An Analysis of South Africa's Education Policy Documents:

The language of education policy documents indicates the nature of the society South African educational policy-makers envisioned in a country where people from diverse backgrounds share the same geographical space. The language indicates how they perceived both themselves and the various groups in their society and points to concerns which, couched in similar-sounding terms as regimes have changed, often have the same ideological content and reflect the aspirations of the respective dominant group. Today, this is no longer the white minority, but what it has perhaps always been, the "first-world" - global - economy. South Africa's educational policy documents from four periods are examined: the Period of Colonization 1652-1910; the Era of Segregation 1910-1948; Apartheid: the Years After 1948; 1994: the ANC, South Africa and a Government of National Unity.