It is important to note from the outset that the duty of preparing students for careers rests with the educational community. Internship before graduation appears to offer students experiential learning, better opportunities for employment and better knowledge of real work environments. The institutions benefit by obtaining more resources at a…

South African initial teacher education institutes are currently experiencing an annual increase in admissions of first-year students. In addition, the increasing attrition rate of newly qualified teachers is of concern globally. This begs the question of why students are opting for teaching as a profession. This study focuses on reasons why…

This paper focuses on exploring the transition South African learners make from Grade 7 to Grade 8, with an emphasis on the experiences of all the role players in two school cultures during this transition phase. This qualitative exploratory research project was placed in a constructivist research paradigm. The data were analysed in an exploratory…

The Constitution for the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) embraces language as a basic human right and multilingualism as a national resource. One latest foreign language to be given recognition by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in 2015 is Mandarin, a Chinese language, for incremental implementation as a non-official optional…

Background: Apart from being a knowledge-gaining commodity, critical literacy is believed to be a practice that exists between people, groups and communities in a sociopolitical and cultural context. It is assumed that without strong literacy skills, post-secondary education and employment options are limited. It is thus against this background…

Purpose: A fundamental assumption of the apprenticeship model is that there are benefits to both employers and individual learners. This study offers a broad conceptual interrogation of this inherent assumption underpinning the apprenticeship model. Approach: This study combines analysis of literature and available data and draws upon…

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…

Background: This article seeks to examine factors that shape Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) engineering students' understanding of their future career choices. Moreover, given the promising and ambitious vision for growth in both TVET and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), as envisaged by the policy framework, White Paper on…

Teaching, learning and assessment methods for teaching students about diversity should be transformative and achieve lasting changes in students' attitudes and behaviours towards diverse individuals. Therefore, dialogue education in the teaching and learning of an undergraduate course in diversity management at a higher education institution was…

In South Africa, 70 per cent of the population is under 35 years old. South Africa has a vision to increase youth employment by focusing on education, training and skills development that will promote employment opportunities. A work-integrated learning (WIL) partnership model was developed to provide students with work experience and to increase…

This study compares three cohorts (1998-1999, 2005-2006 and 2010) of undergraduate psychology students at a South African university on the level of support for working women (women in paid employment) on various issues considered to be feminist. Cohort 1 (n?=?244), cohort 2 (n?=?311) and cohort 3 (n?=?266) completed an adapted version of a…

Literature related to post-secondary education suggests that institutions of higher education have at their core "a civic mission that calls on faculty, students, and administrators to apply their skills, resources, and talents to address important issues affecting communities, the nation, and the world" conceptualized as "engaged…

Diversity in the workforce can be attributed to both a popular, cultural shift and legislative intervention. Despite these forces, discrimination endures in all aspects of Western society from education to employment. Unequal pay and opportunities for promotion are symptoms of a systematic discrimination of individuals based on race and gender.…

The funding of higher education in South Africa has in the recent past been a subject of animated debate. This debate has ranged from the adequacy of government funding of higher education, the suitability of the funding framework, to protestations against frequent tuition fee increases. At present, the debate is mainly about "free"…

Papers from the proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society was submitted in two volumes. Volume 1 contains papers submitted at the conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria, June 14-17, 2016. Volume 2 contains papers submitted at the 4th International Partner Conference of the International Research Centre…