Teaching, as a social justice project, seeks to undo and re-imagine oppressive pedagogies in order to transform teachers, their students, and the knowledge with which they work. In this article, I argue that self-study can contribute to social justice in a number of ways by, for instance, making the sometimes limiting norms that frame teaching and…

The context in which self-study research is conducted is sometimes complex, affecting the manner in which related data is gathered and interpreted. This article comprises collaboration between three students and two supervisors. It shares methodological choices made by graduate students and supervisors of a rural university at which, self-study…

In this article, I examine pedagogical understandings as captured through documented critical incidents of a transdisciplinary faculty self-study group which was designed and grounded in notions of sociocultural theory. I report from my lens as facilitator-participant-observer and from my work with eleven other participants in a three-semester…

Evidence suggests that the lack of inclusion of disability issues in the curricula of higher education institutions may result in the perpetuation of practices that discriminate against disabled people in the broader society. In light of this claim, this article investigates whether and how disability issues are included in the teaching and…

Very little is known about whether and what kinds of research are being undertaken at private higher education institutions (PHEIs) in South Africa. This article draws on a recent survey of all registered PHEIs undertaken by a group of interested private higher education providers. This survey was facilitated by the Council on Higher Education…

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…

This article presents research on women's experiences of patriarchy in a Higher Education Institution X. This is a qualitative study located within the interpretivists' paradigm. The research problem of this study is articulated through the following research questions: how do female academics experience patriarchy? How does patriarchy…

Higher education has, to date, been unable to provide effective and lasting solutions to challenges of education, because large sections thereof continue to search for knowledge for its own sake. At best, they conduct responsive research, but on a small scale they reduce the complexity that is education to a neat unilinear process which can be…

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.…

Tuition fees and the use of student loans to complement government's allocations have become unavoidable because of increasing competing new priorities for funding. This article addresses the funding sources of public higher education through tuition and loans. We explore the effects of shifts from first-stream income (government…

Higher education in South Africa is challenged by academic and social demands. Universities, therefore, have to produce graduates who will be able to function optimally within their field of study, as well as act as agents of change in their social environment. The main purpose of this article is to theorise about applying Engestrom's expansive…

South Africa has one of the highest university dropout rates in the world. As a country, it also has a history of forced location and the withholding of resources, including quality education, from certain rural areas. This study investigates, the effect of urbanization (of the area in which a student resides) on the dropout rate of distance…

Transformation in higher education has tended to focus on race and sex, at the expense of other forms of discrimination. This article addresses the silencing of "queer" issues in higher education. Using queer theory as a framework, and drawing on current literature, popular media reports, two personal critical incidents and a project…

National and international developments in higher education and the resultant pressure on universities to demonstrate excellence, including excellence in research, had a far-reaching effect on faculties of education who had traditionally focused more on excellence in teaching than on research. In South Africa, as part of transformation policies…

Taking as its point of departure Ahier's location of the problem of citizenship in the context of the changes that globalisation and neo-liberalism have brought about in higher education, this article focuses on the conceptual preconditions that need to underpin the idea of "teaching" citizenship through the university curriculum. The article…