Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of recognition of prior learning (RPL) as an alternative tool for access into learning programmes in South African Library and Information Science (LIS) schools. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted quantitative methods, and utilised questionnaires and document analysis to…

As social justice and decolonisation discussions fill the physical and virtual corridors of universities in South Africa, educators, and in this case, MOOC designers, are inevitably influenced by them. They are prompted to reflect on such topics, whether in agreement or with scepticism. Provoked by one interviewee's comment that 'you could…

Inequality and inequity of outcomes persist in South African higher education despite policies to redress the effects of apartheid, which segregated black people from accessing good quality education. Policy in higher education uses the concept 'historically disadvantaged' in its interventions aimed to address inequality but the desired outcomes…

Reclaiming commitment to social justice through widening access to education, using the medium of relevant adult and continuing education, requires people to have the ability to initiate ideas, to act and to take their destiny in their own hands. This article postulates that deploying relevant adult and continuing education in the quest for social…

This paper examines digital inclusion and equity in international higher education with particular focus on Global South-North Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Practice examples, bringing together students and academics in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK, are used to consider how COIL is being integrated into higher education…

During the first four weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown, African countries recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic would be one of the biggest disasters the continent has faced in recent times. The effects of the virus were being felt at unprecedented levels and like all nations in the world, countries in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) were…

This qualitative exploratory case study addresses constructs of educational inequity on a global scale through an iterative analysis of the cultural experiences of 61 educators from South Africa and the United States. The project provided an online and in-person network for educators to discuss cross-cultural challenges, educational system assets,…

While acknowledging higher education's complicity in inequality, the premise of this paper is that curriculum transformation can be one means of challenging and dismantling structural injustices towards the goal of equity of access and outcomes. Fraser's multi-dimensional framework for social justice is drawn upon to explore what this…

In South Africa, scholarship on the teaching practice learning experiences for students with disabilities is a relatively new area of sociological inquiry. Social justice arrangements in the South African Higher Education policy frameworks identify the equity imperative as being of critical importance for social redress and transformation for all…

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…

In this article, South Africa provides an "outlier" case study that illuminates the tensions that exist between interventions, aimed at tailoring initiatives to the vastly unequal contexts of schooling, and the systemic "one size fits all" interventions of the state. I draw on the experiences of two teachers involved in an…

This article interrogates a curriculum recovery plan designed to obviate the loss of time due to the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, it analyses two strategies, the first to overcome time lost and the second, to reorganize the curriculum. A description of the landscape of inequalities in South Africa serves as a…

As we enter the last ten years leading to the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030, African countries are still plagued with poverty and underdevelopment. For most children in Africa, the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 will remain elusive. Drawing from two interrelated empirical studies, one focusing on…

South Africa as a nation became democratic in 1994 because of the end of apartheid. Since 1994, higher education has geared towards transformation and redress of the inequalities created by the inhuman policies of apartheid. While few applaudable steps have been taken towards this direction, South African higher education remains largely…

Children's right to education is key to unlocking global human and economic development. The right is protected by multiple human rights norms and treaties, but inadequate state spending and discrimination prevent millions from going to school, while keeping others trapped in substandard schools without textbooks, adequately trained teachers,…