All learners have a contribution to make to the development of the Chemical Sciences, be that in novel ways to teach, and their perspectives and contexts, but also in research, both in chemical education and the wider Chemical Sciences. Through four case studies, this paper explores interactions with diverse groups and how this has altered…

This book offers an important contribution to the field of curriculum studies and higher education by examining the impacts of colonialism and neoliberalism in the South African education system and addressing ways to decolonise curriculum and teaching. Drawing on Pinar's work in curricular theory, the authors call for integrating self-reflective…

Using IEA's Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 data, this brief explores the relationship between students' gender, their confidence and achievement in mathematics and science, and their aspirations to pursue careers in these fields. We find that more boys than girls at grade 8 want to have a mathematics- or…

We set out to address the question--what does it mean for educational knowledge to be 'powerful'? We compare the Anglo tradition of curriculum studies with the "Didaktik" tradition through the lens of an analysis of curriculum structure in postgraduate courses in South African universities rooted in either the Anglo or…

This paper offers a perspective on the relationship between communities that conduct research on teaching and learning in higher education, focusing on Higher Education Studies (HES) and science Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). The paper responds to HES debates about the strength of its epistemological base and who belongs to that…

With the impulse to control and order the disorderly, the threads or tributaries of affect and emotion, which mimic the meanderings of the aquifer itself, are often oversimplified or ignored. These are not anomalies of citizen science (CS) but 'normal' and expected 'disconnects' that surface when working within a multidisciplinary environment. The…

A Science Teaching Assistant (TA) Programme, at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), focused on preparing promising lecturers. A key component of this programme was the contribution by the Centre for Innovative Education and Communication Technologies (CIECT), which promoted the pedagogical adoption of eTools to assist development of Science…

This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of highly cited articles published in the Web of Science category "Education and Educational Research" in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). A total of 2091 journal articles published in this category and cited more than 100 times up to the end of the year 2016 were retrieved as highly…

Science disciplines are inherently multimodal, involving written and spoken language, bodily gestures, symbols, diagrams, sketches, simulation and mathematical formalism. Studies have shown that explicit multimodal teaching approaches foster enhanced access to science disciplines. We examine multimodal classroom practices in a physics extended…

Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) are referred to differently in different contexts and circumstances. Related conceptions include 'Traditional Knowledge Systems' (TKS), 'Endogenous Knowledge Systems' (EKS) and 'Classical Knowledge Systems' (CKS). A focus on IKS implies an archaeology and re-appropriation of those knowledges that were not allowed…

Few developing countries participate in external educational evaluations. Information gaps on education quality make it imperative to expand such evaluations. Furthermore, international comparability across different evaluations should be improved. In addition, data from evaluations must be combined with data on access or coverage. Finally,…

The notion of scientific literacy is contested terrain, particularly when the term is used in school curricula. Using a scientific literacy framework of Vision I (covers science products and processes) and Vision II (based on science-related situations as a starting point for discussion), the article analyses the Natural Science (grades 7-9)…

The influences on governments for policy changes in schools range across many agencies, including the political party in power. When policies change, the sources of these influences are not always clear. The project whose work is presented in this special issue examines what these changes look like in terms of the differences in assessment tasks…

This article argues that poetry is an act of meditation, improvisation and exploration, and urgency is what guides the writer into (and through) the poetic journey. In the light of this, this article illustrates the features of a workshop that was designed to guide social and human scientists in the delicate process of turning raw data into poems.…

This article argues that learner-centred education needs to shift from a discussion only on pedagogical activities such as group-work and other cooperative learning strategies. It suggests that the focus of learner-centred education should be on the cultural world of the African child and how this influences the way in which he/she learns Western…