Non-Racism and Non-Sexism

The values of non-racism is aimed at creating practices that treat everybody as equal .

The Constitution’s emphasis on the values of non-racism and non-sexism is aimed at creating practices that treat everybody as equal and that work specifically towards redressing the imbalances of the past where people were oppressed or devalued because of their race or their gender.

For the values of non-racism and non-sexism to have any meaning, black learners and female learners have to be afforded the same opportunities to free their potential as white learners and male learners.

Non-sexism also means, specifically, that female educators and learners are not subjected to sexual abuse (Links to an external site.) or harassment in schools, and that as female learners they are not discouraged from completing their schooling because of abuse, harassment or pregnancy (Department of Education 2001:15).

Educators can play an important role in class to ensure that all learners develop a variety of skills and competencies, thus preventing them from being typecast (Links to an external site.). The social skills learned in small heterogeneous groupscould promote respect, acceptance and tolerance for different groups.

Educators should strive to ensure that tasks given to group members are not perceived as typically ‘boys’ tasks’ or ‘girls’ tasks’.

The educator should set the example by planning in such a manner that boys and girls get equal exposure to all kinds of tasks and skills. This means that not only boys should act as leaders of groups and that not only girls should be given the task of cleaning the area where they have worked.

Educators should strive to ensure that tasks given to group members

are not perceived as typically ‘boys’ tasks’ or ‘girls’ tasks’.

When planning groups, the educator should take care to ensure that all groups are formed in a heterogeneous manner, consisting of both boys and girls, and that all cultural, language or ethnic groups (Links to an external site.) are represented in the class. Such heterogeneous groups should also include learners with different cognitive (Links to an external site.)abilities.

Gender groups, all language groups, all ethnic groups and all racial groups represented in the class should be allowed to enter in competitions and should have the opportunity to see their best work displayed on the walls of their class.

By working and learning together in the cooperative learning activities, learners will get to know, respect and accept each other across gender, ethnic, cultural and racial divides. This can be achieved when implementing cooperative learning in class, which would give learners a solid foundation in social skills and values. When grown up they will be aware of the importance of values such as democracy (Links to an external site.), equality (Links to an external site.), tolerance and respect in our society (Kitshoff, 2006:21).