TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND RESILIENCE: FRAMEWORKS FOR PROMOTING SOCIAL JUSTICE IN TIMES OF DISRUPTION IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION.

Promoting social justice has been at the centre of higher education in South Africa since democracy. However, social justice for all remains an issue despite redress policies. This conceptual paper focuses on exploring plausible means for ensuring social justice in higher education. Teacher professional development and resilience are highlighted and discussed in this paper as frameworks that can help in promoting social justice especially in times of disruptions. The paper argues that there is need to rethink teacher professional development and resilience now and, in the future, given how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the usual ways of operating within education sectors and higher education in particular. Remote teaching and learning was introduced to avoid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is mostly done online and is underpinned by a specific set of pedagogical principles and assessment practices, most of which are alien to staff and students in the majority of universities in South Africa. This widened the gap between and among students and universities, with universities finding that their staff need to be equipped to promote student success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]