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This paper explores the extent to which latest developments in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training System in South Africa respond to key principles espoused for a developmental, democratic and inclusionary ideal. The White Paper for post school education and training approved by Cabinet in November, 2013 is referred to by the Minister as the "definitive statement of the governments vision for the post school system" and as such represents a crucial strategy document intended to chart the TVET direction to 2030. Using key theoretical constructs from development theory, this paper provides an assessment of the TVET strategy contained is the paper and explores the extent to which it does respond to the agenda defined by the promise. It is argued that the challenges outlined are not yet able to provide the blueprint for a TVET transformative vision. It is concluded that while the development rhetoric contained in the paper is plausible, the creative tinkering of the system is unlikely to lead to the radical revisioning necessary for a truly transformative TVET system. The underlying assumptions regarding purpose, impact and outcome will need to be carefully reconsidered if the system is to be responsive to the promises of the democratic developmental ideal to which the government is committed.

This paper explores the extent to which latest developments in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training System in South Africa respond to key principles espoused for a developmental, democratic and inclusionary ideal. The White Paper for post school education and training (DHET, 2013) approved by Cabinet in November, 2013 is referred to by the Minister as the "definitive statement of the governments vision for the post school system" (DHET, 2013, p.4) and as such represents a crucial strategy document intended to chart the TVET direction to 2030. Using key theoretical constructs from development theory, this paper provides an assessment of the TVET strategy contained is the paper and explores the extent to which it does respond to the agenda defined by the promise. It is argued that the challenges outlined are not yet able to provide the blueprint for a TVET transformative vision. It is concluded that while the development rhetoric contained in the paper is plausible, the creative tinkering of the system is unlikely to lead to the radical revisioning necessary for a truly transformative TVET system. The underlying assumptions regarding purpose, impact and outcome will need to be carefully reconsidered if the system is to be responsive to the promises of the democratic developmental ideal to which the government is committed.

When the United Nations General Assembly authorized holding the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, it was hardly a secret--or even a point in dispute--that progress in implementing sustainable development had been disappointing since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. With poverty deepening and environmental degradation worsening, what was necessary, the General Assembly said, was not a new philosophical or political debate, but rather a summit of actions and results (United Nations, 2002). We can question the WSSD accomplishments and whether the subsequent actions and results will contribute in meaningful ways to sustainable development. However, I think it is more important for science educators to ask: What are the implications of WSSD for science education? Why is science education not more intrinsically linked to the goals of human rights, democracy, and social justice? What are the ways in which science education ought to be connected to issues of sustainable development? In essence, where are the footpaths to/from science education? I investigate such questions in this position paper, while arguing that an education in science ought to enable learners to: (a) understand how the natural world works, (b) understand how human systems are interacting with natural systems, (c) assess the status and trends of crucial natural systems, and (d) promote and follow a long-term, sustainable relationship with the natural world. These are the very ways in which an education in science (i.e., science education) ought to be connected to issues of sustainable development.

In this article texts by scholars from South Africa, Sweden and Great Britain are analysed. They contributed as invited speakers to a conference in Sweden in 2009 on changing societies, values, religions and education. Here a South-North dialogue on diversity and the future of education is constructed through the way their conference contributions are presented and analysed. Democracy and gender also appear as crucial themes. Out of the original 12 keynote contributions to the conference a selection is made, meaning that seven of them are focused on. What can be observed is (a) that the contributors from South Africa connect diversity and social justice; (b) that the gender researchers critically discuss the risks of the North imposing its theoretical framework on the South and search for ways out of that and (c) a preoccupation with a renewal of education recognising diversity but also looking for what could come beyond such an emphasis and form a common ground. The article constitutes an example of shared knowledge production where South and North meet. Conditions for that are critically reflected upon methodologically.

An effective education system is an environment where students feel cared for, included and are able to deliver critical dialogical input in their learnings on Learning Management Systems (LMS) platforms. The article aims to epitomizes quality education where skills, values and equal distribution of resources can be accessed by all. This includes effectively trained lecturers who manages diversity and teach effectively, to foster success, and to provide a safe and friendly classroom environment for students. This article comes from a larger work done on how to administer clear dialogical and caring aims (policy) in higher online education spaces where students grow holistically and critically. The paper focuses on the kind of space lecturers need to create online in-order to provide students the opportunity to be part of a caring teaching and learning process in order to form part of an active citizenry beyond their immediate context. This article employed a qualitative research methodology, where a questionnaire was used for lecturers at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of the Free State. These questionnaires covered 30 lecturers who made use of the University's LMS' platform. The data was analyzed through the interpretivist paradigm. The finding in this article reveal that the little to no cultivation of critical pedagogical action vis-à-vis the enactment of activism and justice in and through higher education in the context of real pedagogical action in online (LMS) higher education spaces are important. The study is significant because it emphasizes a topic that are helpful in understanding how critical pedagogical action through Freire's dialogical theory in the online (LMS) higher education platforms ought to be engaged.

An earlier paper focused on how born-free learners constitute, negotiate and represent their identities after almost two and half decades of democracy in South Africa. Utilising the theoretical framework of subjective realities of educational change, in this article I set out to explore what implications teachers' beliefs hold for born-free learners, and how teachers' beliefs can be changed or adapted to initiate appropriate educational change. The focus of this article is on the beliefs of teachers and how the change thereof can contribute to educational change, based on how learners perceive their identities. The epistemological lens of social constructivism and the research strategy of narrative inquiry was used. Fifty-eight born-free learners across 6 research sites participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews and field notes comprised the data capture, which were analysed using the qualitative content analysis method. Findings reveal that shifting and diverse self-identifications of born-free learners hold fundamental and crucial implications that reside at the heart of educational change, namely a change in teachers' beliefs and in teachers' practice.

Promoting equal access to schools for researchers wishing to conduct educational research was one of the key tasks embedded in the educational transformation mandate of the new government of South Africa when it came to power in 1994. Drawing on data from five different research projects, this paper evaluates progress made by the democratic government of South Africa towards achieving that goal. Gaining access to schools to conduct classroom-based research was difficult and frustrating to researchers during the apartheid era. This paper finds that the government has succeeded in increasing access to schools and fair treatment of researchers who wish to conduct classroom-based research. This was achieved primarily through the government's nondiscriminatory policies and the pressure exerted by the issue of South Africa's poor performance in international learner achievement studies. The paper also finds that South Africa is still struggling to find effective strategies to address this issue.

The centring of Muslim women in Islam resides in an intertwining historico-politico-theological narrative of gender reform, first promulgated in a seventh century revelation of the Qur'an. Significantly, the gains derived by the women of Islam's first community, have become lost in the dominance of contemporary androcentric-patriarchal interpretations. The argument advanced by this paper is that Muslim educational institutions have a responsibility in (re)-scripting gender justice as an imperative of the scripture; and in establishing resonance between identities of faith and citizenship. I commence by looking at the disjuncture between what Islam says about gender equality, and how it unfolds under the predominant auspices of a patriarchal gaze. As an example of this disconnection, I focus on the trajectory of the 'women in mosques' campaigns in South Africa, spanning from an apartheid to a democratic context -- noting that despite, or perhaps, because of far-reaching political change, the resistance encountered by Muslim women has remained the same. Thereafter, I turn my attention to an intertwining consideration: the responsibility of Muslim education in (re)-scripting gender justice as an imperative of the scripture; and the obligation of Muslim education in establishing resonance between identities of faith and citizenship.

Well-being is realised through the interaction of the individual's desires and capacities, and external contexts. Contexts in postcolonial societies diverge from the assumptions of functioning liberal democratic states and capitalist economies often assumed in theories of schooling. Instead, these contexts are characterised by poverty and inequality, cultural diversity, and ongoing projects of state and nation-building. Through case studies of two rural communities in India and South Africa, this paper analyses the role of postcolonial contexts in shaping well-being opportunities through schooling in these contexts. It highlights the contested nature of this relationship in cultural, economic, and political spheres.

Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are expanding access to high school education, which is a perpetuation of the previous focus on basic education. This study applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using data from seven countries from 2010 to 2020 to examine the potential conditions of fee-free policies at the high school level. Five potential conditions are analyzed. They include the regime type, electoral competition, ideological lineage, economic conditions, and social context. The findings indicate the significant influence of electoral competition and a high level of lower secondary school enrolment for the adoption of fee-free policies. The absence of electoral competition leads to a lack of fee-free policy. The paper explains how elections, one indicator of representative democracy, motivate political leaders to initiate social policies. Additionally, the study challenges the relevance of two important explanations for expansionary social policy in the literature--the partisan theory of policy outcomes, and the economy.

This paper reflects on the changes in Educational Psychology in South Africa in a ten year period (2005-2015) after the first democratic elections. It shows how Educational Psychology as a scientific discipline, and as a helping profession, has responded to the changing landscape and how the post-democracy years inspired a complete departure from previous practices. It also explores an expansion of its leitmotif from "helping" to leading and facilitating processes of change and support. It shows how conceptual shifts from the individual level towards systemic interventions have impacted the nature of the support provided by educational psychologists and how the creation of virtuous cycles became central their work. The shifts from individual support to systemic support interventions have also contributed to blurring boundaries between professionals and stakeholders. The paper also argues that the strong experiential nature of studies in Educational Psychology has led to gaps in the empirical database in Educational Psychology--specifically in terms of the limited comparative studies that have been conducted. Such studies were mostly conducted within bounded systems. Furthermore, the paper argues that the role of educational psychologists has been marginalized in formal education support structures even as their role increased in importance in broader society.

This paper draws on the compelling example of a political movement in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s to explore both how epistemic justice conditions of possibility and of failure play out in practice. It provides a springboard to understand how and why failures of epistemic justice matter tremendously for democratic and inclusive lives and how the historical example can point us in the direction of higher education as a space for Amartya Sen's redressable injustices if underpinned by Miranda's Fricker's core capability of epistemic contribution being available pedagogically to all. The paper engages with ideas, practices and actions fostered by Black Consciousness against apartheid as both a hermeneutical and a testimonial injustice in South Africa, with both having a relational structure of giving and receiving, as Fricker argues and as Jose Medina elaborates by extending the structure to include the communicative and participatory. The paper then shows the importance of these conceptual frames to transformative higher education practices and how such practices might contribute to more epistemic justice in higher education.

This paper is concerned with three possible theoretical relationships, between education and social, economic and political development, that--(a) education improves society, (b) education reproduces society as it is and (c) education actually makes society worse. The paper then uses South Africa as a case study to critically analyse these different roles of education in relation to development theory. In particular, it examines three theoretical tensions in post-apartheid education policy and practice--those between human capital theory and social reproduction, between modernisation and bureaucratic disorganisation, and between democracy and peace and authoritarianism and violence. It concludes by attempting to explain these tensions and contradictions in term of factors specific to South Africa such as teacher professionalism and teacher identity and in relation to wider factors inherent in the historical origins of schooling as a form of organisation based on social control.

South Africa's first national democratic elections in 1994 marked a turning point in the history of the country. Since democracy much of the focus of African National Congress (ANC)-led government has been on redress and transformation across all spheres of society, including higher education. This paper examines one important aspect inherent in transforming higher education; that is, changing the academic staffing profile of its institutions to more accurately reflect the demographics of the country. Specifically, we examine the academic staffing profiles (gender, race, and rank) of Geographers employed at higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa and compare these statistics to national academic staffing trends. Results indicate that Geographers in South Africa are most often white and male although these findings mirror national percentages. We also found a paucity of black African Geographers at more senior academic positions as well as a lack of black African female Geographers. Racial inequities in the distribution of academic staff were noted with white male Geographers disproportionately located at historically white institutions while black African Geographers are disproportionately located at historically black institutions. We discuss these, and other results, in the broader context of the transformation of the discipline of Geography in South Africa.

Recent international policy literature on Education for Sustainable Development puts forward utopian concepts of sustainable development and transformed learning as objects for educational thinking and practice. This paper, drawing on three illustrative educational investigations with youth in a South African context, critically examines how we might engage with utopian concepts such as those put forward in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It incorporates an engagement with other related utopian concepts such as democracy and social justice, which feature strongly in post-apartheid societal reconstruction in South Africa. The paper argues that if we are to avoid valuable utopian concepts such as democracy, sustainability, and social justice from becoming doxic knowledge, a reflexive realist orientation might best guide our educational engagements with such concepts. Such an approach to utopianism would take account of contextual realities and situated learning processes, and foster a creativity of action that is constructivist in nature, but not relativist. (Contains 3 notes.)

The demise of apartheid in 1994 introduced many changes to the social, political, and economic sectors of South Africa with similar changes in the higher education sector. This article offers an integrative review and analysis of higher education policies implemented and legislation passed that significantly impacted the nature of the South African system of higher education. While the primary interest is on policies implemented since South Africa's transition to democracy in 1994, the analysis begins with an evaluation of the Extension of University Education Act (No. 45) of 1959, the seminal legislation that created the hyper-segregated system of higher education, the detrimental effects of which most of the policies implemented post-1994 sought to address. We employ content analysis as a research approach and critical policy analysis as a theoretical framework to examine the aforementioned legislation and two post-1994 policy papers, the "Education White Paper 3" and the "National Plan for Higher Education," which provided a framework for creating a new, equitable system of higher education. While there has been modest success emanating from the implementation of these policies, there are deep-seated challenges in the higher education sector that persist 20 years into the new democracy.

The advent of a democracy in South Africa ushered in refreshing changes within the South African context. Given South Africa's dark apartheid history, every policy intervention had to ensure a human rights ethos prevails. Inclusive Education, through the publication of the policy document Education White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System (2001) set out to create a single education system for all learners within a twenty-year period. The White Paper was launched in July 2001. Four years after the launch, policy developers and implementers have arrived at a realization that there are several challenges and possibilities associated with the implementation of Inclusive Education in South Africa. Whilst there is enough reason to be highly optimistic about the future of inclusive education in South Africa, the caveat is not to underestimate the challenges and complexities of developing a single education system for all learners. This article discusses the challenges by highlighting the following issues: (1) epistemology; (2) entrenched special education theory and practices; (3) curriculum 2005; and (4) ideological and political factors. The author concludes that for inclusive education to take hold in South Africa, the curriculum is the single most important vehicle since it was the traditional curriculum that alienated learners from mainstream classes. If frameworks of thinking are ruptured and alienated learners and other resources provided, an inclusive system is possible in South Africa.

South Africa as a nation became democratic in 1994 because of the end of apartheid. Since 1994, higher education has geared towards transformation and redress of the inequalities created by the inhuman policies of apartheid. While few applaudable steps have been taken towards this direction, South African higher education remains largely untransformed. For the past two years, a wave of student protest swept across the nation, calling for decolonisation of higher education in general and the curriculum in particular. This move brings to mind several questions about decolonisation and transformation. What is the state of South African higher education? Why has it remained untransformed since the advent of democracy? What should be decolonised to ensure transformation of the present and the future? This paper therefore ventures to answer these three questions using the theory of social transformation as a lens. The paper points out that funding structures, research politics, administrative structures and a lack of interest are amongst the reasons for the lack of transformation. The paper concludes that there will be no transformation until higher education institutions have been decolonised. Social transformation is therefore argued as the pathway for decolonisation. The paper recommends that transformation in higher education should go beyond the shelves where they are stored as policy to the classroom and university environment for practice and universities need to revise their understandings of transformation under the guidance of the DHET.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations in principle endorse lifelong learning (LLL) as a useful framework for sustainable development. However, in spite of the rhetoric, only a few member states such as South Africa, Botswana and Namibia have officially endorsed LLL in their educational policies. The sub-region is plagued by social atrocities such as HIV/AIDS, capacity poverty, low quality education, global marginalization, ineffective pedagogical and civil society agencies. The paper argues that since 1994, SADC has transited from being preoccupied with fighting Apartheid to focus on regional development, it experienced structural adjustment policies and is currently playing a critical role in pursuit of African renaissance. The region faces challenges such as centralization of educational planning, lack of a concerted culture of democratic participation, failure to recognize cultural diversity, and poor civil society engagement. The paper contends that LLL would help SADC countries to decentralize educational decision-making, engage communities in democratic discourses, train facilitators to reflective practitioners and engage the civil society in facilitating the attainment of regional sustainable development agenda.

The aim of this paper is to search for possibilities to change the terms and content of conversations on colonial/decolonial human rights education. The content of conversations consists of what we know about human rights. The terms of conversations are the principles, assumptions, and rules of knowing in human rights education. The terms and content are interrelated and continually sustain each other. Decoloniality resists global coloniality of power, ontologies and epistemologies which are consequences of colonisation. It also questions the Eurocentric assumptions and principles which serve as a premise for human rights and human rights education. There is an urgent need to explore pluriversal knowledges of human rights and to problematise the Human of human rights. This is explored through data from Roux's research project "Human rights literacy: quest for meaning." Some thoughts on decolonising human rights education are provided in the conclusion.

The paper addresses the question of what we should make of Michael Young's recent work with respect to curriculum theory by considering the particular case of South African curriculum reform. The paper thus traces two trajectories: the evolution of Michael Young's ideas over time and South African curriculum reform in the post-apartheid period. The paper shows how the two trajectories have run in parallel, not least because of Young's ongoing involvement and interest in South Africa. Three broad periods in Young's career are identified: the new sociology of education period; a middle period where he engaged in substantial policy work, focusing predominantly on the relation between schooling and the economy; and his social realist phase, where much of his work has focused on an educational notion of specialized knowledge: "powerful knowledge". The possibilities and limitations of this notion as it has been taken up in the research literature, and in relation to the South African case, are explored.

We start our paper with a critical exploration of the current 'back to basics' approach in South African foundation phase teacher education with its emphasis on strengthening the teaching of subject knowledge. We claim that such a proposal first demands an answer to the question 'what is foundational in foundation phase teaching?' We propose an answer in three stages. First we argue that teacher education should be concerned not only with schooling or qualification (knowledge, skills and dispositions) and socialisation, but, drawing on Gert Biesta's work, also with subjectification (educating the person towards the ability to make wise educational judgements). Secondly, these three aims of education lead to five core principles, and we finish by showing how these principles inform our storied, thinking and multimodal/semiotic curriculum. Our answer to our leading question is that pedagogical 'know-how' and views of 'child' and 'childhood' constitute the subject knowledge that is foundational in the foundation phase curriculum.

All over the world, individuals rely on forests for food security, nutrition, and the sustenance of their livelihoods. Forests serve as a source of personal and economic consumption, where harvested products are used directly or sold for profit. Consequently, forests play a crucial role in ensuring food security and supporting the livelihoods of people worldwide. In South Africa, natural forests and woodlands hold particular significance for the well-being of rural communities. These ecosystems provide a variety of socio-economic and ecological benefits to communities residing within or near such forested areas. The Dukuduku forest is an integral part of a sensitive ecosystem at both national and continental levels. It is intricately connected to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, contributing to the economic development and natural diversity of South Africa. Thus, discussing one area without considering the other is impossible. This paper relies on a combination of archival sources, including newspapers, research reports, and various written and oral accounts gathered from interviews with land claimants, community leaders, traditional leaders, local farmers, and residents of the area. The central argument posited is that the primary source of conflict in the Dukuduku forest arises from the state's efforts to displace forest residents whose livelihoods have historically depended on the forest. The paper aims to illustrate that the racialization of the destruction of this indigenous forest has not served the interests of either the state or environmentalists. Forest residents have employed diverse strategies to resist evictions, resulting in the substantial destruction of the forest and at least sixty percent of the flood plain along the uMfolozi River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although becoming a more racially-integrated society, the legacy of Apartheid still affects learners' social engagements in and outside their classrooms. Adopting Nussbaum's (2010) capabilities framework for a socially just democracy, this paper examines 27 pre-service teacher education students' perceptions of a digital storytelling project and its potential for recognising and honouring capabilities necessary for engaging empathetically with the "other". Using narrative inquiry, and specifically Bamberg's (2006) "small stories" approach, the research team analysed 30 stories students constructed in four focus group conversations at the end of the project. In these stories, most of Nussbaum's (2010) capabilities were evident. We found that, in the collective sharing of their stories, students positioned themselves as agentive selves, displaying the belief that they can make a difference, not only individually within their own classrooms, but also as a collective of teachers.

The specialty of African politics lies within its historical contents and background. The continent grew from strength to strength to attain its political development stronghold. By doing so over the years, the continent has been reflected in most states' political development stronghold. While in some states, religion and tribal alliances are critical factors in political affiliation, in states such as South Africa and Kenya, democracy and ethnicity have been the leading courses to political development. Democracy and ethnicity have proven to be part of the party identification and evaluation factors and have also become the center point of growth and development in the state's politics. Thus, by focusing on Kenya and South Africa as case studies, the paper adopted a qualitative method of research to understand democracy as well as ethnicity as the bane of these states' political development. Although much has been documented on either state's political development, little is understood about democracy and ethnicity as the bane of their political leadership from 1989 to 2021, which is the complete focus of the paper. The paper relied on qualitative research methodology to collect and analyze the data on democracy and ethnicity as the bane of Kenya and South Africa from 1989 to 2021. Therefore, the study relied on secondary sources such as accredited journal articles, books, and reports to collect and analyze data on the phenomenon at hand. Thus, the paper's main findings suggest that democracy and ethnicity are the strongholds of South Africa and Kenya's political leadership development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New forms of classroom participation, envisioned as contributing to democracy, are advocated by the South African national curriculum. This paper investigates what form participatory science teaching can and should take in South Africa where the legacy of colonialism and apartheid remains and considers this question through the efforts of two pre-service teachers who created new norms and forms of classroom participation. Findings demonstrate that extant and resonant cultural practices hold promise in promoting classroom engagement.

Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is prohibited in South Africa. Against legal gains, however, are marked increases in homophobic violence. Schools are deeply implicated in the development of a moral education premised on democracy and sexual equality. This paper sought to examine the ways in which parents situated within diverse social contexts define, regulate and entrench the right to sexual equality, analyzing their implications for moral education in schools. The data were derived through an interview-based study of 17 parents of learners across five secondary schools in two provinces in the country. Hetero-morality was found to be particularly powerful limiting the rights of gays and lesbians. The social and cultural processes through which hetero-morality is upheld reproduce negative outcomes for gays and lesbians. Despite this, the paper finds that parents are capable of engendering support for sexual justice and building alliances with schools to promote a new version of morality. The paper presents further warrant for working with parents in the development of moral education premised upon sexual rights.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to provide analysis and insight which addresses the over-determined discrimination of so-called coloured and black South African women, not just on the basis of gender but racial hierarchies still prevalent as well in the rainbow nation. Design/methodology/approach: The observations grapple with reconciling the political rhetoric of equality based on the new constitution and new legislation with the realpolitik of race and gender relations as they affect the lives of women. The complexity of negotiating the values and problems inherited from apartheid while infusing new faith in democracy is reflected in the paper on gender and empowerment. Findings: The paper does not simply present women as victims of apartheid legacy, but discloses the skewed social and cultural circumstances reproducing the cycle of their impoverishment. To counter the narratives of struggle and to balance the research and findings successful interventions by NGOs, CBOs and grassroots organizations are illustrated. Originality/value: The paper provides the insights of how gender-conscious organizations act as part and parcel of the overall democratisation process of South African society. Furthermore, it highlights the role of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) in gender and empowerment activities.

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 paper argues the importance in and for a democratic state and society of discussing controversial issues in education. In particular it analyses two national educational contexts, that of England and South Africa. It considers both whether they provide a suitable framework for teaching controversial issues in school classrooms and if they prepare teachers to be able to organise discussions of controversial issues in schools. The paper then examines interview data on teaching controversial issues with university tutors and student teachers in four universities, two in England and two in South Africa. The data suggest that there are still serious obstacles in both countries to teaching controversial issues in schools and in preparing teacher education students to teach about controversial issues.

University governance remains a controversial issue in South African higher education as it was during the Apartheid era. Neave (1998) in Harry de Boer and Leo Goedegebuure (2001, 163) rightly say that "governance within higher education is a most complicated and challenging issue. Of all issues currently under discussion, few are more controversial than those pertaining to the institutions of governance". This article examines the extent to which governance of the University of Limpopo is democratic, pursuant to a foray of policy papers and legislation on the transformation of higher education. In other words, "To what extent has the governance of the University of Limpopo transformed towards democratic practices since South Africa became a democratic country? If not, what are the constraints?" I argue that the University governance has not been sufficiently transformed if by transformation we mean a procedure in which collective decisions are arrived at through reasoned deliberations.

This paper examines the relationship between the South African knowledge enterprise and citizenship in terms of the ontologies it authorises. It is especially interested in how education comes to be used in particular settings to privilege particular ways of being. In relation to this it asks what notions of the subject and his or her relation to the social and the natural world inhabit the organisation of the school and its curriculum and how these notions have settled on the learning landscape. These questions are critical in understanding the emergent conceptions of citizenship and national identity in the country, especially in light of its complex attempts to work with its multiple pasts and its determination to enter the global world on its own terms as opposed to those of the dominant economies of the world. They are crucial as South Africans make a commitment to both Africanism and globalisation. The paper begins with a brief discussion on the promise of modern education and its commitment to democracy and democratic citizenship. It argues, however, that this commitment to inclusiveness is undone as education systems around the world emerge and are developed on the premise of a universalism informed by the experience and example of Europe and its presumptive cultural legacy. How this process works in the South African context constitutes the substance of the paper. (Contains 2 notes.)

This paper examines the translation of global educational norms of quality assurance in two countries with very different regulatory regimes in higher education: Chile and South Africa. The translation process is conceptualised here as a contested socio-political process of appropriation and creation of meaning. Drawing upon the strategic-relational concept of selectivity, the paper argues that quality assurance policies have become a hegemonic tool for re-organising higher education because a variety of--partly contradictory--meanings and interests can be attached to them: quality assurance is linked to rationales such as democratic transformation, re-establishing public governance, strengthening market governance, contributing to national competitiveness, internationalisation of higher education or positioning universities in the (global) education market. Looking at the translation of quality assurance policies with the concept of selectivity enables us to see how structure, agency, discourses and scales operate strategically-selectively in creating compromises between different interests in higher education governance. (Contains 9 notes.)

This paper examines the relationship between political change and epistemologies and methodologies employed at doctorate level. It does so by analysing the range of topics, questions and methodologies used by doctoral students at the University of Pretoria's Faculty of Education between 1985 and 2005--a time-frame that covers the decade before and the decade after South Africa's historical transition to democracy in 1994. During this period the composition of doctoral students at that faculty changed from being largely white and male to a more diverse population in terms of gender and race. A crucial shift took place after 2000 with the arrival of a Black dean who sought to introduce a transformational shift. The paper makes use of Karmon's notion of epistemic environment, which refers to the way knowledge is conceptualised at institutional level. The data shows how the authoritarian and regulated epistemic environment that shaped the conception of knowledge at the faculty until 2000 created doctoral dissertations that aimed to correct and guide the society but lacked critical discourse and relevance to South Africa's political, social and educational context. While the transition to democracy in 1994 produced merely semantic changes, if any, the strong internal initiative to change the research culture from 2000 onwards has managed to shift basic notions of truth and knowledge and the understanding of the role and nature of research. This movement was, however, constrained by the institution's long-established epistemic environment.

This paper reports on an initiative to introduce, not the Philosophy for Children (P4C) programme itself, but its principles and some of its practices, into South African schools. The paper points out the conceptual links between P4C and the understanding of human development that underpins the new South African curriculum, and provides a brief review of the current context of education in South Africa. Thereafter it explains briefly why it was necessary to create new materials rather than simply using the original P4C stories and manuals. This is followed by a description of the new materials together with some illustrative extracts. Finally the paper gives an account of efforts to obtain empirical evidence regarding the impact of the materials and indicates possible future developments. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper critically examines one particular issue against the background of changes in South Africa's higher education system consequent upon the advent of a non-racial democracy--the possibility of implementing multilingual instructional polices that include indigenous African languages in its universities. Currently, a great deal of applied linguistic work is being carried out on the creation of word lists and dictionaries, via translation and term creation. This paper concurs that this is a necessary step in language adaptation for the task envisaged. It uses Saussurian semantics to show that translation and/or creation of terms is not a relatively transparent activity. An examination of Saussure's notion of "semantic value" leads to a post-structuralist concern with use and function. This orientation to language is considered further in light of the discourse-oriented work of M.A.K. Halliday and J.R. Martin on the language of science in "Writing Science, Literacy and Discursive Power," published by Falmer Press in 1993. Such discourse unfolds within a community of practice. The practices required for a translated science involve semiotic inculcation, and can be compared to the efforts of 19th-century Christian missionaries who worked on expanding Xhosa for religious purposes. These efforts show the complexities of developing Xhosa as a possible language of science, which any language planner will have to face. (Contains 10 notes.)

The essential argument made in this paper is that contact in the South African school is structured around fundamentally asymmetric relations of "knowing" between groups. Three distinct periods are delineated, the first of which (1976-1990) contained the most substantial ideas and contributions to debates and actual steps taken with respect to social difference. The subsequent two periods (1990-1994 and 1994-present) failed to draw on the experience acquired during the first period. The impact of these developments has been to draw politically and culturally weaker groups into the world of the dominant, but in a consistently subordinate position. Significantly, however, distinct repertoires of "knowing," shaped by the political and social conjuncture, developed at different times. The discussion draws attention to problems with the appropriation of hegemonic forms of multiculturalism--assimilation--for explaining how contact and "knowing" are managed in the South African school.