Struggles for educational equity in the United States (US) and South Africa (SA), particularly with regard to race, class, and ethnicity, remain significant and have become even more critical during and following the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Many scholars have focused on the daily struggles of school-aged children, indicating that millions…

This qualitative study located in a critical interpretivist paradigm focused on what are the factors that contribute to high learner performance at a public school in South Africa. The data was produced via interviews with the participants as well as observations of various school activities and documents. Artistic licence was used and the data…

Many discussions have taken place around the issue of the special needs of learners, special schools and inclusivity. UNESCO argues that inclusive education will accommodate all children, regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. This would include disabled and gifted children, street and…

Summative assessment is often criticised as an unfair representation of learner effort and aptitude. In summative high-stakes examinations, economically privileged learners consistently outperform marginalised counterparts, perpetuating inequitable social class reproduction. But UN Sustainable Development Goal No.4 calls for equitable quality…

Since the 1960s and before the dramatic announcement of the release of Nelson Mandela on 2 February 1990 (signalling the end of apartheid and the crossing of the proverbial Rubicon (Stone, 2014, p. 3)), the international community assisted the African National Congress (ANC) in its struggle against apartheid and put crucial pressure on the state…

Vignettes, as a research method, presents short hypothetical stories to individuals to elicit their views on a particular topic. A review of the literature indicates that although vignettes have successfully gleaned detailed data on phenomena, few research studies have employed this valuable method in higher education institutions' (HEIs) contexts…

This research aimed to investigate the experiences of students with learning disabilities (LD) at two universities in Sub-Sahara Africa. While universities are increasingly addressing the needs of students with sensory and physical disabilities, there is less emphasis on LD which does not present physically, thus often referred to as invisible or…

Continuous advancements in technology provide an opportunity for higher educational institutions to enhance the electronic learning experiences of students. Following a review of literature, this research explored student perceptions on the possible uses of virtual reality in their universities, as a way of easing their access to learning…

South Africa must embark upon the third epoch of education policy after the failures of the first two epochs: the 1953-1994 ("apartheid") era and the 1994-2021 era (the dawn of democracy and the dismantling of apartheid structures). There were not enough education opportunities to guide all the children of the country to maturity and…

Inequality and inequity of outcomes persist in South African higher education despite policies to redress the effects of apartheid, which segregated black people from accessing good quality education. Policy in higher education uses the concept 'historically disadvantaged' in its interventions aimed to address inequality but the desired outcomes…

The new democratic dispensation in South Africa (1994) was accompanied by law and policy aimed at preventing unfair exclusion from educational opportunities and promoting equal access to educational opportunities. However, feelings of unfair exclusion remain and new understandings of exclusion are emerging. This paper examines the new policy and…

Access to quality education for all children is a common mantra for countless national and world organizations, such as the UN and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper examines the struggle within two nations who continue to move beyond the impact of racial segregation in the United States (US) and "apartheid" in South…

This paper explores how equity and access are achieved in the post-apartheid South African higher education landscape. I argue that access should refer to both physical (access as a student to an institution) and epistemological access (skills to understand, interpret academic work). I use conceptual analysis in this study to analyse relevant…

In these opening remarks to a 1984 International Conference on Education for the Gifted at the University of Stellenbosch, Union of South Africa, the Director-General of National Education summarizes the South African Government's approach to programs for gifted education. The diversity and complexity of the South African population calls for a…

This report reviews the development and history of school guidance, which began in 1936, among the various cultural groups in the Republic of South Africa. It explains how political and economic factors influenced the nature and character of school guidance and counseling and how political structures gradually led to the fact that white education…