A Foucauldian critique of the development and the implementation of South African National Qualifications Framework

Abstract

This study investigates the development and implementation of the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) since its conceptualisation in the early 1980s, up to 2005. Premised on the concern that power struggles are having a negative effect on the development and implementation of the NQF, the purpose of the study is to support improved future development and implementation of the NQF by describing the amalgamation of the different and contradictory views that support the development of an NQF that replaces all existing and divisive education and training structures in South Africa - the NQF discourse. A further purpose of the study is to reveal this NQF discourse as a system in which power is exercised, and then to make recommendations on minimising the negative effects of the power struggles. Based within a Foucauldian theoretical framework, the study includes an extensive review of local and international literature on NQF development and implementation that is used to develop an NQF typology to describe and analyse the various aspects of the NQF. The literature review is followed by a qualitative analysis, using Foucauldian archaeology and genealogy, of an empirical dataset containing 300 interviews (including focus groups) with NQF stakeholders, 90 responses to discussion documents and 72 news articles published between 1995 and 2005. The findings of the study confirm the initial concern that power struggles are having a negative effect on the development and implementation of the South African NQF. The findings also show that the very same power struggles can have positive effects, but that in the South African NQF discourse, the balance of power is skewed towards the negative. Importantly, it was found that NQF development and implementation cannot be divorced from power, and that rather than attempting to undermine power within the NQF discourse, efforts can be better spent on three focused activities: 1. Inculcating an understanding of the NQF as a social construct. 2. Improving the compatibility between the NQF and the South African context. 3. Bridging the entrenched differences between educationalism and vocationalism.