Educating the marginalised female offender population in South African correctional centres

The post-colonial/modern education system predicated on modernity and modelled on contemporary education systems, fails to meet the gendered culturally sensitive needs of women incarcerated in South African correctional centres. Regrettably, both colonial and modern education serve to perpetuate het...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dastile, Nontyatyambo Pearl (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
In: Acta criminologica
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:The post-colonial/modern education system predicated on modernity and modelled on contemporary education systems, fails to meet the gendered culturally sensitive needs of women incarcerated in South African correctional centres. Regrettably, both colonial and modern education serve to perpetuate heterosexual patriarchal domination and domestication of women or girls by, for example, exposing them to schooling programs such as ABET as well as vocational programs (cleaning and laundry). The impact of these educational and vocational programs serve to educate girls and women for domesticity, while failing to address the related causes of their incarceration in the first place. These noted epistemic injustices lead to a creation of poverty-stricken women and girls who recidivate and commit more offences. It is also an indication of an education system that has no space for gender sensitivity. This article therefore proposes a pan-African education system within a gender sensitive ethos and acknowledgement. The article addresses three themes. Firstly, it puts the education system into context by grappling with the legacies of the colonial education and its impact on girls/women in South Africa. Secondly, an exposition of the post-colonial \modern education system, particularly among women incarcerated in South African correctional centres is explored. Lastly, an attempt is made to implicate the existing provision for women in these correctional centres by proposing a pan-African education system that is African centred and gender sensitive. The aim is to articulate and re-articulate the consequences of an education system that is in direct contrast with pan-African ideals and gender frameworks in Africa. Framed this way, the article seeks to contribute to policy reformulation, while similarly making a case that gender does matter and that gender blind or neutral policies serve to deny the existence of the phenomena. This article also emphasises that gender blindness, neutrality and insensitivity in the post-colonial/modern education lead to the domestication of women and girls in correctional centres.
ISSN:1012-8093