ABSTRACT
The dismantling of apartheid, which began in 1990, signalled the end of an era of colonialism, which had significance well beyond South Africa. With reference to broader analyses of policy and history of schooling, the study has magnified one place in two time periods to provide a more granular description of relationships, activities, and meanings than is possible in more general accounts. There is no single story of schooling, colonialism, and decolonisation, and the story of Carnarvon is illustrative without necessarily being typical. The major political changes of 1994 offered a moment for fundamental change – a decolonising moment. However, the education policy settlement of the 1990s was the product of broader negotiations, and in these negotiations the apartheid National Party – determined to secure the future of Afrikaans-medium schools – succeeded in ring-fencing former white schools and achieving a privileged status for them all.
