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Utilising a qualitative case study, we set out to investigate how learners at Hope Saturday School evoked the principles of ubuntu/humanity as they collaborated during project-based learning. The article is part of a broader study in which a mix of semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, observations, document analysis and field notes were used to capture data. The learner participants were Black, and almost all of them resided in informal settlements, townships, and farming communities. Data were analysed using content analysis. The philosophy of ubuntu was used to underpin this study. The finding of this study shows that values like interdependence, sharing, caring, teamwork, solidarity, unity and helping one another were evoked as learners collaborated in project-based learning. The article concludes that a supportive environment that aids the development of ubuntu values can improve learning experiences of underperforming learners.

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.

Utilising the theoretical frameworks of theory of power and theory of performativity, this case study explored how learners exercised agency in the construction of their identity in school discourses. Data capture incorporated a mix of a survey, semi-structured interviews and field notes. Data was analysed using content analysis. A total of 90 learners participated in the survey. Fifteen learners, three teachers and three principals participated in semi-structured interviews. This paper reports on findings from the semi-structured interviews. Findings were twofold. First, schools used Foucault's mechanisms and instruments of constructing learner identity. Learners were subjected to a constant gaze at schools. Second, learners became agentic in schools and asserted their own identities. Some of these identities clashed with the identity of the 'ideal learner' of schools. Despite established subject positions in schools, learners created their own subject positions to counter limiting and constraining identities that were imposed by the school.

This article explores South African academics' responses to the call for decolonisation of education through a qualitative case study using social constructivism and narrative inquiry. The data included a mix of qualitative survey responses and semi-structured interviews, analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings were threefold; first, academics should "turn away" from the "lip service model" of decolonisation of education and "turn towards" deep and lasting change. Second, academics should "turn away" from challenges and "turn towards" opportunities offered by decolonisation of education. Third, academics should "turn towards" becoming transformative intellectuals and agents of change if they want to "turn the tide." Knowledge in the blood may not be "easily changed," but the disruption of the authority of received knowledge is possible through the transfusion of new knowledge. The findings suggest that universities should develop professional development courses that are focussed on how to effectively decolonise education.

This article presents an account of how contested spaces: shared places have played out in the South African education context by tracing how the historical, political, social and educational contexts of South Africa created and determined shared places. The article draws on findings from a range of research projects that I conducted over the past 15 years and that utilised the meta-theoretical framework of social constructivism and the methodological framework of qualitative case studies, narrative inquiry and portraiture. Findings from this collection of research studies reveal that the creation and evolution of shared spaces though activated by political, social and educational policy intent that was good and at times exceptional, 'knowledge in the blood' coupled with a passion for power witnessed policy in action transform these shared spaces into largely contested spaces. Intriguingly, within these spaces sparks of 'goodness' emerged that hold promise for a brighter future.

This paper peers through the window to look at how a teacher brings about meaningful educational change in a diverse classroom. Utilizing three sets of arguments from the field of educational change, I traced educational change within a teacher during the course of an academic year. Data capture comprised a mix of semi-structured interviews and observations. Findings were multi-fold: First, the teacher's professed beliefs cohered well with her practices and played a significant role in how she responded to diversity in the classroom. Second, if change attempts are to be successful, individuals must find meaning concerning what should change as well as how to go about it. In the South African context there is much literature on what should change, but there is very little on what strategies and programmes can be implemented to effect change in teachers' beliefs about diversity. The educational literature underscores the centrality of the personal domain of the teacher in sustaining educational change. This paper illustrates that the concept of identity is a social, historical, and generational construct that is fluid and susceptible to change. It shows how change can be sustained in the personal domain of the teacher and illustrates that teaching is ultimately a class act of human compassion.

Using the theoretical framework of pedagogy of compassion and single embedded case study methodology, this article explores how a teacher negotiates the contours of migration and social transformation to promote education for global citizenship. The research site was a former white school in South Africa. The research sample was a female Indian teacher and Grade 7 students. Data collection comprised a mix of semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, observations, and field notes, and occurred over a period of three weeks in 2018. Data were analyzed by means of the content analysis method. Findings reveal that the teacher anticipated and fulfilled requirements not only to raise the critical consciousness of students but also to espouse an "epistemology of compassion" and implement a "pedagogy of compassion."

This paper sets out to explore how academics can become agents of meaningful educational change and social cohesion, by implementing a Pedagogy of Compassion. The education triad comprises the teacher, the learner and the content (curriculum), which unfolds within historical, political, social and educational contexts. Changing one aspect of this triad -- the curriculum- without due consideration to the others, will not effect the desired change. In the context of the university, the demographics of the learner has radically changed and a massive drive to decolonise the curriculum has been initiated, but little if any attention has been given to academics who deliver the curriculum. I argue that the Achilles' heel in the decolonisation of the curriculum project of South African universities is the academic.

This study set out to explore how Black immigrant academics (BIAs) reconstruct their identities within academe. Utilising the research methodology of narrative inquiry, this article explores how BIAs came to see themselves across those communities, which were of primary importance to them in the reformation of their identities. Through the construction of narratives of experience, their lived and told stories emphasised the diversity of their identities that were negotiated with others within personal, historical and situational contexts. The study of BIAs' lives from their perspective, in which they actively and socially develop their identities, not only provides a lens through which they can be understood as shifting constructions of identity but allows them to rethink who they are and have become and what influence power relations have in promoting or negating their sense of academic self.

The purpose of this study was to explore difficulties and challenges that confront African immigrant teachers as they attempt to reconstruct their professional identities in South African schools. The study was qualitative in nature and utilized narrative inquiry and the case study approach. Data-gathering techniques included a mix of semi-structured interviews, observations, focus group interviews, field notes and researcher journals. Data were analysed using grounded theory and content analysis methods. Findings of the study revealed that immigration status, employment status, attitudes of indigenous learners and holding on to former culture or way of knowing due to lack of induction or mentoring, were impediments to the successful reconstruction of African immigrant teachers' professional identities in South African schools.

Recognizing that teacher commitments are consequential for classroom practice, this study sets out to determine the extent to which the ethos of South African schools has been transformed towards integration in the truest sense. Findings emanating from this research indicate that teachers do not enter their classrooms as "blank slates" with respect to diversity questions; teachers respond differently to the challenge of school integration; and a few teachers went against the grain and responded to school integration in a way that holds immense promise for the South African schooling system.

The changes in post-apartheid South Africa have been accompanied by considerable changes in the education system. The most notable include desegregation of schools, development of a National Qualifications Framework, adoption of new language policies for education, and introduction of outcomes-based curricula. However entrenched assessment practices appear to be hampering the efforts to transform school education. An analysis of the assessment practices of three Grade 4 educators in multilingual classrooms revealed that the educators were unable or unwilling to adapt their assessment practices to the changing demands of South African school education.

This qualitative case study set out to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the educational practice of academics, using this moment as a new perspective to illuminate broader, enduring issues such as how will approaches to university education that have emerged in response to the pandemic lead to lasting changes? What is the likely impact of these changes on the dominant forms of university education that we will see in the future? Findings reveal a transition from panicgogy to the pedagogy of compassion. There appeared to be a shift to an interest in human suffering and social justice. An ethic of care and pedagogy of compassion seemed to foreground the practice of many academics, which moved education beyond the curriculum and educational strategies to cultivate social capital and equal life chances for all. These insights hold valuable implications for changes in the dominant forms of university education in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out to advance the concept of an "epistemology of compassion" first proposed by Vandeyar (2013; 2016). Utilising a single embedded case study and the theoretical mooring of post-conflict pedagogy this paper attempts to find links between Jansen's perceptions of a post-conflict pedagogy and Freirean pedagogy and to argue a case for a "pedagogy of compassion" as a possible approach to addressing and transforming education in post-apartheid South Africa. Data capture comprised a mix of semi-structured interviews, observations and field notes. Data was analysed by means of the content analysis method. Findings were threefold. First, the implementation of a "pedagogy of compassion" enabled the teacher to dismantle polarised thinking and to shatter the polite silence of post-apartheid South African society. Second, teachers not only need to be able to raise the critical consciousness of learners but they need to adopt an "epistemology of compassion" in order to enable learners to become active critical citizens, imbued with a sense of common humanity and compassion. And third, becoming an agent of transformative change may challenge the very premise of teachers' identities and practices, but by empowering the learner to exert influence on her world, the teacher is in turn also changed and empowered.

Much research is available that details student experiences of immigration and adaptation to receiving countries and schools, but few studies analyze the metaphors used by immigrant students (IS) when talking about the immigration experience, or offer a comparative lens through which to view identity negotiation in two very different contexts. The present paper aims to address these gaps by conducting a comparative linguistic analysis of 20 interviews conducted with IS at universities in South Africa and the United States in order to gain a greater understanding of immigration and the types of identity negotiation processes learners undergo in these very different countries. Findings reveal interesting similarities between metaphorical conceptions of immigration across different cultural contexts and a remarkable resilience in the use of adaptation strategies and identity development that leads to salient pedagogical implications for teachers of higher education who face increasingly international classrooms.

The easing of legal and unauthorized entry to South Africa has made the country a new destination for Black immigrants. As this population continues to grow, its children have begun to experience South African schools in an array of uniquely challenging ways. For these immigrant youth, forging a sense of identity may be their single greatest challenge. There is however, very little research on the ways in which immigrant student identities are framed, challenged, asserted and negotiated in South African schools. Accordingly, this study asks how do immigrant students speak about their identifications in light of their negotiation of the school and social spaces in South Africa. Utilising the theoretical frameworks of understanding immigrant identities and identity pathways, this research study attempts to understand the unique experiences of Black immigrant youth inside South African schools. Findings were multi-fold in nature. First, although immigrant students' ease of assimilation into the chosen reference group was to some degree sanctioned by their phenotypic racial features, their attempt at "psychosocial passing" was politically motivated. Second, immigrant students did not readily classify according to skin pigmentocracy. Third, the majority of immigrant students heightened their ethnic self-awareness in forming their identity, but also assumed hyphenated identities. Fourth, immigrant students were not seen as having an identity, but rather as being "plugged into a category with associated characteristics or features". Fifth immigrant students forged a "continental identity". And sixth, the self-agency of immigrant students was twofold in nature; not only did they want to improve their own condition, but there seemed to be an inherent drive to improve the human condition of others.

Official policy in post-apartheid education is aimed at redressing linguistic inequity in schooling by promoting the 11 official languages of South Africa through mother tongue instruction. However, since the life chances of children are inextricably linked to the language of power, many parents believe that their children would benefit from instruction in English. Consequently, there has been an ever-increasing demand for English to be the language of instruction in schools. Utilising case studies of Grade 4 pupils at three desegregated schools, this research sought to determine whether Grade 4 learners, whose mother tongue is not English, would be able to express their conceptual mathematical understanding better when tested in English or in their mother tongue. The major finding was that although many non-first-language English speaking Grade 4 learners are challenged by having to acquire abstract subject knowledge through a non-mother tongue medium, they face an even greater challenge when tested in their mother tongue. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

The advent of democracy and the easing of both legal and unauthorised entry to South Africa have made the country a new destination for Black asylum-seekers, long-distance traders, entrepreneurs, students and professionals. As this population continues to grow, its children have begun to experience South African schools in an array of uniquely challenging ways. In addition to opening their doors to all South African children irrespective of race, colour or creed, most public schools in South Africa have also opened their doors to a number of Black immigrant children. There is, however, very little research on the socio-cultural experiences of Black immigrant students within the "dominant institutional cultures" of schools. Accordingly, this study asks what are the educational and socio-cultural experiences of Black immigrant students in South African schools? To what extent has the ethos of these schools been transformed towards integration in the truest sense and how do Black immigrant students perceive this in practice? Utilising the theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory this research study attempts to understand the unique educational and socio-cultural experiences of Black immigrant youth in South African schools.

This is an exploratory study on the nature and extent of racial integration in South African schools in the post-apartheid period. While there is vigilant media attention to occasional, dramatic incidents of racial conflict in white schools, there is very little research on the ways in which student identities are framed, challenged, asserted and negotiated within the dominant institutional cultures of former white schools. The research findings suggest that student identities are shaped and framed within stable institutional cultures that remain impervious to change despite the changing demographics of the student body; but that even under these conditions student identities are constantly being questioned and recast as black and white students begin to engage each other in the daily routines of institutional life.

This study explored the state of desegregation and integration in South African schools 11 years after the demise of Apartheid. Three classrooms in three desegregating schools with different histories and race profiles were visited. Overall, each classroom was visited on 10 occasions over a period of 2 weeks. Direct observation was the main data gathering technique. The main findings were that desegregation as assimilation is occurring in these schools, but institutionalized racism is still pervasive. Manifestations of this at the classroom level include negative stereotyping of Black students, selective empathy, discriminatory seating arrangements, devolution of authority to students on racial basis, and aversion to African languages. The study concludes that the Constitution of South Africa is being given the most minimalist interpretation where racial desegregation is concerned. It concludes further that for system change to occur at school level, a radical shift from thinking about desegregation to contemplating substantive integration must be undertaken. Only in this way is it possible to introduce anti-racism as a transformative device into schools.

Based on life history accounts of two elementary school teachers in South Africa, this article examines the construction of two teachers' mathematics identities. In the article we juxtapose these identities with the identity forms that are envisaged by the policymakers and the mathematics reforms currently underway in the country. Using the data on contradictions between the reformer's visions and the teachers' accounts of their lived experiences and identities, we construct an account of why the goals of reforming mathematics in primary school classrooms in South Africa continue to elude even this latest set of reform proposals. We conclude by exploring some possibilities for bridging the divide in order to transform mathematics teaching and learning in the South African classrooms and elsewhere.

Recent educational reforms in South Africa have been framed by an outcomes-based education (OBE) policy. One of the assumptions underlying this nationally directed educational reform process is that teachers will be both willing and able to adapt their teaching and assessment practices accordingly. Yet, there is considerable evidence to suggest that this is not so (Harley & Wedekind, 2004; Jansen, 2001; Jita, 2002; Sieborger & Nakabugo, 2001; Vandeyar & Killen, 2004a). The change in educational policy has set new and more challenging demands on teachers, which are often in conflict with their beliefs and value systems. These conflicting demands are twofold in nature: a change in assessment policy and a change in learner target population. To explore this issue, this article examines data from a larger study that set out to investigate teacher assessment practices in multilingual classrooms in South African primary schools. This article is about the process of policy appropriation or misappropriation by agents mediating between policy and its actual practice on the classroom floor. In this case, the policy in question is OBE-related assessment policy. The mediators between policy and practice in the classroom are teachers. Using a conceptual framework that advocates an approach to educational changes that Proudford (1998) terms as emancipatory (p. 139), this article attempts to describe how teachers cope with conflicting demands on their assessment practices. The emancipatory approach is conceptualized in terms of three key dimensions: professional confidence, professional interpretation, and professional consciousness (Proudford). The findings of this study are twofold. First, teachers mediate the external pressures upon them through the filter of their own professional identities. Second, the process of assessment is not merely technical, but it is not merely social and personal either; it is both.

1. Introduction Educational reforms in South Africa have been framed by legislative policies that promote democracy and human rights. The South African Schools Act (Act No 37 of 1997) catalysed [...]

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 selfidentifications 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]