Schools are seen as primary contributors to the social development of learners. Apart from the questionable quality of education in South Africa, the developmental and social challenges faced by learners and educators within schools in South Africa are diverse. These challenges fall within the domain of social work practice. For more than a…

The post-apartheid era in South Africa was intended to be a period in which to redress past injustices in almost all social spheres, including education, particularly in terms of curriculum transformation to include African-centered knowledge systems. However, research reveals the limitations posed by compensatory education, particularly when it…

This study followed the course of a professional development intervention to support kindergarten teachers in using a critical literacy approach to teach their students about race, ethnicity, and equity. The purpose of the design-based intervention, which took place in a diverse but somewhat racially segregated school district, was to empower…

The importance of skills within the transformation of higher education is a crucial factor that has been insufficiently considered. Transformation in terms of higher education forms a fundamental part of the post-apartheid South African society. This transformation movement seems to exclude the possible role and contributions of the older…

Efforts are underway to globalize sociology in the United States through study abroad experiences. At the same time, there is a push to extend the reach of such programs to students of color. We use student journal entries and fieldnotes from trips to South Africa to analyze how students of color grapple with a disruption of identity in a Black…

An earlier paper focused on how born-free learners constitute, negotiate and represent their identities after almost two and half decades of democracy in South Africa. Utilising the theoretical framework of subjective realities of educational change, in this article I set out to explore what implications teachers' beliefs hold for born-free…

This paper seeks to understand how the curriculum is experienced across two higher education institutions to probe students' understandings of epistemic access in the context of decolonisation debates. Three particular aspects of student experience of the decolonised curriculum and pedagogy are scrutinised. First, we look at the kind of sociality…

In this paper, we report our findings about a case study that explored challenges and their leadership practices as they responded to complex township school life. Four secondary schools purposively selected participated. Principals, heads of department and teacher were interviewed, and documents kept in the school reviewed. Findings show that…

Prior to 1994, the South African education system was entrenched by authoritarian leadership in which ultimate authority was vested in school principals and power was not distributed to other members of the school. However, the importance of distributed leadership has increasingly gained prominence across the world. After apartheid in 1994, the…

In 2015, a student at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, took a bucket of feces and threw it against a bronze statue of Cecil John Rhodes located on the university's campus (Nyamnjoh 2016). Rhodes, who was recognized as a British imperialist and racist, became a symbolic focal point for #RhodesMustFall (RMF) - a radical student movement…

With the promulgation of the South African Schools Act of 1996, public education in South Africa was decentralised and communities were made responsible for school governance. This placed the responsibility on school governing bodies (SGBs) to take all measures within their means to supplement state funding for the acquisition of adequate human…

This article discusses Black teacher activism during Jim Crow through a case study of the Florida State Teachers Association. Few studies have examined the response of Black teacher associations to Jim Crow educational policies. This study examines inequities in school and teacher salaries and the FSTA's response by way of campaigns, rhetoric and…

The paper sets out to challenge the notions of "affordable" private schools in the context of South Africa. It is guided by one main question: "affordable private schools for whom?" It argues that, contrary to claims by its public and private proponents, affordable private schools in South Africa do not cater for poor children.…

This study contributes to the literature by documenting the working conditions as well as the socio-economic and demographic profile of teachers employed in Johannesburg's inner city low-fee private schools. A total of 42 teachers, working in 10 randomly selected inner city private schools, participated in a self-administered questionnaire survey.…

This well-researched volume explores how the Black freedom struggle and the anti-Vietnam War movement dovetailed with faculty and student activism in the South to undermine the traditional role of higher education and bring about social change. It uses the battles between students, faculty, presidents, trustees, elected officials, and funding…