integration; and Hubbard (2009) analysed school structures that reproduce social inequalities. In this case study all the levels of integration are scrutinised in a school to analyse how they reinforce each other to produce discursive formations that run counter to the goals of integration. The questions posed in this study are: how far has integration progressed to in this school? What staffing, curriculum and institutional culture integration are evident? Whose interests do the forms of integration practiced serve? Are there regularities across the levels of integration, and, if so, what do the regularities reveal? theoretical perspectives The concept of discursive formation (Foucault, 1977) enabled an analysis of the “big picture” that each level of integration contributed to. Discursive formations arise when one can define a regularity across a number of discourses and practices and when the relationships and differences between them are regular and systematic, not random nor the same (Hall, 1992). In Foucault’s words: Whenever one can describe, between a number of statements, … a regularity … we will say … that we are dealing with a discursive formation. (Foucault, 1972:32) The notion of “a regime of truth” (Foucault, 1977) was employed to analyse the relationship between teachers’ descriptions of students and their pedagogic practices. A “regime of truth” arises when a discourse is effective in regulating practice and relations of power within a context. Discourses are not just linguistic descriptions and thoughts but include the practices that arise from it. Also, discourses do not reflect meaning but constitute it. Thus, “discourses are practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak” (Foucault, 1977). When a discourse regulates practice those who are known or described in a particular way are subjected to it. The discourse regulates social practices and has real consequences and effects because those who produce the discourse also have the power to make it true, in other words, to enforce its validity. Whether a discourse is true or not is of little significance as the “effect of truth” or the “regime of truth” created by the discourse is effective in regulating practice and in making it true. The levels of curriculum and staffing integration have been framed by Bernstein’s code theory (Bernstein, 1971; 1996). A code is a regulative principle, tacitly acquired that selects and integrates relevant meanings (elaborated or less elaborated) and forms of realization (texts). Within a context the underlying code may be identified from the interactional practices, the orientation to meanings and textual productions. According to Bernstein, the core principal of the integrated code, weaker boundary maintenance, is realised both in the structuring of educational knowledge and in the organisation of social relationships (Bernstein, 1971). The concept classification describes the strength of the boundary: Classification refers to the strength of the boundary between knowledge contents. Where classification is strong, contents are well insulated from each other by strong boundaries. Where classification is weak there is reduced insulation between contents for the boundaries between contents are weak or blurred. (Bernstein, 1996:56) The boundaries between different categories of social groups and knowledge are a function of power relations as “power relations create boundaries, legitimise boundaries, reproduce boundaries between different categories of groups, gender, class, race, different categories of discourse, different categories of agents” (Bernstein, 2000:5). With strong classification each category has its specialised discourse, identity and voice. With weaker classification – less specialized discourse, voice and identity arises. By describing NAidoo — A discursive formation that undermined integration at a historically advantaged school 21 the classification strength between forms of knowledge and between social groups, one can infer the underlying power relation. Bernstein’s conceptualisation of inter-disciplinary integration with weaker boundaries between the subjects is conditional: that “the relationships between subjects ought to be rigorous, robust and at a high conceptual level” and that “there must be some relational idea, a supra-content concept, which focuses upon general principles at a high level of abstraction” (Bernstein, 1971:60). With reference to social relationships the integrated code presupposes weaker boundaries between teachers of different subjects as they need to co-operate with each other around the content to be taught; hence, “the integrated code will require teachers of different subjects to enter into social relationships with each other which will arise … out of a shared, co-operative, educational task” (Bernstein, 1971). The levels of integration in this school are scrutinised in terms of racial, social, curriculum and institutional culture. The aim is to analyse how they reinforce each other to produce discursive formations that run counter to the goals of integration. the study A qualitative research design was employed as it allowed for an in-depth examination of the school. I spent six months in the school familiarising myself with the school’s institutional, educational and social practices. Documents such as the historical records of the school and learners’ biographic records were analysed. The main source of data for the school’s origin and history were the school magazines stored in the school library. Non-participant observations of the institutional culture of the school included noting the visual texts posted on the walls and notice boards, the seating of staff and social interactions between staff. I also did non-participant observation of grade 9 teachers’ classroom practices. I attended classes daily, writing detailed field notes on lessons taught and the social relations between teachers and students in the pedagogic context. For each lesson, detailed notes were made of what the teacher said and did. A total of 55 lessons of 22 teachers were observed. These observations and notes provided the background for the in-depth interviews that followed. Post-observation interviews of 19 teachers focused on gathering information on teachers’ views of students. On average the interviews lasted 90 minutes. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. The grade 9 teachers also completed a questionnaire eliciting professional biographical information. Informed consent to conduct the study was obtained from the school principal, staff and grade 9 teachers in the study. All grade 9 learners were asked to obtain their parents’ or guardians’ permission to be part of the study. The school, staff and students were assured anonymity and confidentiality. The findings apply specifically to the school studied. How general such discourses and discursive formations are across similar historically advantaged schools is a subject begging urgent large scale empirical investigation. data analysis The analytical criteria were derived from the concepts informing the study. For the first level of integration, namely racial desegregation, the situation is described in terms of the extent to which desegregation had or had not occurred. The four remaining criteria, social relationships, dominant discourses, knowledge relationships and institutional culture, were analysed deductively. The social relationships between teachers, between parents and teachers, between administrative staff and students and parents, and between teachers of different subjects were observed. The boundaries maintained were coded into whether the relationships were showing strong classification (C+) or weak classification (C-). The actual curriculum taught was analysed in terms of the boundaries maintained between forms of knowledge taught and whether the boundaries were strongly classified (C+) or weak classified (C-). The dominant discourses were mainly derived from teachers’ responses in the interviews. Of particular significance was the language used to describe students. Similar or repeated descriptions of students during the interviews were seen as representative of the views of the majority of teachers. The institutional culture was operationalised in terms of Jansen’s indicators of institutional culture. Perspectives in Education, Volume 28(2), June 201022 the research site This school was established for white boys during the apartheid era by the education department for white education. It is now a public school, for girls and boys of all races. By 2005 much racial desegregation of students had taken place. The language of instruction was English and the majority of African learners demonstrated the competencies and fluency of first language English speakers with a sizeable percentage not being able to speak their mother tongue. A few white students had become conversant in Zulu and often used it to communicate with their black peers. There were a total of 210 students in Grade 9 in 2005, of whom 84% were black, 11% white, 4% coloured and 1% Indian. The first level of integration, racial desegregation, had been effected at student level. Analysis of grade 9 school records showed that 53% of the students lived in townships about 15 km away from the school. These students travelled to school using public transport like buses and mini-bus taxis, often having to take one trip to the centre of town, and then either walking to the school from there or taking another taxi to the school, incurring substantial transport costs. Thirty-three percent of the students came from surrounding lower middle class residential areas and 14 % lived in middle class areas. With reference to their parents’ occupations, 4% of the parents were senior professional and managerial, 51% were lower professional and junior managerial, 29% were clerical and skilled manual workers, 12% were semi-skilled manual workers and 6% were unskilled manual workers. The teachers in the school and the grade 9 teachers were all highly qualified. Those involved in the study had an average of five years of tertiary education. All teachers were teaching subjects they were specialists in. Two grade 9 teachers had a BSc. degree and majored in Mathematics, Microbiology, Biochemistry and Botany. Five teachers held BA degrees and Honours degrees in Education, English and Communication. Major subjects studied at university level included History, English, Political Science, Zulu and Afrikaans. racial desegregation The racial profile of the staff is shown in Table 1. At the first teacher level much racial de-segregation had been achieved. 51% of the level one teachers were non-white and 49% were white. table 1: Racial profile of staff Race White Non-White total Principal 1 0 1 Senior management 3 0 3 Level two HOD 9 2 11 Level one teachers 15 16 31 Clerical 9 1 10 PRO 1 0 1 Total 38 19 57 The 16 non-white teachers were made up of seven Indians, two coloureds and seven blacks. Five black teachers had been hired to teach Zulu, one taught Physical Education and another taught History. The Indian teachers taught Afrikaans, English, Accounting and Science. While significant progress had been made with regard to racial desegregation of level one teachers, the second level of integration, namely “staffing integration” was not proceeded to. This relationship has been coded as C+ as it was characterised by impermeable boundaries. Although African teachers had been appointed they were visibly separate, marginalised and overlooked by the school. They sat in a circular group in one part of the staffroom during breaks and meetings. They made no contributions during meetings. They had been hired to teach Zulu NAidoo — A discursive formation that undermined integration at a historically advantaged school 23 in most cases, and History in the case of one teacher. The African teachers did not contribute to school leadership and management. One of the heads of department remarked that African teachers “are just sucked in”: D: Do you think the African teachers feel comfortable here? P: The African teachers are just sucked in – they are very obedient – let’s put it that way. D: Do they challenge or make contributions? P: No, they don’t challenge and make contributions. The seating arrangement of teachers illustrated racialised groups and strong social boundaries with strong rules of exclusion. While the African teachers were physically present they were not recognised as part of the academic staff; the physical and symbolic boundaries positioned them as outsiders and their social integration and participation was excluded. Observations of Indian and coloured teachers indicated weaker social boundaries with regard to everyday social relations. But, like their Black colleagues, they deferred to their white colleagues when it came to educational matters. Racial desegregation was minimal at the second educator level and not achieved at all at senior management level. The senior management, the principal and two deputy principals, were white. At middle management level nine of the eleven HoDs were white and the remaining two were Indian. The non- white staff saw the racial demographics of the management as problematic, for example one of the black teachers at the school saw the hegemony of the English language as due to managerial short-sightedness: N: But to my surprise you will find Zulu children doing Zulu as a third language or not at all. When you ask them: ‘Why don’t you do Zulu because it is your home language?’, they just say, ‘I don’t know anything about Zulu’ and they are just proud of that. … so this is bad and I think this is one of the things this school must try to work on – kids must know where they come from and must know their own language – that will only happen if you have people in management who can steer that. The frontline administrative and support staff were predominantly white. Of ten clerical staff, nine were white. The dominantly white clerical staff would mediate any communication with management or teachers. The receptionist would go to great lengths to prevent meetings with the principal and deputy principals by attending to matters on her own. The principal’s personal assistant would also filter requests to meet the principal and attend to matters on her own. One could be forgiven for forming the impression that the principal was not to be bothered by parents and visitors. Of all social relationships the strongest classification was that between the white administration staff and students and parents. Unlike the friendly and warm academic staff, the administrative personnel were cold, brusque, impatient and observed to be unhelpful and dismissive of students, visitors and parents. For example, a parent had come to the school to return textbooks on loan and was very disrespectfully treated by the receptionist who demanded the official form that should accompany the books and refused to resolve the problem without the form. Racial desegregation was minimal at management and administrative staff level. This is indicative that at key levels where decisions are taken for the whole school and that represent the school to the public, there was no desegregation. At this level white staff had insulated themselves from the presence of “others”, let alone their views. One of the Indian HoDs said that he felt uncomfortable at the school and regarded the management as a problem: P: But that is one of the plusses of (Name of School). These learners are independent, they know their rights, they are not a problem — it’s the management that is a problem … we can’t treat the children according to our mindsets and our thinking. The social relationships between black parents and staff were also characterised by strongly classified boundaries. Although many opportunities existed for parents to participate in the life of the school and there generally was an excellent turnout of parents at academic functions, participation was minimal. According to an HoD, the minimal participation was due to “parents being enormously grateful to the school” and to “trusting” the teachers and to feeling that “they (parents) didn’t need to do anything more”. Perspectives in Education, Volume 28(2), June 201024 My observations indicated that parents did not feel part of the school community at all. A member of senior management described parents as “depraved” at a full staff meeting because they were “consuming such large amounts of food” at the prize-giving ceremony. What did the institutional culture of the school say about “just whose school was it?” The institutional culture of the school by 2005 still projected many Anglo-centric or South African white symbols. A large life-size painting of Queen Victoria adorned the front wall of the library. The five sports houses that were named after key historical figures, all white, remained the same. The symbol of each house flag that was derived from symbols personally relevant to each of these individuals remained the same. The portraits and paintings of key historical figures that hung in the corridors were bold statements of the school’s history rather than a reflection of its present orientation. White parents dominated the school’s governing body. English dominated public meetings and events, although the majority of parents in attendance were African. All signage at the school was in English. Apart from cultural evenings and the “hip” choir, the cultural diversity of learners was neither acknowledged nor affirmed. curriculum integration The school offered a range of subjects with 16 subjects being compulsory at grade 9 level. This included a mixture of conventional subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science and new subjects such as Computer Literacy, Media studies, Human and Social Sciences, Technology and Life Orientation. Firstly, inter-disciplinary integration characterised by “conceptual integration involving general principles at a high level of abstraction” was not practised. The type of integration most practiced was the weakening of boundaries between instrumental and non-instrumental forms of knowledge and thinking for the majority of students. The classes were streamed into high, middle, low and very low ability classes and this labelling of students conditioned what knowledge was taught. With reference to instrumental forms of knowledge and thinking, the science teachers taught science knowledge that was immediately useful such as “how to wire a plug”. Activities that required experiments to be done, such as Activity 1 below, were left out. Activity 1: Connect a short, thick copper wire between A and B. Switch on for a short time and observe what changes take place. Now answer these questions: How does the brightness of the bulb change when AB is connected? How does the temperature of the connecting wires change? Where was the short circuit? What would have happened if you had left the switch on (with AB connected) for a long time? Various activities involving comprehension of newspaper reports of accidents arising from electrical faults such as illustrated in Activity 3 below were taught in detail: Read this report from the Ntisiki Tribune (fictional newspaper title): Factory burns down Garment World, the large clothing factory was destroyed by fire on Tuesday night. Fortunately, the caretaker woke up in time to escape and no other people were in the building at the time. The factory had just finished an order for 10 000 dresses for the new season. All stock, machinery and dress material went up in smoke. The immediate effect of the fire is that 400 workers are now out of work for at least a season. The cause of the fire is thought to be an electrical fault. Rodents caused the short circuit. Detectives investigated the burnt-out building. Some of the burnt electric cables showed signs of tooth marks. In the basement were remains of a large number of rats. On this evidence the police were able to report that it was likely that the fire was caused by a short circuit. NAidoo — A discursive formation that undermined integration at a historically advantaged school 25 Four questions were set on it: 1. In groups discuss the causes of the fire. 2. Do you think the police are correct in saying the fire was caused by a short circuit? 3. What role do you think rats played in causing the fire? Explain your reasoning. 4. How could this fire have been prevented? The 9A class, the highest “ability” class, was taught traditional mathematics. In the remaining classes mathematics lessons were characterised by more definitions being drilled, memorisation of the spelling of terms such as acute, obtuse, integer, more time spent on copying diagrams on parallel lines in their books and more time spent on writing notes. There was a concern with pronunciation and much simpler less challenging examples were being done, for example, 17–10 divided by 2 = ? . Simple statistical techniques to handle data were taught such as working out mean, median and mode using single-digit numbers. More terms were being focused on such as bar graph, column graph, broken-line graph, distribution table, tally chart, and frequency (Naidoo, 2009). The 9A English language teacher had struck a balance between subject knowledge and students’ interests. The poem ‘Crack’ was related to “heart matters” that students readily identified with. In addition to teaching formal aspects of English such as vocabulary, appreciation of plays, novels and poems, parts of speech, the teacher allowed students during their oral assessments to present to the class their favourite music and super stars, sporting personalities, movie stars and similar popular topics. Students debated the use of listening to music that was vulgar and repulsive to some and acceptable to others. There were many instances of relating the meaning of the poems and novels to topics such as “relationships” that were of immediate interest to students. However, in the remaining six grade 9 classes discussions of popular knowledge and interests dominated formal knowledge and writing activities. One of the English teachers explained that students “don’t care what they learn, which makes explaining poetry and the subtlety of language more difficult”. Some specialist knowledge and skills were taught in Art and students were expected to apply it to make sense of their unique contexts. Subjective knowledge based on students’ own experiences was affirmed. However, the teacher indicated her concern about the number of sketches of “shebeens” and of “safe-sex and HIV/AIDS posters” that she had been getting. The History teacher taught European history and made connections with the situation in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Life Orientation lessons were based on enabling moral and practical judgments based on integrated knowledge. The topics taught were ‘Youth and Premarital Sex — the reasons’. A representative from the ‘Pregnancy Crisis Centre’ addressed students and showed them a video and reviewed it around the question: “reasons for abstinence as the best and healthiest choice for teens” and “is abstinence realistic for teenagers today?” The second lesson revolved around three components of good character: moral knowing, moral feeling and moral action. The weakening of the boundary between History and Geography in Social Science was illustrated in the text used by the teacher. Of the nineteen-page resource pack given to students three pages were allocated to geography. Amidst historical sections such as Hitler’s road to war, the League of Nations, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Fascism, the popularity of Fascism in Europe, and Hitler’s foreign policy, geographical sections such as ‘Beneath the ground’ in which different types of rocks, mineral resources and mining were introduced. The topics did not relate to each other and served as impediments to systematic teaching of conceptual knowledge in both subjects. The boundaries between instrumental and non-instrumental forms of knowledge and thinking were weakened on the whole. While this approach enabled students’ own interests to be legitimised in the classroom, they became ends in themselves and not the means to non-instrumental forms of knowledge and thinking. Walkerdine (1982) points out the differences between everyday and abstract knowledge. Familiar, everyday contexts are essential starting points in the classroom for teaching children to reason abstractly. Abstract knowledge that is based on the technical and specialised language of the subject was not proceeded to in the majority of classrooms. Perspectives in Education, Volume 28(2), June 201026 dominant deficit discourses of students Analysis of interview transcripts showed that teachers viewed students as deficient. A dominant discourse was that the students “were not academically orientated”. Many teachers intimated this idea in different ways. The English HoD who played a key role in deciding on directions for the school mentioned that the school “does not pitch for a high standard of academic work”. Another mentioned the need “to lower standards a little bit, lower your expectations”. When asked about the educational aim of the school, teachers spoke about developing students’ social skills in tackling conflict situations. This view is encapsulated below: Teacher V: I suppose we are trying to make them more confident in how to tackle new situations – conflict situations – how to develop their social skills. Another generally held view was that there were very few children who were academically orientated in the school. One of the teacher’s views is quoted below: O: you know I have not taught at a school where there are not academically orientated children – in this school there will be 5 out of every 1000 who are academically orientated and one per grade. One of the maths teachers constructed the majority of students as of lower ability. Maths teachers believed that “not everybody can do maths”: V: I have found with my 9As they cope much better than 9B because 9B has such a limited general knowledge and are so less capable academically whereas grade 9A use their imagination. We are exploiting a talent that mathematically the children have and then you can add a little bit and develop it. The frequent use of negations (can’t, don’t have, did not, is not, will never be, less, are not, not) indicates the pervasiveness of discourses that construct the students as deficient. Yet another discourse was of the cognitive deficiency of students. This point is illustrated by citing ‘telling’ responses from teachers. One of the science teachers justified her teaching of instrumental science knowledge and not ‘abstract’ science knowledge for two reasons: firstly, the students cannot think on an abstract level and then, secondly, because it would not improve their lives: L: I thought that chemical bonding, although I liked teaching it, I really thought it was a bit unfair on the majority of the kids — although they coped well with it — but what you really need would be concrete little things because those kids can’t think on an abstract level like that and does your life really improve if you know how atoms join together — I mean what good does it do for the average — because I can think of a lot of things that do make a difference like how washing up liquid works or a detergent or in the field of nutrition — those have got very, very real applications. Another science teacher could not see any reason to teach students the scientific mode of inquiry (the curriculum requirement at grade 9 level of students being able to design, carry out and report an investigation) because she cannot “see what these children are going to do with it”, “they are not capable of doing it” and they are “not interested in doing it”: C: You know these children need so much guidance — you need to spend so much time on each group — now I had a academically very slow group and they did not know what to do — even after going through the investigation — I spent so much time on it – still hardly anyone could do it — they totally missed the whole idea — you know I cannot see what these children are going to do with it – they are not capable of doing it – they are not interested in doing it. Even when they actually physically did it you know I gave them choices in their portfolio and some of them would take one set of beans and put them in the fridge and one in the room and they would bring it to me and I would say lovely — what does it show you? They don’t know. NAidoo — A discursive formation that undermined integration at a historically advantaged school 27 The maths teacher said quite conclusively that the students have neither the intellectual power nor the talent to do maths: Teacher V: They just don’t have the intellectual power to carry on, they get frustrated and bored, it’s easier for them to identify the problem as the teacher than to say I actually don’t have the talent for maths. The art teacher doubted the creative abilities of her students: “They kind of can’t draw from themselves – there is no creative impetus in some of these children”. Other teachers suggested that conceptual meaning “does not really matter” to the students: Teacher R: To them it does not really matter if two and one is three — who cares if it is three or not. Like they are so poor at maths they don’t know the difference between truth and fiction when they look at numbers. It is not real for them. Another dominant deficit discourse was that of students as socially deficient. Students were described as not knowing “how to handle books” and of “not growing up with books” and of losing books: Teacher N: You buy 250 books this year — by next year 50 of them have been lost and those kids have no — they are not kids who have grown up with books — they don’t know how to handle books and they don’t know how to look after the books. The majority of students were described as having poor work ethic: S: Depends on the group, for example, like 9A have a strong work ethic, you can do things with 9A but with the rest less capable learners you are not going to get much out of them, they have no work ethic. Students were described as thieves: V: I can’t even put something pretty on my desk because the kids steal it — can’t put a nice pen on the desk — it will get stolen — in other words — there are a lot of thieves … there is a great deal more lying and covering up The dominant frame of reference was one of individual deficit – that the students themselves were the cause of the deficiency without any sense of the effect of social structures and processes. For example, a teacher believed that what a child is cannot be changed: C: I think that if you look at the critical outcomes and things like that — it’s fine to be optimistic — because nobody can make a child into something he is not and will never be. The significance of these deficit discourses is that they produced the “effect of truth” that impacted on curriculum practices. Students were constructed as deficient in their cognitive ability, in their creative qualities, in academic disposition, in interest in particular fields of knowledge, in conceptual meaning- making and socially. But, regardless of being false, the effect of truth created by the discourses of deficiency was sufficient to influence practice — the majority of students were schooled as if they really were deficient. Being described as deficient and unable to cope with an academic curriculum legitimated a utilitarian, social and life skills curriculum. The dominant discourse of deficiency of the students was deeply implicated in the instrumental forms of knowledge taught. conclusion The regularities across the different levels of integration indicate a discursive formation that undermines integration. To its credit, the school had opened its doors to all race groups and genders. But the lack of change at management and administrative staff level hindered staffing, curriculum and institutional culture integration. The discursive, social and symbolic boundaries enacted in the school combined to undermine integration. On the one hand, the weaker boundaries between instrumental and non-instrumental forms of knowledge enabled students’ experiences and interests to be legitimised. On the other hand, teachers’ deficit views of learners lowered their expectations and consequently resulted in a watered-down curriculum that did not give students access to non-instrumental and powerful forms of knowledge, or what Bernstein calls the elaborated code, thereby reproducing deficit. The regularities across the categories together produce Perspectives in Education, Volume 28(2), June 201028 a racist ‘discursive formation’ reminiscent of previous race based power relations. It is concluded, on the basis of the levels of integration observed and teacher discourses analysed, that the dominant discursive formation in the school are racist and not in the interest of its majority Black learners nor in the interest of the formation of a democratic society. Having identified the existence of a discursive formation and a regime of truth that undermine the goal of integration, how could one explain its existence? Foster (2009) argues that discourse is a product of social action, and agents utilise frames to produce discourse. Frames are defined as “patterns of expectation that are socio-culturally determined” (Van Den Berg, 2003:120). These frames are “so embedded within our minds that agents are often unaware of them as they make decisions in their everyday lives” (Van Den Berg, 2003:689). Frames are both social and cognitive structures (Ensink, 2003). Foster argues that, on the one hand, individuals have their own mental structures or habitus (Bourdieu, 1977) that affect the way they interact with others; meanwhile there are also social structures that impose meanings on the actions of individual agents. Frames reminiscent of apartheid racial ideology informed the dominant discourses and the resultant discursive formation at the school. The descriptions of students were similar to that used by proponents of Bantu Education (for this see Horrell, 1968). As one of the black teachers said: “a change in mindset is needed” – a change that would arise from a deep understanding of the injustices of apartheid education that would enable racist social and cognitive frames to be interrogated. Lederarch’s (2005) concept of “moral imagination” would be informative. 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