Annual Report:
2001/2002

Education and Media Unit

"Through its experience and research over the past ten years, the CSVR has developed a unique multi-disciplinary approach to combating violence and building reconciliation. The Education and Media Unit has played a key role in disseminating and popularising the organisation's work"

Tracy Vienings, Programme Manager

The primary goal of the CSVR is to utilise its expertise in preventing violence and in building reconciliation, democracy and a human rights culture within Southern African governance and society. The Education and Media Unit has provided educational and media material towards this aim, both within the educational sphere and general society.

Goals and strategies

The original goal of the Education and Media Unit, when it was established in 1993, was to support and service the education and training needs of the other programmes in the CSVR. Due to difficulties in raising this type of core funding, the Unit developed and sustained its own educational projects that aimed to produce multi-media educational packages to combat violence and build reconciliation. In the re-structuring process, these projects have now been located in other CSVR Programmes.

Highlights

Constitution Hill - the History of our Future

Constitution Hill's history of injustice and brutality remains largely untold. It is the site of Johannesburg's first fort and a number of gaols where political and criminal prisoners have been incarcerated over the last one hundred and twenty years. This national heritage site will be a testimony to learning about the past in order to build a better future. Tracy Vienings and Graeme Simpson spent 2001 meeting with various government and non-government stakeholders to assess the feasibility of CSVR's participation in such a project. Funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, this process ended with an exciting vision of CSVR engaging with the site to develop the concept and content of a journey through time, a journey through the history of our future.

This site is the home of the Constitutional Court, a place where human rights for every South African citizen will be guaranteed. The site will create an experience of the relationship between past and present and the layers of memory and dilemmas that continue to exist beneath the surface of the Constitutional Court and South Africa's new democracy.

The Peace Building Project

Through its experience and research over the past ten years, the CSVR has developed a unique multi-disciplinary approach to combating violence and building reconciliation. At the request of other countries, and through the Centre's participation in the United Nation's Project on Early Warning and Conflict Prevention, the CSVR has begun to share its experience and approach to rebuilding post-war societies. Tracy Vienings will develop an integrated Peace Building training course that will be offered to trainers in South Africa and in the rest of Africa.

The CSVR identified five themes that comprise an integrated peace-building frame:

• Trauma healing facilitation
• Violent conflict prevention application
• Reconstruction and reconciliation
• Restorative justice practice
• Strategic non-violent action

Carl Stauffer produced a series of three Resource Packs, based on an integrated approach to Peace Building.
Volume I: Peace Ecosystems, supplies facilitators with background information and exercises that explain peace building as an integrated framework.
Volume II: Participant's Manual for Peace Activists, describes the roles and competencies necessary for effective conflict intervention practice.
Volume III is a compilation of exercises, role-plays, and simulations, a Handbook of Training Tools that can be used in a learning experience about peace building. The manuals were piloted during workshops with fieldworkers from the National Land Committee. Enthusiastic feedback was received about the manuals from a number of members practising peace building in Africa. The CSVR was also elected to sit on the Executive Committee of the Network of African Peace Builders (NAPS) - a new network of African Practitioners involved in Peace Building.

Anti-racism and Xenophobia Work within a Culture of Human Rights

In 2001, Yvette Geyer conducted eleven focus groups in schools in Gauteng in order to inform the development of a skills workbook and video for educators to use in Gauteng schools in 2002. The experiences from the focus groups of Grade 9 to 11 learners in secondary schools illustrated that the issue of racism, xenophobia and ethnicity run deep and in some instances the transition has itself led to situations that expose learners to racism. Due to the rapid integration of the learning space, learners and their educators were unprepared for the resultant dynamics and interactions.

Current learner trends

• White learners are colluding with white educators in terms of discipline and racist perceptions by defending the racist behaviour of educators and exhibiting prejudices similar to those of the educators. This highlights the need for educators to be conscious of how they are forming hidden alliances that can be seen to promote monoculturalism. To promote change, a video and educational materials will be developed to embrace multiculturalism.
• Generally, learners find it easier and prefer to mix with others of the same culture. However, in 'progressive' schools learners who mixed 'successfully' across colour and other lines were respected.
• Most white learners continue to fail to acknowledge the issue of racism and other forms of discrimination; and are impatient when people do highlight these problems in the school environment. This requires careful and strategic planning of educator training in order to address these subtle forms of denial. It is imperative that educators first engage with their own racism prior to attending to its prevalence in learners.
• Black learners experience problems of racism in terms of knowledge acquisition, treatment within the classroom and in the extra curricula environment. Black learners are raising the same issues that were raised five years ago. This implies educators need urgent assistance with lesson planning and classroom management strategies that will alleviate these problems
• Issues of religious discrimination have increased since the Palestinian/Israeli issue gained media prominence. After September 11 serious problems arose with educators discriminating against and isolating Moslem learners
• Black learners are not proud of talking about their ethnicity.

Current Educator Trends

In terms of the educator information gained from three focus groups in three different schools, the following trends have been identified:

• Although denial persists and racism is believed to be a learner perception rather than educator practice, educators are slowly beginning to admit to past racist tendencies.
• Educators resent having to deal with social issues, when they feel overwhelmed by the additional work entailed in the new curriculum.
• There is a lack of cultural understanding and older educators are resistant to new classroom management techniques.
• Although blatant racism continues, new strategies of discrimination have been devised which result in black learners feeling excluded and marginalised.
• Assumptions of standards continue to plague the transformation project of the school system.
• School management appears to believe that their schools are in 'good' shape and that their progress has been significant. The Education and Media Unit's work with educators provided evidence to the contrary. There is a significant divide between newly trained enthusiastic educators, educators who are slowly changing and those who cling stubbornly to the 'old' way. This has huge implications for school transformation and management practice.
• Interviews at some of the schools provided evidence that one of the key strategies for dealing with racism in schools is firm disciplinary action, particularly when racism is found in educators. This inspires confidence in learners and a belief that the school does value them.

Future Directions

The restructuring of the CSVR during the course of 2001 directly affected the Education and Media Unit. Despite the resultant closure of the Education and Media Unit, its staff members will carry forward and expand the Unit's ongoing projects in other CSVR programmes. Yvette Geyer will continue the Anti-racism Project within the Youth Programme. Tracy Vienings will manage the Constitutional Hill and Peace Building Projects as part of the Transitional and Reconciliation Programme. Caron Kgomo will provide administrative support for the Criminal Justice Programme.

Publications Report