Playing host to many leaders of South Africa's transition to democracy, the historic schools continue to contribute to the education of learners in disadvantaged rural communities. Within the leadership narratives of these schools are the lived daily experiences of female educational leaders whose voice has been largely absent from main stream…

Twenty years into democracy, South Africa is still struggling to improve the quality of its education system. The identification of schools that can work closely with universities to mentor student teachers has been suggested as one way in which teacher education can contribute to an improved education system. The article outlines research that…

Research is conceptualised in multiple and contradictory ways within and across Historically Black Universities (HBUs) with consequences for knowledge production. Under the apartheid regime, research was deliberately underdeveloped in such institutions and this continues to have an impact. We argue that if HBUs are to move from the constraints of…

In this article we explicate our way of assessing the South African Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign, and in particular its impact in the Eastern Cape. We provide an account primarily of focus group sessions conducted in 2013 and again in 2014 with volunteer educators and past learners in the campaign. We concentrate on the way in which…

Part of the decolonisation and transformation of higher education institutions is the re-construction of its leadership. This requires not only a review but also a dissolution of traditions, conventions and organisational forms that universities have inherited, including a re-imagining of leadership in higher education. Equity in representation of…

The Post-school Education and Training (PSET) policy seeks to address the education and training needs of post-school youth not in education, employment nor training (NEET). The problem of youth NEET has been researched from many perspectives. However, there is a dearth of knowledge about the responses, views and actions of post-school youth NEET…

Educational literature shows that students from working-class backgrounds are significantly less likely to persist to completion in higher education than middle-class students. This paper draws theoretically and analytically on Bernstein's ([1990. "Class, Codes and Control, Volume IV: The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse." London:…

Higher education (HE) systems sustain and reproduce inequalities despite intentions to redress them. However, widening participation rooted in social justice practices increases participation in HE for marginalised under-represented groups through overt, shared and practised values in action and mobilization of HE interests and resources. Drawing…

Policy and research have been advocating the importance of teachers in achieving equity and teachers are called to act as agents of social justice. This issue remains central to the development of a post-apartheid South Africa, where a need for reconciliation and healing still dominates the society. Such a landscape requires adequate support…

This paper explores how teachers in a poor township primary school in South Africa construct meaning regarding gender violence among children, and how they talk about addressing that violence. The paper argues that major influences on the endemic violence include complex societal structures that are inscribed with cultures of violent…

South Africa has risen to the forefront of educational debates that claim schooling can promote social justice and social cohesion. By drawing on Freire's (1970) theory of critical pedagogy, this paper examines how South African teachers in rural and township schools encourage students to reflect critically upon their own lives and take action to…

How might Life Skills be conceptualised in the Foundation Phase of schooling when a tradition of feminist literature has revealed the regulation, denial and the silencing of both gender and sexuality in early childhood? This article presents one Grade 2 teacher's perspective of addressing sexuality education in an impoverished township primary…

This paper presents a "peace with social justice" framework for analysing the role of teachers as agents of sustainable peace, social cohesion and development and applies this to research evidence from Pakistan, Uganda, Myanmar and South Africa. The paper draws on evidence from a recently completed UNICEF and ESRC funded project on…

In a country like South Africa, as in many other countries around the world, there is an imperative to prepare student teachers for a wide variety of social contexts, as part of breaking the cycle of disadvantage for poor learners. This article explores the challenge of placing student teachers for their field experience in schools that differ…

South African institutions still confront gendered inequalities, irrespective of transformative national policies, compounded by the absence of a national gender equality policy for higher education. We therefore explore the potential of the capabilities approach (CA) to inform policy formation and argue for the development of a policy for higher…