Teachers Changing Worlds

Abstract

Even big waves of political revolution are not able to wash away deeply internalised oppression and entrenched injustice – especially far away from the epicentre where only the ripples reach. Deep in South African rural schools, steeped in layers of social and cultural oppression that has shape-shifted through generations of political regimes, are scatterings of teachers taking on the frequently lonely task of teaching for social justice. It is precisely their contextual knowledge of the nuances of the power play of the hegemonic norms that makes possible their ways of working. Through a structured pedagogical journey of critical consciousness-raising, this article reports on the conduct and outcomes of self-reflective action research to facilitate more socially just practices in the writers' own schools, presenting some of the self-reflective action research reports/stories of these educators produced while they work for social justice.