In this case study, Mathematical Literacy teachers were interviewed and observed in the classroom in order to provide insight into the way this subject, relatively new in South African schools, is handled. The focus of this research was the instructional practice of these teachers specifically in terms of their mathematical knowledge regarding the…

In South Africa, the Department of Basic Education and Training (DBE) is responsible for primary and secondary education (Grades R-12). In an effort to improve educational standards in literacy, numeracy and mathematics, especially in the Foundation Phase (FP) levels of education, the DBE has developed several initiatives and campaigns. To monitor…

Many studies point to the problem of poor mathematics content knowledge of mathematics teachers in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' knowledge of the mathematics they are themselves teaching. Data was generated from the teachers' (n = 253) written responses to test that was a shortened form of a…

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 article draws on data from a larger longitudinal qualitative case study which is tracking the progress of students over the course of their undergraduate degrees at a South African university. For this paper, we used background questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with 62 first-year students from working-class, township schools who…

This article is a narrative report of the findings from the analysis of multicultural facilitators' discourses on their e-readiness in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) affordances in open and distance learning (ODL) mediation experiences. First, the findings revealed by qualitative deconstructive discourse analysis…

Sustainable development has become a key part of the global educational discourse. Education for sustainable development (ESD) specifically is pronounced as an imperative for different curricula and regarded as being critical for teacher education. This article is based on research that was conducted on economic and management sciences (EMS)…

A common global perception of group work in the higher education context is that it has the potential to act as a platform which can enable student learning by means of interactions, shared diverse experiences, deep engagement with subject concepts and the achievement of tasks collaboratively. Indeed, in different socio-economic, historical and…

Globally, a clarion call has been made for higher education institutions to establish creative and effective research capacity-building systems with the purpose of developing a next generation of scholars. The training and skills development of a researcher entail a process of increasing levels of participation in diverse communities of practice.…

This study explores and unmasks factors in the Zimbabwean school curricula that predispose or channel girls into particular occupational trajectories, in particular occupations or careers traditionally stereotyped as feminine. As a qualitative research study of the culture of the schooling system within this country, it employs the views of a…

This article examines the challenges of teacher development strategies in post-1994 South Africa by arguing that school-based development initiatives address teachers' specific development needs and that it is imperative to understand the conditions under which these initiatives can have a positive impact on teachers. A framework is developed…

This article explored conceptions that teachers hold about classroom assessment and how these conceptions influence their classroom assessment practices. The qualitative study employed a case study approach. Semi-structured interviews, observations and document analyses were used. The study utilized Brown's (2004) conceptual framework on…

This article provides an overview of the nature and quality of research supervision and mentorship practices employed by supervisors and mentors of interns in a South African research council in an attempt to increase the pool and change the face of researchers in the country. Through a series of studies conducted by the research council, the…

This case study describes and investigates the instructional practices of Grades 1 to 5 teachers and the levels of geometry thinking of the learners, according to the Van Hiele model, with a view to determining whether there is a match between the instructional practice and the learners' level of thinking. The instructional practices of the…

In this paper, we describe how we came to use timed fluency activities, along with personal learner reflections on those activities, in our after-school maths club as a complementary research and development tool for assessing the changing levels of learners' mathematical proficiency over time. We use data from one case-study after-school…