The Research News and Comment section publishes commentary and analyses on trends, policies, utilization, and controversies in educational research. Like the articles and reviews in the Features and Book Review sections of ER, this material does not necessarily reflect the views of AERA nor is it endorsed by the organization.
In 1999, the author worked on an oral history of apartheid era teachers. Although many people were telling their life stories through South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, there had been very little in the way of teachers' voices. This article is part of that larger study and includes three oral history case studies of members of the Teachers' League of South Africa (TLSA). The article examines the TLSA during the apartheid era through the lives of Helen Kies, Tom Hanmer, and Richard Dudley. These teachers represent what I. B. Tabata called teachers with the ' ghting spirit '. The TLSA believed in non-racialism and equality and teachers wed pedagogy and politics in their work with non-white students. Academics were stressed and so were issues of racial and class equality. The three teachers whose stories are told in this article challenged the apartheid regime and they each paid a price for their work. Although they were greatly affected by apartheid, it did not rule their lives and it could not take their hearts, minds, or souls. Their personal stories and the story of the organization, labeled Trotskyite by critics, are portrayed in this article.In March 2000, I listened to the famous African writer, Es'kia Mphahlele, speak with a class of third grade students in South Carolina. He was talking about the many evils of apartheid but he also told the children that the apartheid government did not own hearts and minds-they didn't have his soul. As he was talking, I immediately thought of the older Teachers' League of South Africa (TLSA) teachers I was privileged to meet in 1999 as I worked on an oral history of apartheid era teachers. These teachers, who were designated as coloured by the apartheid government, met with great oppression. They were discriminated against through legislation that separated the races, promoted white superiority and non-white inferiority, and punished anyone who was perceived as questioning or challenging the apartheid regime. The teachers I met, however, never surrendered. They were not inferior because they were not white, and they spent their lives committed to their students-pedagogically and politically. Like Es'kia Mphahlele, they never allowed the apartheid regime to steal their souls. This article explores their lives and their work within the context of apartheid, which was ever-present, yet never owned them. The
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