Many reviewers of applications for ethical approval of research at universities struggle to understand what is considered ethical conduct in community-based research (CBR). Their difficulty in understanding CBR and the ethics embedded within it is, in part, due to the exclusion of CBR from researchers' mandatory research ethics training. After…

Teachers working in under-resourced contexts struggle to provide psychosocial support to learners. In this article, we focus on 10 teacher participants' reflections of how a transformative action research process enhanced their collective capacity for initiating sustainable learner support. A linked participatory action learning and action…

It is common for researchers in Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in science education research to draw on aspects of the scientific paradigm from their science training. The consequent research seeks to be objective. This paradigm is not necessarily appropriate for IK research. While there have been calls for IK-aligned methodologies (Chilisa 2012; Keane…

There is much literature to indicate that, in the field of teacher leadership, teachers can enact a reflective practice role as they operate as action researchers in their classrooms and schools. However, novice teachers are seldom considered as leaders or researchers, particularly in the South African schooling context. We report on a qualitative…

This study employed the survey design on a purposive sample of 100 English Second Language (ESL) teachers from Swaziland and South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, to investigate the extent to which they accessed, utilised and conducted research to better their practice. A survey questionnaire and follow-up structured interviews generated…

In this paper I analyse the potential that participatory action research holds for educating pre-service teachers to become more critically reflective and socially conscious. I also describe the rationale for and process of engaging pre-service teachers in their teacher education programme. Involving these candidate teachers in participatory…

The idea of using values as a means of guiding our research decisions and judging the validity of our claims of knowledge is well established in literature on the self-reflective genre of action research. Values in action research should always result in virtuous behaviour--to promote the general social good. However, ideas of what constitutes the…

This paper is about: developing critical understandings about the nature and origins of one's personal and professional identity; learning how to transform uncritically internalised and potentially damaging conceptualisations of identity and identity formation; saying why it is important to do so; and considering what kinds of texts can show the…

This article discusses practitioner inquiry in a South African context. It begins by outlining the changing policy context in the country, particularly since the advent of democracy in 1994. The implications of these changes for practitioner inquiry are then discussed. The article explores some issues and dilemmas arising from this context,…

This paper presents some reflections on the process of creating research, from the point of view of a psychologist working in an academic environment in a developing country which is undergoing social transformation. It explores some tensions between global and local concerns in research, and reflects on the relation between research, art,…

In my investigation I set out to break the HIV/AIDS culture of silence and emphasize the role of the teacher as a researcher and critical change agent in an HIV/AIDS challenged society. My work demonstrates how teachers could play such a role by encouraging learners' participation in sport. The sport, I focussed on in my action research project…

In this paper I call for an unequivocal legitimisation of the living "I" in educational research. The paper itself becomes a context that explains this call. It is a report of my action research into my professional learning through working in South Africa, within the context of new policy frameworks for continuing teacher development.…

This paper presents a review of research projects recently completed by teachers in South Africa. The purpose is to describe the nature of these projects and to see what trends emerge from an analysis of the location, purpose, design, methodology, and findings of the projects. Five different projects in which more than 70 teachers have been…