Overview

The history of African teacher training in Natal is one of the most neglected and under-researched aspects of educational history. This book attempts to set out the administrative history of this field as a first step in stimulating the further research that is so urgently needed. It provides an overview of how and why African teachers were trained in the colony and province of Natal, starting in 1846 with the arrival of the first missionaries and ending in 1964, ten years after the Bantu Education Act was passed. By focusing on the past, the book also aims to provide a historical lens through which modern educational problems can be viewed. The quality of an education system, past or present, depends on its teachers, and the most vital task of any education system is to ensure that teachers are properly trained to do what they should do: inspire and intellectually stimulate the young generation.

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9781869144425

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Nicholas Schiketanz's book on African teacher education in colonial Natal is an important addition to the literature on the history of South African education, filling a significant gap in our knowledge of Black education. It provides essential reading for anyone who would understand the origins of the educational crisis that still pervades our society by seeking to understand the injustices and the ambiguities of the missionary agencies and the colonial state in promoting various models of education from the time of the colony of Natal to the era of Bantu Education. Most significantly, it explores the longstanding debates about whether the curriculum for African teachers and students should be 'adapted' to the needs of African culture or to the 'needs' of community or rural life, or whether it should be dominated by the needs of Christian missions, or should emphasize secular knowledge and modern pedagogy and be the same for all citizens of South African in the context of an emerging modern industrial state. Contemporary policy-makers, educationalists and historians will find this an important and informative read. --Peter Kallaway, School of Education, University of Cape Town

Author Information

Nicolas Schicketanz is a history specialist with a particular interest in the education field. His interest in South African history began during his practical teaching term at the German School in Pretoria in 2006. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Basel in 2015 and currently teaches English and German at the Openbaar Lyceum in Zeist, the Netherlands.

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