The thesis explores how the rise of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa affects the education system and the school staff’s and learners’ sense of national belonging through a comparative study of high schools located in low-income areas of Johannesburg (Yeoville, Soweto, Alexandra, Denver). It shows that xenophobia not only permeates schools from outside, but is also produced by the schooling institution, in systematically denying access to school to immigrant learners and relegating immigrant teachers to precarious employment positions. It also highlights how the capacity of the school staff to respond pedagogically to xenophobia is limited by the official marginalisation of anti-xenophobia education and the complicated context associated with the everyday running of low-income schools. It nonetheless discusses how xenophobia and anti-xenophobia at school are mediated by site effects and documents how counter-hegemonic anti-xenophobia education may emerge through reflecting on action-research collaborations with teachers and artists in Soweto. Beyond the school arena, the thesis offers a reflection upon the critical evolution of nationhood and citizenship in South Africa.It relies on:- A comparative research in seven schools through interviewing school staff and learners, administrating questionnaires, a coteaching and ethnographic fieldwork in one Sowetan school. - Interviews with officials in the administrations of the Departments of Basic Education and of Home Affairs; and the analysis of policy instruments and legislative texts.- Interviews with lawyers and observations of mobilisations by migrant organisations around immigrant learners’ access to school.