Life Orientation And Analysis

South Africa is indeed a pluralist democracy and it is a vital aspect to consider when teaching Life Orientation. It is therefore imperative that one begins by altering their focus of Life Orientation to rather citizenship and values education. By doing so, one is able to address the importance of whose values need to be considered, which values are crucial to being integrated into teaching and finally how one should teach these values. It is necessary to form a solid foundation so that one can expand on the important role values play in not only education but citizenship in South Africa. In order to do so, firstly, democratic citizenship and values need to be defined and analysed before progressing to the effect values have on teaching and

It involves educating students about political and human rights issues while also focusing on one’s responsibility of having moral and ethical qualities and of course having respect for fellow citizens (UNESCO, 1998). Citizenship education “is about understanding and participating in contemporary society” (Davies 201, p.24). It instils the importance of exercising one’s judgement while acquiring community and individual responsibilities (UNESCO, 1998). By thinking about Life Orientation as citizenship and values education, it opens the door to understanding issues in this world and problems on both a national and global scale. This specific type of education may be defined as “one way to help people overcome political apathy, teach more peaceful forms of political and civic behaviour and help provide tools to solve social problems in non-violent ways” (Mmusinyane 2015, p. 69). By implementing citizenship education in schools, democracy is strengthened and sustained; and the practice of these

Students are confronted with decisions and problems in their daily lives and it is imperative that they are capable of coming up with solutions and able to take action in a responsible manner. Therefore the values that should be taught in school are found in the Manifesto which is based “on the idea that the Constitution expresses South Africans ' shared aspirations and the moral and ethical direction they have set for the future” (Asmal, 2001). Students should be taught their own values which can be found in the Manifesto so that active citizenship may be guaranteed (Solomons & Fataar, 2011). Due to the diversity of South African’s society in terms of religion, culture and beliefs, it is vital that the teacher does not teach the students what political party they should support or what to believe, but instead teach them values that are “consistent with democracy” (Seefeldt, 2010). The values that that should be present in the classroom should correspond to our democracy and that encourage “children to become participatory members of a democratic society” (Seefeldt, 2010). Values should not be imposed but to rather be acknowledged and retained in