This research paper explored pedagogical leadership and its implementation by Departmental Heads (DHs) regarding the supervision and support of Reception year (Grade R) teachers in the Gauteng North District public schools, South Africa. Three objectives were framed for this study which applied the Atlas Ti software to analyse qualitative data.…

South Africa's largest electricity producer has embarked on mega investments to build new power stations. This paper reports on the risk management maturity level, and risk management processes. The research adopted the survey research method and self-administrated questions to collect primary data. The investigation targeted the total population…

The paper scrutinises the dynamics and the nature of peer review in the programme evaluation and accreditation process within the context of diverse individual and institutional legacies in South Africa. It analyses the peer review process and highlights the contestation at political, policy and epistemological levels. The paper argues that,…

This paper attempts a brief meta-reflection on quality assurance policy and practice in South African higher education, with a focus on methodology. More specifically it seeks to answer the question "What are the effects of the Higher Education Quality Committee's (HEQC) quality assurance technologies on institutional practice and how could…

This paper examines experiences with "skills development" in South Africa to contribute to broader debates about "skills" and the relationships between vocational education and development. Numerous policy interventions and the creation of new institutions and systems for skills development in South Africa are widely seen as…

Wenger (2000, 229) describes communities of practice as the "basic building blocks of a social learning system" since they are the "social containers" that make up such a system. By practising in academic communities, academics define with one another what constitutes academic competence and, for that matter, what constitutes…

This article examines notions of quality and quality assurance in higher education. It does this by raising questions such as whether quality in higher education is the same as, for example, quality of clothing or the quality of meat in local butcheries. The article questions the assumption that if certain things, such as criteria or…

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…

This paper speculates on the possible contribution of the quality movement to higher education and the perceived dividends received from this, in general, over the past two decades but also, more specifically, with reference to the author's institution in South Africa. The first major quality contribution is a gradual broadening of higher…

This paper tracks the development of the Integrated Quality Management System in South African schools after the dismantling of apartheid in 1994. We argue that the quality processes that are now in place emerged in response to the autocratic school inspection systems that preceded them but did not sufficiently address the impact of educators'…

Quality assurance in higher education has a bearing on the policies, systems and processes directed at ensuring the quality of education provision in an institution (HEQC 1996, 14). To ensure a striving for excellence in academic programmes in a Faculty, to determine the extent to which this striving is achieved and to promote development and…

Since 1994, the South African higher education system, fragmented and divided along racial lines during the years of apartheid, has been subject to a wide range of initiatives directed at bringing about the "transformation" necessary for a more equitable dispensation and, ultimately, a new social order. One of the "levers"…

This article presents the findings of exploratory research on the relationship of external quality assurance (EQA) systems and equity policies conducted at the UNESCO Institute for Educational Planning. Authors from Australia, Brazil, India and South Africa were invited to discuss this relationship in the context of their respective higher…

South Africa's external quality assurance agency, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC), commenced its first cycle of institutional audits in 2004. During 2005, three public higher education institutions were audited, namely the University of Cape Town, the University of Stellenbosch and Rhodes University. The process of preparing for and…

This article looks at the way in which people perceive learning and the impact of these perceptions on teaching methods within the context of learning development in distance education. The context could, in fact, be any type of teaching and learning environment. The point is to balance approaches to teaching and learning depending on student…