Recognising that many workers worldwide often face poverty and exploitation, the International Labour Organisation aims to promote decent and productive work opportunities for all. We conducted a scoping review to get an overall view of current academic literature on decent work and precarious work for samples of blue-collar workers. The studies…

The focus of this research is educators' relational experiences with learners presumed to have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in a South African school community. Although relational interaction (usually seen as trusting and caring) is an integral aspect of the learning environment, relational functioning within this context is seriously…

While literature on the interplay between educational leadership and context abounds, the attention granted to the experiences of female principals has, to a large extent, treated the construction of women as a homogeneous entity. Consequently, very little, certainly within the South African context, is known about how women in leadership…

The education and professional development of pre-service mathematics teachers occur across different contexts. Key contexts of mathematics learning and learning to teach are school, university undergraduate mathematics and mathematics teaching-related learning in teacher education courses. International literature suggests that each of these…

Evaluating the quality of students' support services in distance education institutions is vital because by nature Open Distance Learning (ODL) is a high-involvement service industry, with multiple student support service encounters. Most quality evaluation models tend to view quality from the institutional perspective. As a result, little is…

In this study, black South African first-generation students' experiences related to identity development during their first year at a higher education institution were explored. Chickering and Reisser's [1993. "Education and Identity." 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass] seven-vector identity development theory served as overarching…

The qualitative research discussed in this article is based on the assumption that school principals as leaders need to establish, develop and maintain a core of shared values in their schools. Our focus is on principals' current perceptions of values in their schools. This is important because values underpin their decisions and actions and thus…

This article argues that imaginative play can fulfil a valuable role in the development of reading among pre-school children. It uses Feuerstein's Mediated Learning Experience as a theoretical lens and defines the concepts related to imaginative play, focussing particularly on symbolic and dramatic play. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of…

The purpose of this research was to explore how two rural primary teachers used technology to enhance their pedagogical and content knowledge of Geography in their everyday teaching and learning. Hence the theory of Koehler and Mishra's Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framed this research. Although the Intermediate Phase…

This article focuses on how male and female primary school teachers' account of the suitability of male teachers in early years or Foundation Phase (FP) of schooling. We draw from an in-depth qualitative interview-based study to examine how ideals around hegemonic masculinity have effects for the characterization of FP within traditional feminine…

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…

Background: There is a growing focus in South Africa on teachers developing appropriate knowledge, skills and dispositions for teaching to support young learners' development and learning. One such teacher development programme is the Advanced Certificate in Teaching for Foundation Phase teachers, offered by the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).…

This paper focuses on the ways in which five- to seven-year-old primary school children in a Black/African township in South Africa construct and experience 'free play' in the classroom. Findings highlight the gendered manner in which play is constructed and constantly policed by these young children during 'free play'. By foregrounding the young…

The purpose of this research was to determine participants' perceptions of the positive influence of the natural environment on their well-being. Through a qualitative study, semistructured interviews were held with selected participants who enjoy activities in the natural environment. From the data analysis, particular themes emerged, namely the…

In this multi-case qualitative study the degree to which school-based decision-making (SBDM) is understood and conceptualised by the members of school governing bodies (SGBs)--educators, chairpersons of SGBs, principals, and learner representative councils-as well the extent to which decisions were shared among the various groups represented on…