ABSTRACT
This paper examines the relationship between the South African knowledge enterprise and citizenship in terms of the ontologies it authorises. It is especially interested in how education comes to be used in particular settings to privilege particular ways of being. In relation to this it asks what notions of the subject and his or her relation to the social and the natural world inhabit the organisation of the school and its curriculum and how these notions have settled on the learning landscape. These questions are critical in understanding the emergent conceptions of citizenship and national identity in the country, especially in light of its complex attempts to work with its multiple pasts and its determination to enter the global world on its own terms as opposed to those of the dominant economies of the world. They are crucial as South Africans make a commitment to both Africanism and globalisation. The paper begins with a brief discussion on the promise of modern education and its commitment to democracy and democratic citizenship. It argues, however, that this commitment to inclusiveness is undone as education systems around the world emerge and are developed on the premise of a universalism informed by the experience and example of Europe and its presumptive cultural legacy. How this process works in the South African context constitutes the substance of the paper.
