Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is a form of experiential learning that connects students with workplaces in their chosen field of study. WIL is a vital component of South Africa's teacher education, requiring pre-service teachers to complete a school practicum as part of their qualification. This research explores the question: What are effective…

In this article I discuss the potential of professional learning communities (PLCs) within the South African education context using a practice theory lens. PLCs are presented by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) as collaborative learning communities that are fundamentally social and should be established in all schools (DBE, Republic of…

Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are expanding access to high school education, which is a perpetuation of the previous focus on basic education. This study applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using data from seven countries from 2010 to 2020 to examine the potential conditions of fee-free policies at the high school level. Five…

Girls' vulnerability to sexual violence and harassment is a recurrent theme in much of the literature on schooling in sub-Saharan Africa. Within this research, girls are often framed as passive victims of violence. By drawing on a case study, this paper focuses on 12 to 13-year-old South African school girls as they mediate and participate in…

In South Africa, the educational attainment of African children has been a focal point of policy and research since the end of apartheid in 1994. Individual and policy-level determinants of child development and educational outcomes have been exhaustively investigated. A less researched perspective is the role of community and household…

The term "social justice" cuts across disciplines and theoretical orientations. Critical theory underpinned the study reported on in this article. Many South African schools, particularly in poverty stricken communities, still experience insurmountable economic and social injustices despite progress since the apartheid regime. The…

This article aims to give insight into the professional identities of seven teachers who teach English literature to Grade 10-12 learners, in the North-West district of South Africa. The focus is on how these teachers' experiences are shaped by larger determinants (social, historical, professional, etc.), and how their experiences might resonate…

Schools are seen as primary contributors to the social development of learners. Apart from the questionable quality of education in South Africa, the developmental and social challenges faced by learners and educators within schools in South Africa are diverse. These challenges fall within the domain of social work practice. For more than a…

This article explores how three well-known conceptual frameworks view child development and how they assume particular figurations of the child in the context of the South African National Curriculum Framework for Children from Birth to Four. This new curriculum is based on a children's rights framework. The capability approaches offer important…

My charge in this study is to explore the lived experience of a high school teacher while immersed in a problem solving situation in a classroom setting. The main gist of this investigation is to textualize and, thereof, capture the essence of a teacher's encounter of failing to solve a mathematics problem during one of the classroom sessions. To…

This paper examines how two Britons, working in Western Australia and Natal, respectively, engaged with ideas about the civilisation and education of Indigenous people. It is argued that concepts of civilisation were debated by missionaries, researchers and members of the public. Using the correspondence, publications and private journals of two…

The 2015-2016 South African higher education students' movement proved historical for our country in bringing to our dinner tables: issues of higher education transformation and decolonisation; institutional culture(s); curriculum reform; the need to foreground and make inclusive assessment in education; the coloniality in our knowledge…

This paper suggests that advocates of the 'knowledge turn' have been united in their opposition to Young and Muller's (2010) Future 2, but that this 'union' has masked very different views of the relations between Young and Muller's Future 1 and Future 3. Whereas some who subscribe to the 'turn' see a 'weak boundary' between Futures 1 and 3 (and…

Student engagement is crucial for learning, especially in online learning. For a student to be a successful online learner, they need to engage socially and collaboratively through their behaviours, emotions and cognition. This paper discusses an accounting module of a fully online degree where engagement was purposely integrated using an…

Background: Universities, specifically faculties of education, have the responsibility to ensure that student teachers are introduced to the complexities involved in planning conceptually sound, coherent and cohesive lessons. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine how prepared students teachers are to plan children's literature…