Since 1994, education policy documents in South Africa have prioritised the goal of equity in education, understood as increased access to programmes, more equitable staff and student profiles, and curricula that are more responsive to the needs of all students. The challenge of effecting the goal of equity at levels of teaching and learning in…

Over the last three decades universities across the world have increasingly come under pressure to address inequalities. In South Africa inequalities emanate to a great extent from the country's apartheid past. It is against this background that the Vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University commits the institution to "education for social…

Knowledge generation over the decade 1995-2004 in South Africa, and its relationship to the changing nature of socio-economic landscapes, suggests an ever closer relationship between the research produced in higher education, and its social and scientific purposes. These have been identified largely by the State through its regulatory frameworks,…

At the heart of the discussion in this special issue on race and affirmative action is the issue of whether race should be used as a category in admissions policies of South African universities. In my contribution I shall argue that there are no races. By race I mean the idea that skin colour (or other phenotypical features) associated with…

This article examines the necessary shift to a sociality of meaning-making for university entrants if the goals of affirmative action within higher education, and the possible effects of its continued application, are to be fulfilled. Given that the practice of education in universities is meant to be the organisation of knowledge in ways that…

The compelling essays in this issue of the journal take on the often contentious and complex issue of racial affirmative action. I do not wish to repeat the arguments authors offer either in defence or against student admissions to a university on the grounds of race, (dis)advantage, class, gender, and so on. Rather, I wish to respond to a…

This article reports, from the insider's perspective, on a research project comprising fifteen academics in the Faculty of Education Sciences at the North-West University and fifteen senior officials from one of the four Education Districts in the North West Province. This project has as its research theme, hence aim; "the creation of…

At the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA, 30 April to 4 May), the theme of re-imagining public education arose once again with the most compelling presentation from leading scholars in the field concerned with counter-hegemonic politics and democratic change. The session entitled "Re-imaging public…

This article depicts the state of Humanities in post-apartheid South Africa by examining HEMIS enrolment and graduation data from 1999 to 2007. It demonstrates that although the decline in student enrolment and graduation in Humanities has not been severe; read in the context of substantial growth of all other disciplines, Humanities is in a…

The article critically re-interrogates three high profile cases of white racism at South Africa's former "open universities" to highlight the way in which existing debates around academic freedom fail to come to terms with questions of racial injustice after apartheid. The cases covered are the Makgoba affair at Wits, the Mamdani affair…

Apartheid-designed higher education institutions continue to have a major influence on students and higher educators in South Africa. There is a need for innovative approaches for engaging with difference in higher education. One means of doing this could be through innovative pedagogical approaches. The Community, Self and Identity project…