South Africa's classrooms are characterised by a wide variety of cultural and linguistic differences, providing teachers with educational challenges, particularly in mathematics and science subjects. In response, various mobile learning systems have been developed and piloted in the North West and Gauteng Provinces of South Africa. A framework has…

Internationally, classes in higher education institutions are becoming larger and more diverse. Support for "non-traditional" students has often taken the form of additional remedial classes offered outside the main curriculum, which has met with limited success. Sociocultural theories of learning argue that the potential clash between…

The voices of school children who are orphaned and vulnerable are more often than not missing from conversations about their care and support at school. In a rural ecology this is even more so the case. This article draws on a study with school children in rural KwaZulu-Natal and explores their constructions of care and support in the age of HIV…

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…

In this article I explore two questions -- how does, Thatho, a transgendered life orientation teacher enact, resist and reproduce dominant understandings of gender and sexuality in terms of his own identity and practice; and what specific possibilities, challenges and resistances exist for a transgender educator in the rural. Using life-history…

In April 2008, an interactive information communication technology (ICT) network was established in Mpumalanga, South Africa. the network involved the implementation of SMART board interactive whiteboards (IWBs) and collaboration between a leading school and several disadvantaged schools. the main purpose of the Mpumalanga IWB project was to reach…

This paper focuses on an e-portfolio pilot initiative at the Faculty of Education at a South African university and aims to determine whether the theoretical underpinning and expectations of an e-portfolio aligns with the current practices and attributes of students' training during school practicum as teachers at a South African university. In…

The Internet as a networked system has been rendered more complex than ever before as human endpoints are grafted into the system via increasingly pervasive and personalized networked devices. According to the United Nations, the Internet is a transnational enabler of a number of human rights, and as such, access to the Internet has been…

In a previous study Moodley, Kritzinger and Vinck (2014) found that formal English Additional Language (EAL) instruction contributed significantly better to listening and speaking skills in Grade R learners, than did a play-based approach. The finding in multilingual rural Mpumalanga schools was in agreement with numerous studies elsewhere.…

The purpose of this study was to explore and compare the proficiency of Grade 11 Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy (ML) learners in solving two problems based on the temperature conversion formula. The first was a result-unknown problem that asks for the result of a formula for a given input. The second was a start-unknown problem in which the…

Inclusive education as a global movement emerged over the past 30 years to ensure quality mainstream education for all learners. Since 1994 the newly democratic South Africa also had expectations as well as the political will to change education by adjusting legislation and policies. However, the vision of a truly inclusive education system in…

The scarcity of trained man power in the field of science and technology has become a growing phenomenon today. Thus, we are still facing the same challenge country wide. With the multidimensional increase in the field of science and technology, there is a huge shortage of expert workforce in the field of STEM. The numbers of students who qualify…

English is the language of learning and teaching in most schools in South Africa. The ability of teachers and students to understand and communicate with each other in English contributes to better performance in Science and Technology subjects. This article explores the challenges posed by the use of English in the teaching and learning of…

The National Curriculum Statement for Grades R-9 (NCS) (Department of Education, 2002) asks that Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) be valued in South African schools and classrooms. Teachers are urged to use context-specific and context-relevant forms of IK to teach content; and to incorporate IK methodologies into their teaching methods. Little…

This paper presents an understanding of what it means to be a teacher in a school defined as "rural". From a sociological perspective, we consider the mechanisms and ways of knowing that are adopted by a teacher for understanding not only the external world but for being a certain kind of teacher for a school in a rural setting.…