Is education a tool of empowerment for girls? : a case study of teenage girls in township primary schools in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

Education has been used as a catalyst for change in positive and negative direction, both on a micro and macro level. In the context of South Africa, education was used as a tool of segregation during the apartheid era. This study sets out to investigate if education can be seen as a tool of empowerment, for South African girls, based on fieldwork conducted in outskirts of Cape Town in South Africa in October/November 2008. The research approach used in the study is of qualitative nature and I interviewed girls from two township primary schools in two different focus groups and four individual interviews, together with classroom observation. The conceptual framework is based on the composition of empowerment and its multifaceted nature. The theoretical framework is based on the ecological system theory (Bronfenbrenner 1979), implicating the mutual effects between an individual and his/her surroundings, in addition to future time perspective theory (Nuttin 1985) and “quality education” indicators (UNICEF 2002). The empirical findings in coherence with the conceptual and theoretical framework indicate two main issues, first off; despite the issue of language of instruction, the girls do receive “quality education”, within the social and economic frames of the schools. Secondly, there is ambivalence towards whether or not the girls’ home situation creates optimal development situations and in turn makes the girls receptive to the education. In light of these findings, and in combination with the girls’ positive perceptions of what education can do for their future, it leads me to conclude that, for these specific girls, education does lead to empowerment.