Crafting Values: teaching citizenship and reconciliation in South Africa (DOMUS seminar)

In the aftermaths of the South African War (1899-1902) the British pacifist and social reformer Emily Hobhouse  (1860-1926) established schools to teach 'poor white' girls the skills of domestic textile production. Beyond providing employment for those made destitute by the war, Hobhouse envisioned these as schools for the promotion of civic and moral values.  In our paper, we will look critically at Hobhouse's teaching of values in the classroom, and some of the tensions in the application of these in early-twentieth century South Africa.  We will then use this for a discussion of our own crafts-based schools project in South Africa and some of the challenges posed by the democratisation agenda and the planned re-introduction of history into the South African curriculum.    

Speakers: 

• Dr Rebecca Gill, University of Huddersfield
• Dr Helen Dampier, Leeds Beckett University
• Jenny Lake, University of the Free State 

All are welcome at this free event