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Boys have been found to be the main perpetrators of violence and bullying in schools, putting a spotlight on masculinities. However, boys are not always active producers of violence. This article examines ways in which primary school boys who denounce violence explain their participation in it. It draws attention to how dominant gender and heterosexual ideologies impact the lives of boys at school. The data draws from a larger qualitative study which focuses on the experiences of school violence amongst boys in a primary school in KwaZulu Natal. The sample comprised fifteen grade seven boys. The primary method of data production was semi-structured individual interviews. The findings show that although the boys in the study condemned school violence, many could not escape being part of it. As boys, they felt compelled to protect and defend themselves, their families, girls and their friends. In their efforts to resist and mediate violence, they often resorted to violent methods in their masculine constructions. This article argues that it is necessary to focus on boys’ perspectives and shift the focus on violence from problematic individual behaviour to complex social and cultural contexts within which they navigate the everyday world of school. Towards this end, the conflicting implicit and explicit demands on boys sustained through social and institutional structures must be reworked.

One of the key features of post-apartheid South Africa has been an ongoing debate around access to quality education. Educational policy experts have decried what they have often termed a “dysfunctional” schooling system that fails to prepare students adequately for independent thinking and future life prospects. Prominent amongst the circulating debates have been important, yet peripheral issues such as resources, curriculum change and general inequality, forgetting the very real and systematic ways in which racial ideological thinking came to drive education in South Africa during apartheid.

One of the key features of post-apartheid South Africa has been an ongoing debate around access to quality education. Educational policy experts have decried what they have often termed a “dysfunctional” schooling system that fails to prepare students adequately for independent thinking and future life prospects. Prominent amongst the circulating debates have been important, yet peripheral issues such as resources, curriculum change and general inequality, forgetting the very real and systematic ways in which racial ideological thinking came to drive education in South Africa during apartheid.

School-based violence is serious, and on the rise in South African schools. The violence affects learners, teachers, communities and the management of schools. Towards finding possible ways to manage school violence, this article presents social networking as a strategic tool in the management of school-based violence in high schools, based on the results of a study carried out in the uMgungundlovu district of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative approach as a result of the interpretative nature of the causes of school-based violence in high schools. The sample of the study was made up of 18 participants and in-depth interviews were the main data collection instruments in the study. Content analysis using NVivo was employed in analysing data collected in the study. The study revealed how school managers employ social networking as information gathering tool and as a support mechanism in the management of school-based violence in high schools. The information gathered by school managers through social networking enable them develop intervention strategies in high schools that reduce school-based violence and create school climates that promote teaching and learning.

Participatory educational research is generally characterised by a commitment to making a difference in the lives of those who participate in the research and more broadly, to promoting social transformation. This suggests a potentially fruitful synergy between participatory educational research and the multidisciplinary body of academic work on generativity as a human capacity that has at its core a desire to contribute to the well-being of others. As a research team of teacher educators from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, we seek to add an alternative dimension to current debates on participatory educational research by focusing on understanding the 'how' and 'what' of generativity in a participatory research process. The research question we address is: How does/can engagement in participatory educational research facilitate generativity? While participatory research literature often concentrates on collaboration between researchers and 'researched' communities, we are taking a reflexive stance by exploring our own participation in our dual roles as university community members and as researchers studying our colleagues' experiences in relation to integration of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) & Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)-related issues in university curricula. We describe how our use of the visual method of storyboarding facilitated insight into generativity in participatory educational research. Building on an earlier concept of generativity, we identify and discuss significant generativefeatures ofparticipation, playfulness, passion, and perspicacity in our research process.

As an interdisciplinary team of educational researchers we explored pre-service science teachers’ perspectives on using digital technologies and social media to address socially relevant issues in science teaching. The rationale for teaching socially relevant science was embedded in the concept of renaiscience, thus underscoring the need for science to be perceived as a human activity. We drew on generational theory to consider the educational significance of digital technologies and social media. Two different activities were used to elicit the pre-service science teachers’ perspectives. First, we invited them to reflect on a digital animation that we had produced, and they highlighted the advantages of digital animation as a medium to communicate a socially relevant message more appealingly to the Millennial generation. We then engaged these pre-service teachers in a structured concept-mapping activity to consider how digital technologies and social media might be used to address social challenges in South Africa. They drew our attention to the affordances of digital technologies and social media as a means to facilitate critical thinking, cater for diverse learning styles, and make high-quality scientific knowledge more accessible. They highlighted that teaching socially relevant science using digital resources can be cheap, convenient, collaborative, and creative.

As an interdisciplinary team of educational researchers we explored pre-service science teachers’ perspectives on using digital technologies and social media to address socially relevant issues in science teaching. The rationale for teaching socially relevant science was embedded in the concept of renaiscience, thus underscoring the need for science to be perceived as a human activity. We drew on generational theory to consider the educational significance of digital technologies and social media. Two different activities were used to elicit the pre-service science teachers’ perspectives. First, we invited them to reflect on a digital animation that we had produced, and they highlighted the advantages of digital animation as a medium to communicate a socially relevant message more appealingly to the Millennial generation. We then engaged these pre-service teachers in a structured concept-mapping activity to consider how digital technologies and social media might be used to address social challenges in South Africa. They drew our attention to the affordances of digital technologies and social media as a means to facilitate critical thinking, cater for diverse learning styles, and make high-quality scientific knowledge more accessible. They highlighted that teaching socially relevant science using digital resources can be cheap, convenient, collaborative, and creative.