School for Pass-Whites
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
SCHOOL FOR PASS-WHITES by STANLEY GRAHAM STEWART WATSON B.A. (~ons.) , University of Cape Town, 1959 AN EXPURGATED EDITION OF A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Political Science, Sociolom and Anthropology @ STANLEY GRAHAM STEWART WATSON, 1967 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY July, 1967 EXAMINING COMMITTEE APPROVAL D. G. Bettison Senior Superviscr T. B. Bottomore Examining Committee ~obkrtJ. Harper Examining Committee Leo Kuper External Examiner (U.C.L.A.) PARTTAL COPYRIGIIT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Sttldies. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/~issertation: Author: (signature ) (name ) (date) PREFACE TO THE EXPURGATED EDITION Information which might reveal the identity of the persons or organizations with which the study is most directly concerned has been omitted or altered in this expurgated edition. Maps, photographs, tables, numbers, dates, quotations, references to the literature, personal and geographic details, have been deleted or altered where appropriate. The original edition of the study has been lodged with the University Librarian and may not be consulted without the writer's written. permission. ABSTRACT The argument is pursued that the social structure of a suburban high school in South Africa can be related to the racial policy of the central government, the mores of the residents of the suburb, and the career ambitions of school teachers. Data collected, mainly by means of observer participation, in the suburb and in the school, is adduced in support of the argument. Description proceeds from the general to the particular: from a broad overview of race-relations in the suburb to a portrayal of the school as a facilitating mechanism in the process of passing for White, thence to a discussion of the effects of this involvement on the formal and informal structure of the teaching staff. The socio-economic and cultural affinity between the suburb's Whites and Coloureds permits of the emergence of cross-cutting loyalties between the two groups based on the socio-economic categories of "respectable" and "roff" rather than on colour and provides a favourable environment for pass-Whites. Passing for White is not an act essentially different from the wider process of upward social mobility as found among the Coloured people. It is not an act but a process involving anticipatory social- ization and the creation of conditions of face-to-face segmentary interaction in which Whites might make ad hoc decisions which cumulatively add verisimilitude to the passer's claim to White status. Passers find in White schools one of the segmentary roles necessary for their purpose; passing is and has been for some decades endemic to many schools in South Africa. The bincipal of the school on which this study focuses enrols to hie echo01 pase-Whites "acceptable to the community." He does so in 1) iv response to a declining White enrolment, to pressures exerted by a rela- tively 'lcolour-blind" community, and to pressures exerted by a school board which makes use of the school as a "buffer" institution. At the same time, for fear of having the school reclassified "Coloured" by the provincial educational bureaucracy, he attempts to exclude the "obviously" Coloured--even when they have White identity cards and the support of the school board. Compounding the Principal's tribulations is the disparate aocial- class backgrounds of teachers and pupils which provide grounds for disputes over the goals of vocational and regulatory training and the means whereby these goals are to be attained. Disciplinary problems ensue, the school's extra-curriculum withers away, and the school class--the members of which owe no allegiance to houses, clubs or socieities such as might cut across their allegiance to the class--be- comes the pre-eminent unit of social structure in the school. Teachers, deprived of the means par mcezzence of dividing and ruling their pupils (the creation and manipulation of cross-cutt ing allegiances ) face in the class-room a solidary body of pupils united in their opposition to middle-class adult authority; this fact further compounds the school's ill-repute. Association with a pass-White and working-class school imperils the career ambitions of teachers so difficulty is experienced in attracting recruits to the teaching staff and in moderating their rate of turnover, A marked cleavage develops between transient recruits and long-term teachers. Long-term teachers, prevented for various reasons from quitting the school, experience frustration and indulge in perennial scspegoating activity. The Principal, caught between opposing pressures exerted by parents, teachers and arms of government, forfeits the v respect of his teachers and loses ground in hie battle with the Vice- Principal for aecendency over the staff. LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE I. Enrolment of Pupils 1930-1960 . 59 11. Percentages of Pupils in Stds. 8 and 10, 1940-1960 . 60 111. Enrolment to Schools in Undersuburb Area, 1940-1960 (omitted) . 61 IV. Undersuburb High School Enrolment as a Percentage of Total High School Enrolment in Undersuburb Area (omitted) . 62 Decline of White Population in Undersuburb (omitted) . 62 Percentages of Households Within Varying Distances of the School Buildings (1931-1960) . 63 VII. Academic Results . 68 VIII. Approximate Age Range in Each Standard . 69 IX. Members of Full- time "Permanent" and "Temporary" Teachers at Undersuburb High School, 1956-1960 (omitted) . 123 Census Returns for Undersuburb Sub-districts, 1936 (omitted) . 190 XI. Comparison of Some Sub-districts of 1936 and 1946 (omitted) . 192 XII. Census Returns for Sub-district 148 of 1946 (omitted) . 192 XIII. Abstract of Census ~numerators' Returns for Sub-districts of Undersuburb, 1946, 1951, 1960 (omitted) . 193 XIV. Percentages of Households Within Various Distances of the School Buildings (1931-1962) (omitted) . 195 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Part of Middle Street (omitted) ............ 3 2 . Part of Undersuburb (omitted) ............. 4 3 . Part of Undersuburb (omitted) ............. 5 4 . A Pondok ........................ 24 5 . A Semi-permanent Structure ............... 25 6 . A Prosperous Artisan's Dwelling ............ 27 7 . A Pass-White's Family Tree ............... 34 8 . Superimposed Maps of Census Enumerators' Sub-districts of Undersuburb--1936. 1946. and 1951-60 (omitted) . 194 9 . Geographical Distribution of Households to Which Undersuburb High School Pupils Belong (omitted) ....197 INTRODUCTION As early as 1932 Waller, in his as yet unrivalled study of schools as organizations, argued persuasively that the vulnerability of schools 1 to environmental pressures intimately affects their structures. His thesis has gained widespread acceptance but it has not received as much attention as it merits. Of the 109 works cited in Bidwell's masterly review and bibliography of the sociology of education a mere 11 are listed as dealing directly with school/comunity relations. Floud and Halsay, in their excellent bibliography of 762 works in the sociology of education, list a mere 19 under the rubric of "schools in relation to society and community.113 This thesis contributes towards a redressing of the balance. An attempt is made to relate the social structure of Undersuburb High School of Undersuburb, Cape Town, to the racial policy of the central government, to the mores of the people of Undersuburb, and to the occupational ambitions of school teachers. De- scription proceeds from the general to the particular: from a broad d overview of race-relations in Undersuburb to a portrayal of the high school as a facilitating mechanism in the process of passing for White, and thence to a discussion of the effects of this involvement on the form&l and informal structure of the teaching staff. The South Af rican government' s well-known policy of apartheid, exemplified in legislation which discriminates against non-nite peoples in the parliamentary franchise, in public amenities, housing, employment 'w. W. Waller, The Sociology of Teaching, New York, John Wiley, 1932. 2C. E. Bidwell, "The School as a Formal Organization," in J. G. March (ed .) , Handbook of Organizations, Chicago, Rand McNally , 1965, pp. 972-1022. 3~.Floud and A. H. Haleay, The Sociology of Education, Oxford, Blackwell, 1958. X and freedom of movement, is in accord with the educational philosophy of apologists for christezik-NasionaZe Onderwys ( Christian-Nat ional Educa- tion), whose views are succinctly epitomized in the assertion: "We want no mixing of languages, no mixing of cultures, no mixing of religions, and no mixing of races.lt4 The ideal of segregated schooling for differ- ent ethnic and linguistic groups has been vigorously pursued by the government and is embodied in substantial legislation: Whites, CoZoureds, and Africans must, by law, attend different 'schools, as must English- speaking and Afrikaans-speaking