Great South African Teachers by Jonathan Jansen & Nangamso Koza & Lihlumelo Toyana
Great South African Teachers (First Edition, First Impression Inscribed Copy)
A Tribute to South Africa's Great Teachers from the People Whose Lives They Changed
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Great South African Teachers: A tribute to South Africa's great teachers from the people whose lives they have changed
- Authors: Jonathan Jansen & Nangamso Koza & Lihlumelo Toyana
- Editor: Patricia Botes
- Publisher: Bookstorm (Pty) Limited and Pan Macmillan South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Publication Date: 2011
- ISBN-13: 9781920434243
- Edition Details: First Edition, First Impression. Inscribed by a previous owner's friend (presentation inscription; not signed by the author).
- Binding: Publisher's printed card wrappers, perfect bound.
- Physical Format: Large softcover (trade paperback), approximately 235 x 155 mm, 294 pages. Text only, without maps or plates.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
- The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Wraps: The dark blue printed wrappers with the cream handwriting-alphabet strip are clean and glossy, with no tears. There is slight softness and rubbing at the top right corner of the front cover. The spine is clean and straight with legible lettering and no obvious creasing. The page edges are slightly cream-toned.
- Interior: The text block is clean and bright, with no markings in the sample pages examined. The binding is tight and the book opens flat without splitting. There is a small ink-like mark near the top right edge of the title page, which also carries a handwritten presentation inscription.
- Provenance: Handwritten presentation inscription in brown ink on the title page: "To Stuart / Thank you for being 'such' a teache[r] / Love Ros." Not signed by the author.
- The Dust Jacket: Not Applicable (As Issued)
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in Johannesburg in 2011 by Bookstorm with Pan Macmillan South Africa, Great South African Teachers gathers tributes to the teachers who shaped the lives of their pupils. The stories were sent in by more than a hundred South Africans in response to a call placed in the Sunday Times.
Jonathan Jansen introduces the collection with commentary on the lessons to be learnt from these accounts, and identifies seven types of inspiring teacher. Co-authors Nangamso Koza and Lihlumelo Toyana, then journalism students, worked with him on the project, and the volume was edited by Patricia Botes.
The tone is hopeful. At a time of sustained concern about the state of South African schooling, the book argues that strong teacher models still exist and can guide the rebuilding of the system. It is a useful social record of how ordinary South Africans remember their teachers, and this copy carries a warm personal inscription that adds human interest.
Author Profile: Jonathan Jansen
Jonathan Jansen was born in Montagu in the Western Cape in 1956. He began his career as a high school Biology teacher in the Cape before moving into academia and university leadership, and he is one of South Africa's most widely read commentators on education.
His other works include Knowledge in the Blood, published by Stanford University Press, and How to Fix South Africa's Schools: Lessons from Schools that Work (Bookstorm, 2014). His co-authors on this volume, Nangamso Koza and Lihlumelo Toyana, were journalism students at the University of the Free State who had attended school in the Eastern Cape.
Great South African Teachers · Jonathan Jansen first edition · Jonathan Jansen teachers tribute · South African education book · inscribed Jonathan Jansen · Bookstorm 2011 first impression
