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Born-Frees, the Matric Exam, and the Battle Royale for Opportunity in South Africa
Born-Frees, the Matric Exam, and the Battle Royale for Opportunity in South Africa
상세정보
- 자료유형
- 학위논문 서양
- 최종처리일시
- 20260202104816
- ISBN
- 9798265409171
- DDC
- 960
- 서명/저자
- Born-Frees, the Matric Exam, and the Battle Royale for Opportunity in South Africa
- 발행사항
- [Sl] : Harvard University, 2025
- 발행사항
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2025
- 형태사항
- 371 p
- 주기사항
- Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-05, Section: A.
- 주기사항
- Advisor: Comaroff, Jean.
- 학위논문주기
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard University, 2025.
- 초록/해제
- 요약Every year, around a million South African grade twelve learners sit for the National Senior Certificate Examination, colloquially called "matric." Widely understood as a significant determinant of a young person's future, it acts both as a school exit exam and a university admissions test. Rooted in the colonial bureaucracy of the mid-1800s, the matric exam has evolved into a national obsession and a central mechanism through which the postapartheid state has sought to signal equality of opportunity. In principle, everyone answers the same questions under the same conditions. Yet, despite the steady rise in candidates and the national pass rate, the exam increasingly functions as a high-stakes selection apparatus in a context of deep inequality and widespread exclusion. As youth unemployment reaches staggering levels, and university spaces remain limited, passing the exam no longer guarantees access to work or further study. The competition for scarce, desirable futures hasbecome fiercer than ever.In this dissertation, I explore how competitive stratification has come to coexist with an ethos of equality, and what that means for a generation of born-frees coming of age after apartheid. I draw on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a Western Cape town, where I followed learners at three public high schools as they prepared for the 2021 exam.The matric exam produces both aspiration and anxiety. While some learners remain committed to the belief that education offers a pathway to a better future,others express doubt, ambivalence, or quiet withdrawal. For many, schooling retains a near-salvific promise-even as the prospects of social mobility diminish. I argue that the exam has come to encapsulate what it means to be young in South Africa today: it marks a broader shift in which collective visions of liberation are being displaced by individual strategies of advancement. For born-frees still waiting for their share of democracy's rewards, opportunity is not assured-it is conditional, competitive, and increasingly out of reach.
- 일반주제명
- African studies
- 일반주제명
- Sociology
- 일반주제명
- African American studies
- 키워드
- Ethnography
- 키워드
- Matric exam
- 키워드
- South Africa
- 키워드
- Unemployment
- 기타저자
- Harvard University African and African American Studies
- 기본자료저록
- Dissertations Abstracts International. 87-05A.
- 전자적 위치 및 접속
- 로그인 후 원문을 볼 수 있습니다.
MARC
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■040 ▼aMiAaPQ▼cMiAaPQ
■0820 ▼a960
■1001 ▼aSteyn, Adriaan Stefanus.
■24510▼aBorn-Frees, the Matric Exam, and the Battle Royale for Opportunity in South Africa
■260 ▼a[Sl]▼bHarvard University▼c2025
■260 1▼aAnn Arbor▼bProQuest Dissertations & Theses▼c2025
■300 ▼a371 p
■500 ▼aSource: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-05, Section: A.
■500 ▼aAdvisor: Comaroff, Jean.
■5021 ▼aThesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard University, 2025.
■520 ▼aEvery year, around a million South African grade twelve learners sit for the National Senior Certificate Examination, colloquially called "matric." Widely understood as a significant determinant of a young person's future, it acts both as a school exit exam and a university admissions test. Rooted in the colonial bureaucracy of the mid-1800s, the matric exam has evolved into a national obsession and a central mechanism through which the postapartheid state has sought to signal equality of opportunity. In principle, everyone answers the same questions under the same conditions. Yet, despite the steady rise in candidates and the national pass rate, the exam increasingly functions as a high-stakes selection apparatus in a context of deep inequality and widespread exclusion. As youth unemployment reaches staggering levels, and university spaces remain limited, passing the exam no longer guarantees access to work or further study. The competition for scarce, desirable futures hasbecome fiercer than ever.In this dissertation, I explore how competitive stratification has come to coexist with an ethos of equality, and what that means for a generation of born-frees coming of age after apartheid. I draw on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a Western Cape town, where I followed learners at three public high schools as they prepared for the 2021 exam.The matric exam produces both aspiration and anxiety. While some learners remain committed to the belief that education offers a pathway to a better future,others express doubt, ambivalence, or quiet withdrawal. For many, schooling retains a near-salvific promise-even as the prospects of social mobility diminish. I argue that the exam has come to encapsulate what it means to be young in South Africa today: it marks a broader shift in which collective visions of liberation are being displaced by individual strategies of advancement. For born-frees still waiting for their share of democracy's rewards, opportunity is not assured-it is conditional, competitive, and increasingly out of reach.
■590 ▼aSchool code: 0084.
■650 4▼aAfrican studies
■650 4▼aSociology
■650 4▼aAfrican American studies
■653 ▼aEthnography
■653 ▼aMatric exam
■653 ▼aSouth Africa
■653 ▼aUnemployment
■690 ▼a0293
■690 ▼a0626
■690 ▼a0296
■71020▼aHarvard University▼bAfrican and African American Studies.
■7730 ▼tDissertations Abstracts International▼g87-05A.
■790 ▼a0084
■791 ▼aPh.D.
■792 ▼a2025
■793 ▼aEnglish
■85640▼uhttp://www.riss.kr/pdu/ddodLink.do?id=T17358963▼nKERIS▼z이 자료의 원문은 한국교육학술정보원에서 제공합니다.
