In this article I explore the emotional resources activated by single mothers to support their adolescent children's educational journeys. Mothers' emotional work is often regarded as something that mothers must do (Gillies, 2006). However, this view does not recognise the power and influence that mothers exert to create opportunities for…

This article focuses on the behaviour of students during protest action at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The objectives of the study on which the article is based were to assess factors that contribute to student hooliganism and to evaluate the effects of violent student protests on the university community. The data were collected using…

The article focuses on the school-based support that youths who are heading households get from public schools in South Africa. It is based on the study that was conducted focusing on the extent to which schools support youths who head households. The study adopted the qualitative research methodological approach where three methods were used to…

Engineering educators express concern that undergraduate engineering students solve problems procedurally without the necessary conceptual understanding. While research in engineering dynamics has focused on using technology to improve student performance, this article focuses on using representations for modelling problem solving in the lecture.…

Academic development is a recent project in the university, intended to enable the university to respond to the needs of a more diverse student body. In South Africa, such work arose during late apartheid, and has now moved to a more central institutional position advocating responsiveness in the light of the educational disparities that are the…

Vocabulary knowledge plays an important role in determining a person's language proficiency level. This study investigates the role vocabulary plays in determining students' performance within research modules at private higher education institutions (HEIs). The discipline-specific vocabulary in this study includes target words, sampled from an…

The importance of getting children off to a good start in reading cannot be overstated. Successful academic performance at primary and secondary school level is partly dependent on the ability to read. It is believed that good learners are those who are proficient in reading. However, many learners are struggling to read and, therefore, struggle…

Many rural children in South Africa are subjected to social isolation, poor quality schooling and other related challenges, which impacts their growth and development and access to post-school educational opportunities. Well-functioning boarding schools offer a solution but research in South Africa is still in its infancy. Using the theoretical…

This paper uses data from 4745 first-year accountancy students of a large South African university, for a 7-year period (2011-2017), to understand how certain skills endowments and individual attributes have changed in their contributions to student's performance over time. To do so, the variance associated with an external shock to the learning…

This exploratory research focused on describing Setswana-speaking early adolescents' perceptions of respect in educator-learner relationships in the South African context. A lack of mutual respect obstructs adolescents' freedom to pursue personal goals in South Africa's school communities. Adding to this incongruity is the isolating of relational…

Late coming to school has become a major problem in many schools, particularly township schools with serious consequences. Current research has demonstrated that many schools in South Africa are performing badly due to inefficient use of the teaching and learning time. In this article, we argue that while major administrative interventions are…

Learner performance in the South African school education system is under tight scrutiny as it is the lens through which the health of the system is judged. However, despite the challenges faced, the South African landscape is dotted with those schools that have produced outstanding learner performance. Hence, this study is prompted by the success…

"School assemblies" are rituals that celebrate and mark the school community. They carry messages of allegiance and belonging that are disseminated both verbally and nonverbally. Although verbal messages are explicitly stated, nonverbal messages are conveyed through subjection to habits, rules, and orders (Foucault 1977) and are…

The aim of this paper is to present a case study of the perceptions of self-regulated learning (SRL) of 14 secondary township schoolteachers and their teaching behaviour to develop SRL strategies in their learners. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive research design was used. Semi-structured interviews and lesson observations were conducted…

As part of the endeavor to reposition itself in the open distance and e-learning arena, the University of South Africa (UNISA) has designed and developed six modular courses (one module per College) referred to as "Signature Courses". The focus of these modules is on a student-centred online teaching and learning approach; extensive…