Transformation and outcomes-based education in South Africa: Opportunities and challenges

This article deconstructs the discourse of outcomes-based education (OBE) reform in South Africa by addressing the following questions: who is spearheading and managing the reform process and how; what philosophical and pedagogical truths are being established in this process; what identity-producing mechanisms are at work; and what notions of a South African identity are being shaped as a result? The authors maintain that the proposed reforms are neither benign nor innocent but profoundly partial, calling for a process that is more sensitive to the differences that have animated South Africa's history and an interrogation of those differences.