This article reports on the findings of a study consisting of two phases. Both phases aimed at investigating how professional development, physical resources and instructional support influenced teachers' responses to curriculum change. Despite more than 90% of Grade R teachers being under-qualified, they have had to implement two radically…

At tertiary institutions in South Africa and internationally, academic literacy practitioners and disciplinary specialists have traditionally functioned as separate communities of practice. However, research indicates that academic literacy is most successfully acquired when it is integrated into and taught within the contexts of specific academic…

Wenger's community of practice theory is used to illustrate how, through careful curriculum design, teacher identity can be developed by participation in a re-skilling programme. In the context of learning, a community of practice involves the complex intersection of various components of learning, namely, meaning (learning as experience),…

Privileged benefaction in elite schools and the moral dilemmas, contradictions and power politics involved are the focus of this paper. The notion of "the gift" provides our analytical lens. We concentrate on two girls' schools--one in South Africa and one in England. These were both built, in various ways, on the British model of public…

Most work on writing and publication processes focuses on writing support for undergraduates or postgraduates writing in the disciplines, while work on academic identities frequently considers development as a university teacher. This essay consider the reviewing process for academics who write, whether doctoral students, researchers, teachers or…

Resilience, or the process of adjusting well to adversity, draws on personal and social ecological resources (i.e., caregiving and community supports). Previous research--conducted mostly in the Global North--has shown that bibliotherapy offers a way to support children in identifying and utilizing resilience-enabling resources. In so doing,…

Children with severe to profound intellectual disability have been excluded from education on the basis that their impairment makes them "ineducable". The Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability challenged this notion through litigation against the South African Government. The ensuing judgement asserts the right to education of…

Adolescence is a phase that is associated with important identity-relevant issues. Shaping a clear sense of identity is an important step in developing a healthy psychosocial disposition, and the school is an important context where this can happen. In this article, we explore how adolescents who had attended a special needs school of skills in…

Learners' self-regulation, which includes motivational variables, is influenced by personal variables within learners themselves, as well as by contextual factors. A great deal of research has focused on personal variables in learners that influence their self-regulated behaviours; yet contextual influences that operate outside of formal schooling…

As part of a comprehensive programme to prevent non-communicable disease in South Africa, there is a need to develop public education campaigns on healthy eating. Urban populations of lower socioeconomic status are a priority target population. This study involved formative research to guide the development of a nutrition resource appropriate to…

Much of the work on teacher knowledge suggests that content knowledge shapes pedagogical content knowledge, and in fact is primary in the relationship between the two forms of knowledge. In this paper we challenge this view, arguing from a situated perspective on knowledge and learning, that pedagogical content knowledge strongly shapes content…

The rhetoric on the potential of Web 2.0 technologies to democratize online engagement of students often overlooks the discomforting, differential participation and asymmetrical engagement that accompanies student adoption of emerging technologies. This paper, therefore, constitutes a critical reality check for student adoption of technology to…

The Pathways to Resilience Project is an ongoing, community-based participatory research (CBPR) project. Its express focus is the exploration of how at-risk youths use formal services and/or informal, naturally occurring resources to beat the odds that have been stacked against them, with the intent of partnering with communities to promote youth…

"Theatre Applications" was an international conference convened by the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, in April 2010. Framed by the subheading "Performance with a purpose", the call for papers invited contributors to consider how theatre making in different settings can "make a difference" to those who…

This paper argues that the success of schools in disadvantaged township communities is shaped by an interplay of four dimensions: strategy, regulation, pedagogy and compensation. The paper presents these dimensions of successful leadership in secondary schools by drawing on a research study focusing on cases of three Soweto township secondary…