Despite the support structures offered at Open distance e-learning (ODeL) higher education institutions, slow completion and attrition attest to postgraduate students' challenging study experiences. This qualitative and interpretivist case study examines postgraduate students' experiences of counselling support at an ODeL institution in South…

The quest for access to higher education has increased rapidly in the past 25 years of democracy in South Africa. However, this increase has not been matched by student academic success. This lack of success may even be worse with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has given rise to challenges that have affected student learning,…

Background: Litigation has been utilised to advance a range of socio-economic rights in post-apartheid South Africa, including the right to basic education. Nonetheless, there has not been significant litigation or sustained broad-based mobilisation around issues impacting the early childhood development (ECD) sector in the democratic era. The…

The study examined the role of COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst for fostering reformed pedagogy in science education within the South African context. The prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic compelled teachers as key agents of educational change to fundamentally rethink their pedagogical practices with a view to bring about reformed pedagogy. The study…

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of higher education institutions in profound ways. After the restrictions of movement under lockdowns imposed in response to the pandemic from 2020, higher education institutions were forced to think creatively and quickly about how to respond to arising challenges of completing the academic year and…

Purpose: This study aims to examine how lecturers at a South African university navigated teaching and learning in the current educational landscape obscured by the global pandemic. The authors examine how lecturers employed a community of inquiry (CoI) in their online classrooms within the context of emergency remote teaching (ERT). The study…

The issue of school feeding is placed at the top of global agenda currently more than ever before. Challenges imposed by COVID-19 have created an opportunity to broaden and deepen debates focusing around the significance of school feeding programmes internationally. Throughout the duration of the lockdown period, billions of learners worldwide…

Background: Engineering culture research to date has described the culture as rigid, chilly, and posing many barriers to entry. However, the COVID-19 pandemic provided an important opportunity to explore how engineering culture responds to a major disruption. Purpose: The purposes of this study are to understand how elements of engineering culture…

This paper explored the challenges lecturers face in teaching through online platforms. Online learning has become increasingly prevalent in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, offering opportunities and challenges for TVET lecturers. The transition from traditional face-to-face teaching to online environments…

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an abrupt shift to remote teaching, presenting unique challenges for rural Physical Science teachers due to their limited access to technological resources. This qualitative study employed a phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of six Physical Science teachers from rural South Africa during…

The teaching of English First Additional Language (EFAL) in South Africa is gradually changing from the traditional style because of the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts are being made to stimulate learners' interest in learning which include using information communication technology (ICT) in the form of e-learning to enhance…

Education systems, including South Africa's, were forced to embrace remote schooling and online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of this dramatic change, the principal's role as an instructional leader has also changed. The hard lockdowns in South Africa forced schools to be creative in ensuring education continuity through…

Prior to the emergence of the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19), studies revealed lower involvement of fathers in the education of learners who are Deaf and Hard of hearing (LDHH). Although research evidence reveals that work structure and other commitments may be responsible for fathers' limited involvement in the education of their…

The study aimed to determine if there is a significant difference between peer and lecturer assessment scores and to explore the relationship between peer assessment scores and the study year of preservice teachers. Furthermore, the study explored the effect of Blackboard Collaborate online group presentations on the development of pedagogical…

This report provides an overview of the nature of open universities derived from the responses from 28 open universities in the Commonwealth. The data not only provide a snapshot of the nature of OUs, but also show some evidence of the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on open universities where institutions had to move all their learning and…