THE CASE FOR RURAL EDUCATION IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

SHARING STORIES OF SUCCESSFUL FULBRIGHT GRANTEES

FOR THE PERIOD 2000 TO 2006

By

Monica Joyi

Submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

of American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

In

Sociology

Chair:

D~~s and Sciences .;;; 7 ~Oko2 Date

2009

American University Washington, D.C. 20016

AMERICAN UNrVERSfTY lH3f.1ARY ~4 ?J1 UMI Number: 1466210

Copyright 2009 by Joyi, Monica

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by

Monica Joyi

2009

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE CASE FOR RURAL EDUCATION IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

SHARING STORIES OF SUCCESSFUL FULBRIGHT GRANTEES

FOR THE PERIOD 2000 TO 2006

By

Monica Joyi

ABSTRACT

This thesis uses Giddens' structuration theory as the theoretical framework to advance this investigation of ten students from rural South Africa. These talented men and women come from areas where approximately forty percent of South Africa's poor live, but as their personal stories reveal, their determination and gutzpah are realized in the quest for education and this quest opens the opportunity for them to participate in a world-wide academic scholarship competition- the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship; the question that comes to mind is how did they do it?

This study is primarily based on the voices of these students and how the structure of the Fulbright program, with all its regulations and rigid procedures and the agency of these students who propelled themselves to leave their homes in the towns and villages of South Africa to pursue their PhD's in the United States, and return home to meet commitments they made, to plough back their new skills and knowledge to their respective communities and to South Africa.

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the support of a number of people. I am indebted to my supervisor, Professor Jill Brantley­

Niebrugge for her most valuable suggestions, editing and most importantly, for her patience and her constant presence on my side of the line. Thank you to my reader, Professor Russell Stone for his valuable input and suggestions; Special thanks to Professor Patricia Lengermann for her constructive teaching, and Ms

Sandra Linden, a real mensch.

I would also like to thank my families, both in Washington, DC, USA and

Cape Town, South Africa, especially Claryce and Allen Nelson (DC) for feeding me and my sisters, N. Margaret and N. Mildred Joyi, for their shoulders and ears and regular phone calls.

Special thanks to the members of the Fulbright family: BOB, LM, LP, LJM,

MS, MEM, PTB, SMM, TMM, and TLM, for allowing me to give a voice to your stories of courage and possibilities. Thanks also to Amelia Broderick, Sarah llchman, Jackie Cotton, and Gill Jacot-Guillarmod, Ron Hendrickse and Deva

Govindsamy for making the Fulbright South Africa Student Program a part of good scholarship in South Africa.

Lastly to my comrades and friends in the U.S, and South Africa, this is why I did not email you regularly.

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii

LIST OF TABLES ...... v

LIST OF FIGURES ...... vi

Chapter

ONE. INTRODUCTION AND FRAMEWORK...... 1

TWO. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ...... 24

THREE. FIELD NOTES FROM THE FULBRIGHT COMMISSION ..... 39

FOUR. PERSONAL STATEMENTS FROM RURAL FULBRIGHT RECIPIENTS ...... 59

FIVE. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS ...... 90

APPENDICES ...... 103

REFERENCES ...... 108

iv LIST OF TABLES

Table

1. Themes ...... 11

2. Universities in South Africa ...... 32

v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure

1. Map of South Africa ...... 41

vi CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION AND FRAMEWORK

This chapter describes the topic of this thesis, the theory that informs it, the research strategy used to gather and analyze data, and the literature that is particularly pertinent to it.

The goal of this study is to give a voice to the stories of ten South African students. These talented men and women attended schools in rural South Africa that lacked basic amenities--desks, books, electricity, running water; the students walked long distances of up to three hours to get to a "nearby" school: out of this group, some are currently completing their studies, while others have successfully completed theirs and returned home to South Africa. All these students are recipients of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. They first attended rural universities in South Africa and then came to the US to pursue their Masters degrees and PhD studies.

According to South Africa's 2000 Census, approximately forty percent of the nation's poor people live in the rural areas. Most studies of these poor communities, for instance, the 2005, "Emerging Voices", the study by the Human

Sciences Research Council (with the Education Policy Consortium), highlights the realities, yet seem to focus on the myriad social constructs related to poverty­

-living standards of rural families and communities, the girl-child who is

1 2

sexually abused and violated young adults who do not graduate from high school

and the young people in rural areas, who have limited access to completing their

education. Rarely do these studies depict success stories coming out of these

rural communities. This study attempts to highlight success stories amidst the

gloom associated within rural communities.

The core business of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) is to conduct large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific projects for public­ sector users, non-governmental organizations and international development agencies. As the national social science council of South Africa, the HSRC wishes to serve as a knowledge hub to bridge the gap between research, policy and action; thus increasing the impact of research (Human Sciences Research Council website, www.hsrc.ac.za, retrieved January 18, 2008).

This study explores two ways that this process of achievement by rural students

may have been realized: (1) that the students were academically agentic/active

on their own behalf, given the circumstances of their individual and community

struggles, completing their undergraduate degrees, and in some cases a Masters

degree and (2) that through the structure of the Fulbright Scholarship Program,

administered by the S.A.-U.S.A. Fulbright Commission, these students were

enabled to apply for and participate successfully in a highly demanding

scholarship contest.

Statement of the Problem

At its broadest level of significance, this thesis addresses the ongoing and

universal problem of aiding disenfranchised and marginalized students to use educational opportunities. More specifically, it deals with the problem of

promoting educational success to rural students in South Africa, who are 3

disadvantaged by their location in economically poor regions of the country.

Most concretely, the thesis studies the success of some rural South African students, who applied for the Fulbright Scholarship program to pursue graduate studies in the United States. The focus at all levels is on learning about success, on finding what seems to be successful or perceived as best practices in assisting these students realize their full educational potential.

My interest in this study comes from my work as the Program Director at the Bi-national South African (S.A.) - United States (U.S.) Fulbright Commission, in Pretoria, South Africa from September 1999 until its doors closed in March

2006. I worked with the students whose success is the subject of this thesis in my capacity as the Program Director. As the Program Director, I would regularly visit all the universities in urban and rural South Africa, promoting the Fulbright program.

During the seven-year period administering the program, I became especially curious about the applicants from rural areas who typically attended schools in their rural towns and villages, and then attended the regional university; many were keen to apply for the Fulbright scholarship competition.

Knowing the difficulties of living in rural South Africa, I wanted to discover what contributed to their quest to want to learn beyond high school, what was driving them to apply to the Fulbright Program but, most importantly, how in their circumstances they accomplished this arduous application process. 4

Theoretical Framing The question of educational success can be explored in terms of the sociological question of the relationship between agency and structure. The latter is an ongoing question in sociology (Ritzer 2007). It has been especially developed in the British sociology of education (Shilling 1992, Willmott 1999).

The analysis here is framed in terms of Anthony Giddens' structuration theory, especially as interpreted for the sociology of education (1999), the study of life course (Lengermann and Niebrugge 2008), and the study of organizations

(Sydow and Windeler 1997) .. I focus on Giddens' fundamental insight that structure and agency is not a dualism but a duality, "two sides of the same coin"

(Ritzer 2007:522). My interest in this theoretical framing, as will become clearer in Chapter five, is for the ways it potentially relates to a principle of ubuntu

(humanity), with its basic tenet, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu which means that a person ... is a person ... through (other) people.

Structuration theory in its entirety is complex. But Giddens has said about applications to empirical research: "I like least those works in which authors have attempted to import structuration theory in toto into their given area of study ... I like most those usages in which concepts ... are used in a sparing and critical fashion" (Giddens 1991 :213). This thesis uses the core concepts of recurring social practice, structure, and agency.

According to Sydow and Windeler "social practices ... are ... conceived as the skilled accomplishment of social agents ... and also as an expression of structural properties" of given social systems" (1997:464). Structures do not 5

determine what actors do but rather serve as the medium through which actors express their agency.

Giddens summarizes the relationship among structure, agency and social practice:

"practices are the situated doings of a subject, can be examined with regard to intended outcomes, and may involve an orientation toward securing a response ... [S]tructures, on the other hand, have no specific socio-temporal location, are characterized by the 'absence of a subject,' and cannot be framed in terms of subject-object dialectic" (Giddens, 1976:118-119).

I analyze my topic as a relationship amongst structure, social practice, agency, but I begin with a background of Giddens' general theory. Giddens developed structuration theory as "a conceptual investigation of the nature of human social actions, social institutions and the interrelations between action and institutions" (Giddens, 1991 :201 ). Giddens says that these interactions are best explored by studying recurrent social practice--and changes in those social practices. These recurrent social practices may be understood as ongoing unions of structure and agency; structures pattern action and action makes structure. For Giddens a social system is not a structure. A system is

" ... reproduced relationships between individuals or collectivities, organized as regular social practices" across time and space (Giddens, 1984:25). A system contains structures. Structures, for Giddens (1991 :204), are "rules and resources involved in the instantiation of social systems"; that is, structures are the things that let people do things, they are what practice is made of. Structures themselves are "not social facts which exist apart from individuals, but sets of 6

'rules' and 'resources', which actors draw on, and hence reproduce, in social

interaction" (Shilling 1992:78) As "rules," structures are recipes for getting things

done; if one knows the rules, one can accomplish projects. Rules are general

techniques and tools that allow for social practices to be widespread.

"Resources" are goods and services: they are also the power to use these goods

and services; they are the things one needs to make other things happen.

Giddens says that agency is not in individual actors but in actors with

interactions with each other. In interaction agency, the result of what Giddens

sees as two qualities all human beings have: he also uses agency in a particular

way, namely, capability and knowledgeability. Capability is the capacity of

humans to act in ways that make a difference in human life. This, he argues, can

always happen even in situations of oppression. The order-giver depends on the

order-taker and the order-taker can say no, or do something different.

People's knowledgeability is based in consciousness. There are two main

kinds. One kind of consciousness is practical consciousness, which lets an actor

manipulate and monitor available resources and rules in the immediate social

world. This kind of consciousness makes possible the performance of everyday

life routines. Giddens believes people want the security of everyday routine.

The other kind of consciousness is discursive consciousness. Discursive

consciousness is a kind of reflective consciousness. Actors not only look at themselves but monitor the monitoring they are doing in practical consciousness.

In discursive consciousness, actors can try to calculate what may be the applicable norms and the possible resources in new situations. Giddens feels 7

social science may put too much value on discursive consciousness. He

emphasizes the role of practical consciousness: "[t]he knowledge of social

conventions, of oneself and of other human beings, presumed in being able to

'go on' in the diversity of contexts of social life is detailed and dazzling" (Giddens,

1984:28).

All social practices involve people doing three things: they communicate

meaning, they exercise power, and they make value judgments (adapted from

Giddens, 1977). They do these by using three types of structures-- signification,

domination, and legitimation. Structures of signification provide rules and

resources for communication. Structures of domination provide rules and

resources for unequal distribution of power. Structures of legitimation provide

rules and resources for making judgments about morals and values. In recurring

social practices, as actors interact, they use these structures.

For purposes of this study, and following Giddens, the definition of

structure is the rules and resources within which the actor moves in order to

make choices while coexisting within those parameters: agency refers to the

actor's ability to access and use these rules and resources. Signification,

domination and legitimation are structures necessary for any recurring social

practice; they are the basis by which actors manage to communicate, exercise

power, and judge correct behavior. My goal is to see if looking at the Fulbright experience of these ten young rural South Africans through the ongoing interface

between agency and structure may help me generate a sense of "best policies"

in creating opportunities for rural South African students. I believe these best 8

policies will result from an understanding of the relationship between agency and structure in past successes.

Methodology

My methodology is a case study of the process by which these rural South

African students successfully competed for a Fulbright Scholarship. I have two types of data: my participant-observation field notes collected from my years as the Program Director of the S.A.-U.S.A. Fulbright Commission, from September

1999 to March 2006, when the Commission closed. The essence of my duties as the Program Director was to recruit and encourage students throughout the urban and rural areas of South Africa to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship competition. As stated above, my interest in this thesis is on one group of students - the ten students from rural South Africa who overcame tremendous obstacles to compete and succeed in the scholarship competition. My field notes from this position consist of my personal journal, diaries, memoranda, and correspondence-much of it as e-mail.

My second set of data is drawn from a purposive sample of the students I worked with - I am here studying the ten successful rural South African student grantees, whose applications I worked on between 1999 and 2005. My data on this sample consists of their personal statements for the Fulbright application and follow-up answers to an interview by email I conducted with them. One group of respondents is still in the U.S. completing their studies and another group has completed their studies and returned to South Africa. I orient to these data­ gathering strategies as a critical social analyst, committed to the long-standing 9

feminist principle of privileging the perspective of the less-empowered, and that commitment shapes my presentation of findings where I attempt to preserve the voices of my participants, including my own.

Here are excerpts from my personal journal, which highlight both the kind of notes I am working from and how I went about locating my sample of students:

While I was still at the Fulbright Commission I would on occasion, and

when time permitted, send emails to most of the students in the U.S., and

generally check in by sending notes of encouragement and ask how their

classes were and if they were settled into their new environment ... by the

time the Commission closed, I stopped writing, and several months later I

would get one or two emails ... and would reply several months later ... I

was no longer part of Fulbright and to my mind, I had moved on ... while I

kept in touch with colleagues in the U.S. and South Africa, I detached

myself from the Fulbright Program.

By the time I came to the U.S. to attend school, I had told a handful of the

students that I was in the country ... some continued to share their

progress with me and I became interested in what they were doing ... I first

contacted five of the students who would later become the participants,

and are currently in the U.S. and shared my thoughts with them ... they

overwhelmingly responded positively, and I continued to email them while

I was deciding how I was going to proceed ... contacting the five students

who had returned home, proved more difficult than I had ever anticipated

... I spent several hours searching the universities and googling them, and 10

found one person ... eventually, I searched through my field notes and emailed a-friend-of-a-friend and found one more ... three to go ...

By February 2009, I was beginning to lose hope ... in a telephone conversation with a fellow South African studying in Sacramento, I casually said, I need to forget about this project, I do not think my thesis supervisor is impressed with me ... to my surprise, she said, there may be someone in San Francisco who met the one person I was trying to reach and she thought they had met at the pre-departure orientation back home

... she said, let me see what I can do ... meanwhile I had also emailed one of the participants in this study, and within two days, he sent me an email with another two names ... all in all I had ten persons (five in South Africa and five in the U.S.). I emailed the five Fulbrighters in South Africa ... after one week, two responses ... eventually, another response by email

... I decided to call the two who had not responded and both were happy to participate ... Finally, one more responded and this past weekend, March

21, 2009, Human Rights Day in South Africa, the tenth person sent an email, out of the blue (after not responding to my emails since late last year) he said he would participate and I have to resend the questions. As of writing this draft today, March 23, 2009, I have not heard from him ...

I transcribed the narratives and found common threads ... 'mother', 'mom',

'my mother is my rock', 'my mother did not have any formal education',

'when I graduated from high school, my mom took me to church' 'my mother and father'; 'my mom and dad both have degrees' ... 'my uncle, 11

who was also a teacher took me to a school and he advised me to work

harder' ... 'I was twelve and had never been inside a classroom, and my

uncle took me and said he would raise me' ... Transcribing the data

revealed that regardless whether the students came from the Eastern

Cape ... Kwa Zulu-Natal ... Limpopo, there were common threads to their

stories - that 'mom', 'mama', 'my mother' was the rock behind me and she

encouraged me to continue with my studying".

My analysis of these data - my own field notes and the student's personal statements - interprets both in terms of the general theme of the relationship between agency and structure, seeking to see how or if structure does, as

Giddens argues, enable agency and if and how agency enacts structure. My analysis is developed in terms of the following conceptual framework:

Table 1. Themes

Agency of actors in Capability -r Structures as Rules and and Knowledgeability ! Resources

Elements of Social Practice: Signification, Domination, Legitimation

My focus at all points in my analysis is to try to test whether there is an ongoing interplay of structure and agency or whether the better explanation is that one or other usually predominates-or that agency or structure is nearly always the predominant explanation of social outcomes. 12

Literature Review There is a broad amount of research on education in South Africa, and three types of diverse literature have seemed especially pertinent to my topic: one deals with the general background to education in South Africa and this includes a history of the Fulbright Program in Africa; the second focuses on the effects of poverty on student outcomes-and poverty is a major factor in the lives of most rural South Africans; the third are some attempts to apply Giddens to educational research.

History of Education in South Africa There are four significant periods in the history of South Africa's education which are briefly highlighted in this text. First is the introduction of the apartheid policies on May 28 1948, when the white minority Afrikaner in South Africa came into power and with an unyielding force of governance, it instituted the system of apartheid, where a minority white government ruled over a majority black citizenry. The government developed a system of education based on race and ethnicity by introducing nineteen different departments of education to carry out its policies, a system Mncwabe calls a "convoluted structure of education in

South Africa" (Mncwabe, 1993:31).

Second is the introduction of the 1953 Bantu Education Act: this Act was introduced to control black education and was placed within the central

Department of Education, the central government took control of black education, which was previously administered by provincial officials in the four provinces

(Transvaal, Western Cape, Natal, Orange Free State), and by church schools or 13

'mission' schools. The latter schools were mostly run by Catholic priests and

nuns and Anglican missionary workers; these schools were now centrally placed

within the 'new' Department of Bantu Education. Dube writes,

"Native Education was introduced by whites with hidden aims. Bantu Education, by contrast, was introduced without any attempt at pretense ... its aims were clearly stated by its architect, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd ... he opened the debate with an attack on the missionary education, which he accused of teaching African children false expectations and directing them to 'green pastures they would never be allowed to graze"(Dube, 1985:95).

Dube asserts that with Native Education, young black men and women would

find ways to continue their education; however, with the introduction of Bantu

Education, and with more restrictive policies, the government of the day would

have better control over what black men and women could learn and how far.

In Mncwabe's brief historical view of black education in South Africa, he

refers to two 'fundamental implications for the social and economic well-being of the country', that is, that blacks " ... have not received a sufficient basic education for induction directly into industrial training programs" (Mncwabe, 1993:3),

comments made by a member of a Commission of Inquiry into Labor Legislation

and that "the overall inadequacy of young blacks who have completed part of all of their secondary level schooling within an education system so low in quality as to make it difficult for them to meet the demands of modern society" (Mncwabe,

1993:3). In other words, the apartheid government, in ensuring that blacks

received an inferior education, was more interested in turning out workers to do manual labor as opposed to producing good citizens, a theory also held by Dube

(1985). In essence, the government was of the mind-set that blacks were one- 14

dimensional thinkers and therefore did not have the ability to stretch their minds

to follow a curriculum that white school-going children enjoyed and thus stunted

their development and practical programs were taught, so that black school­

going children would become domestic workers and work in the garden.

The third event in the history of South Africa's education history occurred

in the 1970's, and a turning point in education under apartheid reared its head as

a new generation of young adults, both high school and university students were

questioning the inequalities within the system of education. Dube describes how

this new generation of politically-aware and socially-conscious body of students

rebelled, he writes, "[t]his was unexpected because Bantu Education was

intended to make African children accept their low position in society as divinely

fated and not as a white social decision" (Dube, 1985:97). These young students

had reached a level of awareness, which had reached high levels of aggression

and militancy.

On the June 16, 1976, thousands of students in Soweto, revolted, this is

the one day in the history of South Africa's education when formal education

came to a standstill. The "Soweto Uprising" resulted in school boycotts and

demonstrations reverberating throughout the length and breadth of black South

Africa; students used classroom time to march and demonstrate; the police

surrounded the schools in the suburbs and townships, students were standing together in solidarity, and groups of students gathered at their schools and

marched to neighboring ones, picking up more demonstrating students as they 15

marched from one school to another throughout the townships and towns in

protest of government education policies.

The fourth event occurred with the release of Mr. Nelson Mandela on

February 11, 1990, and on April 27, 1994; a democratic process was put in place

and ushered a new focus on readdressing structures with the system of

government. The new Minister of Education had to collapse nineteen various

departments of education, based on race and ethnicity, into one department and

reconstruct forty-six years of the apartheid education system.

The Effects of Poverty on Student Outcomes The Letseka and Breier study, "Student poverty in higher education: the

impact of higher education dropout on poverty" is based on a concern that South

Africa's Higher Education graduating rate was, at fifteen percent, one of the

lowest in the world, according to the Department of Education (DoE). The DoE

found that the output of graduating numbers did not meet the human resource

requirement for a country the size of South Africa. Added to this was the wide

gap between black students graduating from university against their white

counterparts.

Furthermore data shows there were low numbers of students graduating from South African universities; the numbers between graduating black and white

students were wide and that more whites graduated than black students. Even though there was parity in the educational system, these gaps still existed.

At a socio-economic level, there would be a correlation between the

income of white and black families and that the white child would not go to school 16

on an empty stomach and/or walk distances to a nearby school, and thus the drop-out rate. This study showed on average, seventy percent of the black families lived on $150 (R1500) a month and the majority of the parents had no formal education. For the students who did not drop out, most got nominal funding from the university. Preliminary findings were that students could not afford to stay in school because they had no funds; however, while many of the students came from impoverished backgrounds, even though they had earned the right to be at university through their outstanding grades.

The participants in this study could have been statistics in the investigation above, however, they succeeded in completing their degrees at their respective universities and it leaves one grappling with the outcomes of poverty and dropping out of school - do the students in the study above go to school hungry and thus are unable to concentrate on their studies or the fact that they do not have funds to stay in school? Though the number of participants in the thesis is small, there are students who have come out of similar circumstances with success.

The Nkhoma's study centers on the low numbers of black students - one in 312 - who graduated in the sciences at high school and/or who enter university to pursue a degree in the sciences. While the ten participants may not be a drop in the ocean and make an impressive dent in the data, ninety percent of the participants are scientists and they graduated from rural institutions in South

Africa. Nkhoma's study was done in 2002, and he acknowledges that the study was done several years ago, and he does accept that the numbers are still low. 17

It is, therefore, hard to dispute what he claims, if a new study were conducted,

and new data collected, I believe there ought to be an increase in numbers.

South Africa has made strides in training 'new' scientists who have graduated

from both national and international institutions.

"Emerging Voices: A report on education in South African rural

communities", published in 2005, brings to the fore the voices of rural

communities in what the authors describe as "richly documented portrait of the

lives of communities in selected rural areas, and specifically their thoughts and

feelings about education". This study, conducted in by the Human Sciences

Research Council (HSRC) in partnership with Educational Policy Consortium

(EPC), on behalf of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, stems from the notion that

there is a correlation between education and poverty, that is, not having an

education leads to a lack of resources Uobs), which extends itself to living a life in

poverty. This is a widely-studied project, which includes social issues of poverty

and unemployment, histories of the communities, life at school, number of

students in a classroom, and community homes, including the voices of the

community. The teams were led by Project Leader, Linda Chisholm of the HSRC

and Kim Porteus of the EPC.

The Fulbright Program in Africa "The Fulbright Program in Africa, 1946 to 1986", written in 1987 by

Adelaide M. Cromwell, about the Fulbright Program on the continent of Africa,

chronicles the genesis of the program in Africa. The Fulbright Program started in

South Africa in 1953 and was administered by the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, 18

South Africa until June 1999, when the S.A-U.S.A. Fulbright Commission opened

its doors as part of a bi-lateral agreement, which was signed between the

governments of South Africa and the United States, creating the Bi-national

Commission. This agreement ended in March 2006 and the program reverted to

the US Embassy. At that time, and before the closure of the Commission, South

Africa was the fifty-first Commission in the world and one of three on the African

continent. The others are in Egypt (1949) and Morocco (1982).

According to Cromwell, U.S. interest in the politics and academic arenas

of most African countries started when countries became independent on the

continent, and the U.S. was keen to establish contact with the new leaders of the

independent countries. The U.S. soon had academic exchange programs

available to scholars from these independent countries. While very few

universities existed at the time, Sierra Leone had started in 1827 and in Liberia,

the College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Science opened in 1862 and was

upgraded to a university in 1951. Before 1946, there were no universities in the

sub-Saharan Africa region, except in South Africa before 1946. The Universities

of Khartoum in the Sudan and Makerere in Uganda were soon established

(Cromwell, 1987:94).

The Fulbright exchange programs on the continent were administered through the US Embassy's Public Affairs offices, and as early as 1949 in Egypt,

as indicated earlier and Morocco in 1982. The statistics in Cromwell's article,

show that between 1949 and 1971, 565 U.S. citizens went as Fulbright grantees to thirty-eight countries in Africa, the largest number, eighty-five to Nigeria, fifty- 19

eight to Uganda, fifty-two to Morocco, forty-one to Liberia, thirty-four to Ghana, thirty-two to Zambia, and thirty to the Republic of South Africa" (Cromwell,

1987:94).

However, for the same period, several Africans arrived from the continent to pursue their studies in the US, and the following countries participated in the program," ... the largest number, 242, came from Kenya; Nigeria sent 163;

Uganda, 163; the Republic of South Africa, 156; and Morocco, 137 ... " (Cromwell,

1987:95). During a 1976 visit to several countries in Africa, one of the board members returned to the U.S., and reported to his colleagues:

Education at all levels is viewed as a vital national resource in that it produces the people with the necessary skills and knowledge to validate the country's status as an independent nation on the road to modern development (Cromwell, 1987:97).

By the 1980s, the program had grown and countries like Nigeria, South

Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Liberia, were sending their Fulbright candidates in large numbers to the U.S., and it was around that same time that the academic boycott was in effect and for South Africa, more graduate students were going to the United States, and in observing the academic boycott, no U.S. scholars came to South Africa. While Cromwell does not state this as the reason, she does allude to " ... [b]y contrast, the program with South Africa has been very one- sided, with ninety-four percent of the grants going to South African graduate students to study in the United States". She does note that after 1981 no grants were made to U.S. citizens to go to South Africa (Cromwell, 1987:99). 20

By the early 1990s, during the democratic processes in South Africa and the advent of a new South Africa, U.S. scholars returned to the country to conduct research and teach at South African institutions.

Applying Giddens to Education Sociology of Education in Great Britain has shown a particular interest in the general problem of the relationship of structure and agency. Chris Shilling in his 1992 "Reconceptualising Structure and Agency in the Sociology of Education: structuration theory and schooling" gives a good overview of the history of studies of this central dynamic in education.

Shilling's approach in reconceptualizing structure and agency in the sociology of education is based on two approaches, namely, structuralist (strong on structure and weak on agency) and interpretive (strong on agency and weak on structure) (Shilling, 1992:71 ). From an education perspective, Shilling reminds us that a huge divide exists in macro- and micro-level, that is, the divide between structuralism and symbolic interactionism; he further adds that this divide has created a chasm of retarding the development of sociology of education in reacting to possibilities of " ... combin(ing) in one approach the insights gained from structural analysis and interpretive work" (Shilling, 1992:70).

While these problems may exist, Shilling does not discount the ethnographic literature, which has come out of interpretive research methods (Shilling,

1992:70). For him though, understanding how structure and agency is conceptualized in education research is what is key to approaching this divide within the sociology of education. 21

In attempting to combine these approaches and in order to move education research forward, Shilling addresses three ways to move the process in bridging the gap:

• Teaching strategies: Using the work of Andy Hargreaves, Shilling

examines how Hargreaves has developed 'coping strategies' as a social

structure in the classroom and not the individual student, while other

studies have extended that concept to linking social structure to individual

students and student/teacher interactions. This results in a coping method

where pupils are attempting to do so albeit within limitations of the

classroom. For Shilling, this "(s) tructures still operate to set boundaries to

action and class with any 'unrealistic' strategies pursued by teachers"

(Shilling, 1992:74). Therefore, the gap is not bridged and that structure

and agency are on two separate social levels.

• Ethnography as theory: Referring to Martyn Hammersley's work in which

the author has studied the macro-micro problem in the sociology of

education (Shilling, 1992:75), Shilling defers to Hammersley's construction

of theory in which he examines through explanatory hypotheses when

specific regularities hold and when they do not (Shilling, 1992:75). For

Hammersley this is the way to bring the two levels of analysis together in

the sociology of education, however, Shilling argues that structure and

agency is not addressed, for him, the disparity still exists and does not

come near to addressing how to bridge the gap, and Hammersley's

concept" ... is limited in scope, carefully conceived and qualified, and 22

rigorously reported ... (f)ar from enhancing the explanatory power of

educational research, this approach may restrict an appreciation of the

complexity of educational life" (Shilling, 1992:76).

• Teaching in labor process: Referring to the study by Ozga and Lawn

(1988), Shilling refers to their acknowledging" ... the importance of human

agency by focusing on the social construction of skill in analyzing

teachers' work (Shilling, 1992:76). Teachers are perceived as focusing on

'social construction' of teaching, and not as human agents, and their

teaching is not seen within labor process theory (Shilling, 1992:76). In

other words, teachers are perceived as structures as they represent a

function, which depict rules, regulations, which they, as teachers have to

not only adhere to but they have to enforce within the confines of the

school. Again, Shilling does not find their approach adequate in bridging

the structure/agency divide.

Shilling sees a failure in all three approaches and laments that theory in education has been dominated by technical approaches, but he does accept that the 'problem' of solving the structure/agency divide still exists and in his words,

" ... deserves serious attention" (Shilling, 1992:84).

Shilling presents a very positive case for using Giddens as a way to resolve the dualism that sees structure on one hand and agency on the other.

He feels that research into the sociology of education has been hurt by a tendency by some sociologists to see students and teachers as oppressed by and victims of structure; while others have over-emphasized the agentic 23

possibilities of students. He hopes that Giddens offers a way to talk about how structure and agency interact and, as noted above, this begins in reconceptualizing what is typically meant by structure and agency.

Robert Willmott critiques both Giddens and Shilling in his "Structure,

Agency and the Sociology of Education" (1999). He sets Giddens in a long history of philosophic (Descartes) and sociological (Durkheim) debates about the nature of reality. He argues that in the end, it is necessary for educational researchers to separate for purposes of analysis structure and agency-no matter how much one may wish to argue their relationship. For instance, if a school employee is laid off and does not know that he has any benefit rights, or if a student wishes to pursue a course of study different from what is offered by the school and such study is not available, there is a clear separation of structure and agency. And for researchers to talk meaningfully, they must for the sake of argument, at times separate structure and agency. Willmott sets, then, one of the key theoretical issues for my study that I will attempt to address in my final chapter "Discussion of Findings"-is it better in studying educational outcomes to talk about structure and agency as separate entities or to attempt to see them as somehow combined in an ongoing interaction? CHAPTER TWO

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

This chapter describes the context in which the practices, actions, and

structures presented in Chapter Three and Chapter Four occur-the Fulbright

Scholarship Program, Higher Education in South Africa, and the issue of Rural

Poverty.

Background on the Fulbright Program J. William Fulbright was a freshman U.S. Senator from Arkansas when he introduced the legislation that would lead to the worldwide scholarship program that bears his name. Fulbright's initiative was to amend the Surplus Property Act of 1944 to allow foreign credits accruing to the United States from the sale of idle surplus war property overseas to be used to finance educational exchange. As

Ralph Vogel (1987:12) says, this "disarmingly simple idea ... was the genesis of what would become the Fulbright Program and this amendment would give life to what is known as 'worldwide educational exchanges."

The first bilateral Fulbright programs depended on the negotiation of executive agreements with participating governments and the establishing of Bi-national commissions abroad. The latter played a key role in the initial acceptance of the exchange program, in its planning and administration, and in eventual joint financing by many participating governments. Today the Fulbright program looks to the future with confidence as it proudly claims over 156,000 alumni in the United States and abroad (Vogel, 1987:11 ).

24 25

Forty years later the Fulbright Program was considered the flagship of international exchange programs, besides having over 156,000 alumni, there are approximately 4,500 new exchanges each year with 120 participating countries, and over 1000 American scholars-faculty and professionals annually holding

Fulbright lectureships or research awards in colleges and universities in more than 100 countries.

Additionally, the Fulbright Program brings visiting scholars from abroad-- almost 1200 each year-to do research or teach at universities and colleges across the United States. But it is the Fulbright Student Scholarship Program, which has become the major flagship within the Fulbright Program bringing foreign students to pursue graduate, both Masters degree and PhD studies, and making it possible for American students to spend a year of graduate study abroad. Other programs under Fulbright, support American and foreign secondary school teachers in a direct exchange to spend a year in each other's schools.

A key feature of the legislation gave the secretary of state authority to enter into executive agreements with foreign governments. Educational exchanges under these agreements, financed with credits or currencies resulting from surplus property sales, were to be administered by foundations or by other means. Since the foreign currencies were readily expendable overseas, it was natural that such foundations, governed by Bi-national boards, should be situated in the participating countries ... A serious problem was the lack of dollars, since the Fulbright Act allowed only for utilizing nonconvertible foreign currencies. Dollars had to be found to pay costs incurred in the United States. American universities responded by offering fellowships, assistantships, and visiting lectureships to selected foreign applicants, with Fulbright funds providing the international travel. The Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller 26

Foundation agreed to defray the costs of selecting American grantees for the first six months so that the first Fulbright exchanges could get under way. Thus was initiated the symbiotic relationship between private American institutions and the U.S. government that has been a basic characteristic of the Fulbright program to the present day (Vogel, 1987: 13).

The South African Fulbright Programme started in 1953 as a Bi-national foundation:

Bi-national foundations Under the Act, programs are initiated only after an executive agreement has been signed between the United States and each participating country. Translating a legal agreement into an actual interchange program involves bilateral co-operation not only in fiscal arrangements, but in program planning, selection of participants, and supervision. These executive agreements provide for the establishment in each participating country of an educational commission or foundation, which plays a large role in the determination of the actual character of the exchanges. The membership of these varies according to the terms of each agreement, but usually includes an equal number of American citizens and citizens of the participating country. With foreign and American interests assuming an equal share of the responsible (Fulbright, 1961 :23).

The Fulbright Student Program in South Africa is the flagship of the

Fulbright Exchanges Programme. From 1953 the Program was administered by the former U.S. Information Agency (USIA) through its U.S. Information

Service (USIS) offices and American Centers around the globe, until the USIA merged with the Department of State. However, after 1994 and with the demise of apartheid, the new South African government signed a Bilateral Agreement with the U.S. Government in February 1997.

Between 1953 and 1997, many South African Fulbright grant recipients returned from the U.S. to an environment where they could use their skills and training in business and academia; but after 1994, many 'Fulbrighters' joined 27

the current government; they are also vice-chancellors (presidents) at universities; hold senior academic positions both at the universities and research councils; hold senior position as officials in several government departments, serve as Chief Executive Officess in both the corporate world and non-governmental organizations and they are making their mark in the arts

(theater, opera, dance) and museums.

On 17 February 1997 and at the opening of the Third Session of the

S.A.-U.S.A. Bi-national Commission, the former South African Deputy President

Thabo Mbeki, presided over the signing of the Agreement before the former

U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, and spoke of the significance of the Fulbright mission:

Mr. Vice President, this session of the Bi-national Commission serves to confirm and support our original idea, a noble idea, the notion that our nations and peoples can grow stronger, wiser, more free and prosperous when our citizens join together in common cause to address common challenges, and to take advantage of shared opportunities ...

The Bi-national Commission plays an important role in this regard; it provides a conducive forum to manage such differences cordially, with mutual respect.

In October 1998, the Minister of Education issued a statement in which he stated that the signing of an agreement, in 1997, authorizing the establishment of a Bi-national Fulbright Commission would enhance a process of bilateral co- operation between the two countries in the field of educational exchange. A

Board of the Fulbright Commission was established, consisting of six South

Africans and six U.S. citizens, and scheduled to meet several times each year to set policies and guidelines for Commission activities. 28

The Fulbright Commission was tasked to plan, publicize, recruit for, and administer the exchange programme in South Africa. Some of the activities of the Commission included selecting students and faculty candidates for grants, placing American scholars and students in South African educational institutions, counseling of local students interested in studying in the U.S. and arranging orientation programs for arriving and departing grantees

A U.S. State Department document, announcing the creation of the S.A. -

U.S.A. Fulbright Commission, emphasized the promotion of educational exchanges and the strengthening the mutual understanding between the people of South Africa and the people of the United States, thus:

The agreement aims to continue the large number and variety of educational and professional exchanges already carried both between the countries and to develop a specific program with the principal objective to encourage greater mutual understanding between the peoples of the Republic of South Africa and of the United States ... The United States exchanges students, scholars, teachers and other professionals with 140 other countries through the Fulbright Program, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1996. Since 1946, more than 210,000 people -- over 70,000 Americans and 130,000 people from other countries -- have participated in the Fulbright Program. (U.S. Information Agency News Release, February 1997. Retrieved April 10, 2009. www.state.gov/documents)

The S.A.-U.S.A. Fulbright Commission opened its doors, in June 1999, in

Pretoria, South Africa, and administered the Fulbright Programme for South

Africans to participate in the following programs: South African Student Program

(SASP); South African Senior Scholar Program; South African Teacher

Exchange Program; U.S. Student Program; U.S. Senior Scholar Program; U.S. 29

Teacher Exchange Program; Summer Institutes Program; New Century Scholar

Program and the Scholar-in-Residence Program.

The Commission administered the Fulbright Program for the period June

1999 until March 2006, when it closed its doors, and the program reverted to the

U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa. For this period, approximately 128

South African Fulbrighters came to the United States to pursue their Masters

degrees and PhD Studies.

At the launch of the Fulbright South Africa Alumni Association on 16

November 2001, in Pretoria, South Africa, the Minister of Education, Mr. Kader

Asma! remarked:

... the Fulbright Program success story is not an end in itself; it is an ongoing story that needs to be nourished and sustained, and who better to carry it through and above the many challenges to international stability than the alumni and supporters of the program. Rapid global changes and developments in the economy, technology, demographic shifts and international relations, transformation of higher education and skills shortages in the changing labor market are just top of the list of the challenges facing all nations and such international exchange as the Fulbright Program. The Program non-discriminatingly provided study opportunities and academic freedom to people from an educational landscape that denied the majority of the country's population access to higher education, let alone postgraduate training and research. The major success of these efforts are evident in the numerous alumni of the programme that now hold key positions in government, the private sector and civil society (Asma!, Kader. 2001. Address to Fulbright Alumni Association. www.info.gov .za/speeches/2001).

The U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, administered the Fulbright

Program from 1953 to 1999. The date of 1953 is based on research the

Commission conducted when it was planning to establish the Alumni Association; this research lead to tracing the first recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, who 30

was awarded the scholarship in July 1953 to study towards a Master's Degree at

Harvard University. (Asmal, 2001, retrieved April 10, 2009).

Since part of the bi-lateral agreement was to enhance a process of

bilateral co-operation between South Africa and the U.S. in the field of

educational exchange, the U.S. government's contribution was strictly for scholarships and the South African government's contribution was towards the

upkeep of the office and running expenses, including staff salaries and all administrative costs and office space.

In June 1999, when the Commission opened its offices, in the Ministry of

Education building in Pretoria, South Africa, it had an Executive Director and a

Staff Assistant. It was the fifty-first in the world, and one of three on the continent of Africa, with two Fulbright Commissions in Morocco and Egypt. While the

Commission followed the policies and protocols from the Fulbright Program

Office of the Bureau of Educational Affairs, Department of State, and the Board of the US Fulbright Office in Washington, DC, the S.A.-U.S.A. Fulbright

Commission tailored some of the policies to suit local practices and it also conformed to protocols set out by the South African board. The board included six South Africans and six Americans, with representatives from the South

African and the US governments, Fulbright alumni and civil society.

Education in South Africa: Universities Since 1994, the South African government has worked at developing policies, which would address the transitional changes in a democratic system. In its attempt to rectify forty-six years of racial and societal discrimination, the 31

government has had to develop a sustainable future in which these policies have to present long-term goals and address South Africans in order to meet the demands of the majority of the people. The first Minister of Education in the post-apartheid government inherited an education system fraught with problems; for instance, there were nineteen different departments based on race and ethnicity, which Mncwabe (1993:31) called a convoluted structure of education.

The Minister of Education's first order of business was to collapse the department into a functional single entity and to address the inequalities, which were embedded in the system.

While the educational system, under the current Minister is still experiencing critical problems, the Ministry has over the past fifteen years worked on rectifying the imbalances in the system. It has also developed and implemented key aspects of the education system, governance and financing of the education system, curriculum, learning materials and assessment; early childhood education and adult education, vocational education training and human resource development, inclusive of education and equity in South African education, the teaching and teacher education as well as higher education. 32

Table 2. Universities in South Africa WESTERN CAPE EASTERN CAPE GAUTENG ***University of the Western *Nelson Mandela Metropolitan *University of the Cape (UWC): Originally University (NMMU): This Witwatersrand: Situated in established in 1959 as a so- university incorporates the former Johannesburg, and called "Colored" university, the Port Elizabeth Technikon, affectionately known as 'Wits'. It institution has developed into an University of Port Elizabeth and is one of the country's leading internationally recognized Vista University (Port Elizabeth research institutions. A institution. Its current Vice- campus). The university spreads cosmopolitan campus close to chancellor/President) is a across several campuses in Port the city center. Fulbright alumnus. Elizabeth (Eastern Cape) and George (Western Cape.) **University of Pretoria (UP): Stellenbosch University: Situated in Pretoria and officially (affectionately known as "Maties) *Rhodes University (RU): established in 1930. It is one of and is situated in the wine- Situated in the Eastern Cape South Africa's largest growing region of Stellenbosch, town of Grahamstown; it has a universities and also considered The university has four 100-year history of academic one of the leading research and campuses: the main campus at excellence, and is best known for well-resourced institutions in Stellenbosch, the health its journalism department. The South Africa. sciences faculty at Tygerberg current Vice-chancellor/President Hospital, the business school in is a Fulbright alumnus University of South Africa: Bellville, and military sciences UNISA as it is known is a faculty in Saldanha. ***University of Fort Hare Pretoria-based institution, which (UFH): Fort Hare dates back to offers distance education *University of Cape Town 1916 and is the oldest historically programs to students across (UCT): South Africa's oldest black university in the country. It South Africa, on the rest of the university, founded in 1829, the has been the academic home of continent and around the world. campus is situated on the slopes many of South Africa's most It formally merged with of Table Mountain's Devil's Peak prominent leaders, including Technikon South Africa (TSA) and overlooking Rondebosch in Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and the Pretoria campus of Vista Cape Town. It is one of the Govan Mbeki, and Mangosuthu University. continent's leading research Buthelezi. Fort Hare has three institutions. Eastern Cape campuses, in Alice, Tshwane University of Bisho and East London. Technology (TUT): TUT merger with the former Northern NORTHWEST ***Walter Sisulu University Gauteng, North West and (WSU): Incorporating the former Pretoria technikons. The main North West University (former Border and Eastern Cape campus is situated on the technikons and the ***University outskirts of the city of Tshwane. Potchefstroom University, which of the Transkei (UNITRA). Its merged with the University of the campuses are based in East **University of Johannesburg: North West). North West London, Butterworth, Incorporating the former Rand University now as its students Queenstown and Mthatha. Afrikaans University, Technikon spread over four campuses, and Witwatersrand and Vista it offers parallel instruction in University (Johannesburg Afrikaans, English and campuses), the university offers Setswana, three of the official both technical and academic languages. proQrams. FREE STATE LIMPOPO KWAZULU-NATAL Central University of University of Limpopo (UL): Durban University of Technology (CUT): this (formerly The University o the Technology (OUT): OUT is the institution incorporates the North, affectionately called merger between the former ML former Technikon Free State "Turfloop"). It is one of the five Sultan Technikon and the Natal and Vista University (Welkom rural institutions in this study, and Technikon. The university has campus). The university is five of the participants are former major campuses in Durban and based in Bloemfontein smaller students and faculty members. Pietermaritzburg. businesses. 33

Table 2. continued FREE STATE LIMPOPO KWAZULU-NATAL **University of the Free State: University of Venda for Science *University of KwaZulu- Established in 1904, the and Technology {UniVen) offers Natal {UKZN): (formerly university is home to around 20 career-focused courses in the University of Natal), merged 000 students, 16 000 on the fields of health, agriculture, rural with the former Durban- main Bloemfontein campus and development, the humanities, Westville, and has five 3 000 enrolled in the university's management sciences, and law, campuses in Durban and distance and internet learning. natural and applied sciences. Pietermaritzburg. One of the participants in the study is a former student of this university. University of Zululand: (affectionately called Unizulu) has been designated as a comprehensive tertiary institution. It is also one of the rural institutions in this study, and where PTB was a student and a member of the academic staff. Source: www.sainfo.co.za, retrieved 14 January 2009.

Note: Table 2 above, shows former English-speaking institutions (for whites only) are marked by one asterisk (*); while the former Afrikaans-speaking institutions (for whites only) are marked by two asterisks (**). The former South Africa government also established institutions based on ethnicity and/or racial classification, these are indicated by three asterisks(***). UNISA was always 'open', that is, to all South Africans, to complete their degrees by correspondence courses, since it is not a resident institution. South Africa now has 23 fully-accredited universities.

As the Table 2 shows, the Ministry of Education merged many institutions of higher learning in seeking to redress the imbalances that existed within the educational system, from thirty-five to twenty-three. The restructuring focused, and in some cases reconfigured South Africa's universities - which previously still reflected the structure and priorities of the old apartheid-based system. The restructuring also brought in comprehensive universities, a new type of institution designed to cater for the merger of some universities with former "technikons"

(technical colleges), these comprehensive universities now offer a broad range of degrees, diplomas and certificates, and help widen access to tertiary education in 34

In the Limpopo province are the University of Limpopo (formerly the

University of the North, and affectionately known as 'Turfloop' - it is named after a water stream in the area and not to any folklore or political activism as the university was known for during apartheid). The township of Sovenga is adjacent to the campus and the university serves as a source of employment for most of the people in the area, as well as other areas within close proximity of the campus; Sovenga has a mixed community, from professors and administrative staff to the men and women who work in the kitchens and gardens of the campus. Approximately 168 kilometers (104 miles) is the town of Thohoyandou, where the campus of the University of Venda for Science and Technology is situated, its former Vice-chancellor was a Fulbright alumnus. Inasmuch as the town is well known for its great tourist attractions, it is a rural town, with luscious greenery and groves and groves of mango trees as you drive along some parts of the 168 kilometers, but pockets of the surrounding area have poor communities.

The University College of Zululand was established as a constituent college academically affiliated to the University of South Africa (UNISA)

(www.unizulu.ac.za, retrieved 10 April 2009). The campus of "UniZulu" is situated in north of the uThukela River in KwaZulu-Natal and situated near the town of Empangeni, its major town, Richards Bay, and the Vice-chancellor, is one of two female heads of a university in the country. The Walter Sisulu

University (formerly the University of Transkei-UNITRA) is situated in Mthatha in the former Transkei region in the Eastern Cape. UNITRA merged with the former 35

East London technikon and the former Border Technikon and named the Walter

Sisulu University, after the late political activist and African National Congress

(ANC) stalwart, Walter Sisulu - its former Vice-chancellor was a Fulbright alumnus. Several studies have been conducted on the coastal dune vegetation, livestock treatments, medicinal plant usages and other ecological studies, but the province is very poor.

All the institutions in this study were designated for South Africans - including the University of Fort Hare (UHF), the University of the Western Cape

(UWC) and the former University of Durban-Westville (UDW) - based on their race and ethnicity. While some universities in urban areas are marginally well­ resourced, they are extremely low in comparison to the former white institutions

(See Table 2).

Rural South Africa Poverty is a daily experience in South Africa; it has a political face and it has a human face and it has a physical location. South Africans living in the rural areas are the primary population of the poor in South Africa. At the annual State of the Nation address in 2006, the President of South Africa, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, mentioned the challenges facing the country, the former Archbishop Njongonkulu

Ndungane of the Anglican Church in South Africa has made it his mission to address the plight of the poor at every public forum; and government departments have developed and implemented policies to address this problem, yet forty percent of South Africans still live in extreme poor conditions. South

Africa is thus faced with debates and challenges between government and civil 36

society in how to best address poverty alleviation strategies and/or eradicating poverty.

The three provinces, which the ten participants of this study call home are

Limpopo, Kwa Zulu-Natal (KZN) and the Eastern Cape (EC); KZN has South

Africa's largest provincial population, with over 10-million people (20.9 percent of the total population of 47.9-million), according to mid-2007 estimates by Statistics

South Africa, followed by, and for the purposes of this study, EC (14.4 percent or

6.9 million people) and Limpopo (11.3 percent or 5.4 million). These three provinces are considered the poorest in South Africa (Cape Times, February 27,

2009).

Statistics from the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA), a non­ governmental organization in KZN, found that fifty-five percent of unemployed and thirty-two percent of employed people said they were unable to afford food; while fifty-four percent of jobless and forty-three percent of employed people could not afford basic services, while forty-six percent of people could not afford rent or bond payments (mortgage). For the rest, sixty-eight percent earned less than $50 (about R500) per month whether working, self-employed or unemployed, and eighty-six percent were looking for work (South Africa's Poverty.

Retrieved April 10, 2009, www.afra.co.za).

The Eastern Cape government acknowledges that it has the poorest province in the country and includes both Limpopo and KZN in this category.

Statistics in the Eastern Cape show that "more than two thirds of households are classed as suffering from poverty, while one third of the population is 37

unemployed". The AFRA report shows that sixty-eight percent of the population in KZN earned less than $50 (R500), the same holds for the employed population in the Eastern Cape. The provincial government further reports that the Eastern

Cape is faced with widespread poverty and the rural areas are the worst affected

(2004 Eastern Cape State of the Environment Report. CSIR, Division of Water,

Environment and Forestry Technology. www.environment.gov.za/soer/ecape).

The Limpopo Province of South Africa constitutes approximately 11.8 percent (5.56 million) of South Africa's population (Statistics South Africa, 2003).

According to Punt et al., (2005), 4,830,215 (86.8 percent) of Limpopo residents live in the rural areas. About 55 percent of households in the province are headed by women, and the province has been reported to have the highest population growth rate caused by the influx refugees from neighboring countries of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

In understanding the statistics above for the three provinces where all the participants of this study come from, despite their education, first and second degrees they completed at their home institutions, they have not been spared from living in a poor environment, and it further leads to another question to ponder, whether there is a correlation between poverty and education?

In addressing poverty and poverty alleviation in South Africa and in light of the statistics above, the South African government has produced reams of policies since coming into power in 1994 and in 2007 the "Development Indicators Mid­ term Review", a report card, with indicators showing how the government is performing, the 2007 Policy Coordination and Advisory Service (PCAS) states 38

that since 2000 there have been considerable decreases in poverty, with the poorest citizens seeing a notable improvement in their income. Since 2002, strong overall income growth, including the expansion of social grants, has resulted in a rise in income of the poorest 10 and 20 percent of the population respectively, and nearly twelve million people receive social grants, and 3.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) is spent on social grant assistance

(Presidency, 2007 Development Indicators Mid-term Review. Retrieved April 10,

2009, (www.info.gov.za).

Despite 'favorable' reports and statistics from South African government policies and reports, as the one above shows and others, which exist, the reality is that there are poor people in South Africa and they are living in conditions of poverty and it becomes the responsibility of the government agencies to step in assist communities, which are in dire need of help. CHAPTER THREE

FIELD NOTES FROM THE FULBRIGHT COMMISSION

In this chapter I offer a summary of my field notes from the period I served as Program Director of the Fulbright Commission. In effect, I am construing myself as a key informant for my research topic.

I became Program Director for the Fulbright Commission on September

20, 1999. I came to the position with several years of experience in national and international education, which greatly helped me to understand the requirements of the new position and to effectively execute my duties. Some of my previous experience included:

• An administrative position at the USIS (U.S. Information Service) Cape

Town, which administered the Fulbright Program at a consular district

level, and reported to the US Embassy in Pretoria. I learned a great deal

about the program as I assisted my colleagues with all the planning and

logistical arrangements for grantees, and interacted with university officials

and student applicants;

• a part-time position as the student coordinator of an interdisciplinary

program in the Department of Sociology, at the University of Stellenbosch;

• a position as administrator of the Mojapelo Commission of Inquiry at the

former University of the North (University of Limpopo); ;

39 40

• as an undergraduate student and teaching assistant in the Department of

Sociology at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts;

• an 16-month internship at the American Sociological Association,

Washington, DC

The latter two positions helped strengthen my understanding the American education system.

Having a working knowledge of both the South African and the U.S. higher education, including the Fulbright Program, greatly aided me as I was learning my new position. Furthermore, working with former colleagues at the U.S.

Embassy was advantageous. It provided me with a network that I could regularly call on when needed. I loved what I was doing; it was my dream job, and I especially enjoyed working with the students on the S.A. Student Program

(SASP), the flagship of the Fulbright Program in South Africa, the subject of this thesis. I also worked on several other Fulbright programs for South Africans.

The Bi-national Commission was now administering the Fulbright

Program, and the first year was the litmus test. We had to arrange the printing of posters, which we sent to all institutions of higher learning, including research councils and all government departments; schedule visits to all the universities to promote the student program, and arrange interview dates and invite panel members to form the interview committees. Our interviews for the candidates of the Gauteng Province - Johannesburg and Pretoria, and the candidates for the

Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West provinces -

.were all held in Pretoria. 41

Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West provinces - were all held in Pretoria.

NORTHERN CAPE

SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES AND PROVINCES

LJMPOPO KWAZULU-NATAL University of Venda (1) University of Zululand (1) University of Limpopo (2) University of KwaZulu-Natal (2)

GAUTENG EASTERN CAPE University of Witwatersrand (1) University of Fort Hare (1) University of Pretoria (2) Rhodes University (2) University of Johannesburg (3) Walter Sisulu Univ. for Tech. (3) University of South Africa (4) Nelson Mandela Metro. Univ. (4)

NORTIIWEST WESTERN CAPE University of North West (1) University of Cape Town (1) University of Western Cape (2) FREE STATE University of Stellenbosch (3) University of Free State (1)

Figure 1 Map of South Africa Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_South_Africa_with_English_labels.svg Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (Retrieved on April 19, 2009) 42

All these arrangements were made in Pretoria, where we were based.

The regional interviews for the KwaZulu-Natal Province were held in Durban;

those for the Western Cape Province and outlying areas in Cape Town. The

Eastern Cape Province interviews were held at Rhodes University for the first

three years (2000, 2001, and 2002) and at Fort Hare University in Alice in 2003,

2004 and 2005. The decision to alternate interview venues was for logistical

purposes and the fact that many white South African students, from the two

universities in the province, had never been to this historical black institution where many Southern African leaders, including Nelson Mandela, the late

Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe (founder of the of the Pan African Congress) and the

late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania had been students.

The regional panel committees met between May and June and included visiting Fulbright U.S. Scholars, South African Fulbright alumni, colleagues from the Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Consulates General. For the first three years,

I chaired all the regional interviews including Pretoria, but after that and if there were board members in the regions they chaired the committees and the national committees. The latter committee selected the finalists from each region for the next round of the application process, and it met in July

At first, the Commission advertised the student program each year in

February by placing the preliminary application, on the Fulbright website, and mailing posters to all the universities, research councils and government departments, with a closing date of April 20-a schedule we inherited from our colleagues at the US Embassy. Three years later, a board member 43

recommended that the Commission advertise the student program earlier so that the students could work on the applications during the December holidays, when all the schools and universities closed for the summer break.

Between January and March of each year, I would drive from Pretoria to the University of Limpopo, formerly the University of the North and University of

Venda for Science and Technology (formerly University of Venda) in the Limpopo

Province and spend two to three days, conducting workshops for students and academic staff and hold meetings with management. In Pretoria, I was usually invited to conduct presentations or participate in conferences where roundtable discussions were held to discuss various scholarships available for South

Africans.

When I started my position at the Commission in September 1999, I did not drive; three months later, I passed my driver's license and bought a car on

7 January 2000. Two days later, I drove from Pretoria to a town in Limpopo called Thohoyandou, to visit the University of Venda, and on to Sovenga to visit the University of Limpopo--! covered a total of 405 kilometers (252 miles). The day I drove into Thohoyandou, I had to make a detour as I drove into a storm and sheets of rain came pouring down and the streets were flooded. By time I left the area, tree limbs were lying in the roads, rocks blocked pathways and the town looked as if a tornado had gone through it. I recall that by the time I returned to

Pretoria, I saw on television the untold damage from the storm and went into a state of shock; for two weeks I did not drive my car. 44

Whenever I visited the University of Zululand, in KwaZulu-Natal, some

572 km (356 mi) from Pretoria and 186 km (115 mi) from Durban, the large port city, I would fly to Richards Bay, on the Indian Ocean, and spend about two days at the university, meeting with students, faculty and management, then return directly to Pretoria. My visits to Durban, in the same province were done separately, as I visited five institutions in the area, and sometimes I would include visits to Cape Town (Western Cape) and visit the four institutions which took in total five working days and I would take the opportunity to visit with my family.

For my visits to the Walter Sisulu University, I would fly directly to Mthatha and spend two days there, meeting with staff and students.

My visits to universities in the Eastern Cape normally took four days (I would fly to East London, visit the two universities in the area and drive to Alice, spend the night and depending on my business at the University of Fort Hare, I would stay for two days and drive to Grahamstown, spend the night and visit

Rhodes University and depart that afternoon for Port Elizabeth, spend the night and visit the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, a total of 329 km (205 mi).

Driving from East London to Alice at night was not easy, because as you drove on the narrow two-lane road, you had to be on the lookout for cattle as they criss­ crossed the road. Today the road has been upgraded and the drive from East

London to Alice is very different.

On arriving at a university, I would typically pay a courtesy call on the

Vice-Chancellor and Deans of Research, Student Affairs and the Director of the

International Office, especially if they were Fulbright alums. If there was a South 45

African academic who was nominated for any of the Fulbright programs I worked on, I would either have an office meeting or meet for tea or dinner; sometimes, and my hosts would arrange a lunch and include any visiting U.S. Scholars on the campus.

At the various universities, I typically met with anywhere from ten to 35 students, who were interested in the Fulbright Scholarship. The presentations to the students were very detailed as the South African education system is different from the U.S. system. For instance, I would go over the details of the program including the preliminary application form and explain what is expected from the applicant. Sometimes I would share the experiences of students who were in the U.S. or of those who had returned to South Africa. I would tell the students that the preliminary application form was the admission ticket to an interview, (See Appendix A), and that this was the first opportunity for them to convince the short-listing committee to invite them to an interview.

I would suggest that they ensure that their study objectives were well thought out, stating clearly what they wish to study; how they thought the training received and the skills developed would be of value to the foundational training they received in South Africa and how South Africa, as a country, would benefit from this knowledge and specifically if they thought that their study field would have a multiplier effect on the skills-shortage in South Africa

Prior to starting the presentation, I would write the number "3480" on the board, because each year, the majority of the students would only ask about

Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia and Yale; I would point to the number on 46

the board and tell them that the figure represented the number of universities in

the U.S., and that they needed to research the institutions that meet their

interests as they had a wide choice of institutions to select from that matched their field of study. As I went through the application form, I would reiterate to

prospective students how important it is to convince the short-listing committee to

invite them for an interview; if the study objective essay was well thought out and the personal statement stood out in a way that would persuade the committee to

invite them for an interview, those were the markings of a good application, besides the other required supporting documents.

I would tell my audience that their second opportunity would be during the actual interview, where they had the opportunity to convince the committee why they were the best candidate, that they were serious and clear in their minds about their plan of study in the U.S., and the benefits they thought would bring value to South Africa in knowledge, skills and training. I advised them that since the Commission received up to 500 applications for 25 to 30 scholarships, the ones chosen would be expected to return and share and/or train other talented people in South Africa, who would not have the opportunities they had experienced.

I also explained that the scholarship was a full one, which included: a return air ticket, health insurance, a monthly stipend, tuition, and an allowance for books. I explained the opportunities were only open to individuals who were citizens of South Africa, had their first degree from a South African university, were applying to study either for a Masters, a PhD or a one-year non-degree 47

program (NOP) open to anyone registered for PhD studies at a South African

university and that applications for studying towards a second Masters degree

were not accepted.

Unlike American students, South African students are not so vocal and at

question time the group needed a lot of coaxing. On many of my visits to the

universities, I would call one or two persons and ask if they had any questions,

and once one or two started, the rest would follow. There were also those who

were either too shy or too nervous to ask questions in the meeting, and they

would either ask for my email address or linger around until their peers had left.

Whenever possible, I shared this platform with successful Fulbright applicants

(for example, "PTB" at the University of Zululand and "TLM" at the University of

Limpopo), two of the participants in this study, by asking them to share their

experiences of completing the application form and their thoughts on the

interview process. I thought at the time that the students would relate better to their peers and also see one of their own who had gone through the process and

succeeded.

After each annual cycle of visits to the universities around the country, I

returned to the office in Pretoria and worked on other projects in my portfolio as

most of the programs worked in cycles and they overlapped. This means that the previous cycle's applicants' placements at U.S. universities were received.

This meant that as the applications for the new cycle of the student program were received, I was working on the placement at U.S. institutions of the cohort who were interviewed the previous year. 48

Once the applications were received at the Fulbright offices, I would review them and sort them by province in preparation for the short-listing process-when I came across an application of a promising candidate and his/her reference letters were either incomplete, that is, too short, sometimes merely four lines or if, in my view, an unfair assessment of the individual was received - as opposed to his/her other reference letters, I would call the applicant and have him/her request additional reference letters.

The short-listing committee met to screen and short-list the candidates we planned to interview in the Gauteng, Limpopo, Free State, and North West provinces - there were no universities in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga.

Prior to 1994, and before the African National Congress -led (ANC) government came into power, there were four provinces in the country, namely, Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal, and the universities were in the four provinces.

When the new democratic Constitution was introduced, the four provinces were broken into ten provinces. The Cape Province became the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and the western half of the Cape Province became the North-west Province; the Transvaal Province became Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the eastern half of the Transvaal Province, became part of the North-west Province.

Thus in South Africa with its ten provinces, the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces do not have fully-fledged universities, although many universities in the neighboring provinces have satellite campuses, and most students from the two provinces attend universities in the neighboring provinces.

The short-listing committee, in the first year, consisted of the Executive

Director and me, but by the following year I suggested that we form a committee to review the applications, so that we have a democratic process from the start of the cycle. The committee consisted of the Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer 49

(ACAO) of the Public Affairs Office at the U.S. Embassy, two South African

Fulbright alumni, the Executive Director and me.

The applications for the Kwa Zulu-Natal were sent to US Consulate

General's Public Affairs Office in Durban and the Western and Eastern Cape were sent to Cape Town (prior to the Commission, the Public Affairs Offices in

Durban worked with the Fulbright applicants from Kwa Zulu-Natal and the Cape

Town office worked with applicants from the Western and Eastern Cape). The short-listing committee in the regions consisted of the Senior Public Affairs

Specialists and South African Fulbright alumni. It was decided to have the Public

Affairs Office's colleagues participate in the short-listing process because they not only had administered the program before, but they came with a wealth of experience from their work in the academic community in their respective provinces. Later in the process of the Fulbright program, they worked closely with the students in their regions, who were selected as finalists. This continuity also helped in facilitating other logistical support, for example, the issuance of

U.S. visas and final delivery of air tickets to the candidates.

Once the regional interviews were conducted between May and June, the national selection committee met in July to short-list the finalists for the country; this committee consisted of a member of each of the regional committees, one or two board members, Fulbright alum, a representative from the Public Affairs

Office and me. The committees' final selections were usually based on whether the skills and knowledge sought were transferable and relevant, particularly in the areas of science and technology and mathematics--skills scarce in South 50

Africa. By the same token, balancing the choice of finalists was also necessary, because we had to be mindful not to overlook applicants in the areas of the arts and social sciences. In the years the Commission administered the program, we successfully selected an opera singer, who is currently completing her Doctorate in Musical Arts, Voice Performance, in the U.S.

Working with the various S.A. Student Program (SASP) committees in all the regions was extremely pleasant and professional. From my very first interview to the last one I participated in, all the committee members were interested in every student and treated them all with respect, and they listened. If any candidate was nervous, we usually asked them to share their research interests, that way they could speak to something they were familiar with, and ease their way into the interview. We always felt that the applicant should enjoy the interview experience

When the finalists were selected, we divided them into principals and alternates. I sent letters to the successful applicants and advised them of their status, including a Question & Answer (Q&A) document, which the Executive

Director and I developed, with the hope, at the time, that the applicants would consult the document as they waited for the outcome of their placement. We also tried to think of every possible question the candidates might ask and supplied detailed answers. For instance a typical Q & A document might include detailed information on - a timeline leading up to their departure to the U.S.; visa requirements, especially if they took their families along; their placement at a

U.S. university, which I would explain later; on the Graduate Record Examination 51

(GRE) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) tests and how to

apply to take them and U.S. education system. We found that the candidates did

not read this document and their anxiety would lead them to either call the

Commission or send emails. I always tried to have them familiarize themselves with the information, before I responded to their questions.

A week later I would follow up with another package, which contained forms for medical examinations, information on the test preparations and vouchers for both the GRE and the TOEFL. Some white students would protest and were always reluctant to take the TOEFL tests since they spoke English in their homes; our response was that since South Africa had eleven official languages, all Fulbright candidates in South Africa were required to take the

TOEFL test.

The principal and alternate candidates had to submit their applications through the Pro-metric Office in the Netherlands, and not directly to Educational

Test Services (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey. While it was sometimes frustrating for them to do this exercise, they learned to exercise patience and most times they successfully submitted their applications and received confirmations, with the date, time and venue to take the tests. The tests were only administered in Johannesburg and Cape Town; this meant that candidates from Durban and outlying towns and rural areas had to travel to these two cities at their own expense.

The Institute of International Education (llE), founded in 1919, is the clearinghouse for Fulbright exchange program, and others, world-wide and is 52

based in New York, with regional representatives around the US. llE annually sent booklets with applications and information on the GRE and TOEFL tests and vouchers to pay for the tests. These documents were sent to the principal and alternate candidates so that they apply to take the two tests. The task of applying to take the tests was usually passed on to the applicants so that they could start taking responsibility in managing their future academic lives, that is, up to that stage, the Commission administered most of the paperwork, and, by having them undertake this task, was a way to have them start to 'take control'.

Regarding the placement at U.S. institutions; II E's placement unit in New York, negotiated placement and funding with U.S. universities on behalf of each applicant. For the next several months, our llE colleagues worked at placing candidates at their first-choice institutions or match the candidate's study objective with a department, which would best fit their research objectives.

I also emailed the group instructions about how they could access the online application, which they had to complete for submitting to U.S. institutions through our placement agency, the Institute of International Education (llE) in

New York.

This second application, the one to U.S. universities, gave the candidates an opportunity to rework their study objective and personal statements, and they had an opportunity to change their university selections based on their interview and further research. They were also advised to write these statements without reference to any specific U.S. institution because the same document was sent 53

to all the universities of their choice or to the ones the placement agent at llE recommended would fit well with their study field and their study objective.

When I received the online application, I would check if all the questions were complete and forwarded it electronically to llE. For the next several months, and while llE negotiated placement and funding with U.S. universities, would follow-up with sending the medicals and all supporting documents to llE, and then the long wait would begin.

The students who were nominated as principals and alternates, were advised to start preparing for their departure, including applying for a passport and getting their personal affairs in order, so that by the time they were advised of their U.S. placement, they had to resign from their jobs, if they were working; if they owned a home, they had to arrange how the mortgage would be paid and attend to other personal matters.

Since the Fulbright competition was open to all South Africans, many single and married applicants applied; however, funding for the scholarship only covered the recipient. While the program did not discourage applicants to have their spouses and/or families accompany them to the U.S., the scholarship recipient was required to show proof that he/she had sufficient funding to support their spouse and/or families, for the duration of his/her stay in the U.S.

As soon as the U.S. placement was confirmed (between March and July, and even as late as September), we arranged a two-day pre-departure orientation in Pretoria, to give students an opportunity to meet their fellow grantees, but more importantly, to give them a glimpse of what to expect through 54

presentations-including anecdotal ones provided by the returnees. For

instance, Fulbright Alumnus One recalled how he stood in line one day in the cafeteria and wanted to order eggs:

I stood there feeling really stupid; I thought I overheard the person ahead

of me ask for eggs ... he said something about 'up' and the 'sun' that is all

I could remember. When it was my turn to order, I thought I would play it

safe. I said, 'I want two eggs'. The answer I got was 'say what?' ... Two

eggs, please. How do you want them? I know it has to do with the sun

and up - I don't know ... By the next day, I knew how to order my eggs.

Fulbright Alumnus Two relates his story:

I went to the post office one day and when I came to the counter, I asked

the forms to pay for my television and radio licenses. Like we do here in

South Africa, only to learn that I did not need any license to watch

television nor to listen to the radio.

Fulbright Alumnus Three recalled how she was homesick after six weeks:

I became aware that the light switches are set differently, up is on and

down is off ... the level of the water in the toilet bowl is higher than ours ...

I started missing familiar sounds, children screaming, dogs barking, ... I

even missed seeing sand ....

To the serious--how to develop a working relationship with your professors and how the semester system works, to explaining the concept of day light saving time and that cars drove on the 'wrong' side of the road. We also nominated some students to participate in a three-week pre-academic programme as a way 55

to ease into the U.S. academic life--depending on the reporting date of the

students at their U.S. institutions; we especially focused on individuals who never

had the opportunity to visit outside South Africa.

Over a two-day period, useful and practical information was exchanged from South African Fulbright alumni and visiting U.S. Fulbright professors and students, and usually at the end of the first day's proceedings, the U.S.

Ambassador would host a reception, with government officials, academics from

local universities, as well as other Fulbright alumni and Fulbright committee

members, and each grantee was presented with a certificate. By the end of the second day, the students returned to their homes and to further prepare for their departure to the U.S., while some still waited to hear about their placement.

Seeing the students at the pre-departure orientation was always special, because I had last seen most of them at the interview almost one year ago, and

had since then only communicated with them by email and telephone.

Sometimes, and if my schedule permitted, I tried to meet with some candidates, who lived in the cities and towns I visited. One of my proudest achievements was seeing this process successfully through and witness how individuals had developed and did not appear to be nervous or uncertain if they would compete well with their U.S. counterparts at their respective U.S. institutions.

While I travelled regularly inside South Africa; I had the opportunity to attend a Fulbright conference hosted by colleagues in Israel in 2000, to participate in the Near East and Middle Eastern countries. In 2001, all the

Commissions world-wide met for a week-long Fulbright meeting in Washington, 56

DC, and the same time, I travelled to Philadelphia to attend an international

conference for student counselors and to New York for consultations with my

colleagues at llE. I regularly travelled to Washington, DC and New York to

consult with colleagues and, in 2003, I participated in a pre-departure orientation

in Washington, DC for US scholars and students and, in 2004 I participated in a

pre-departure orientation for U.S. teachers. There were two U.S. colleagues I

worked closely with at the State Department, and llE, respectively, and both were

also instrumental in the success of the student program in South Africa.

The negative aspects of the job were negligible. In most cases, all the

principals and alternates were successful, but there were occasions where I had

to inform some principals that they were unsuccessful, especially if they were not

placed and/or the universities rejected their applications; by that time it was too

late to submit the applications to other institutions elsewhere in the US. I did

have four experiences where I had to tell finalists that their applications were

unsuccessful, even though they were nominated as principals; three were in

Durban and one in Cape Town. These individuals reapplied a year later (in the

next cycle) and were successful, even though at the time, it was with great angst that I had to tell them the bad news. Fortunately, the outcomes were positive, as they were accepted at US universities where they not only did well, but the work they completed met with their study objectives.

For me, it was unfortunate that our offices were within the South African government's Ministry of Education building. While we were an independent body, tensions would arise as there were times some officials treated the 57

Commission as if we were part of a sub-directorate within the structure of the

Ministry. Our presence in the building was part of the South African government's contribution towards the bilateral agreement. Our staff complement of five (See Appendix B), while small, came with the usual mix of work styles and personalities. I had good working relationships with the two former office managers, who left within a space of three years of each other; and the one administrative assistant whom I worked well with, also resigned to pursue a permanent position. The first of the two program officers and I developed a sound working relationship, but he also resigned for a higher-paying and permanent position with the South African government. The Executive

Director (ED) and the program officer she hired were the two staffers with whom I had a very cordial working relationship. When the ED left the Commission and was not replaced, the work continued, and since it was cyclical, we functioned well; all the deadlines were met and the grantees successfully selected and completed their programs. Occasionally the Cultural Affairs Officer (CAO) of the

U.S. Embassy stopped by our offices.

Unfortunately, in June 2005, the staff was told that the South African government would no longer support the Fulbright Program and that the

Commission was closing in March 2006 - my world collapsed. The Fulbright

Program reverted to the U.S. Embassy, where it started in 1953. While the CAO recommended that I apply for the position I held at the Commission, I chose not to apply. Instead, I decided to pursue graduate studies in the U.S., which has 58

now led to my writing about some of the wonderful and talented men and women

I worked with from rural institutions between September 1999 and March 2006. CHAPTER FOUR

PERSONAL STATEMENTS FROM RURAL FULBRIGHT RECIPIENTS

This chapter offers data on the way in which ten students from rural and

impoverished areas of South Africa found their way to the Fulbright Program and to successful doctoral studies in the United States. The data comes from the personal statements the students wrote as part of the Fulbright application (See

Appendix A), a questionnaire and, occasionally from later e-mail correspondence and telephone conversations with me.

The data offered by each of these students is presented as a narrative of the student's journey from an impoverished childhood through primary, secondary and higher education in South Africa to doctoral work in the United

States.

These narratives are my constructions from the original source material, narratives in which I focus on the difficulties encountered, the efforts made, and the successes won in their educational journeys. At the same time, I work to preserve the subject's voice either by direct quotation or close paraphrase. In the interest of preserving the respondent's anonymity, I use initials rather than their names.

59 60

Case Studies

MS: PhD student,

MS is a PhD student in Water Management at the Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. His home is in the Eastern Cape Province, in South

Africa, and he completed and submitted his questionnaire on December 8, 2008.

Childhood, family and community: MS was born in rural Transkei, Eastern Cape in 1970. "I grew up in a very fragmented and poverty-stricken family, as the second child of my mother's five children that is I have never known my father and of the five of us, only two shared the same father". For MS the last time he remembers living in a home with his family was up to the age of fourteen years.

Elementary and secondary schooling: In 1985, MS dropped out of school and because the principal, saw him as a promising student, funding was secured for

MS to complete his primary school education. Because MS' home environment was not stable, a social worker in the community arranged to have him move to a suitable home environment and join the family of a local church minister who was also the head of a boarding school. Unfortunately, the minister died and although Malixole was left destitute, he completed his high school with honors.

The minister's widow, who had relocated to another city, invited him to rejoin the family and promised that she would pay for his university studies. 61

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application:

By the time MS reported to the university, he soon discovered that only the registration fees were paid and not his tuition as he had expected. I had no other funding; my undergraduate years at university were tough and difficult, as I attended classes hungry and went to bed hungry. It was impossible to concentrate on my studies and I found the experience a handicap; my studies and my presence in the home were a burden to the family as I was not bringing anything to alleviate the conditions within the home". While MS' results were poor for the three years (1989 to 1991) he grappled with the idea of dropping out.

Unfortunately, he did so in the end and for the next five years, he struggled to pay off his university debt. Finally in 1977, he decided to return to complete his undergraduate studies. MS' return to university was more out of determination to complete something he had started; his most telling realization is that mentally he had matured, but financially nothing had changed, however, because he was a good student in geography, the department hired him as a junior lecturer. "I got a part-time job at the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet, at the same time, I was offered a part-time job as an assistant lecturer, but I could not just drop my KFC job because I was not earning enough money at the university. With two part­ time jobs and still registered as a full-time student, I worked hard at producing good results". His mentor nominated him to receive funding from an external source to support his studies, with the hope that he could continue at another university and start on his graduate studies; but this was not to be since he still owed money to his home institution, which meant he could not obtain a transfer 62

to another institution, until his debt was paid up. "Even though I was still holding

my two part-time jobs, I was the first student in our department to finish the

honor's degree in one year".

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: I decided to pursue a Masters degree at Rhodes University and was offered a scholarship by the Department of

Geography to complete my MSc in Geography". MS started at Rhodes

University in January 2000, and graduated in 2002. Despite this arduous and almost convoluted way MS experienced the formative years of his education, he went on to teach at the Walter Sisulu University (formerly the University of

Transkei) from September 2002 to August 2005. He saw a poster advertising the

Fulbright Scholarship competition and thought that he might stand a good chance to succeed in his application. He thought back to how far he had come and felt that he owed it to himself to submit an application. In 2005, he left South Africa to pursue PhD studies in Water Management at the University of Texas, College

Station.

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they got the Fulbright: The significance of MS' Master's degree in water management is his quest to provide safe and clean water for the communities in deep rural areas of the Eastern Cape, specifically the former Transkei region. His goal for this region is to have clean water supply and sanitation, which has been identified as one of the major causes of water quality deterioration in many rural 63

areas. Since the continuous usage of septic tanks and pit latrines in the villages,

is the major contributor of nutrients and pathogens in rural streams, he said that they include a number of water-related and water-borne diseases on humans

using water, and he wanted to ensure that rural South Africa enjoys fresh clean water. MS also he relates how he would invite school children in the villages to go along with him on his field trips; there he would show them how to test the water so that they in turn could show their parents what to do before using the water for consumption.

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship:

For MS, he is completing his PhD for his community and for South Africa. While his colleagues at the university were excited for that he won a Fulbright

Scholarship, he realizes that in order for him to achieve what he set out to do, that is, to provide safe and clean water to his community, he has achieved his goals.

SMM: PhD graduate

SMM completed his PhD studies in the Department of Agricultural and Bio­ systems Engineering at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota.

He is from the Limpopo Province, South Africa, and is currently working for a research council in South Africa. He submitted his completed questionnaire on

March 9, 2009. 64

Childhood, family and community: SMM was twelve years old and had never been in a classroom. "In 1984, my uncle came to our home; he took me from my mother and said he would raise me. I was already twelve years old and many in the family discouraged him for taking me to school; they were suggesting that I should go and work and help my mother since she was a widow. When Uncle died in 1985, I was so discouraged and did not see any future after his death.

But I did get to attend school". After his uncle's passing, SMM returned to live with his mother and siblings. He recalls one aspect of his childhood, where he spent most of his time attending to goats and another, which deprived him from attending school.

Elementary and secondary schooling: SMM credits one teacher who saw the potential in him; he promised him that if he did well at school, he would find him a bursary to pay for his studies. This encouraged the young SMM, to work harder as he realized that having the funding for his schooling, included paying for food and accommodation. " ... coming from a poor background, this was a big relief".

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application:

Once SMM realized he was a good and promising student, he continued to complete three degrees at the local university. When asked if he was the only member in his family who attended university. . 65

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: For SMM, it became a natural path to follow to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship competition because he saw the posters on his campus. He was also encouraged by his professor a Fulbright alum, to apply for the scholarship.

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they got the Fulbright: Since SMM's area is agriculture, his main goal was to ensure that all rural communities know how to plant and harvest their food and crops.

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship: When

SMM received his letter that he had won a Fulbright Scholarship, the entire village heard about the good news, but because the Fulbright process takes almost a year before a grantee departs for the US, he recalls how everyone in the village thought he was lying after he had told them he was leaving for the US.

"They would say to me, 'you told us you are leaving, a long time ago, but you are still here ... are you still leaving and when are you leaving"?

TMM: PhD student TMM is currently a PhD student in the Department of Biochemistry at Clemson

University in Clemson, South Carolina. His home is in the Limpopo Province,

South Africa, and he submitted his completed questionnaire on March 10, 2009. 66

Childhood, family and community: Thabe comes from a family base, where his father is a bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church and his mother is a teacher. He credits his parents, who both have diplomas in higher education " ... it has not been easy raising six children with limited income, but our parents pulled out all the stops. I am the second-born with three brothers and two sisters; the last of the children are still in high school, while all the others, four of them, are self-supporting in their respective jobs".

Elementary and secondary schooling: TMM also credits his teachers and says,

"... my teachers were very instrumental during my schooling and through the process since my early school years, I am grateful to have been in constant company of knowledgeable and caring educators".

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application:

TMM completed his Bachelor of Science degree (1998), majoring in Immunology and his Master of Science degree (2000) in Biochemistry at the University of

Limpopo, formerly, the University of the North, in Limpopo, South Africa. During his undergraduate studies, he became interested in studying the effects of malaria and evaluating some of the active plant extracts against some malaria pathogens. However, after completion of his undergraduate degree, he joined the Cancer Research Team at his university, in the Department of Biochemistry,

Microbiology and Biotechnology, which was doing collaborative work with the

University of Kentucky, and completed his Master of Science degree. This work 67

further generated an interest in continuing research in the effects of leukemia and prostate cancer. As a student, he was actively involved in community outreach projects and chaired a Saturday School project for local high school students.

This project was aimed at empowering students to pursue university studies, and his community involvement extended to running leadership, music and talent workshops at the local orphanage. "My interest in Biology led to my establishing a new course in Bioinformatics at my university, after I attended several intensive workshops at the South African National Bioinformatics Institute and the National

Bioinformatics Network. This new course was incorporated in the undergraduate

Bachelor of Science degree program, and I have presented a number of papers at various workshops and conferences, and also chaired some of the sessions".

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: TMM is a natural scholar and he comes from a family structure steeped in academia. When TM applied for the

Fulbright Scholarship competition, his application was highly considered because it was at the time when South Africa's focus on science and technology was one of the key areas where there was a shortage of skilled individuals. His knowledge and skills in the wider fields of Immunology, Biochemistry, Cancer

Research, Parasitological and Infectious diseases and Bioinformatics greatly enhanced his application and the selection committees did not hesitate in advancing his application to the final stages of the formal process. 68

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they got the Fulbright: As a scientist, TMM's belief in the efficacy that several medicinal plants used by traditional healers are assayed for their clinical importance and anti-cancer potential was highlighted in his application. His belief that various extracts from these plants are fractioned with the hope of identifying bioactive materials, where extracts are then tested on various cancer cell lines in vitro and the cytotoxicity is then evaluated for its efficacy. TMM's goals include pursuing the training and skills he has developed at his home university and to develop projects, which involve clinical and efficacy trials in indigenous medicinal plants extracts as inducers of cancer cell death. For TMM, the main aim is to identify the active compounds in these plant extracts within the area of the

Limpopo Province. He further wants to determine if they have any potential role to play in clinical cancer trials and/or treatment.

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship: "My family and friends are all excited and because of my work with local high schools,

I have also received great support and commendations for receiving the

Fulbright".

MEM: PhD student

MEM is a PhD student in Plant Production/Agricultural Science at the Colorado

State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. He comes from the Limpopo Province, 69

South Africa, and his completed questionnaire was done on (December 10,

2008.

Childhood, family and community: "I grew up in poverty all around me, my father was constantly looking for work and my mother had nothing to her name ... I remember the day I got my high school certificate ... my parents could not help me but they knew that education is important. My mother took me to church ... that was all she could do to help me celebrate my success. Our faith in God grew each day in my life and that ensured that my thirst for knowledge never let me down". MEM also singles out a teacher in his community who was active in community and civic outreach programs. "This teacher made sure that I got to university, even though he could not help me financially, he introduced me to people whom he thought would be helpful, since he had helped other young people too ... he was one of the few educated people in my village. Poverty was the keyword, it meant lack of proper shelter, food and living in despair; my village today is still without electricity. As a boy in the village, it was easy to know about all the kids in your age group; we either went to the same primary school or played soccer. One good thing about poverty is that it brings people together

... caring, loving and sharing were roles for each family ... soccer, rope jumping, and just simply enjoying ourselves became substitutes for food". To MEM, adversity is the best teacher, and because as children, he and his siblings were raised on religious principles, church played an important part in his development 70

Elementary and secondary schooling: MEM credits his parents and says," ... they were the catalyst behind my successful completion of my primary and high school education, without them, I do not know what I would have done".

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application:

MEM is the first in the family to complete a university degree, neither of his parents went to high school, but he recalls through conversations with them that they were both interested in becoming teachers, which placed them in a position to encourage their children to stay in school. By the time he completed his third degree, he in turn, helped his two older siblings complete higher education. His sister graduated with an associate degree in Nursing Science and his brother with a diploma in Criminal Justice.

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: When MEM thought of applying for the Fulbright Scholarship, he at first thought that it was for the most intelligent students because the top student in the Department of Agriculture at his university had been awarded one, he recalls, " ... SMM, the former student chairperson for the Faculty of Agriculture got Fulbright and I knew his status in the department would always be unmatched. A year later I was nominated to represent the students in our department and I thought that I could probably regard myself on the same level as SMM. While MEM thought he would not be eligible for the Fulbright Program, the chair of the department, a Fulbright alum 71

also approached him and recommended that he applies for the scholarship, and he was successful.

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they got the Fulbright: As a crop scientist, MEM's main concern was that co-operative farmers were not accepted along with mainstream farmers and he thought that finding ways to have mainstream farmers co-exist with their co-operative counterparts, would be a way to spread the yields of crops harvested to different markets for local use and for export quality.

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship:

"When I got the Fulbright, it took a long while for it all to sink in, but as time was drawing closer to my departure I knew that everyone in my village would be happy for me".

TLM: PhD graduate

TLM is a former student of the Department of Agricultural Education and

Communication, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. She returned to

South Africa in December 2007, to her home in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

She completed her questionnaire on March 9, 2009.

Childhood, family and community: For TLM, her parents inspired her to pursue her university studies. "My parents had an understanding of the importance of education and encouraged me to study enough in order to earn a living, however, 72

I always wanted to achieve higher than what my parents had accomplished".

TLM's parents are teachers and she comes from a family of six.

Elementary and secondary schooling: TLM was also raised by an aunt because her mother had gone to another town to complete her teaching diploma. Living with her aunt in the nearby town gave her better insight, and it was during this time that she was inspired to aim higher and achieving things that the girls in the town experienced. Her time away from her village allowed this latitude to experience and try new things, except in her case, she did not get pregnant like the girls in town, who at an early age had babies. "I stayed focused on my goal and even though I started getting involved with boys due to peer pressure, my parents would not let me lose sight of my goals; they continued to discipline me and showed me the advantages of obtaining an education. While I did not have many friends in my village, I do know there were other parents who understood the importance of education and encouraged their children to study".

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application: TLM completed three degrees by the time she applied for the Fulbright Scholarship.

The first time she saw the Fulbright poster on her campus, she became curious and told herself that if she saw it again the following year, she was going to apply-and she did. A year later after she had been through the interview process and was awaiting placement at a US institution, she was invited to participate in a 73

workshop at her university and share her thoughts in how she completed the application process.

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: Her interest in applying for the

Fulbright Scholarship came from a dream to contribute her skills to South Africa.

While she was aware that there are scarce skills in the country, she thought that a US experience would add value to what she thought would be her contribution to her community and South Africa.

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they got the Fulbright: TLM's field of study is in agricultural and extension education, a non-formal education area applied in development programs and at her interview, she shared her outreach program experiences she developed in the field amongst rural women co-operative farmers and grassroots non­ governmental organizations, who were eager to learn the formal skills she brought from her classroom environment. That is, while these women were used to planting what they thought was necessary to eke out a living and to feed their families, TLM provided them with a greater understanding of plant production, soil erosion and ways to monitor the growth of their crops and to use environmental-friendly pesticide to protect their crops and plants. Her sole goal was to plough back and contribute her training towards upgrading scarce skills.

She added," ... my understanding is I owe my country and it doesn't matter 74

where I get to go in the end - so for me - I want to stay connected with my community in South Africa".

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship:

TLMS's family and community felt she was representing them. She recalls how the women she worked with in the communities were happy that she was returning to South Africa after her studies.

LM: PhD student

LMM is currently a PhD student in the Department of Animal and Range

Sciences at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. He is from

Giyani in the Limpopo Province in South Africa. He completed his questionnaire on December 9, 2008.

Childhood, family and community: LM comes from a deep rural area called

Thulamela District (a Venda word, meaning 'place of birth'), near Giyani,

(meaning 'place where the people dance' and 'land of the friendly'). His father died in 1996, and left his mother, a pensioner, with six children and five grandchildren. He believes that if his mother was not the mainstay of the family, he would not have ended up a statistic in his community.

Elementary and secondary schooling: "I did my primary education at Mudabula

School from 1985 and graduated in 1992. Back then it was difficult for us to 75

attend school due to a lack of resources like money to buy food at school, buy

school books, and pay for school fees ... I use to sell different fruits for my mom

in order to get some money to even buy a half loaf of bread, that little money

helped me to go on attending school. I started my high school education in 1993

at Mbhedhle High School and graduated in 1998. At that school, I was a very

competitive student and ended up winning some prizes such as a dictionary, a

school bag, prize money and some other awards. I was the first student at that

high school to pass with a distinction in agriculture."

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application: By the time he was pursuing his undergraduate studies at the University of Venda,

he was depending on his mother's pension to help with tuition, food and accommodation payments. He suspended his studies in 2000 due to ill health,

buy his sheer dedication and commitment helped him work through his difficulties and complete his undergraduate studies. Initially, his mother wanted him to

become a medical doctor, but at the time, LM thought he would firstly, not be eligible and secondly, afford to attend medical school.

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: LM's interest in applying for the

Fulbright Scholarship program came with the concern he saw as a drawback to effectively increase production in South Africa and since he came from a community of small-scale farmers, where farming with cattle is their mainstay.

He believed that he could play a meaningful role in the farming community, by 76

returning with training and skills, which would enhance and educate community

farmers how best to take care of their cattle.

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they

got the Fulbright: As an animal science student, LM developed a sense of the

role physiology plays and how it is the basis in understanding an animal's

system, which in turn would help to effectively manage the production industries.

For him, South Africa needs a strong production policy to produce the healthiest

food commodities for its people and for exporting quality agricultural products.

For him too, animals are the main source of wealth, both within his own tradition

and in any rural setting in the world; farmers are the mainstay of any production

system, and he believes that in South Africa they are only able to and

meaningfully contribute about forty percent of the total agricultural wealth for the

entire country. He strongly believes that more should and could be done, and this is where he believes he has a role to play in making significant contributions to the farming communities in South Africa.

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship: At first his mother, whom he considers his rock, did not believe that he had won the

Fulbright scholarship. He recalls that she would playfully ask him if he was clowning with her, and he is always mindful that whatever achievements have come his way, they all belong to his mother. 77

PTB: PhD student

PTB is a student in the Department of Environmental Microbiology and

Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona. Her home is in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, and she completed her questionnaire on

December 9, 2008.

Childhood, family and community: PTB describes her family as a typical rural family. Where the father goes to the big cities to look for employment and never comes back, leaving the mother to fend for the family. While her mother did not have a college education, her mother's hard work and encouragement to excel in school, always encouraged her to do well. "My mother never thought any wish or dream could be out of reach for her children ... my mother never once doubted my goals and has always supported me ... it is from my mother that I have learnt to never give up on anything. Since the trend in rural communities is so typical that it is taken as the norm that most households are supported by women who are in most cases unemployed and without any form of formal education". She, however, believes that for the most part, her family background is responsible for her outlook in life and the importance of education, in particular. From an early age, she convinced herself that if she were to make something of her life, she had to get a good education. To her, it became imperative to work hard at school since she was only armed with the belief that she could succeed that way. "In my family there is no single individual who has and continues to inspire me more than my Mother. My Mother never had a college education and throughout my 78

childhood she was only employed for a few years but she always worked very hard to keep her family together. My Mother always encouraged us to excel in school and never thought any wish or dream could be out of reach for her children. As I went through high school, getting my first degree and then graduate school, there have always been people at different points in time who have asked if "this" was all worth my time and effort, if it was not time for me to

"finish school and join the real world". Throughout the years, my Mother never once doubted my goals and has always supported me. In more ways than one it is from my Mother that I have learnt to never give upon anything I believe in and her support keeps me going in good times and bad times".

Elementary and secondary schooling: PTB credits her teachers for inspiring her to excel in her school work. "Along the way I have been blessed with more than a handful of teachers who really went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that I got off to a good start in life. I know for sure that I would not be where I am at today had it not been for one Ms. Makhanya who was my English teacher in high school. For me, that was the one teacher who looked into my eyes and saw right through to my heart. For some reason, it was easy for me to talk to her about everything that concerned me about life in general. The year that I was to finish high school was one of the most stressful times in my life. I was concerned that I was not going to be able to go to university and that I would end up like most of the youth in my community whose dreams of a better life remained just that ... a dream. This teacher was very understanding and she 79

promised to do everything possible to ensure that if passed matric (Grade 12) I would get enrolled at an institution of higher learning and she did. Knowing how

much that one woman worked to help me secure just enough money to register for my first year in college, made me realize that failure was not an option I had in

life. Apart from her, I have had several other teachers who did their best to encourage me to dream of better and bigger things than my circumstances dictated".

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application: PTB completed her Bachelor of Science degree (2001 ), majoring in Biological

Sciences and her Master of Science degree (2004) in Microbiology at the

University of Zululand, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. While working on her

Master's degree, she spent some time at Rhodes University, Grahamstown,

South Africa, a well-resourced and formerly a historically white institution. She describes this period as both beneficial and one, which opened doors and other opportunities, which allowed her to work on two water resources management research projects where she was exposed to sharpening her geographical information skills (GIS) with the department's GIS facilities, which her institution did not have at the time. She was also exposed to new methodologies in water resources management and enjoyed the experience of using a membrane­ filtration technology in faecal coliform count for the first time in her academic experience. "In 2002, when I was awarded the Master of Science degree, I had established a number of contacts, having surrounded myself with a circle of 80

academic pals and seniors, which is often crucial support in the academic field".

PTB returned to her home institution to teach and continued with her water

research and supervising projects in GIS.

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: When PTB applied for the

Fulbright Scholarship programme, she came with superb skills and a keen

knowledge of her work. She was nominated the top Fulbright student in South

Africa in 2004, and won the Amy Biehl Award. This award is named after Amy

Biehl, a US Fulbright student who was slained in South Africa in 1993. At the

time of receiving the award, she called it the "Oscar of academic awards", which

she dedicated to all the great teachers who moulded her professionally - from

primary school through to the university.

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they

got the Fulbright: PTB's interest was always to work at a career, which she

thought would reach and improve the lives of ordinary people, in the rural areas

of South Africa and specifically women and children. At first she was interested

in studying medicine, by Grade twelve; she had lost interest and thought that

becoming a biomedical researcher would be an option. In her fourth year of her

Bachelor of Science degree, she declares," ... I was introduced to the wonderful

world of microbiology research. Until then I had never realized the importance of

scientific research for a country's economy". After becoming aware of the impact the shortage of natural resources, particularly water had on any country's socio- 81

economic development, she decided to focus on Environmental Microbiology,

which she subsequently chose as her area of specialization. "I have worked with water-related projects since 2000, and still find everyday a new challenge. I find

this area the most interesting in Microbiology, because it is not streamlined.

Water is health, it is also the economy and one relates to colleagues working in

industrial and medical or clinical microbiology equally. A lot of questions in this field cannot be answered by Microbiology knowledge alone - the multidisciplinary

nature of water research makes the field even more interesting. I have developed a special interest in health related water microbiology and have

published peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings on this subject

matter".

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship:

"My immediate support network has greatly looked out for me, to most of them, I am representing South Africa as a cultural Ambassador, and it is not every day that one gets mentioned as the top student in the country! Obviously, that also comes with its own responsibilities, but I am more than proud to be associated with Fulbright and with the legacy of Amy Biehl". 82

LP: MSc graduate

LP was a student in the Department of Computer Science at Embry-Riddle

University in Dayton Beach, Florida. His home is in Limpopo Province, South

Africa and is currently working in the Johannesburg. He completed and submitted his questionnaire on January 13, 2009.

Childhood, family and community: "I did not live at home with my family I grew up in a home living with my uncle, who encouraged me to stay in school. My family could not support me to stay in school at that time".

Elementary and secondary schooling: At high school, LP struggled with English and he recalls an embarrassing moment when the teacher singled him out in class. "She used my composition as a teaching aid to warn other students not to do the same thing ... mistakes, the teacher would say, 'do not write such things because you will fail', and she would call out my name, right in front of the whole class, I was so embarrassed". He lived with this uncle at that time, who taught at the same school and who counseled him to work harder. "The episode with the teacher was a serious distraction to my confidence, but my attitude to life was very positive and I did not allow that distraction to take place". A determination to succeed set in and he started emulating his classmates by reading magazines and novels, as he believed that their good usage of the English language came from reading, and as he improved, he read even more. By the time he completed his high school, he thought of becoming a medical doctor. 83

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application: As a student, LP saw himself as a 'problem solver', 'the person behind the scenes' and a 'man of solutions'. He completed his undergraduate studies at the

University of Limpopo (formerly University of the North or Turfloop as it is affectionately known.) Since LP completed science courses at high school, he thought of studying towards a medical degree, but unfortunately, he did not have the funding to follow his dream. For two years he stayed home - unemployed and not attending school; he resubmitted an application to medical school but was not accepted. He decided to enroll for a Bachelor of Information Technology degree, but was instead accepted in a Bachelor of Arts in Information Science program, which did not interest him. He finally applied for a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree at a university near his home, and excelled in this program by completing his undergraduate degree, followed by completed his

Honors degree in Computer Science. As an undergraduate student, he participated as a volunteer in various capacities, from building a classroom, to cleaning hospitals near his home, to building a water tank and toilets. He also received an award in June 2003 as one of South Africa's 'Brightest Young

Minds', which came as a result of participating in projects aimed at fast tracking

South Africa in the field of technology.

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: LP regularly saw the announcements for the Fulbright Scholarship posted around on campus. While he did not know much about the program, he decided to apply and saw the 84

exercise of submitting the application forms as a way to venture out of his immediate environment, and satisfy a curiousity of adventure, which he had developed as a child.

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they got the Fulbright: For LP, an interest in computer science came out of sheer fascination of the work a cousin was doing as a network engineer. The intricate inner workings of computers and how technology worked made him realize that if he pursued his degree in computer science, upon his return to South Africa, he would be in a position to share his training and skills with his community, so that the information age did not overlook rural communities and have them left out in how the world of technology works.

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship: LP always thought how a 'rural kid' like him could ever leave the dusty streets of his town and pursue a degree in the US. For his family and friends, especially his uncle, it was a dream come true, and an opportunity to meet challenges.

BOB: PhD graduate

Childhood, family and community: "When I was growing up my mom my role model; she died when I was still young, but my mom was very inspirational and a believer in God. When she was alive I was completely against God and never wanted to hear anything about Him. I would be annoyed by her singing God's 85

praising songs and to me, as a young man that was not cool. Of course with time that changed". BOB comes from a family of four children; he grew up in a large and poor community and recalls that he always dreamed that he would pursue higher education in the England or the US. His father left and never returned to the family home. His mother moved the family nearer to her parent's village and that is where BOB spent his childhood: he never saw his father again.

Elementary and secondary schooling: In school, BOB developed a natural talent for science and mathematics. He was encouraged by his teachers to continue studying at university level, but he was always concerned that not having any funding would be a handicap.

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application: BOB completed undergraduate studies, through a correspondence course and studied in isolation, never experiencing the benefits and values a classroom environment brings to any student, neither benefitting from interacting with classmates nor was he ever mentored by a professor, yet he was mentoring high school teachers and through his experiences, they were benefitting from him - this was a source of income so that he could pay for his studies (from money he earned as a mentor).

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship: "I always thought that I would one day study in England or the US. When I applied for the Fulbright 86

Scholarship Program, I thought this would be one way to achieve that dream. knew nothing about the programme, until I met Scott, a visiting US Fulbright professor, and he encouraged me to apply".

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa, if they got the Fulbright: When BOB applied for the Fulbright Scholarship, he was clear that science and mathematics teachers needed a good foundation to impart knowledge and skills to their students. He felt that the training teachers in rural areas got was not adequate, thus students were unfairly and poorly trained to pursue either science or maths education at university level. His goal was to ensure that if he were to teach or develop curriculum or worked in the Ministry of

Education that he would regularly call on government and education officials to monitor how teachers and students in these two important areas of education developed.

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship:

"I still remember the day when I received that call; it was a hot August day, I was just coming out of observing a science class lesson, and my phone rang ... I heard the news ... it was as if I was dreaming. I could not believe it and for the next few days my life completely changed. When it all settled in, I realized that I owe everything to my family, my friends and my community". 87

LJM: PhD graduate

LJM was a PhD student in the Department of English at Michigan State

University in East Lansing, Michigan. He is currently the Chairperson of the

Department of English at the University of Limpopo in Sovenga, Limpopo

Province, South Africa. He completed his questionnaire on April 22, 2009.

Childhood. family and community: I grew up in family of six children. I was the second born child, after my elder sister. I never knew my father, when I was older

I was told that he died a long time ago when I was three years old. I lived with my mother, my stepfather and my half sisters and brothers". When LJM was nine years old, he worked on the farms to pay for his schooling, " ... sometimes I was not paid for the work I completed".

For LJM, school was a nightmare; he walked long distances barefoot and sometimes went without food for the whole day at school. He says that at one point he thought of dropping out of school, " ... but working as a farm laborer was not an option for me; I was afraid of tractors and had no energy to survive farm work on a full-time basis. Staying at home was not an option either; I was alone with my siblings without a mother- she had to move from farm to farm to eke out a living". LJM's mother was never around while he was growing up; he and his older sister took care of their younger siblings.

Elementary and secondary schooling: As a child, LJM was always ridiculed by his peers; to them, he was the object of ridicule because he wore trousers, which 88

were torn and because he was very skinny and wiry, the boys called him 'Zero'.

He recalls, "If we were playing on the play ground, I was always the first one to be dismissed whenever someone else came to join the team. I knew that I was fielded for convenience and that I was temporary in whatever role assigned to us as boys. This made me feel unimportant and incomplete, but I used this negative situation to try and prove otherwise. I worked so hard and focused on my books".

Higher education in South Africa up to the point of the Fulbright application: LJM was a junior lecturer in the Department of English and had already completed three degrees prior to applying for the Fulbright Scholarship for his PhD st1.,1di~s.

Inspiration to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship, LJM applied for the Fulbright scholarship because he saw it as an escape from his life in poverty - even though he was teaching at the university at the time. "I was determined to cut myself away from the past, and succeed so that the experience could put me at a level that would drown my past".

Goals given on the application as to what they would do for South Africa. if they got the Fulbright: LJM wanted to empower his community, and he comes from a mindset that he could contribute and work towards change in his small way. At the time he submitted his application for the Fulbright, he was a junior lecturer in the department of English at the University of Limpopo (formerly the University of the North). He thought that studying towards a PhD in English would place him 89

in a better position to not only teaching his students, but that he could develop outreach programs, for example, reading clubs and performing arts camps in the various villages and towns around the university.

Responses of family, friends, and community to the Fulbright Scholarship LJM says, "I was afraid at first, happy inside though ... I had expected a rejection, but feel my world changing every minute at the thought of going abroad. It was such a life-changing experience, I will forever cherish". LJM was also criticized for deciding to pursue studies in the U.S., but he responded to his critics, "I could not listen to cynical remarks as my mission was far greater than what they thought". CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

This chapter analyzes the findings of Chapters Three and Four, and it evaluates using structuration theory. It then makes recommendations for best policies to promote success for rural South Africans in the Fulbright competition.

I then lay out some directions for further research.

Here I interpret the stories of these ten South Africans and my own narrative from my field notes of my time as a Programme Director for the Bi­ national Fulbright Commission (hereafter, I refer to myself as "Monica" for clarity in presentation) in terms of the ways that agency and structure interacted to produce success in competing for the Fulbright scholarships. I begin with an analysis of the Fulbright scholarship competition as a recurring social practice, a part of the larger system of the Fulbright Exchange Program.

I then look at how Monica's experiences as a Program Director reflect the duality of agency and structure in terms of her agency expressed as capability and knowledgeability as she used the structures, to accomplish communication, exercise power, and make value judgments. I next look at the relation between the Fulbright Commission and the students. I use these same variables of structures of signification, domination, and legitimation. My last point is to look at the lives of the students as a picture of these same processes. I try to show in all

90 91

what Giddens describes as the "detailed and dazzling" knowledge that humans bring to the accomplishment of their lives.

The Fulbright Scholarship Competition as a recurring Social Practice

The Fulbright Scholarship Competition in South Africa is part of a recurring social practice within the worldwide system of the Fulbright Exchange Program. I term this a "system" because it involves groups of people across time and space.

The Fulbright Program is now sixty-three years old and operates in 155 countries

(About Fulbright; the Fulbright Program, www.us.fulbrightonline.org). The scholarship competitions the rural South African students of this study competed in were for applicants around the world. People from all kinds of backgrounds must successfully accomplish the use of the structures set in place by the

Fulbright. My study shows how rural South African students, in this case, not all had ever been out of South Africa, managed to accomplish the use of these rules and resources.

The Fulbright Commission

The Fulbright Commission in South Africa may be seen as a sub-system

within the Fulbright Exchange Program. It is also a sub-system of the

government of South African. Monica's first social practice within this

Commission was getting hired and that is a good example of the ongoing duality

of structure and agency. That process shows that the persons in charge of

hiring at the S.A.-U.S.A. Fulbright Commission valued both knowledgeability

(the agency of the actor) and knowledge (the structure of signification) as

Monica reports herself, and she believes that she was hired in part because of 92

her experience. "Experience" here appears to be knowledge of the understandings in U.S. academia, the South African education system, and the

South African government bureaucracy. Monica shows her ability to use this knowledge resource in her reaching out to and maintaining "networks" as she began her new position.

The hiring experience also shows clearly, as is apparent throughout the field reports, that the S.A.-U.S.A. Bi-national Fulbright Commission is a bureaucracy, and much of its action involves power or the use of rules and resources of domination. This is shown in the requirement that Monica must get a driver's license and be able to travel by car to visit the universities. Monica accepted this as an absolute requirement. She understood with practical consciousness that it was non-negotiable and would have to be managed. She shows capacity and knowledgeability in her management of it. And it is only after just missing being caught driving in a severe storm, that she stops and thinks­ engages in discursive consciousness-and sees how potentially dangerous all this is; she notes that she then stopped driving for two weeks.

The Bi-national Commission is part of a world-wide bureaucracy that exercises authority over communication, that is, English is the official language, scholarship forms are standardized worldwide, allocation of time (deadlines for scholarship applications) and rules for evaluating applicants in terms of merit. At every stage, the worldwide effort of the Fulbright process depends on the practice of the persons at the local level, like Monica. 93

This standardization was created by the interpretations and implementations at the local level-South Africa in the time when the

Commission existed. At the local level and to make the Fulbright work, officials like Monica had to engage in actions. They had to "publicize" the possibility, which required presenting the opportunity in a way that could be understood and assessed by students in both rural and urban South Africa. As part of this effort,

Monica traveled, using her new skill of driving, and most times, flying, to achieve face-to-face interactions with students-across South Africa. In these face-to­ face interactions Monica presented the rules and regulations of the Fulbright text as opportunities potentially available to all the students she met with in the various towns and cities on university campuses.

One example of the duality of agency and structure was the change of the date that the announcements of the application opportunity went out each year.

The date that was in use when the Commission began and it was "inherited" from the time when the practice was administered by the U.S. Embassy, and the date was based on allowing sufficient lead time to meet with U.S. academic schedules. A Commission board member saw that it made much more sense for

South African candidates, and based in the southern hemisphere, to have the date set in early December, rather than February, so that students could use their summer break to prepare their applications. Equally important was the

Commission's work in transforming the template sent by the Fulbright Exchange

Program for the preliminary application form for the initial interview (See

Appendix A). This was intended as a guide to be transformed by each locality. 94

In that work of transformation the Commission exercised agency using this pre­ set structure to create, in turn, their own structure for South Africa; their agency was a matter of both practical consciousnesses-what would be understood and used-and discursive consciousness what they really need to know in order to make the best decisions in the initial cut. The Commission stressed in the Study

Objective that the applicant describe how their fields of study would fit the developing needs of South Africa and in the Personal Narrative that the student allow the Commission to get to know them by sharing information about themselves.

Importantly, these guidelines came to give a normative structure to the

later deliberations the Commission's short-listing committee would make in

selecting the first-round of candidates, and who would come for interviews. The

guidelines especially emphasize that career objectives relate to South Africa's

needs and scarce skill shortages. Monica notes that this meant the

development and improvement of material resources, especially in the fields of

science and technology and mathematics. Aware of this constraint in the

structure they had themselves created, and in line with the necessary

requirement of the 'new' democratic South Africa, Monica notes that the

Commission did make an effort to be certain that persons with majors in the

humanities and arts were also included in the interview pool-and that they did

select one opera singer who is currently finishing her Ph.D. This modification of

the structure they had themselves created is a repeated part of the recurring

practice of the Fulbright Bi-national Commission and illustrates, again, the way 95

outcomes are the product of discursive consciousness. Giddens calls this "a

monitoring of the monitoring" people do in practical consciousness.

The Commission established routines, based on the cycles of the various

programs, and worked to have as many of her tasks as possible become

recurring social practices. Giddens feels that all people have a desire for

certainty and predictability, which makes the search for routine necessary. It also

makes it possible to achieve recurrent practices. The Commission also set in

place structures, that is, rules and resources that would be available as guides to students; for instance, for successful applicants, a prepared and careful set of answers to frequently asked questions about getting ready to go to the US. The

Commission also arranged orientation sessions to help prepare successful

applicants for life in the US. These orientation sessions asked returnee

Fulbrighters to reflect-use discursive consciousness to constitute themselves as experts-on difficulties they had encountered and to share anecdotal illustrations of useful information.

The Fulbright Bi-national Commission and the Students

The major task of the Fulbright Commission was to communicate with the students. This communication aimed at getting qualified students to decide to go through the application process. Nearly all the students report that one source of inspiration for them in deciding to apply for the Fulbright was seeing a poster announcing the possibility. The Commission used agency to tap structures that let it allocate resources to produce posters and other announcements. This was a recurring social practice of "PR." 96

The Commission's work also involved helping the students understand the

interpretive schema of the Fulbright Scholarship Application Form (See Appendix

A); that form was in English: one of the major rules of the Fulbright Scholarship competition is knowing and understanding English in order to participate in the scholarship competition and for the completion of the application form.

Knowledge of English became a prime resource for students. LP reports, considerable knowledgeability went into acquiring a mastery of English: he had to survive the embarrassment of being singled out for writing a poor composition in his English class and he hit upon the idea-by copying his fellow students-of reading magazines and novels in English so he could improve. He cites the experience in his Fulbright personal narrative statement as evidence of his own determination - what Giddens would see as a capacity for agency.

Two items that involved the most interpretation as the Fulbright

Commission interacted with the students about the application were the description of the Study Objectives and the Personal Narrative Statements. The application fleshes out the rules a little, but the Commission worked to help the students understand how to present themselves through this form. The students' agency was to see how to and then to use the form to present themselves successfully. This required using not just signification but also legitimation.

There was a normative element as to what constituted an appropriate presentation of the self.

The amount of knowledge necessary to complete this is truly, as Giddens says, "dazzling." Students had to understand and be able to express not only 97

The amount of knowledge necessary to complete this is truly, as Giddens says, "dazzling." Students had to understand and be able to express not only sentence structure in English, but through convincing examples, the norms of the world they wish to enter. The norms as presented by the Fulbright Exchange and by the Bi-national Commission were the valuing of education, doing one's own work, confidence in one's ability, willingness to work hard, and a sense of honor that required on to tell the truth. Monica emphasizes that she always stressed to the students that she, as a representative of the Fulbright

Commission, did not know them and that they should be very honest in their presentation of the self. She attributes the success of these personal statements to that appeal to honesty. This attempt to be truthful may have produced an authenticity of voice that was quite effective.

Within the Fulbright experience, everyone presents themselves in terms of belief in a meritocracy. That meritocracy is not only of talent but also of hard work, perseverance in the face of adversity, and aspirations beyond one's own material advancement. At the level of social practice, there arose a sense that permeates the system that education was the key both to success and a value.

So an alternative idea like simply giving the students the money they would have used with the Fulbright and letting them start a business was never considered.

And no student claimed any family connections as a way of seeking advancement.

An additional part of the application required students to submit letters of reference. These letters were usually positive and helpful. Occasionally a 98

student would ask for a letter from a professor who did not know him/her well and who would handle the recommendation by writing just a couple of lines. Here the student showed a lack of knowledgeability and failed to see how the professor saw him/her. These mishaps were few so overall the students were able to accurately assess potential referees. But when they did occur, and especially if the student showed that he/she had the potential as a likely Fulbright candidate,

Monica would exercise discursive consciousness and decide that the student had not selected someone who knew them well and she would go beyond the explicit structures of the application and ask the candidate to submit an additional recommendations.

The Students Up to this point, the analysis has focused on social practices involving texts and bureaucracies that occurred in situations where limitations of material resources were not a major issue. This is not to paint a picture of the

Commission as lavishly funded; but it did have resources sufficient to carry out its basic duties. But when we look at the lives of the students, we see as an absolute fact a severe shortage of material goods and services. Giddens treats command over material goods as "allocative power," a part of the structures of domination. He says about the absoluteness of material goods:

"Some forms of allocative resources (such as raw materials, land, etc.) might seem to have a 'real existence' in a way which I have claimed that structural properties as a whole do not. In the sense of having a time­ space 'presence,' in a certain way such is obviously the case, But their 'materiality' does not affect the fact that such phenomena become resources, in the manner in which I apply that term here, only when incorporated within processes of structuration". (Giddens 1984:9). 99

The students may be defined as people who grew up in conditions in which they and their families had almost no allocative power in social practice after social practice so that their recurring experience is "poverty." My question, then, is how do they manage to succeed-poverty is not usually seen as a building block of success. I believe three answers emerge from my study.

• One is that among people without allocative power, as usually understood

within hierarchy (or domination), a new norm grows up governing material

goods and sharing. MEM summarizes this ethic: "One good thing about

poverty is that it brings people together ... caring, loving and sharing were

roles for each family ... soccer, rope jumping, and just simply enjoying

ourselves became substitutes for food". And nearly all the students report

family members, teachers, and community members who shared what

they had with them at critical moments.

• Two, people who succeeded despite lack of allocative power develop a

clear explanatory schema for success, as PTB explains: "The beauty of

being born to a poor family is that you know from the beginning that you

either work hard, and make it in life through your own labor or you end up

trapped in the cycle of poverty". While this may sound like a cliche, I

believe that there is a definite truth in it. The poor rural South African

students I worked with accepted the need for hard work as a fact of life;

they, therefore, did not waste time waiting for "something" to happen that

would deliver them from their situation. I believe this attitude helped them

make good use of what resources they did have, most especially time and 100

talent, like LJM, who turned to his books and worked hard in order to avoid

working on a farm since he was afraid of tractors.

• Three, a key source of structure is the actions and ongoing presence of

other people. These students lived in small, rural communities where they

were known and they knew other people. Within these communities there

was a shared interpretive schema and shared norms; so there was much

reinforcement for the idea of education. Most importantly, as every

student noted, there was the presence of a mother or father or close

relative-but most especially mothers-who served as a channel for

norms and understandings and who seemed to have taught the principle

of "making do with what one had": we can see that structures enabled by

the agency of other people (parents, mothers, uncles, mentors) reached

out to them with the specific purpose of empowering them to agency. The

mothers' influence to encourage their children to look to education as a

way out of their life of poverty - there is LM"s mother who is his rock;

PTB's mother stood behind her and coaxed her to continue with her

education; BDB's mother inspired him and through her inspiration he could

mentor others, while he did not benefit from any mentoring from his

professors as an undergraduate, and MEM's mother who celebrated his

graduation from high school by taking him to church as she had no other

way to celebrate his special day. 101

Best Policies Using Giddens' structuration theory as a way to evaluate what happened to make rural South Africans successful competitors in the recurring social process of the Fulbright Scholarship competition and looking for what might constitute best practices in such endeavors for the future, I would name five things:

• The practice of a physical presence and a person, in this case, myself,

and an office, the S.A.-U.S.A. Fulbright Commission charged with

organizing this competition and guiding students successfully through it,

meant that in this recurring social practice there was an ongoing sense of

who the agents were and they, in turn, brought an institutional memory of

what resources were available.

• The practice of having the program run by people who shared the culture,

that is, the interpretive and legitimation resources and rules, that the

students did.

• The practice of using networks within South Africa and around the world

meant that for many people the South African Fulbright Program was

something in, which they felt a vested interest in, that is, it "signified" to

them a recurring social practice in which they had been and were agents.

• The interpretation of poverty and of education coming out of rural South

Africa meant that the students had a good work ethic and were ready to

share with their communities. There were important parts of the study

objective and personal statement sections on the application on which the 102

students did very well. The point here is not to glorify the experience of

poverty but to find ways, while raising the standard of living in rural South

Africa, and to maintain a culture that focuses on oneness and unity.

• Finally, the support and response comes from a value system emanating

from the families and communities of these students, and how they had

gone about embracing a value system of ubuntu, with its basic tenet,

umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu which means that a person .. .is a

person ... through (other) people. This old Nguni adage is the anchor in

which the families of these students have shaped their lives and grounded

their value system.

Directions for Further Research If I had the opportunity to do more research on education in rural South

Africa, I would want to conduct a comparative study with the participants of this study, and their urban counterparts and investigate their post-Fulbright experience:

• Whether they have pursued the same interest they indicated in the Study

Objective and/or whether their direction of career has changed;

• Whether the prestige of winning a Fulbright scholarship and/or returning to

South Africa with a U.S. education has had any impact on their careers,

have led to any further successes, and how they might think their

contributions, if any, have had a multiplier effect on the work they have

done in their respective fields. APPENDIX A

PRELIMINARY APPLICATION FORM

f~~~~lSOUTH AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA-UNITED STATES FULBRIGHT COMMISSION

PRELIMINARY APPLICATION FOR POST-GRADUATE FULBRIGHT SCHOLARSHIPS AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

APPLICATIONS SHOULD BE COMPUTER-GENERATED:

1. PERSONAL DETAILS:

NAME:

TITLE: Mr. D Mrs. D Ms. D DATE, CITY AND COUNTRY OF BIRTH:

CITIZENSHIP:

2. CONT ACT DETAILS:

MAILING ADDRESS:

TELEPHONE:(home) FAX:

TELEPHONE: (office) FAX:

E-MAIL:

CELL:

103 104

3. CURRENT STATUS: POSITION:

NAME OF EMPLOYER or, IF STUDENT, NAME OF ACADEMIC INSTITUTION:

4. STUDY PLANS: 4.1 For what degree (e.g. MA, MSc, PhD) do you plan to study?

If applying for non-degree programme or post-doctoral study, please specify here:

4.2 What is your proposed major field of study and in what specific area of your field do you plan to specialize? 4.3 List no more than three American universities which you would like to attend, and motivate your choice for each university:

5. EDUCATION: List educational institutions attended, and any in which you are enrolled at present:

NAME OF MAJOR FIELD DATES ACTUAL NAME DATE INSTITUTION OF STUDY OF DEGREE OR RECEIVED AND LOCATION (Month and year) DIPLOMA(Do OR (list most recent not translate) EXPECTED first)

FROM I TO 6. RESEARCH: Describe any research you have completed or in which you are currently involved: 7. PUBLICATIONS: List any books, articles or theses published by you, especially in your proposed field of studv (qive title, place and date of publication): 8. OCCUPATIONAL EXPERIENCE: List positions held (be!1in with the most recent employment): NAME AND ADDRESS TYPE OF WORK DATES(YEAR OF EMPLOYER AND MONTH)

9. STUDY OBJECTIVES: Wn1e a clear and detailed description of your study objective on an A-4 size page, and give reasons for wanting to pursue your studies in the United States. Be specific about your major field and your specialized interest within this field is, and explain how your study plan fits in with the objectives. 10. PERSONAL NARRATIVE STATEMENT: This statement should be a narrative giving a picture of yourself as an individual; your personal and family, who inspired you, what are your interests and what are your future plans. 105

11.PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION:

11.1 What is the total amount you can provide from personally acquired funds: (a) For your first year of study in the US: Own funds: Other funds: (e.g. funding agency, university/technikon support)

(b) For your second year of study in the US, if applicable: Own funds: Other funds: 11.2 Would you be able to pay your round-trip travel to the US, if necessary? YesD NoD

If yes, specify amount available for round-trip travel:

11.3 What is the total amount you can provide from personally acquired funds: (c) For your first year of study in the US: Own funds: Other funds: (e.g. funding agency, university/technikon support)

(d) For your second year of study in the US, if applicable: Own funds: Other funds: 11.4 Would you be able to pay your round-trip travel to the US, if necessary? YesO NoO

If yes, specify amount available for round-trip travel:

11.5 What is the total amount you can provide from personally acquired funds: (e) For your first year of study in the US: Own funds: Other funds: (e.g. funding agency, university/technikon support) (f) For your second year of study in the US, if applicable: Own funds: Other funds: 11.6 Would you be able to pay your round-trip travel to the US, if necessary? YesO NoO

If yes, specify amount available for round-trip travel: 106

12. WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE INTERVIEWED? YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR TRAVEL AND OTHER RELATED EXPENSES. 0 Durban

0 Grahamstown

0 CapeTown

0 Pretoria

13.DECLARATION:

• I certify that the information given in this application is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge. Should I receive a scholarship, I agree to comply with any necessary regulations and to return to South Africa upon the completion of my studies in the USA;

• I understand that by completing this application form there is no assurance that I will be awarded a grant;

• I understand that the Fulbright Scholarship is not sufficient to cover travel or support for my family and I will make necessary arrangements for the living expenses in South Africa while I am away, or their expenses in the USA, if they wish to join me;

• I have no objection to publicity about my selection for a Fulbright Scholarship.

DATE: ____ SIGNATURE:------APPENDIX B

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF THE FULBRIGHT

SOUTH AFRICA COMMISSION STAFF

Board Members

Executive Director

Program Director Administrative Manager

Program Officer-~ Administrative Officer

107 REFERENCES

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