This article is written with the recognition that, as higher education studies evolve as a multidisciplinary area of inquiry, there is a need to reflect on the theoretical and practical concerns emerging from conducting higher education research. This is especially the case for early-career researchers who enter this relatively new field of study.…

We present a quantitative study of responses to voluntary and anonymous surveys of undergraduate geology students enrolled at an English-medium, research university in South Africa. This research captured student interest in geology, their perceived level of understanding of key geological concepts, and the extent to which in-class and in-field…

Internationalisation of higher education and teacher education has been a key issue since the 1990s and many universities still attempt to increase student mobility ever since. Much research has been done on the topic of internationalisation and higher education, including teacher education trying to show how a certain programme impacts on…

This article reports on a problem-based learning (PBL) fieldwork activity carried out by geography education students on the Mooi River in the North West province of South Africa. The value of doing practical fieldwork using a PBL approach in the training of geography teachers was researched by means of an interpretative multimethods approach.…

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) remains a mostly elusive notion. For universities to genuinely contribute to SoTL, they must delineate clear parameters of engagement. For example, while some engage SoTL at the academic level, others examine it from an institutional policy perspective. Others view it from national and international…

The PhD is the highest formal qualification and signifies a scholar's rite of passage as a legitimate contributor of new knowledge in a field. Examiner reports make claims about what is legitimate in a thesis and what is not and thus articulate the organising principles through which participation in a field is measured. The authors analysed 39…

Purpose: Within the context of the European-funded JOLISAA project (JOint Learning in and about Innovation Systems in African Agriculture), an inventory of agricultural innovation experiences was made in Benin, Kenya and South Africa. The objective was to assess multi-stakeholder agricultural innovation processes involving smallholders. Approach:…

The curriculum is a critical element in the transformation of higher education, and as a result, I argue for the inclusion of what I refer to as an African epistemic in higher education curricula in South Africa. In so doing, attention is directed at the decolonisation of the curriculum in higher education in South Africa, which aims to give…

Living citizenship emerging from reflection on an international educational partnership makes a unique contribution to the field and importantly fulfils the British Educational Research Association aim of improving educational practice for the public benefit. This paper explores the conceptual framework of 'living citizenship' as a means for…

In recent years there have been calls both for building the knowledge base of academic development (AD) and for systematic induction of newcomers to the field if AD is to advance as a professional and an academic field. Despite the importance and complexity of AD, induction of novice academic developers remains mostly informal and predominantly…

Working in unfamiliar contexts and often alone, fieldworkers may face challenges for which their training and previous experience has not prepared them. While there is literature about the technical, ethical and moral aspects of fieldwork, there is little focusing on fieldworkers' actual experiences. Additionally, there is little constructive…

While many universities have taken steps to recognise teaching in academic promotions, debate continues on the teaching criteria to be used and their evaluation. This article analyses the 10 criteria that inform the evaluation of teaching and eventual promotion decisions at a South African university: rationale for teaching, teaching methods,…

I report on postgraduate students conducting survey research on information and communications technology (ICTs) in South African schools, focusing on the notion of e-maturity. The dual emphasis of the paper is on students' collaborative experience of the authentic research process including their experience of e-maturity within the target schools…

Fieldwork forms a substantial part of the International Geography Olympiad (IGEO) both in terms of time and in the nature of the experience in which participants get a chance to explore the "real world" of the host country. Fieldwork offers young geographers an excellent opportunity to explore the regional and local geography of the host…

Academic literacies research has been identified as an emerging but significant field in higher education. This article extends the discussions around methodology in academic literacies research by drawing on the current text and context debates in sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography. It uses illustrations from a recent academic literacies…