Die de–/vitaliseringsdialektiek van die skool

Abstract

A study of the literature has indicated that schools across the world have been confronted with a de-/vitalizing dialectic. It has been found that the school is subject to a powerplay of hegemony/counter-hegemony which threatens to rob it of its vitality. In this study it emerged that the school is a vital, vigorous structure which has in the course of history been defined ever more clearly and pertinently with regard to its nature, essence, function and purpose. This has happened under the guidance and to the accompaniment of the interpretation of historical events and their influence on the school by those with historic power. Within the context of the current bi-polar religious ground motifs the various holders (those in office) of power as givers of form have in their efforts to interpret and to direct the forces at work in the community with regard to the school each given a unique definition to the school. They have each functioned as a meaning-giver and a deployer of forces within the framework of meaning of a specific philosophy and theory of the school and under the hegemony of a specific religious position. Within this process of deployment of the school a bi-polar field of tension has come into existence within which a de-/vitalizing hegemony/counter-hegemony play of forces has developed and new demands vis-a-vis new theses/points-of-departure with regard to the school have come into being. The inability of the holders of historic power (those in office) to unify the thesis/antithesis (bi-polar) tensions of the school in a synthesis points to the inherent dualism and a play of forces running counter to (ontic) law which still manifest themselves in the school. This conclusion was reached by way of a problem-historical study of case studies with special attention being given to the de-/vitalizing dialectic of the school. A number of cases were analysed historically. Subsequently a phenomenonanalysis was done by way of the problem-historical and structuro-empirical methods and the data and findings were evaluated in a fundamental-educational framework. Apart from this the problem was evaluated within its context by way of the method of fundamental reflection and description. The final and comprehensive conclusion was reached by way of the use of the trancendental-critical method. It was found that the dualisms which manifest themselves in the de-/vitalizing dialectic of the school find themselves in an inevitable and insoluble thesis/antithesis or field of tension: one which tends towards change, but which cannot be united in a final and irrevocable synthesis. Should these antagonizing forces be approached from a Christian, scriptural perspective and be set under the primacy of the creation-fall-redemption religious ground motif, new light is thrown on the subject: the school and its activities in this perspective obtain a vision of eternity and a deeper, God-determined sense according to which everybody and everything can be integrated in God's omnipotence and be shaped towards a final God-destined synthesis. The de-/vitalizing dialectic therefore in fact disappears when the school is directed from the vision of its Primal Origin and Eternal Destiny, viz God. From the vantage point of this vision the school is a unique God-intended societal relation which is directed in its activities by the Christian religious ground motif. The redemption of man in and through Christ in communion with the Holy Spirit is the final grounds for the synthesis and also the central Archimedal point which directs the Christian school in its didaskein activities.