Institutions of Higher Learning in South Africa annually face challenges that often lead to student protests and demonstrations, mostly at the beginning of every academic year, which adversely impact the smooth running of academic programs. Stakeholders' expectations were at the apex of causes that destabilise the academic environment, academic…

Students, through teaching and learning, must reflect on what they do not know. It is only when they recognise what they know, and what they do not, that they will awaken to their own curiosity. The more they can open themselves to others and their epistemologies, the deeper their own self-reflection in relation to others. In this way, engendering…

This article stemmed from discussions related to residence committee members and their role as leaders within their communities. The ideas presented during these conversations gave rise to a research interest for a conceptual exploration of collaborative and progressive social transformative brokering within a complex context. In particular, the…

Using Critical Realism, this article looks at articles from selected South African newspapers which reported on the #FeesMustFall protests. The study established that, arising from the protests, was a culture characteried by tensions and distrust amongst stakeholders such as students, university management and the government. This, the article…

The concept of mediation is a process that is frequently used in the labour field and is under-developed in a field such as education. Mediation as a strategy to resolve conflict in an amicable way has gained support in various other fields but seems not to be seen as a mainstream solution to resolving conflict in education. This article reports…

The article explores the multifaceted process of creating the large-scale annual public puppetry event, The Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade, in the rural town of Barrydale, South Africa. It unpacks the complex layers of meaning and making arising through a co-creative puppetry project in a region of South Africa marked by poverty and the on-going…

The ways in which Africanisation and decolonisation in the South African academy have been framed and carried out have been called into question over the past several years, most notably in relation to modes of silencing and epistemic negation, which have been explicitly challenged through the student actions. In a similar vein, Canada's…

Implementation of religion policy in schools has provoked contradictions and contestations in South Africa and across the globe. Reports on costly and protracted court cases and legislative battles between schools and parents as well as between schools and departments of education over religion in schools have been increasing at an alarming rate.…

In 2014, through the University of the Free State's (UFS) Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ), three South African universities partnered to collaborate on the pilot phase of a research project focused on understanding whether the Arts could enable social cohesion, as the 2012 National Development Plan (2030) had promoted. All…

Soft skills are becoming increasingly important and will be critical for success in the Information Systems profession. Employers complain about a lack in soft skills among graduates from tertiary education institutions. No agreement exists about what these skills actually are, which are of importance, and how acquiring these soft skills should be…

This article argues that the model of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in use at the Workers' College in South Africa may be seen as a form of "radical pedagogy." Drawing on documentary sources, focus group interviews with staff, and observations, it describes an educational philosophy which aims to build the competencies of activists…

This article commences with an explanation of some of the technical terms in the field of conflict resolution. It then examines the common ways which parties to a conflict use in an effort to deal with it and concludes that, on a number of criteria, collaborative conflict resolution is the superior method. Using some representative examples of…

What happens when students holding rival though indirect memories of past conflicts confront each other in the same classroom? What are the kinds of political and pedagogical approaches necessary for mediating such "clashes of martyrological memories" in the same educational space? And why is critical theory inept at offering resolutions…

Reconciliation is one of the most significant contemporary challenges in the world today. In this innovative new volume, educational academics and practitioners across a range of cultural and political contexts examine the links between reconciliation and critical pedagogy, putting forward the notion that reconciliation projects should be regarded…

This is a case study of a conflict management intervention in two secondary schools in post-apartheid South Africa. The feature of the intervention that we examine is the use of play as an educational strategy. The literature attests that play can facilitate change by allowing learners freedom to change their behaviour and opportunities to explore…