Even though there are ample laws that protect learners and other role-players from exclusion, marginalisation and discrimination in schools, litigation and research have shown that education departments, school governing bodies (SGBs), managers, teachers and even learners struggle to create and sustain inclusive educational spaces.

Diversity and Difference in South African Schools aims to contribute to the field of Education Law by providing practical guidance on how to facilitate diversity and difference in schools. This work integrates law, policy and case law to provide a comprehensive legislative go-to source for guidance on how to deal with diversity in schools to achieve social integration and equal education for all. It explores how applications of law against the background of the constitutional values of dignity, equality and freedom determine the role school leaders, governors and teachers could play as agents of change.

This book can be used in teacher education, professional development and educational institutions to help those involved in governing or managing schools and teaching to understand the phenomena of diversity and difference and how they should or could be approached. It provides legal guidelines for teachers and schools to promote inclusivity and respect for diversity, difference and human rights.

Written by a diverse combination of authors from Education Law as well as other disciplines, this work brings together different perspectives on diversity and difference from various fields. In addition, it tackles diversity from a perspective of gender, sexuality, culture, religion, ethnicity, language, social class and ability.

• Contextualising education law in a diverse South African educational environment
  • Legislation and policy
  • Case law
  • Law, theory and competencies leading to diversity-positive education
• Diversity and difference in human rights and educational contexts
  • Unpacking different concepts
  • Othering and marginalisation o Approaches to diversity and difference in education
• Gender and education in South Africa
  • Defining concepts
  • Possibilities for diversity-positive transformation: theoretical perspectives
  • Responding to gender difference and diversity in education: a legal framework
• Beyond racial integration in education
  • Definition of concepts: racism, ethnicity, xenophobia and tribalism
  • Theoretical perspectives towards the inclusion of racial and ethnic diversity in educational institutions
  • Responding to racial and ethnic difference and diversity in education: a legal framework
• Responding to sexual diversity in education
  • Defining concepts
  • Educational experiences and realities of students with diverse sexualities
  • Possibilities for diversity-positive transformation: theoretical perspectives
  • Responding to sexual difference and diversity in education: a legal framework
• Recognition of diversity and culture in South African education
  • Defining terms
  • Culture and diversity in international law
  • Africa and cultural diversity
  • Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
  • A legislative framework for responding to diverse cultures in education
  • The role of multi-cultural education in promoting diversity-positive education
• Responding to language diversity in education
  • The Constitution and the Pan-South African language board
  • Language policy for schooling o Language policy for higher education
  • Reflections on policy development and implementation
• Responding to diverse religions and beliefs in education
  • Defining terms
  • Theoretical perspectives on responding to diverse religions and beliefs in education
  • Legal requirements for responding to diverse religions and beliefs in education
  • Problematising religious liberty in South African education
• Children with disabilities and their rights
  • Understanding disability
  • Integrating the individual and social models as necessary: international developments in disability rights
  • The South African scenario
  • Challenges
  • An example of a court case
• Meeting the different other in school governance: risks, possibilities and guidelines
  • Drafting policy
  • The constitutional duty of SGBS to promote and protect the rights in the Bill of Rights
  • Environment and structure which should be created to celebrate diversity in schools
  • Framing effective and lawful diversity-positive policies
• Meeting the different other in education management: risks, possibilities and guidelines
  • Education policy framework for diversity positive management and inclusivity
  • Meeting the other through management for diversity-positive education
• Meeting the different other in teaching–learning: risks, possibilities and guidelines
  • Who is the other and how could the self and the other meet in educational spaces?
  • Meeting the different other: risking conflict and dissonance
  • Meeting the different other: opportunities for renewal and subjectification
  • Meeting the other in classrooms: post-conflict pedagogies and moral guidelines
• Table of cases
• Index
• Statutes

• SGBs as policy-makers in schools, school principals as professional managers of schools and teachers as the day-to-day implementers of policy regarding diversity
• Pre-service teachers
• Officials of the department of education
• Parents of learners
• Non-educator staff at schools
• Higher education institutions