The National Senior Certificate or "matric" examination is a key point of access to further education and the labour market in South Africa. Since 1999, matric candidates whose first language is not Afrikaans or English and are, therefore, forced to write in a second or third language have received a compensation of five per cent of…

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…

Educational research conducted in the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa has produced diverse knowledge claims. A review of extant literature espoused elements of ambiguity and contradictions which have become challenging to explain, given the growing instrumentality of educational policy and institutional cultures. The…

South African national education policy is committed to promoting gender equality at school and to facilitating the successful completion of all young people's schooling, including those who may become pregnant and parent while at school. However, the experience of being pregnant and parenting while being a learner is shaped by broader social and…

This article is theoretically informed by Bernstein's (2000) notion of pedagogic identity, supplemented by Tyler's (1999) elaboration of Bernstein's theory into an analytical framework that describes four possible identity positions relating to classification and framing properties. The article analyses key primary mathematics…

This article about the discourse of pedagogy as related to child cognition in mathematics addresses the issue of what constitutes the main disciplinary content and the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of foundation-phase teachers. I argue that, unless child cognition itself is the primary disciplinary content of foundation-phase teacher's…

To nudge students to study English and to improve their English proficiency, many universities in Taiwan have imposed an English graduation benchmark on their students. This article reviews this policy, using the theoretic framework for education policy analysis proposed by Haddad and Demsky (1995). The author presents relevant research findings,…

There is a paucity of South African literature that uses feminist critical approaches as a conceptual tool to examine intersections of social justice and citizenship. This article aims to address this gap by examining the potential of critical feminist approaches to transform conceptions of citizenship in higher education. It outlines how…

Over the past two decades, sexual citizenship has emerged as a new form of citizenship coupled with increased interest in the challenges to citizenship and social justice faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and, in particular, by sexual minority youth within education systems. In South Africa, the rights of…

This paper examines the divergences between what educational policy calls for in South African schools with regard to language and learning and what takes place in schools. It argues that South African constitutional and education policy statements employ an idea of languages as bound entities and systems, and combine this understanding of…

In developing the Advanced Certificate in Teaching (ACT) as a professional qualification for continuing teacher education for early schooling at the University of KwaZulu-Natal we asked the following: "What are the enabling roles foundation phase teachers need to play in order to reclaim their space as agents who significantly influence their…

For school-aged children, schools comprise a major space of participation. Formally, it is a participatory space constituted and regulated by the laws and policies that govern schooling; informally, it is a participatory space whose affordances and patterns of inclusion/exclusion are shaped by children's diverse lives and experiences. This article…

I analyse module outlines within a particular school of social sciences located in a faculty of education, and uncover the evolving systems of teaching social sciences in a teacher education curriculum. The data are analysed through two theoretical lenses: firstly, through the lense of models of teacher education and professional development, and…

I explore the ways in which RE teachers understand and implement a multi-faith Religious Education curriculum in Botswana junior secondary schools. The multi-faith RE curriculum came about as a result of an educational policy change in 1994. The study is based on case studies and draws its data from classroom observations, interviews and documents…

This is a qualitative study that analyses the views and experiences of teachers and students at selected, desegregated schools in Gauteng, South Africa. It focuses on diversity with regard to race, class and gender. These social relationships are intertwined and often not made explicit in everyday life at school. People fight over them, but also…