Past and present perceptions surrounding mission education : a historical-metabletical overview

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Africa, education has both reflected, and has been subjected to numerousperceptions, which inevitably led to various ideas and behaviour on the part of thoseparticipating in the educative act.Perceptions of others, objects or situations remain complex. The thoughts andbehaviour which emanate from such complexity depend on factors such aspersonality, motivation, and social context. Culture also plays a cardinal role in theperceptual process. In the Republic of South Africa, as a culturally diverse country,divergent perceptions about education, where multi-culturalism is most evident, willbe inevita ble.Mission education has been variedly adjudged, because of varied perceptions. Thisis understandable, as Black South Africans had been educated pre-dominantly byWhite missionaries up until the 1950's. Generally, politicians, academics and themedia tend to give one-sided viewpoints, negating other interpretations and balancedperspectives. This takes place because of ignorance, bias or self-interest.Two commonly held perceptions about missionaries, are that they were racist andthat their education system promoted colonialism. The understanding of racism,colonialism and missionaries' role therein, is in turn determined by numerous factorsamongst historians, academics, politicians and journalists. The perceptions of eachof these groups are often determined by partisan interests, which inevitably lead tounfair generalisations and stereotypes, since the rnetabletical nature of education isdenied.In order to dissertate on past educational events, they need to be read contextually,taking into account both temporal and spatial dimensions of historical reality. Whenanalysing historical perceptions, one needs to critically evaluate diverseinterpretations of the past, and attempt to present a balanced perspective, insteadof presenting a biased outlook,which tends to favour a specific hypothesis.This research critically analyses the various perceptions (past and present)surrounding mission education in South Africa, according to historical-metableticalguidelines, that they may be presented within a more balanced historical perspective.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University