The advent of COVID-19 and the consequent imposition of a national lockdown from March 2020 in South Africa spurred South African universities to introduce new remote ways of delivering their curricula and offering extra-curricular activities. Some of these new modes of delivery tended to disadvantage already socio-economically disadvantaged black…

As online learning modes become more common, this can exacerbate educational inequalities for learners who do not have the ability to utilise these modes effectively. This has been seen in the COVID-19 crisis where there has been a shift to remote and distance learning modalities despite the limited ability for all learners to benefit equitably.…

While the importance of academic language and literacies in students' meaningful participation in higher education has been well-explored, studies have focused on writing rather than reading. There has been a significant silence in the literature around what constitutes reading in higher education, the sociocultural complexities of reader…

While literature reveals the positive perception of online learning, this study examines the issues caused by the digital divide for students at South African universities during the 2020 academic year. The study reveals the perceptions and experiences of university students from historically marginalised and privileged universities. This research…

High needs schools in South Africa are characterized by student populations living in hazardous environments coupled with extreme poverty and language disparities, resulting in challenges that are interwoven with cultural and societal norms. This paper presents characteristics of leadership that enable student success in school from one high…

This paper sketches an innovative conceptualisation of disadvantaged youth, shaped dialogically by the interactions of theorising and data from a case study at Orange Farm informal settlement in South Africa in 2013. The study focused on the challenges for the young people in this area in accessing higher education. Drawing on Sen's and Nussbaum's…

In this article, we consider the extent to which a scholarship programme at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) engages with the challenges of transformation. This scholarship programme highlights the transformative potential of a programme that focuses on excellence for a previously under-represented group, but also demonstrates how this…

As part of a global movement, South Africa is embracing political and academic change designed to enhance the lives of all students. Small, gradual courses of actions serve to level the educational playing field for students with and without disabilities. Kliptown Youth Project by design serves as evidence of a small, but persistent transforming…

According to Martin, Benjamin, Prosser, and Trigwell (1999), the scholarship associated with teaching consists of three related activities which integrate the key functions of higher education, namely engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and learning; self-reflection on teaching and learning in one's discipline; and the public…

Identifies five interlinked and interdependent issues characterizing institutional transformation in South African higher education: (1) democratizing institutional governance structures; (2) increasing access for educationally and financially disadvantaged students; (3) restructuring the curriculum; (4) focusing on developmental needs in research…

This article comments on leadership within mainstream literature on school effectiveness/improvement, where it is almost always considered to be a factor of change. The article argues that systemic school improvement, particularly for disadvantaged children, is inextricably linked to wider social, economic and political conditions--in South…

In almost every dimension, South Africa has undergone dramatic changes since the end of apartheid. Public education in South Africa has been completely transformed from an amalgam of separate and highly unequal educational systems, defined in terms of the race and place of residence of students, into a unified system based on the principle of…