This paper argues that processes of self-creation are significantly influenced by experiences of schooling, of which language forms a critical aspect. The school is a central site in which identities are contested, negotiated and affirmed, but it is also imbibed with a particular identity that, in the South African context, often remains expressly…

Poetry is notoriously unpopular in high school English classrooms all over the world, and English FAL (First Additional Language) classrooms in South Africa are no exception. We report on a pedagogical intervention with Grade 11 learners in a township school in Johannesburg, where the classroom was opened to indigenous poetry and identities by…

This study was contextualised within the Life Orientation subject of "Self in Society". It acknowledges that the present time is uniquely significant in South African history as the generation of youth leaving school are now considered "born frees". This generation is considered to be free from the first-hand trauma that was…