Educational theories offer teachers useful conceptual tools for developing teaching. However, such theoretical concepts are often hard to learn, and to teach. Phenomenography and Variation Theory (PVT), and especially the concept critical aspect, is an example of a powerful tool for teachers when designing teaching. When teaching this concept,…

Assessment and feedback research constitutes its own 'silo' amidst the higher education research field. Theory has been cast as an important but absent aspect of higher education research. This may be a particular issue in empirical assessment research which often builds on the conceptualisation of assessment as objective measurement. So, how does…

The connections between critical pedagogy, living theory and participatory action research (PAR) are discussed to explore their combined strength for empowering students, positively impacting on their attitudes towards their mathematics learning and creating social change in their primary-secondary mathematics transitions. This transition is…

As part of a larger critical discourse study, I share how engaging with critical texts and discussion was personally and professionally meaningful for participants, despite perceived limitations. To understand how critical pedagogy overlaps and conflicts with contexts of teaching in public schools, I facilitated discussion with teachers in…

Disciplinary pressures within academia often produce specialised and one-sided accounts of complex social processes. Convincing accounts of popular education regularly acknowledge the importance of social movements but without theorising them adequately -- and vice versa. This one-sidedness is compounded by a widespread tendency to generalise from…

What does it mean to be a pedagogue? To become part and contributor to pedagogical processes? In this article I look back at the work Frank Abrahams developed around the legacy of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and its efforts fomenting conditions for critical pedagogies to flourish. Following Freire's interest in connecting reality and theory, I…

This study examines the work of cooperating teachers (CTs) within a literacy leadership course to construct transgressive mentoring practices that work against the grain of what is typical in schools. Previous research on coaching preservice teachers has not focused on the work that inservice teachers do to provide mentoring towards transgressive…

Transnational higher education (TNHE) was introduced to mainland China in the 1980s, influenced by the Chinses government's neoliberal university model strategy. Some existing literature discusses this strategy and its role. However, since then, little research has explored how teaching and learning impact students' agency within TNHE.…

We analyze tweets authored by educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, which Ibram Kendi has called a viral and a racial pandemic, and illustrate how Whiteness feeds the blaming of children and communities of color for trauma. We evaluate tweets that: (1) misused trauma-informed teaching practice in ways characterized by White saviorism; (2) pushed…

Purpose: The present study explored experiences of former markers of undergraduate assignments and examinations at the University of South Africa (Unisa). Methodology: Qualitative method of research was used to gather data. Colaizzi's method (1978) was used to analyze and interpret data. The article's frame of reference was informed by Mezirow's…

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) is an educational framework that illustrates how to foster educational excellence through a focus on cultural competence, critical consciousness, and academic success, which aims to empower students by making education more applicable and responsive to their lived experiences (Ladson-Billings, 1995). This study…

The Youth Global Awareness Programme (YGAP) is a 2-week residential 'popular education' programme for young, diverse, international, labour movement activists, run by the International Federation of Workers Education Associations in Cape Town, South Africa. In this mixed method study (N = 47), we draw on the Social Identity Approach to Education…

Mobile learning has gained significant recognition for its beneficial effects on learning across various dimensions. Nonetheless, ensuring consistent learner acceptance of mobile learning remains a critical factor to address. This meta-analysis study is the first comprehensive examination of critical antecedents impacting learners' perceived…

Purpose: In this article, I examine the importance of cultivating critical hope while leading a school through a crisis. I analyze how the concept of critical hope functions when principals use it as a lever to lead toward crisis recovery. The analysis is informed by literature from the fields of education and positive psychology. Research…

A growing scholarly literature in a subfield of applied linguistics focuses on language testing and language requirements for migrants. We sought to understand what theoretical paradigms and methodological approaches have framed this research and propose future research directions. To this end, we conducted a systematic review of articles on…