Parents are an important part of any educational progress, and they are recognised as of key importance in children's learning. In addition, fruitful parents' participation in children's education has been reported to facilitate the development of learners' values, positive attitudes, and behaviour in which their emotional balance and maturity…

This article reports on how intervention research based on integrative career counselling enhanced the existential experience of a gifted learner. The participant of this study was a purposively selected gifted 17-year-old girl learner in search of a career that would help her experience meaning, purpose, and hope in and through her career-life.…

An earlier paper focused on how born-free learners constitute, negotiate and represent their identities after almost two and half decades of democracy in South Africa. Utilising the theoretical framework of subjective realities of educational change, in this article I set out to explore what implications teachers' beliefs hold for born-free…

This paper reports on the professional development of four mathematics teachers in South Africa. The four teachers all participated in a Mathematical Thinking course before taking an Advanced Certificate in Education in mathematics. The research, which aimed to understand these teachers' ongoing professional development, took place two years after…

Teenage pregnancy among school-going youth is a concern worldwide, but in socially-economically challenged environments it is a result of, and contributory factor to, a complex web of social injustice. In South Africa, most of the school-based prevention interventions to date have been adult-designed and imparted, with the voice of the target…

This paper analyses student teachers' meta-narratives associated with 'doing' mathematics. The quality of the vocabulary associated with the doing of the mathematical objects of a sample of 56 multilingual third-year mathematics methodology students preparing to be secondary teachers was explored and assessed. Sfard's theoretical concept of…

Based on a critical ethnography of an urban high school that exemplifies the many changes of post-apartheid South Africa, this paper presents data about two teachers who propose opposing perspectives and practices of knowing students. The analysis of the teachers' narratives shows that they came to know their students through solicited,…

In this article I explore two questions -- how does, Thatho, a transgendered life orientation teacher enact, resist and reproduce dominant understandings of gender and sexuality in terms of his own identity and practice; and what specific possibilities, challenges and resistances exist for a transgender educator in the rural. Using life-history…

This article focuses in particular on four white South African female practicing P-12 teachers' narratives about their own racialized understanding of their classroom practice(s) and their (racio-cultural) self-identity. Each of the four participants reported growing up with what they described as "strict fathers" and shared ways in…

This article draws on data collected from a wider, longitudinal life history study conducted in South Africa between 2010 and 2014. The study focussed specifically on the personal and professional pathways to principalship of a sample of women leaders of co-educational high schools in South Africa, in both rural and peri-urban provinces: a role…

The construct of mathematical identity has recently been widely used in mathematics education with the intention to understand how students relate to and engage (or disengage) with mathematics. Grootenboer and Zevenbergen (2008) define mathematical identity as the students' knowledge, abilities, skills, beliefs, dispositions, attitudes and…

There are still many South African teachers who are challenged by the implementation of the relatively new system of education. They have to explore a variety of strategies as they try to transform their pedagogy to enhance learning in their classrooms. This post-apartheid system also challenges educators to be transformative individuals who…

This article classifies four constructs of feminist identity and focuses on the role and implication of these identities in an educational field research project which aims to empower girls in diverse school communities in South Africa through human rights education. The subject is explored by examining specific genres of knowledge and inquiry in…

I focus on the role of learners in the governance of secondary schools. I seek to promote a voice for learner expression as guaranteed in the national Department of Education's guidelines for Representative Council of Learners as part of promoting democratic governance. The potential, limitations, constraints, consequences, and challenges facing…

This article presents a study that examined the life experiences of ten disabled students enrolled in secondary school in a rural context in South Africa. The methodology used to understand their life experiences of schooling is the narrative. The student's authentic personal stories were used to explore their experiences. Through stories of the…