Social justice is a primary concern of politicians and human rights practitioners, but has lost much of its currency as it has been elevated through philosophical debates to the level of an idealised or "imagined social order" of modern state formations. This article is based on a conceptual analysis of social justice and the trajectory…

In the light of transformational discourses in higher education in South Africa, it has become necessary to pose the question--what is a university? Such a question requires that the idea of the university, as well as its role in society be reflected upon critically. This author contends that much of present day transformational discourse in…

This volume contains a collection of selected papers submitted to the 19th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) held in June 2021. The 19th BCES Conference theme is "New Challenges to Education: Lessons from around the World." The book includes 40 papers written by 66 authors from 15…

Using data collected by the Birth-to-Twenty child cohort study in urban South Africa, this paper describes the patterns of schooling of a population of children born in the Greater Johannesburg area in April to June 1990. This paper examines the patterns of initial enrolment in Grade 1, transitions through grades, and trends in primary school…

This paper explores understandings of gender equality and education and the nature of global goal and target setting, drawing on empirical data collected in central and local government departments in Kenya and South Africa reflecting on their implementation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1, concerned with poverty, MDG 2, concerned with…

The years after the Second World War have seen many countries in the developed and developing world dismantle separate special education systems and promote the education of children with disabilities or other support needs in regular rather than separate classes. This process of increasing access and participation and reducing exclusionary…

Tuition fees and the use of student loans to complement government's allocations have become unavoidable because of increasing competing new priorities for funding. This article addresses the funding sources of public higher education through tuition and loans. We explore the effects of shifts from first-stream income (government appropriations)…

The apartheid policies in South Africa had a marked influence on the accessibility and quality of school science experienced by the different race groups. African learners in particular were seriously disadvantaged in this regard. The issues of equity and redress were foremost in transformation of the education system, and the accompanying…

The 10-year anniversary of the first democratic elections in South Africa in 2004 provoked much reflection and fuelled new policy debates on both the progress and failures of educational reform. While a myriad of achievements have been touted and are well-known to international audiences, a swelling critique from inside South Africa shows that…

Low teacher morale, coupled with extremely poor schooling outcomes for students as measured on standardized tests have increasingly been reported in the media in South Africa. As elsewhere, there is growing demand for the reorganisation of teachers' work in order to enhance school performance. The paper investigates the ways in which current…

Since 1994, the South African higher education system, fragmented and divided along racial lines during the years of apartheid, has been subject to a wide range of initiatives directed at bringing about the "transformation" necessary for a more equitable dispensation and, ultimately, a new social order. One of the "levers"…

This article presents the findings of exploratory research on the relationship of external quality assurance (EQA) systems and equity policies conducted at the UNESCO Institute for Educational Planning. Authors from Australia, Brazil, India and South Africa were invited to discuss this relationship in the context of their respective higher…

The present article draws from the biographical narratives of three South African high school female principals which are part of a larger research study in which 26 aspiring and practicing women school leaders were interviewed. Narratives were constructed from in-depth interviews with each participant and analyzed for themes that provided…

South African universities are required by the Language Policy for Higher Education adopted by the government on 6 November 2002 to implement multilingualism in their learning and teaching programmes. Multilingualism is recommended in this policy as a means to ensure equity of access and success in higher education, in contrast to past colonial…

An approach to remedy the scarcity of Black students within the sciences at southern African universities has been the development of access programmes. There has been little acknowledgement of the contribution of these access programmes in increasing the quantity and quality of graduates. The contribution made by the Science Foundation Programme…