Problematising the Concept Epistemological Access with Regard to Foundation Phase Education towards Quality Schooling

Overview & Synopsis

This paper comprises a brief study of the literature about the concept epistemological access, a fairly under-researched topic in South African education. It is aimed specifically at the notion of access in the early years of the primary school. Morrow's distinction (Morrow 1992) between formal access (institutional access) and epistemological access (access to the goods distributed by the institution) is used as a conceptual framework. We argue that the meaning of the concept epistemological access, as Morrow intended it, was borne out of a particular political need that arose in higher education in the last years of the apartheid regime; the need to democratise access to higher education. The dearth of literature on the concept epistemological access and its meaning for access to basic education, especially foundation phase schooling, therefore warranted this study of the literature.