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Access to education for undocumented migrant children in South Africa remains a significant challenge. While the difficulties related to their inability to access education within the country have been highlighted elsewhere, there remains a lack of clarity on an approach to how this basic human right can be achieved. In this conceptual paper, we draw on the distinction between equality and equity, and describe the various ways in which education has been conceptualised in the South African Constitution -- which in part contributes to the existing confusion on education for various groups, including undocumented migrant children. In this paper, we critically reflect on the need to develop an integrated approach for creating a platform that allows all undocumented migrant children access to education in South Africa. We argue that an integrated approach -- which entails ways through which access to education can be delivered through the lens of equity -- will enhance the right to education for undocumented migrant children in South Africa. We conclude that the South African government must urgently consider this integrated approach to enable access to education for undocumented migrant children, so that they can achieve their full educational potential.

The qualitative community embraces transparent dialogue through sharing knowledge to improve rigour and develop new initiatives. In this paper, we recognise there are many complexities within qualitative research, leading to important debates. We explore the benefits and challenges, as well as the practicalities and technicalities, of conducting research that 1) employs multiple methods within the qualitative paradigm, 2) is interdisciplinary, and 3) examines a sensitive research topic 4) with a vulnerable group of participants. Specifically, when research is also 5) cross-cultural and 6) utilises participatory techniques. Through our discussion, we draw upon an existing project and examine the complexity of designing and completing intra-paradigmatic mixed methods research with children from different sociocultural contexts, underpinned by interdisciplinary perspectives, in a complex area like mental health.

The problem addressed in this theoretical paper is that of learners and educators as agents of social transformation in dysfunctional schools of South Africa. While 80% of South African schools are said to be dysfunctional, learners and educators in these schools can be activated to challenge and actively struggle against any form of social oppression that dehumanises and renders them failures. Educators can work in collaboration with learners to conscientize the latter so that they are able to question different forms of inequalities and discrimination implicit in the curriculum offered at school, which excludes their cultural learning experiences. This paper argues that township and rural school educators and learners can become social agents for change if they are exposed to critical pedagogy which fosters emancipatory methods of teaching and learning. Consequently, structural factors surrounding the South African education system must be addressed if learner performance in dysfunctional schools is to improve.

The low performance of Grade 4 learners in the mathematical concept of word problems involving multiplication remains a concern for many researchers in mathematics education. Several studies conducted have largely focused on improving learners' performance on bare problems involving multiplication, with little focus on contextual problems. The small pilot study reported in this paper investigated the effectiveness of using arrays in improving learners' performance on contextual multiplication problems. A sample of six learners from a school in Soweto township (South Africa) was carefully selected to participate in the study. Tests, carefully designed lessons, and interviews were the major sources of data. The study found that arrays improved the overall performance of learners, and those who were initially identified as low performers showed greater improvement. The pilot study suggests that future research should focus on engaging a large sample of learners from township schools to ensure that the sample is more representative, and how teachers may be supported to use arrays when teaching contextual multiplication problems.

In response to the call for papers for this special issue and the questions it poses, the authors show how the ontological posthumanist shift of agential realism does not erase but keeps the child human of colour in play, despite the inclusion of the other-than-(Adult)human in its methodologies. Through a montaging technique, the authors explore the philosophical complexity of 'decentering without erasure' by re-turning to data from a large international research project -- Children, Technology and Play (2019-2020). Through an agential realist reading of interview data 'of' 'seven-year-old' Henry when visiting him at home in an informal settlement in Cape Town, they show "what else is going on," and the politically radical and subtle philosophical difference this makes for reconfiguring child subjectivity. To do more justice to the complexity of reality, the analysis bounces around like Henry's sack ball and zooms in on the role apparatuses such as GoPros play in research. The authors 'follow the child' literally but differently, without excluding or erasing the more-than-(Adult)human. In meeting Henry, they also meet Eshal, who introduces the GoPro(blem). By diffractively reading Karen Barad's scholarship through visual and aural texts, the authors respond to the question of how posthumanist research makes a difference to childhood studies. They show how the agential realist move(ment) from Object and Subject to Phenomenon explodes ageist, ableist, racist, extractive and settler-colonial logics in education research.

Epidemics of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are presently emerging and on the increase in South Africa. It is increasingly recognized that the occurrence of adult chronic disease are influenced by factors operating from childhood, which are sustained throughout the individual's life course. Increased risk may start in infancy or even before birth and will continue to be influenced by health related behavior during adulthood. The academic level of people in the community influence the level of their health status. Commitment to the promotion of health through prevention, education, and suitable management is the building block for creating a healthy society. The community must make strides to shift from traditional knowledge and medication, and seek new innovative ways of addressing issues facing the population with regard to obesity, overweight, hypertension health, smoking cessation, alcohol abuse, and low physical activity in line with a healthy living lifestyle. The NCDs pose health problems in South Africa and deserve more attention. Poor control of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes, to name just a few, only adds to the current problems. The South African government and the business sector of South Africa should provide safe walking/riding trails in the cities and in rural area to combat emerging NCDs that are killing our community members indiscriminately without considering race, gender, age, and place of residence. Compulsory introduction of physical education lessons to all public schools cannot be over emphasized in the current escalating NCD situation in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the release of Education White Paper 6: Special Needs Education--Building an Inclusive Education and Training System the issue of inclusive schooling has formed a growing part of the education debate in South Africa. There have been inclusive education pilot projects undertaken by the national and provincial education departments and various school-based initiatives that have engaged with inclusive education policy implementation. This study explored one school-based initiative that aimed to include children with disabilities and implement the imperatives of Education White Paper 6. The research participants were five teachers and the school principal. Data collection techniques included in-depth semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations in classrooms and document analysis. The findings in the study emphasize the importance of spatiality to understanding how ideological and structural forces impinge on a school that is grappling with the inclusion of students with disabilities. The study highlights how the everyday individual and cultural practices in the specific school spaces play out to reinforce dominant normalizing discourses of traditional forms of special education.

This paper explores how two selected learners establish their learning practices in their environmental space, that is, their township community and home space. The study combines the lenses of "Space" and "Learning" to capture their movement in and around the township showing how they inhabit space, how they interact with networks and processes in their environment, and how they ultimately transcend their spatial positioning. Methodologically, this quasi-ethnographic study, underpinned by an interpretivist metatheoretical framework, draws on my field notes, verbatim responses acquired through interviews with these children and their parents, observations of their neighbourhood and their homes, photographs and artefacts. These qualitative research tools helped to address the main research question: What is the nature of the learning practices of learners in the environmental space; that is: the space of the township community and home? The results show that these learners and their parents produce multiple and hybrid literacies and engage in rich educational practices despite the lived realities of the township space. Furthermore, it shows that learners develop a productive agency to counterpoise their spatial positioning enabling them to become co-constructors of their lived space.

Existing literatures have discussed both ethical issues in visual research with young people, and the problems associated with applying 'universal' ethical guidelines across varied cultural contexts. There has been little consideration, however, of specific issues raised in projects where visual research is being conducted with young people simultaneously in multiple national contexts. This paper contributes to knowledge in this area. We reflect on our experiences of planning and conducting the International CYCLES project involving photo elicitation with young people in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. While some issues such as varying access to technology for taking and sharing photos and diverse cultural sensitivities around the use of photography were anticipated in advance, others were more unexpected. Balancing the need for methods to be appropriate, ethical and feasible within each setting with the desire for sufficient consistency across the project is challenging. We argue that an 'ethics in context' approach and an attitude of 'methodological immaturity' is critical in international visual research projects with young people.

In this paper, we discuss the results of a case study about the teaching strategies used by three primary school educators to decode Grade 4 science terminology. In South Africa, the study of science is formally introduced to learners in Grade 4. Additionally, Grade 4 is the year when learners transition from being taught in their native languages in Grades 1 to 3 to being taught in English. This presents the challenge of learning a new subject in an unfamiliar language. Research shows that the majority of South African primary school learners find science terminology difficult to comprehend due to linguistic challenges, which could account for their poor performance in science assessments. The way educators decode science terminology during science lessons could affect learners' comprehension of science vocabulary and consequently their performance in science. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data in a qualitative case study in order to determine the strategies used by three science educators to teach and decode science terminology in Grade 4. The study findings suggest that the participating educators use ad hoc, teacher-centered teaching strategies to decode science concepts. These findings have implications for the preparation of primary school science educators in teacher training institutions.

In this paper the authors use the collaboration framework to explore the implementation of the School Feeding Scheme (SFS) in two primary schools within South Africa. The authors use a qualitative approach to gather data through individual and focus group interviews with two principals and eight teachers respectively. The feeding process was also observed. The authors found that despite recorded achievements, smooth implementation of the scheme was stifled by varied challenges. However, the current situation can be improved if principals initiate strategies that promote collaboration, while caterers and teachers are trained on collaboration and professional ethics. Monitoring and evaluation is encouraged to identify and resolve impending challenges.

This theoretical paper looked at the possibility of incorporating the social learning concept of achievement-oriented behaviour in promoting children's public participation in policy-making in the educational system. The paper highlighted how the concepts of public participation and achievement-oriented education could be used in the governance of the educational system in South Africa. The paper explored concepts such as goal-directed behaviour, achievement standards, achievement beliefs, and how the educational system could use the concepts in the promotion of children's public participation. Future studies could focus on the empirical relationship between achievement-oriented behaviour and child involvement in participatory democracy in the governance of the educational system in South Africa.

The paper focuses on the issue of children's political participation and considers the idea of political participation understood as a human right. Contingently it considers the question of children as agents or potential political actors, as well as the assumed limitations of their role. The paper begins by offering an outline of how children's rights have come to be considered in the international context as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the idealized concept of childhood that is implicit in this convention. The paper then proposes some alternative approaches to understanding childhood and children's status, with a view to proposing a more nuanced approach to their political participation that neither treats them as passive recipients of duties towards them, nor as the voiceless possessions of groups or families. This is followed by an account of the emerging debate about deliberative democracy as a more substantive approach to political participation, and by some consideration of how this relates to the rights and capabilities of children as political actors. The paper concludes with some tentative suggestions about how institutions in South Africa could be utilized to realize a more flexible and nuanced approach to children's participation in this key area.

This article analyses the central themes running through the collection of papers in this special issue of Childhood, which were all given as papers at the XVI Durban World Congress of Sociology, 23-29 July 2006. These themes encompass the ways in which global processes of social change combining modernity with tradition have become important for both the perception of childhood and for children's real lives. They also include the ways in which those processes intertwined with social inequalities of gender, generation and socioeconomic status among children and between children and other age groups. The article goes on to provide an outline of the ways in which more general theoretical concerns in the sociology of childhood globally are related to local situations, to a variety of practical settings, to the conceptual concerns in different sociological fields and other social science disciplines in South Africa, Ethiopia, Taiwan, Germany, Sweden, and Italy.

This paper examines how young people living in a violent neighbourhood construct understandings about danger, violence and safety. Reporting findings from a qualitative study that investigated these issues with 8-14 year olds in a South African neighbourhood, the paper identifies how young people attempted to stay safe through reliance on adult protection, avoidance and escape, peer support and retaliation. Through close examination of three discussions between the young people, the paper considers tensions and troubles in their talk about violence, risk and safety, and discusses the complex ways in which they managed these tensions, the implications for their safety and vulnerability, and how these changed over time in gendered ways. Finally, the paper considers the implications for interventions that aim to keep young people safe. (Contains 1 note.)

Many studies on parenting styles with children with disabilities exist; however, few investigate parenting styles of hearing parents whose children have a hearing loss. The aim of this review is to explore the limited previous literature on interventions targeting this phenomenon. Data was extracted from search engines, Ebscohost (Academic Search Complete, MedLine, PsycARTICLES, SocIndex, Greenfile, Masterfile Premier), Science Direct and Springer Link. Just five studies were found to address issues relating to parenting styles in this demographic, which is surprisingly few. Studies reviewed in this paper were conducted in the United Kingdom Israel, Germany and South Africa. These five articles describe interventions that provide hearing parents with specific knowledge and skills to parent children with a hearing loss. The findings of those studies are explained here, with the purpose being to provide direction for much needed further research into this topic.

In South Africa, the educational attainment of African children has been a focal point of policy and research since the end of apartheid in 1994. Individual and policy-level determinants of child development and educational outcomes have been exhaustively investigated. A less researched perspective is the role of community and household composition on educational outcomes. The aim of this paper is to explore the socio-economic and demographic composition of communities and households that influence grade repetition among children in South Africa. The nationally representative South African General Household Survey of 2017 is analysed. The sample is children, 7-14 years old who have repeated a grade (N=529,624). Frequency distributions and multilevel modelling techniques are used to estimate the impact of household and community characteristics on child education outcomes. Results show that males (62.29%) and older children, 10-14 years old (61.27%), have higher grade repetition. In addition, children in female-headed households (54.57%) and poor households (61.13%) also have higher repetition rates. Finally, household poverty (OR: 1.617) and community poverty (OR: 1.944) are associated with increased likelihood of grade repetition. To ensure that South African children progress through school, the households and communities they are nested in require attention and intervention.

In exploring peace education in South Africa, the paper reviews a research report on the subject, focusing on the needs of children and youth and on the range of programmatic and research initiatives already working in this field. Summarizes three issues: recommended policy guidelines related to peace education for South-African children, cautionary thoughts, and research directions. (SM)

This paper reports on the South African findings from an international mixed methods study between the LEGO Foundation, Dubit and the Universities of Sheffield (England) and Cape Town (South Africa) on young children's learning with digital technology. The findings of the study, the first of its kind in South Africa, show the consistency of qualities and experience of play, but also reveal socio-economic, linguistic, ethnic, gender and racial inequalities in the play environments of both groups of 3–11-year-olds. Yet, despite these structural inequalities, the play ecologies of children in resource-constrained environments show their creativity within the digital/non-digital environment. The paper discusses some of the analytical tools used and the geo-political issues raised, and considers these in conjunction with selected data. We conclude that the different socio-cultural conditions and geo-political realities offer new insights about the role global education research can play in helping combat structural inequalities in resource-constrained environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If educational psychologists wish to make a meaningful difference as practitioners, both to the children they work with and the ecologies these children come from, then, knowledge and application of resilience theory is crucial. Toland and Carrigan (2011) underscore this relationship in their 2011 article in this Journal. In our contribution below, we extend their assertion by urging greater attention to the interactive processes which underpin resilience and, more particularly, to how proximal, face-to-face transactions embedded in mesosystems and microsystems and nuanced by the distal, macrosystemic influences, mould resilience. Using examples from resilience research conducted in South Africa we argue that such a focus (i.e. on the transactional ecosystemic nature of resilience) is crucial in developing contexts. Furthermore, we contend that sensitivity to mechanisms of resilience as well as the contexts and cultures in which these continuously evolve, begs an approach to practice that foregrounds the ecosystemic, promotes child-ecology transactions, and is cautious about generalizing resilience theory to children across diverse contexts, cultures and time periods. To conceptualize resilience as anything but a reciprocal, dynamic, contextually-influenced interaction between children and their ecologies, would be to fail children in developing contexts. (Contains 1 note.)

Beyond realising the right of children and young people to be heard in routine interactions, there is much scope for research with (rather than on) children. This is particularly pertinent in the field of inclusive education where there is potential for the voice of children and young people to be a lever for change and to promote inclusive practice. South African inclusion research has, however, given little attention to the perspectives and experiences of children and young people. In advocating for research to listen to the voice of insiders--children who have experienced inclusion and exclusion, this paper explores the dilemma of inclusion research. Selecting some children to participate in inclusion research on the basis of disability or other marker of difference undermines the inclusive endeavour. But without their perspective, we may never expose excluding and marginalising practices and attitudes, even within inclusive contexts. Four research initiatives which highlight this dilemma are described, concluding that the dilemma is unresolvable, but that the ongoing debate is valuable. Ultimately the call is for research that is both participatory and emancipatory, resulting in the reduction of exclusionary cultures and practices and the inclusion of young voices in the discourse that produces inclusion knowledge.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child includes children's right to participation in processes that affect them. In this article we caution that in order to give real content to participation, it is necessary to understand what participation is and to acknowledge the problematic nature of the concept. We then demonstrate, by considering a number of international and African studies, the kinds of issues that have undermined the implementation of participatory initiatives for both adults and children. Subsequently we explore the way in which participation has become a central tenet of cooperative developmental government through what has, especially at the local level, become known as governance. We argue that for these opportunities to become a reality and for citizens to benefit from the governance model, a strong and organised civil society that moves beyond the limitations of confrontational protest politics and engages with the state without becoming co-opted, is the way forward. Increased inefficiency on the part of local governance structures has led to increasing disillusionment by citizens, especially younger people. The final section of the paper deals with this disaffection through a focus group interview with a small number of Grade 12 learners from Grahamstown/Rhini. The interviews reveal a level of cynicism and lack of interest in participation in governance structures, such as ward meetings, among the learners interviewed. Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace. If, however, they are left on society's margins, all of us will be impoverished. Let us ensure that all young people have every opportunity to participate fully in the lives of their societies (Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary General).

This paper describes how language and literacy classrooms became more participatory, agentive spaces through addressing a central issue in teaching and learning: the forms of representation through which children make their meanings. It reconsiders pedagogic research in under-resourced Gauteng classrooms during the period 1994-2005, during the first decade of education in post-liberation South Africa. This research shows teachers using multimodality in productive, expressive and creative ways that work against deficit models of children, drawing on their everyday experiences and their existing representational resources. It outlines the theoretical framework supporting the pedagogical approach, that of multimodal social semiotics, known more widely as "multimodality", and discusses three instances of children's multimodal practice, in Grades 1 and 2, 7 and 10 respectively. It sums up the role played by multimodality in participation, showing how multimodality enables cognitive, social and affective participation through expanding the semiotic space of the classroom and reconstituting the children as sign-makers.

Although South Africa is committed to a policy of linguistic diversity, the language-in-education policy is still plagued by the racialization of language issues under apartheid and, more recently, by new challenges posed by internal African migration. Drawing on the experience of a school in the Western Cape Province, this paper explores the role of language profiles in a speaker-centered approach to school language policy. Attention is paid to the ways in which the attribution of learners to clear-cut linguistic categories--in this case English and Afrikaans--and their "monolingualization" within the process of literacy learning are at odds with both their everyday experiences of language and their linguistic aspirations. Using biographic and topological multimodal approaches with 13- to 15-year-old students at the school, it makes a contribution to the growing corpus of research that foregrounds the learner perspective and emphasizes emotional dimensions of literacy and language learning. (Contains 1 figure and 2 notes.)

Background: HIV education targeting children and adolescents is a key component of HIV prevention. This is especially important in the context of increasing HIV prevalence rates among adolescents and young people. The authors sought to examine the role and effectiveness of an extra-curricular school based programme, Soul Buddyz Clubs (SBC) on HIV knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and biomedical outcomes.Methods: This paper employs a mixed methods approach drawing on data from independent qualitative and quantitative sources. Secondary data analysis was performed using survey data from a nationally representative sample that was restricted to 10-14 year-old males and females living in South Africa. Ten focus group discussions and ten in-depth interviews conducted with SBC members and facilitators from 5 provinces, as part of a process evaluation are used to triangulate the effectiveness of SBC intervention.Results: The analysis of survey data from 2 198 children indicated that 12% of respondents were exposed to SBC with 4% reporting that they had ever belonged to a club. Children exposed to SBC were more likely to be medically circumcised (AOR 2.38; 95%CI 1.29 -4.40, p=0.006), had correct HIV knowledge (AOR 2.21; 95%CI 1.36 - 3.57, p<0.001) and had less HIV stigmatising attitudes (AOR 0.54; 95%CI 0.31-0.93, p=0.025), adjusting for age, sex, province and exposure to other media - in comparison to those not exposed. Propensity Score Matching findings were consistent with the regression findings. Qualitative findings also supported some of the quantitative results. SBC members reported having learnt about HIV prevention life skills, including condom use, positive attitudes towards people living with HIV, and alcohol abuse.Conclusions: Participation in SBC is associated with accessing biomedical HIV prevention services, specifically MMC, correct HIV prevention knowledge and less HIV stigmatizing attitudes. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of a school-based extracurricular intervention using a club approach targeting boys and girls ages 10-14 years on some of the key HIV prevention biomarkers as well as knowledge and attitudes. The article suggests that extra-curricular interventions can form an effective component of school-based comprehensive sexuality education in preventing HIV and promoting medical male circumcision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers evidence on the sensitivity of child poverty in South Africa to changes in the adult equivalence scale (AES) and updates the child poverty profile based on the Income and Expenditure Survey 2005/06. Setting the poverty line at the 40th percentile of households calculated with different AESs the scope and composition of child poverty are found to be relatively insensitive to the scale used. The rankings of children of different ages, girls versus boys, racial groupings and children living in rural versus urban areas are unaffected by choice of AES, although some provincial rankings on the poverty headcount measure "are". The proportions of children and households "correctly" identified as poor for the full range of scales is extremely high. These findings support the argument that it may be appropriate for profiling poverty in South Africa to use a poverty line based on a per capita welfare measure. For the construction of the child poverty profile, per capita income is used as the welfare indicator with the poverty line set at the 40th percentile of household. The profile suggests that poverty amongst children is more extensive than amongst the population or adults even after the massive injection of transfers into households with poor children through the child support grant. The child poverty headcount, depth and severity are all highest amongst children age 0-4 and lowest amongst those aged 15-17, who are not yet beneficiaries of the grants. They are also highest amongst African and Coloured children. Large variations across provinces remain. The analysis underlines the importance of prioritising "children" in the fight against poverty, particularly in their earliest years.

Education for Global Citizenship (E4GC) offers many opportunities to explore spirituality and a sense of how one fits into the world at a range of levels. Beyond the Curriculum Boundaries is a project that enables student teachers to consider E4GC alongside issues of multiculturalism, antiracism and democracy education, with a strong focus on religious education and geography. This paper outlines the ethos behind the project, identifies key elements and themes, appraises student responses, and evaluates key learning points. Student teachers respond to the module in a variety of ways that inform their learning and teaching, and development takes place on both personal and professional levels: as the project has developed the awareness of children's worldviews and the sense of interconnectedness with others has grown, adding an increasingly spiritual dimension to learning. This article argues that E4GC provides an effective vehicle for supporting the often-overlooked spiritual dimension of children development. (Contains 1 note.)

Access to clean and functional toilet is quintessential in meeting children's physiological and psychosocial needs in a learning environment. However, little is known on experiences of children's access to quality toilets while in preschool institutions within urban settings of sub-Saharan Africa countries. This paper draws from a study that explored experiences of vulnerable children in early childhood development education (ECDE) institutions in underserved and informal urban settings of Kenya and South Africa. 11 urban ECDE centres were purposively selected and 17 teachers were recruited as key informants. Data was collected using an adapted infrastructural checklist, observation and conversational interviews. Findings indicated that a majority of toilets in ECDE centres were inadequate, inappropriate, poorly maintained, or had structural weaknesses which affected children's experiences of access and use of the facilities. Scheduled toilet visits as a control measure and toilet avoidance potentially exposed them to psychosocial and health risks. Insights into children's toilet facilities, managing their access in institutions located within informal and low resourced areas, and investment policies that target preschool children' sanitary facilities are given. Suggestions are made for interventions for children's positive toilet experiences in poor urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a model is set forth relating (a) overall life satisfaction of children to children's values and (b) children's values to parents' values. Using confirmatory factor analysis models three dimensions of values (materialistic values, capacities and knowledge values and interpersonal relationship values) consistently emerged in 5 countries (Brazil, South Africa, Norway, Spain and India) for both parents and children. There was a considerable amount of missing data, mainly because the parent's questionnaire was often not returned. Full information maximum likelihood estimators with missing data were thus used. Multiple-group analyses were next performed to assess factor invariance of the three value dimensions across the live countries for both parents and children. This implies testing the equality of factor loadings and intercepts across groups. This equality is required to ensure that factors have the same interpretation in all groups, which is necessary when comparing any aspect of the factor distribution across groups. The only two countries for which the interpretation of value dimensions was invariant for both parents and children were Brazil and Spain. The results of other countries could thus not be compared. Multiple-group structural equation models revealed that both parents and children scored higher on most values in Brazil than in Spain. In both countries, each child value dimension was only significantly predicted by the same value dimension of the parents. R-squares were in the 4-12% range and slightly higher in Brazil. The only value dimension that had some effect on overall life satisfaction was capacities and knowledge, which was so in both countries.

Background. Research has shown that pressure in the vaginal birth process aids the infant's neurophysiological adaption to extrauterine life, including their ability to regulate their responses to diverse sensory stimuli. As pressure is absent in elective caesarean section births, we hypothesised that these children may be at higher risk for developing sensory hyperreactivity (SHR), a sensory modulation difficulty which negatively impacts on the child's engagement in their occupations. This paper reports on a study which investigated associations between birth method and SHR. Method. In this cross-sectional study, 91 children aged three and four years from various language, cultural, and socioeconomic groups were recruited and categorised based on birth method (caesarean section or vaginal birth). Caregivers of each child completed the Short Sensory Profile-2 and a demographic questionnaire. The prevalence of SHR between the birth method groups was compared. Results. The prevalence of SHR was greater in the vaginal birth group (29%) than the caesarean section group (9%). Mothers in the vaginal birth group were younger (p ≤ 0.001), of lower-income level (p = 0.003), and more likely to be single (p = 0.037). During data collection with the vaginal birth group, comprehensibility of certain items in the Short Sensory Profile-2 proved challenging for many caregivers. Conclusion. The statistically significant higher prevalence of SHR in the vaginal birth group supported a null hypothesis. However, the results are questioned due to the challenges related to data collection. Given this, the study supports the need for further investigation of how sociocultural and socioeconomic factors influence the assessment of SHR in the South African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.2, South Africa's National Development Plan commits to providing high-quality early childhood education to all children by 2030 to drive improved child outcomes. Prior to 2016, South Africa lacked reliable, locally standardised, valid, and cross-culturally fair assessment tools for measuring preschool quality and child outcomes, suitable for use at scale within a resource-constrained context. In this paper we detail the development and evolution of a suite of early learning measurement (ELOM) tools designed to address this measurement gap. The development process included reviews of literature and other relevant assessment tools; a review of local curriculum standards and expected child outcomes; extensive consultation with government officials, child development experts, and early learning practitioners, iterative user testing; and assessment of linguistic, cultural, functional, and metric equivalence across all 11 official South African languages. To support use of the ELOM tools at scale, and by users with varying levels of research expertise, administration is digitised and embedded within an end-to-end data value chain. ELOM data collected since 2016 quantify the striking socio-economic gradient in early childhood development in South Africa, demonstrate the relationship between physical stunting, socio-emotional functioning and learning outcomes, and provide evidence of the positive impact of high-quality early learning programmes on preschool child outcomes. To promote secondary analyses, data from multiple studies are regularly collated into a shared dataset, which is made open access via an online data portal. We describe the services and support that make up the ELOM data value chain, noting several key challenges and enablers of data-driven change within this context. These include deep technical expertise within a multidisciplinary and collaborative team, patient and flexible capital from mission-aligned investors, a fit-for-purpose institutional home, the appropriate use of technology, a user-centred approach to development and testing, sensitivity to children's diverse linguistic and socio-economic circumstances, careful consideration of requirements for scale, appropriate training and support for a non-professional assessor base, and a commitment to ongoing learning and continuous enhancement. Practical examples are provided of ways in which the ELOM tools and data are used for programme monitoring and enhancement purposes, to evaluate the relative effectiveness of early learning interventions, to motivate for greater budget and inform more effective resource allocation, to support the development of enabling Government systems, and to track progress towards the attainment of national and global development goals. We share lessons learnt during the development of the tools and discuss the factors that have driven their uptake in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the negative effects of anger and exposure to violence for male children in South Africa. Discusses the need for multiple interventions that are both individual- and environmental-centered. Offers detailed recommendations for effective culturally relevant psychoeducational policy initiatives and optimal anger replacement strategies for mental health professionals, early childhood educators, and violence prevention experts. (Author/KB)

Due to milieu deficiencies and psychosocial handicaps, some groups are caught in a spiral of poverty, and experience serious obstruction to optimal self-actualization and the achievement of satisfactory quality of life. Article describes the problems of educating milieu-deprived students in the Republic of South Africa, as well as the implications for educational reform. (Author/EMK)

Assesses a range of recent atrocities and apparently resultant problems experienced by children in areas of Namibia, Mozambique, and South Africa. Includes data from the literature and personal impressions from visits and extended periods of stay. Recommends expansion of birth control programs and awareness. (RAH)

To date, little research has been conducted on subject leadership by primary and/or junior secondary school heads of department (HODs). Unlike their senior secondary school counterparts, South African science HODs have the more complex task of leading in the multidisciplinary context of natural sciences (NS 1). Such leadership comes in addition to the complications of role ambiguity, limited time and authority that are inherent in the HOD position. Using interviews and 360° multi-rater by four teachers and subject meeting observations, data were transcribed and categorised into themes that describe the instructional leadership practices of three NS HODs in South Africa. This paper is part of a more comprehensive PhD study. It suggests that providing leadership for NS teaching is more complex in practice than has been reported to date. In the context of increasing focus on accountability and national testing, the unintended consequence has been the neglect of the junior secondary NS teachers by the HODs. Furthermore, the data suggest that the HODs tend to limit their attention to areas of their own specialisation. The paper concludes with a conceptual framework that provides guidance for improving instructional leadership by the HODs in such multidisciplinary contexts, especially for the junior secondary school levels. It also recommends the restructuring of the conglomerate departments to make them more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a youth and community leader living in QwaQwa, the author would like to stress views and raise concerns about poverty and HIV/AIDS in the community and how this is making children and youth more vulnerable than anyone. As a young person, the author believes that HIV/AIDS affects us all, whether infected or not, young or old--it affects us the same. The statistics have shown that over the last ten years, the rate of HIV infection among adolescents and children has increased tremendously, more than in any other age group in South Africa. Beyond a doubt, it was confirmed that those at high risk of getting infected and contracting HIV/AIDS are more likely to be vulnerable children and youth. The author's province, Free State, is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa and, as a result, QwaQwa is found to be one of the poorest areas within the province. This, in turn, makes youth even more vulnerable, considering that most of them could be forced by their social-economic conditions to turn to risky conduct in order to survive.

As the world came to grips with the coronavirus diseases (COVID-19), educational institutions and the society at large faced the challenge of figuring out how to continue with teaching and learning in such a context. Many countries, including South Africa made efforts to help contain and suppress the spread of Covid-19. In the South African education sector, about 13 million learners and 440 000 teachers were released before the end of the first school term in March 2020. In addition, 30 000 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, about 100 000 teachers were also required to end their term before the official closing date. For many young learners, the lockdown period meant that they would be at home with (a) Limited access to age appropriate, fun and explicitly educational resources to play with as many shops considered resources that could be used to develop children's sensory skills as not essential goods (b) They had limited exposure to structured learning and play as most caregivers are not qualified ECD practitioners (c) Children could not play outside, visit playgrounds and parks, yet, freedom of movement, activity and exercise is important for every child's development and young children learn best through play and experimenting (d) Most of their curriculum content cannot be fully taught using online platforms. Given this background, through a semi-ethnographic study, the paper documents the early literacy experiences of two 3 year old children during the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa. In addition, analysis of parents or caregivers' feedback about their experiences in providing assistance to the young learners during the lockdown is presented. Findings of the study show that in both research contexts, literacy practices were different, but not lesser. Challenging as it was for the caregivers to support the development of literacy, the home environment provided many opportunities for learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]