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The purpose of this paper is to conceptually explore and examine teaching in higher education during and post COVID-19 era. This paper uses literature-based approach which considers a narrative review of literature as its main approach in exploring and examining data related to online teaching and learning in higher education. There has been various challenges and criticisms about online teaching ever since lockdown regulations instigated by COVID-19 in South Africa. Online teaching and learning has been criticized for their lack of quality assurance in higher education. Although there are claims, hiccups and criticisms of the quality assurance and credibility of online teaching and learning, accessing education is inevitable irrespective of the challenges encountered. Accessing education is important and goes beyond or post COVID-19 pandemic whereby distance learning should be endorsed in higher institutions. The paper argues that the usage of online platforms during COVID-19 pandemic became a panacea for the students who were remote from physical institutions of higher learning to access higher education. Therefore, the paper submits that while COVID-19 would have its aftermath in higher education institutions, there are lessons and prospects that could be drawn from the challenges. The paper recommends the re-thinking strategies that could possibly be employed to enhance students' learning and engagement thereof. Among those strategies, is a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that encapsulate the blended method of pedagogy and Open Distance Learning (ODL) that may be effective in teaching and learning in the current circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic on society raised the question of how best to gauge society's psychological adaptation to continually evolving global disruptor events, such as Covid-19. This paper aims to illustrate the use of different approaches to monitor society's psychological response to Covid-19, in order to argue for a more comprehensive, multi-model, approach. The results from different approaches are presented in two studies employing measures of mental disorders and mental distress, respectively, using South African samples for demonstration. The first study presents findings from repeat administration of measures of common mental disorders (major depressive and generalized anxiety disorders) across three consecutive years, while the second study presents findings from mood response profiles (measured with the Brunel Mood Scale) collected across five time points during the Covid-19 pandemic. Both studies showed that the Covid-19 pandemic was temporally associated with adverse mental health outcomes across the mental health continuum, and that mental health profiles were associated with both time since onset of Covid-19 and subsequent wave occurrence. Elevated prevalence of common mental disorders, as well as fluctuating patterns of mood response profiles, are discussed against the context of Covid-19. The paper concludes that a multi-modal approach, for instance measuring specific mental disorders as well as more general mental distress, is crucial to comprehensively understand society's psychological adaptation to major disruptor events, and guide health sector responses. The paper serves as a reminder to continue to observe mental health more inclusively to appropriately respond to the psychological needs of communities. Plain Language Summary: Measuring mental health across Covid-19 waves The impact of Covid-19 on mental health raised the question of how can we best measure how society adapts, psychologically, to major events that disrupt life. This article looked at two specific ways to measure and monitor society's psychological response to Covid-19. The first study looked at the prevalence of mental disorders, and the second looked at levels of mental distress. Both studies used South African samples to demonstrate this. The first study presented data from a repeat administration of scales that identify depressive and anxiety disorders, completed across three consecutive years. The second study presented findings from mood response profiles (measured with the Brunel Mood Scale) collected across five time points during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results showed that the pandemic was associated with adverse mental health outcomes—across the mental health continuum—and that mental health profiles were associated with both time since the start of Covid-19 and fluctuated with the subsequent waves across the pandemic time-line. This article demonstrated the importance of using a multi-modal approach to fully understand society's psychological response to major life disruptions. It also acted as reminder to monitor mental health continuously to be able to respond to the psychological needs of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing centres have had to adapt to many challenges, including the move to online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. In South Africa this move was complexified by differential access to digital environments and contextual issues such as lack of electricity and rolling blackouts. Writing centres also need to consider the increasing massification of higher education and ways of harnessing diverse resources to enrich communication. This paper explores writing centre approaches to research and pedagogy within a social justice agenda, including combining an academic literacies approach with a multimodal social semiotic approach. It also investigates innovative approaches to teaching writing in diverse and multilingual contexts, including expanding the repertoire of resources used in writing consultations. It argues that the explicit utilisation of a range of modes can enhance writing production and enable writers to actively explore different modes for constructing meaning. The paper reflects on developing inclusive multimodal writing centre materials. It then explores the changing function of modes in online and face-to-face consultations (post-pandemic lockdowns), including talk as mode, silence as mode, visual modes, and the use of time. The aim is to interrogate our academic practices concerning the diverse languages and various forms of communication that students possess, whether in virtual or physical learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic brought about restrictions on physical interactions, which in many ways changed how we live and work. Due to these restrictions, writing centres at universities and other educational institutions around the world had to transition from traditional ways of supporting students to online or remote methods. To save the academic year, Wits University's teaching and learning and other student support programmes, including the Wits School of Education Writing Centre (WSoE WC), were compelled to adopt Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL). Transitioning to ERTL meant reimagining student support in an online mode. This paper explores how the WSoE WC transitioned from face-to-face student consultations to offering online academic literacy support and development. The paper highlights the adaptation process in the transition, particularly how the WSoE WC dealt with the varying complexities accompanying ERTL. The main question guiding this exploration is: How did the WSoE WC negotiate the move to online academic literacy support and development during the Covid-19 pandemic? Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the director of the WSoE WC, who steered the adoption of the online mode and the peer tutors who worked directly with students online. The findings show that transitioning to the online mode during ERTL was difficult and complex. However, collective and individual agency enabled continued student academic literacy support despite disruption and change. This paper contributes to the ongoing conversation around the role of writing centres at universities in South Africa and beyond, particularly during disruptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration to South Africa is motivated by the pursuit of employment, safety, and improved living conditions. However, immigrants encounter significant challenges, such as restricted access to essential services, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Malawian immigrants in South Africa, addressing the lack of attention given to this immigrant population by highlighting their vulnerabilities. Using a qualitative exploratory and descriptive approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 Malawi immigrants who were over 18 years old and had established residency in South Africa before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Five key stakeholders were also interviewed for additional perspectives and to ensure triangulation and improve data reliability. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis strategies and coding with Nvivo12 software. The study highlighted the exacerbated struggles of Malawian immigrants in South Africa amid the COVID-19 pandemic, uncovering systemic discrimination in healthcare, marked by longer wait times and reluctance from health workers to treat undocumented immigrants. The study also revealed a dire security situation, with immigrants living in high-crime areas and feeling particularly targeted due to their foreign status, a situation worsened by the pandemic's economic effects. Additionally, the economic downturn induced by COVID-19 significantly impacted employment opportunities, with many immigrants facing prolonged unemployment and job losses, especially in sectors where they traditionally found work. The detailed accounts of participants highlight not only the multifaceted challenges imposed by the pandemic but also the critical need for inclusive policies and support systems that ensure healthcare access, safety, and economic resilience for immigrants, particularly during global health emergencies. Future research should focus on effective interventions for socioeconomic integration and well-being, particularly for immigrants from other African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will present a second-year Fashion Design Theory project, 'Imagining Gender Equality in 100 Years'. The project outcomes were based on the critical design approach of speculative design (SD), exploring the intersectional issues of gender relevant to a South African context. SD thrives on imagination to create scenarios that change perspectives, beliefs, and values related to social problems. The following questions were posed to the students in developing the project guidelines. Firstly, what will the change in values, beliefs, and attitudes related to issues of gender look like in the future? And how can students use design to imagine spaces in the present for discussion and debate about alternative ways of being in an imagined future? With the application of action research, the paper discusses and analyses a selection of student projects completed in 2020 and 2021. In doing this, the paper aims to reflect on the transformation of a design theory assessment by applying critical design approaches culminating in creative and conceptual outcomes for complex life problems. In addition, reflections and lessons learnt on the blended teaching and learning methods amidst Covid-19 will be imparted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a synopsis of recipients' benefits from the South African COVID-19 social relief fund. The objective of the paper is to evaluate the key benefit of the COVID-19 special grant and if the Grant had a positive impact in the lives of recipients and their family members. The paper applied a mix of succinct review and thematic analysis. Secondary data collection was from the archive of survey questionnaires conducted by the Department of Social Development. Findings from the thematic graphical analysis of the recipients' responses show that more than 93% of the COVID grant recipients used the fund for food. Furthermore, over 88% avowed that the grant had a positive impact in their lives and over 79% of the grant recipients indicated that the fund had a positive impact in the lives of their family members. The findings offer practical and policy implication for government's social security agency. The recipients' acceptance of positive benefit regarding food and overall effect on wellbeing is an indication that extension of the COVID-19 social relief fund or conversion thereof to unemployment security assistance might have the propensity to provide relief from poverty and hunger to recipients and improve social wellbeing. The paper highlights the imperative for further research to expand this analysis by using other countries for a comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to a neglected aspect of health policy analysis: policy formulation processes. Context is central to the policy cycle, yet the influence of crises on policy formulation is underrepresented in the health policy literature in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper analyses a detailed case study of how the COVID-19 crisis influenced policy formulation processes for the regulation of alcohol in South Africa, as part of COVID-19 control measures, in 2020 and 2021. It provides a picture of the policy context, specifically considering the extent to which the crisis influenced the position and power of actors, and policy content. Qualitative data were collected from nine key informant interviews and 127 documents. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. A policy formulation conceptual framework was applied as a lens to describe complex policy formulation processes. The study revealed that the perceived urgency of the pandemic prompted a heightened sense of awareness of alcohol-related trauma as a known, preventable threat to public health system capacity. This enabled a high degree of innovation among decision-makers in the generation of alternative alcohol policy content. Within the context of uncertainty, epistemic and experiential policy learning drove rapid, adaptive cycles of policy formulation, demonstrating the importance of historical and emerging public health evidence in crisis-driven decision-making. Within the context of centralization and limited opportunities for stakeholder participation, non-state actors mobilized to influence policy through the public arena. The paper concludes that crisis-driven policy formulation processes are shaped by abrupt redistributions of power among policy actors and the dynamic interplay of evolving economic, political and public health priorities. Understanding the complexity of the local policy context may allow actors to navigate opportunities for public health-oriented alcohol policy reforms in South Africa and other LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the teaching and learning in international higher education. Those of us in the global South have particularly been hard hit, struggling to balance working/ functioning economies, a struggling healthcare system, education, commerce, trade, transport, and the community spread of what was later found to be a very infectious disease (Porter et al., 2021; Rogerson & Rogerson, 2020; Shamasunder et al., 2020). In this paper, we explored and theorised the experiences of academics who taught large classes at a research-intensive university in South Africa. We purposely recruited and interviewed eight academics for this case study. We drew on Chela Sandoval’s (2013) philosophical notion of “decolonial love” to theorise what an inclusive, democratic and ubuntu-orientated teaching of large classes could look like for us in the global South, beyond the pandemic. The findings revealed that academics continue to be frustrated/challenged/made anxious with teaching large classes due to inadequate infrastructure (digital), lack of resources, and general unpreparedness with the virtual/online teaching and learning. The findings also revealed that large classes were problematic as academics struggled to provide critical engagements and discussions during the hard Covid-19 lockdown, and with some lamenting the frustrations of “teaching to themselves” due to the lack of student engagement. We conclude this paper by proposing a decolonial love approach to the online teaching and learning of large classes, underpinned by the ethics of care, compassion and understanding in curriculum imaginations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Violence against women (VAW) research is a sensitive topic, which has been conducted mainly using face-to-face methods. The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and restrictions on movement presented an opportunity to conduct VAW research using remote methods. We discuss how we adapted methods, reflect on lessons learned, and make recommendations highlighting key considerations when conducting remote research on a sensitive topic of VAW. Methods: We designed and conducted an exploratory qualitative study using remote methods with 18 men and 19 women, aged 18 years and older, who lived with their partner or spouse during lockdown in South Africa. The aim of the study was to explore experiences of COVID-19 lockdown, and its link to women and children's experiences of violence in the homes. Data presented in this paper draws from researchers' reflections drawn from debriefing sessions during the research process, and from participants' interview transcripts. Findings: Remote recruitment of participants took longer than anticipated, and we had to re-advertise the study. We could not ensure safety and privacy during interviews. Regardless of all the safety and privacy measures we put in place during the research process, some participants had an adult person present in the room during interviews, and the researchers had no control over interruptions. Rapport was difficult to establish without an in-person connection, which limited disclosure about violence experience (amongst women) and perpetration (amongst men). Conclusions: Given the methodological and ethical challenges which limited disclosure of VAW remotely, we conclude that telephone interviews used in our study impacted on the quality of study data. Therefore, we do not recommend VAW research to be conducted remotely, unless it is essential and participants are already known to the interviewer and trust has been established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research issues around tourism development in small town South Africa have generated a growing scholarship. With the announcement in May 2023 by the World Health Organisation of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic the paper reflects both on the pandemic experiences for tourism in South African small towns and of relevant initiatives for revival at the beginning of the post COVID-19 era. Specifically, the aim in this paper to extend the literature on tourism in small town South Africa by focusing on the context of small town recovery from COVID-19 analysing the example of the Overstrand, Africa's first UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. The study shows that under certain circumstances amenity-rich small town localities can be resilient to external shocks such as the pandemic. For the resilience and recovery of small-town tourism destinations it is argued that place-based responses are critical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Path-breaking transformative change is needed in human-environment relations to move towards more sustainable development trajectories at local, national and global scales. Crises may trigger transformative change and learning in the short and in the long term. However, in particular, a short-term response to crises may also be reactive, strengthening established unsustainable practices and further perpetuating vulnerability and inequality rather than supporting transformative change towards a more sustainable path. To understand the nature and response to a crisis in the context of sustainability transformations, this paper elaborates on the following aspects of a crisis: What are the characteristics of a crisis? What and who shapes the narrative(s) of a crisis? What and who shapes the nature of the response to a crisis? Do responses to crises trigger higher levels of learning? Conceptual synthesis is complemented with an exploratory comparative analysis of the Cape Town water crisis and of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. To this end the paper analyzes the interplay between mobilizing individual, collective and relational agency and navigating and transforming power relations to challenge and profit from already weakened unsustainable structures. This approach proves to be promising to understand the role of crises in catalysing and supporting transformative learning to eventually replace unsustainable structures. ● During and immediately after crises, it is important to identify opportunities for policy change to address persistent governance failures. ● To support transformative change towards sustainability, governments typically should adopt a network governance style and act more as a convenor for deliberative processes in the later phase of the response to a crisis. ● Formation of innovation platforms bringing together actors from different levels and different roles (e.g. pioneering innovators, investors, scientists, policymakers, regulators) could support the scaling up of local initiatives and innovative approaches that have been developed during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Programme Science (PS) and community‐led monitoring (CLM) intersect in unexpected and promising ways. This commentary examines a CLM initiative in Malawi and South Africa to highlight the crucial role of CLM in bolstering the PS framework. By leveraging data sources often overlooked by conventional research and evaluation approaches, CLM emerges as a pivotal element in enhancing programme effectiveness. This paper delineates the fundamental principles of CLM, presents programme outcomes derived from CLM methodologies and contextualizes these findings within the broader framework of PS. Discussion: The Citizen Science Project implements CLM continuously at 33 health facilities: 14 in Malawi (eight in Kasungu District and six in Dedza District), and 19 in South Africa (all in the West Rand District), representing a total catchment area of 989,848 people. Monitoring indicators are developed in an iterative process with community groups. The indicators are unique to each country, but both focus on the uptake of health services (quantitative) and barriers to access (qualitative). Monthly clinic records surveys capture 34 indicators in Malawi and 20 in South Africa and are supplemented by qualitative interviews with care recipients and healthcare workers. Qualitative interviews provide additional granularity and help confirm and explain the more macro trends in service coverage as described in quantitative data. The resulting data analysis reveals key themes that help stakeholders and decision‐makers to solve problems collaboratively. Noteworthy outcomes include a substantial increase in multi‐month dispensing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) during COVID‐19 (from 6% to 31%) with a subsequent recovery surpassing of HIV service benchmarks in Malawi post‐pandemic. Conclusions: While quantifying direct impact remains challenging due to the project's design, CLM proves to be a robust methodology that generates credible data and produces impactful outcomes. Its potential extends beyond the health sector, empowering community leadership and fostering interventions aligned with community needs. As CLM continues to evolve, its integration into PS promises to improve relevance, quality and impact across diverse disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sudden eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the performance of employees and had an impact on their psychological wellness. Its gravity and forceful nature disrupted and activated emotions of demotivation in employees which requires managers to use motivation as a tool for stimulating the high performance of employees in any organisation. This paper explores how motivation can be used as a strategy to improve rural secondary teachers’ work performance and wellness for their job satisfaction in Amathole East Education District of South Africa. Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory was adopted for the study. The current study was grounded on a qualitative approach with a case study research design. A purposive sampling technique was adopted to choose three schools and twenty-eight participants used in the study. Focus group discussions and one-on-one interviews were used to gather data from the participants. The study discovered that recognition for teacher performance and offering psychological support stood out as sources of motivation that could be used to improve their work performance and wellness. The study recommends that schools design rewarding models and form community of practice groups post-COVID-19 to improve teachers’ morale to perform satisfactorily at work [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is no doubt that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus caught the world including South Africa, off-guard. This statement refers in particular, to the fact that the outbreak of the pandemic firstly exposed the level of unpreparedness of government and its different departments, including the private sector to deal with unforeseen outbreaks like the coronavirus which leads to COVID-19. This is a typical example of systemic problems within the government and the private sector. Secondly and most importantly, this outbreak exposed the level of inequality between schools in rural areas and those in townships and affluent parts of the country which are mostly habited by black middle class and white people. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the systemic challenges and the emotional impact of this virus on the learners and their parents; the learners and their teachers, and to venture into the policymaking and implementation terrain of the Department of Basic education with a specific focus on how the DBE responded to the outbreak. Furthermore, this paper makes a case out of the emerging case by case approach of the government and the DBE in dealing with the threats which are posed by this pandemic to communities and schools. The researchers hold the view that this paper will expose the levels of inequality between schools in different parts of the country and advocate for a culture of foresight in the education management system; a culture that acknowledges that schools, like communities and business entities, are vulnerable and susceptible to external forces that may have long-lasting effects on their functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to share some insights on the regulatory aspects of the promotion of financial education and financial inclusion to enhance consumer protection in South Africa. In recent years, policymakers in different countries, including South Africa, have made various efforts to regulate financial inclusion and integrate financial consumers into the financial sector. Similarly, policymakers and other relevant stakeholders have made efforts to promote financial education to empower financial consumers to make sound financial choices and decisions. Notwithstanding these efforts, the promotion of financial education and financial inclusion has been done in isolation, overlooking the policy synergies between these objectives and/or financial sector outcomes in enhancing consumer protection in South Africa. Given the recent COVID-19 pandemic, both financial education and financial inclusion have become increasingly important policy considerations to negotiate the chasm from the challenges that financial consumers faced before the pandemic and move towards safeguarding the economic interests of financial consumers post-pandemic. Accordingly, this paper explores the interrelationship between the effective promotion of financial education and financial inclusion to enhance consumer protection. Moreover, this paper examines the adequacy of the regulation of financial education and financial inclusion under the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 (NCA); the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA), the Financial Sector Regulation Act 9 of 201 7 (FSR Act) and the proposed Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill (CoFI Bill) in relation to strengthening consumer protection. Put differently, this article focuses on the regulatory nexus of the promotion of financial education and financial inclusion to enhance consumer protection in South Africa. In the end, this article will provide some recommendations and enforcement approaches that could be incorporated into the regulatory framework of the promotion of financial education and financial inclusion to enhance consumer protection in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown regulations caused enormous changes in all business sectors because many businesses were not allowed to operate. Only a few were regarded as essential businesses, such as pharmacies and grocery shops, and allowed to operate. Lockdown regulations negatively affected the South African informal sector. As a result, it is difficult to provide accurate statistics on the entrepreneurs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. There are no official statistics from the informal sector. This paper aims to examine how the informal sector was affected by the lockdown down restrictions within South Africa. The paper adopts a systematic review methodology using Google Scholar and Web of Science or Scopes to search for articles on informal entrepreneurship, COVID-19, and South Africa to draw a conclusion from the analysed data. The findings indicated that most of the businesses in the informal sector were negatively affected, including workers because some of them lost their jobs and others did not receive their usual salaries due to limited working hours. There were disruptions in the supply chain and pricing of goods and services, and people could not have sustained their income during the lockdown in South Africa. In conclusion, the informal sector is one of the most vulnerable sectors that lacks access to appropriate risk management structures, and most people live on a hand to mouth basis. COVID-19 has negatively affected the informal sector, mainly through distribution and marketing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal aid is needed in South Africa as one mechanism for poor South Africans to realise their legal rights and to use the law as a vehicle for positive social change in a grossly unequal society in which deep poverty is rife. However, simply having a legal aid service provider is insufficient if the quality of such services is not satisfactory. But how can high quality legal services be ensured? This paper considers how different forms of legal aid service provision can be effectively monitored and assessed to ensure that satisfactory standards of legal aid work are delivered. Categories of "legal aid" (broadly construed) which are considered are legal NGOs, including university law clinics, the state's Legal Aid South Africa telephonic advice, and pro bono work by private lawyers. Separate research has focussed on the need for much improved coordination between legal service providers to promote co-operation among legal aid services. The next step is to ensure that such coordination leads to quality services and promoting quality control mechanisms which are appropriate and which can be considered best practice. This paper analyses and discusses this next step. If legal aid is not of an adequate standard or quality assurance is not in place, the legal aid is not serving a positive function. The paper considers viable means for vetting the quality of these free legal services in a South African context, including telephonic legal advice in the Covid era. It suggests mechanisms to promote high-level free legal service provision by assessing the quality of such services. Legal aid quality control methods abroad were analysed to serve as an indicator of the options used in this regard in those jurisdictions. The question to be answered is what quality control measures are most apposite in the South African legal aid arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restrictions and challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic challenged higher education institutions to innovate to keep reaching teaching and learning goals. In South Africa, existing social inequalities were exacerbated by the pandemic restrictions and many students faced severe challenges in terms of access and support to aid in their academic success. Even under 'normal' circumstances, developing students' academic writing skills and critical thinking ability can be challenging. It is this teaching and learning goal, along with the added contextual challenges brought on by the pandemic that prompted the intervention described in this paper. How can we teach and assess critical thinking, and higher-order aspects of academic writing, in such a resource scarce environment? In this paper, the development and results of formative, multiple choice question (MCQ)-style, online tests aimed at developing critical thinking and higher-order aspects of academic writing is discussed. The development of the test through intentional test item design and online test setup is explained whereafter statistical analysis of student participation and results are presented. These preliminary results show that students generally use learning opportunities to their advantage to learn and improve their marks. It also shows that flexible test structure and a supportive test environment can promote equality of outcomes for students, regardless of the contextual challenges they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic catapulted higher education institutions to shifting their teaching, learning and assessment practices. Universities globally were abruptly forced to close their doors and adapt to digital learning platforms with the intention of meeting students' learning needs. In a University of Technology (UoT) context such as the Durban University of Technology (DUT) in South Africa, the university had to relook the way it interacted and engaged with students. Writing centres at universities in South Africa have evolved and have led to the development of opportunities for collaborative learning underpinned by humanistic principles and interconnectivity in teaching, thinking and learning. Traditionally in the writing centre, students grow and develop in an informal way by face-to-face interactions in a physical space with tutors, peers and writing practitioners. However, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the writing centre has shifted to virtual learning platforms in order to continue creating inclusive and flexible learning spaces to foster criticality and academic and social resiliency in students. This paper explored how the writing centre as a vibrant community of practice (CoP), with the use of digital platforms initiated innovative tutoring techniques to contribute to creating a safe, enabling learning environment for students during these uncertainties. Paulo Freire's idea of a Humanising Pedagogy (1970) and Lave and Wenger's (1991) concept of communities of practice were used to gain insights into the contextual dynamics that shape a writing centre's practice as the centre conceptualises how to respond to the 'new normal' in higher education. This paper asked a fundamental question about learning approaches and what is most valuable, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data collection included written reflections from eight writing centre tutors from one writing centre site and surveys with 20 student users. This enabled an understanding of their perceptions and experiences of using the writing centre remotely, within a qualitative, exploratory inquiry. The findings revealed that the writing centre acknowledges the socio-economic difficulties faced by students and sees the value of CoP and a humanistic approach in its work in assisting students in coping with challenges and the realities that currently confront them. It found that tutors are central to contributing to transformative, multi-modal learning, and the writing centre can serve as a vehicle for promoting and sustaining inclusive learning environments and new ways of supporting students during uncertain times such as the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the outcomes of an exploratory study into the obstacles posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and a post-COVID recovery in the South African educational tourism sector. By reviewing the challenges and the key technological innovations developed and implemented during the pandemic, this study established that, while the COVID-19 restrictions significantly impacted the viability of every business in the edutourism sector, the use of important technological platforms (like social media, virtual reality, mobile apps, computer-based technology and virtual reality/augmented reality [VR/AR]) helped the sector remain resilient. However, the current paucity of empirical data in this regard suggests an investigation, the motivation for the current study, which assumes an inductive approach. This paper highlights the challenges, trends and prospects of COVID-19-related revival strategies for South Africa's edutourism sector, with the ensuing debates contributing to increasing academic debates on the subject, while highlighting both practical policy-related input and theoretical contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has caused a change in the demography of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) teaching fraternity. This paper problematizes the ECE curriculum delivery gap created by the influence of COVID-19. Central to this paper is the assumption that online learning might limit the stimulation of children's holistic development. Reflecting on their experiences, the authors examine the influence of COVID-19 on pedagogy for ECE pre-service and kindergarten curriculum through the lens of design thinking theory. The reflections are based on one open and distance learning institution in South Africa and one kindergarten program in Canada. The findings reveal challenges, such as digital inequality brought on by socio-economic imbalances and opportunities. The authors suggest the digital literacy skills needed to mitigate the influence of COVID-19 in the ECE pre-service and kindergarten curriculum delivery [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the development pattern of resource-rich countries like Norway, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the Republic of South Africa by analyzing their stock markets. As resource-rich countries have profound implications for the world's sustainable development, it is essential to investigate whether they transform natural resource wealth into sustained growth by reorientation from related to raw material industries to modern ones based on information and technologies. The analysis of resource-rich countries' stock markets allowed us to conclude that partially these countries are on the way to an economy dominated by intangible assets. Nevertheless, despite the declared intentions, some traditional attachments to raw materials are still present. At the same time, most companies in the optimal portfolios of these markets have a long-term nonlinear strategy. The impact of the pandemic COVID-19 turned out to be significant, but short-lived. The research was carried out based on R and Python packages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the determinants of MICE tourism recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the case of South Africa, empirical data were collected by way of in-depth interviews with 19 key stakeholders in the MICE sector. The study findings reveal five key determinants of the recovery, (1) change in focus of geographical markets, (2) varied recovery of the different economic industries, (3) limited airline access and connectivity, (4) destination image and (5) level of confidence of MICE attendees to travel. The paper's theoretical significance lies in its timely contribution to studies on MICE tourism recovery and resilience, focusing on the developing nations' context. Further, the findings of the study, which delineate the recovery process of MICE events post-COVID-19 provide insights into building a resilient MICE sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scheduled or routine childhood vaccinations are known for their effectiveness in eradicating fear for many life-threatening and disabling diseases and saving lives globally. This paper is aimed at assessing determinants of parents taking their children for scheduled vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. Data used for this paper were obtained from the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) COVID-19 Online Survey titled "One Year Later Survey", which was conducted between 25 June and 11 October 2021 in South Africa. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to achieve this study goal. Findings showed that just over half of parents (56.7%) reported taking their children for scheduled vaccinations across the country. Males were significantly less likely (aOR = 0.53 95% CI [0.45–0.61], p < 0.001) to have taken their children for scheduled vaccinations than females. Parents' experiences and views were among key determinants of parents having taken their children for scheduled vaccinations in South Africa. Parents who had never taken influenza (flu) vaccines were significantly less likely (aOR = 0.33 [0.28–039], p < 0.001) to have taken their children for scheduled vaccinations than those who had taken flu vaccines. Parents who did not know anyone who had personally experienced serious side effects to any vaccine were significantly less likely (aOR = 0.77 [0.66–0.90], p = 0.001) to have taken their children for scheduled vaccinations than those who knew anyone who had experienced them. Parents who did not think vaccines were a good way to protect communities from disease were significantly less likely (aOR = 0.50 [0.33–0.77], p = 0.001) to have taken their children for scheduled vaccinations than those who thought vaccines were a good way to protect communities from disease. These findings are of significance especially during the time when the country is still struggling to reach a substantial proportion of its population vaccinated for COVID-19. Thus, these findings may be relevant in determining parents' intentions to have their children receive the South African Department of Health recommended vaccines for their respective age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aftermath of COVID changed how students learn, mainly moving to a distance learning model. The research reported in this paper investigated the organizational and individual factors that influence the preference for continuing with distance / online learning post-COVID. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied to a model developed for this research, based on data from 452 students from residential universities in South Africa. The key results reveal an overall reluctance to continue with distance learning. This is despite the technological and faculty support offered to university students and how distance learning fits their learning styles. This is likely due to student living conditions and their perception of low institutional concern. On the other hand, faculty support has a more substantial impact on continuance, compared with a generally negative perception of support from the universities. The research underscores the importance of addressing student reluctance to continue with distance learning by improving institutional support and tailoring learning styles. The research enhances our understanding of crucial factors influencing students' preference for distance/online learning post-COVID. It also underscores the pedagogical shifts brought about by the pandemic, particularly highlighting the changing roles of faculty support and the impact on students' living conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic tourism has garnered much attention recently as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, being identified as a key solution to the post-pandemic recovery. The worth of domestic tourism prior to the pandemic, however, despite its tremendous economic value, has largely been overshadowed in scholarship and amongst many governments in lieu of the more glamorous international tourism. Notwithstanding, the current emphasis on domestic tourism, a gap still exists in the literature on specific sub-segments of the domestic tourist market and understanding their profiles and perceptions in order to address issues related to growing such markets and thus contributing to the overarching growth of domestic tourism and strengthening its role in the recovery of the tourism sector. This paper thus seeks to unpack the profile of 297 domestic road trip tourists surveyed from the Gauteng province of South Africa. The results outline the socio-demographic characteristics in terms of age, race, income and education levels, and their travel preferences and behaviour. Findings reveal facets linked to the importance of youth tourists, the need to address access to travel, availability of products and facilities geared to the needs of domestic tourists, the conditions of roads and the ease of travel, as well as issues related to financial access to tourism through pricing and affordability. The study provides a springboard to better understand the domestic road trip market by uncovering key socio-demographic components of this lesser studied market in the context of South Africa and provides recommendations for addressing the issues at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated a shift to remote working for previously office-based employees in South Africa, impacting employee outcomes such as well-being. The remote work trend is expected to continue even post the pandemic, necessitating for organizational understanding of the factors impacting employee well-being. Using the Job Demands–Resources model as the theoretical framework, this study aims to understand the role of job demands and resources as predictors of employee well-being in the pandemic context. Design/methodology/approach: A self-administered online survey questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data about remote workers' (n = 204) perceptions of specifically identified demands, resources and employee well-being. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation and moderated hierarchical regression were used to analyse the data. Findings: This study found that job demands in the form of work–home conflict were associated with reduced employee well-being. Resources, namely, job autonomy, effective communication and social support were associated with increased employee well-being. Job autonomy was positively correlated to remote work frequency, and gender had a significant positive association to work–home conflict. Social support was found to moderate the relationship between work–home conflict and employee well-being. Findings suggest that organizations looking to enhance the well-being of their remote workforce should implement policies and practices that reduce the demands and increase the resources of their employees. The significant association of gender to work–home conflict suggests that greater interventions are required particularly for women. This study advances knowledge on the role of demands and resources as predictors of employee well-being of remote workforces during COVID-19 and beyond. Originality/value: This paper provides insight on employee well-being during COVID-19 remote work. Further, the findings suggest that organizations looking to enhance the well-being of their remote workforce should implement policies and practices that reduce the demands and increase the resources of their employees. The significant association of gender to work–home conflict suggests that greater interventions are required particularly for women. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study carried out to explore the employee well-being during COVID-19 pandemic and will be beneficial to stakeholders for understanding the factors impacting employee well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a systematic review of literature, reported in research journals, on the experiences of higher educational institutions regarding teaching, learning, and assessment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Different studies related to the Covid-19 pandemic have been conducted within the South African context, but there has not been a systematic review of these studies highlighting the lessons learned, how these lessons have affected education in higher education institutions (HEIs), and how these lessons can inform future planning. This study aims to summarise literature on teaching, learning and assessment in higher education institutions and to conceptualise possible guidelines for future planning. An analysis of 52 research articles revealed 7 implications for the lessons learnt from the pandemic for future teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) in South African HEIs (realisation of the affordances of technology for TLA, institutional changes related to online TLA during the pandemic, students' experiences related to TLA, lecturer's experiences related to TLA, the need for care, assessment related matters, approaches to teaching, learning and assessment) and several recommendations for how these lessons can be leveraged to help HEIs to prepare effectively for future catastrophic disruptions to education in South African HEIs. The discussion shows the digital divide that exists within the South African population and other contextual challenges faced by higher education institutions during the pandemic, and the different sacrifices by both institutions and students to survive the pandemic. Overall, the findings of this review provide valuable guidance for HEIs and stakeholders involved in TLA, offering insights on how to integrate the lessons learned from the pandemic into their future planning and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lockdown the South African government implemented in 2020 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in school closures. During this time, and also when learners were allowed to attend school again, the focus was on the physical health and safety of the learners. However, in the process, schools might have neglected the psycho-social and mental well-being of learners, which is a state in which learners are able to manage stress and function optimally. This paper reports on a study that investigated teachers' views on how learners' psycho-social and mental well-being was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to gather data from 17 teachers from five schools in two districts of the North-West Province in South Africa. The school mental health theoretical framework was used for the study because of its focus on the psycho-social mental health of learners and the role of institutions in supporting mental health. The findings indicate that learners experienced a higher level of emotional distress during the lockdown. This was caused by an increase in fear, stress, anxiety, uncertainty, frustration, anger and aggression during the pandemic. Although learners from all the schools were negatively affected by COVID-19, learners from low-income schools that had limited access to resources were affected more due to the limited professional psycho-social support they received. This highlights the need for Education Departments to build the capacity of all South African schools to address the emotional and psycho-social well-being of their learners. It is vital that schools commit themselves to enabling learners to develop a high level of resilience and antifragility at all times, not just during major crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explored how vulnerable, immunocompromised groups and caregivers of the elderly experienced and perceived the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted remotely between the 5th andthe 18th of April 2020 in the three South African provinces hardest hit by Covid-19, namely Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. In total, 60 qualitative key informant interviews and one focus group discussion were conducted. Study participants expressed concerns for elderly people and people with underlying health conditions because of their increased vulnerability to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). People living with HIV expressed an increased fear of infection following the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa. The sidelining of healthcare services and stock-outs of medication proved to be an added concern in particular for vulnerable and immunocompromised groups. Overall, the data suggest that the fear of infection is ubiquitous for people who live in unstable environments such as overcrowded townships and informal settlements. Given the increased fears of infection brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the mental health of vulnerable communities and those caring for them becomes an added burden for people living in unstable environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has developed into a pandemic. Data-driven techniques can be used to inform and guide public health decision- and policy-makers. In generalizing the spread of a virus over a large area, such as a province, it must be assumed that the transmission occurs as a stochastic process. It is therefore very difficult for policy and decision makers to understand and visualize the location specific dynamics of the virus on a more granular level. A primary concern is exposing local virus hot-spots, in order to inform and implement non-pharmaceutical interventions. A hot-spot is defined as an area experiencing exponential growth relative to the generalised growth of the pandemic. This paper uses the first and second waves of the COVID-19 epidemic in Gauteng Province, South Africa, as a case study. The study aims provide a data-driven methodology and comprehensive case study to expose location specific virus dynamics within a given area. The methodology uses an unsupervised Gaussian Mixture model to cluster cases at a desired granularity. This is combined with an epidemiological analysis to quantify each cluster's severity, progression and whether it can be defined as a hot-spot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the unprecedented onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has impelled students to transition abruptly from their traditional learning spaces to new learning conditions. To this end, universities were compelled to overhaul their existing institutional operations in conformance with the lockdown protocols enforced by the National Government. The sudden switch to an unplanned remote mode of teaching and learning becomes not only a lamentable reality for both academics but also a daunting challenge for many students. Concomitantly, this pandemic has rudely exposed a range of disparities that exist among tertiary students in South Africa. Consequently, many students of lower socioeconomic status lack the necessary resources and skills to succeed on a virtual platform of learning. Furthermore, during the lockdown period, many students were compelled to return to their rural towns and study in workspaces that were not conducive to learning, thus limiting their chances to engage optimally. This raises the question: How will students confined to their rural township homes that are not conducive to learning and do not have the efficacies to adapt to digital learning access, engage in, and successfully complete the current academic year? In fact, the digital divide widens the epistemic gap for most students from rural and vulnerable communities, diminishing their opportunities to access an inclusive and participatory education. Equally, COVID-19 forcibly sanctions that digital learning is no longer a privilege but a right to inclusive education. Consequently, this paper will highlight the vast chasms and challenges experienced by vulnerable firstyear students of rural communities during the lockdown period, mostly highlighting the constraints on their epistemic access in the context of a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to examine the challenges of remote learning that were faced by students in four rural institutions of higher learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is well documented that in South Africa as well as globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the teaching and learning in higher institutions of education. A call was made by the Department of Higher Education and Training that mandated universities to adopt remote learning to save the academic year. That call was a blanket statement that did not consider the context of different universities, given the inequalities that existed prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 between the historically disadvantaged universities and the well-established ones. The study adopted a qualitative approach that made use of a desktop research methodology, as well as the media (Television, radio and newspapers), and social media as sources of data gathering to document the challenges. One of the key findings was that some students studying at rural institutions of higher learning experienced challenges of limited skills as well as the convenience of and access to technology and other tools of trade. The paper concludes that such students were proposing that, 'we are together but not together". The root of such grievance is that they were grossly affected by the geographical and historical position of the universities they were enrolled at and the situation was deepened and exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper recommends the equal redistribution of resources especially to previously disadvantaged Black universities. The paper further recommends that the Department of Education introduce online learning to students from as early as high school so that there will be continuity and ease in remoting learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the definition of "vulnerability" in the visualisation and underpinning index of Stats SA's South African COVID-19 Vulnerability Index (SA CVI)'s data visualisation dashboard. The paper establishes definitions of vulnerability in relation to literature before COVID-19, research in the time of the pandemic, and in relation to data visualisation. The discussion finds that while the pandemic is widely perceived as a "health crisis", South African vulnerability to this pandemic is mostly constituted by factors that fall outside of normative "health" concerns - beyond "straightforward" medical, biological and epidemiological factors. Instead, South African vulnerability to COVID-19, and the "health" of its citizens in this context, are largely to be understood as systemic, socio-economic, and necropolitical conditions. It is found that these conditions have not been generated by the pandemic but have rather been exposed by it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa and elsewhere, the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 and the lockdown regulations forced both academics and students to adapt to a new reality of fully online modules and assessments. This catapulted relations in higher education into the spotlight. The concern of this paper is how e-tutors in an Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL) university in South Africa have enacted care in online interaction with the students during this period. Available research focuses on online interaction; however, there is a paucity when it comes to care cultivated by e-tutors on students to increase online interactions during the covid-19 pandemic. Through the lens of Relational Care, this paper seeks to reconceptualise care during e-tutor-student interaction in one of the English modules at a mega South African ODeL university. Data were collected through a survey completed by e-tutors (n = 8) and lecturers (n = 4) of one of the English modules at this university. Through content analysis, patterns and categories emanating from the data were extracted. Findings indicated that e-tutors and lecturers had minimal understanding of how to enact care in this environment during the covid-19 pandemic. Future research should focus on how to manage student online interaction in an OdeL environment during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is no longer debatable that the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 caused a resurgence in the role of the state and propelled the need for novel responses reinforced by the structural component of the state. The structural component of the state refers to the administrative power, resources and capacity of the state to mitigate the impact of the pandemic in the context of COVID-19. This paper explores the relationship between the central and local states in coordinating efforts to attenuate and respond to the pandemic, and the meaning of state-led responses for South Africa's developmental state ambition. The South African government demonstrated political willingness to utilize its structural component by distributing its administrative capacity, resources and power to all the spheres of government to fight the pandemic through its stimulus package. The country's pandemic responses reveal good implications for strengthening institutional arrangements and consolidating a well-coordinated and capable developmental state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Child hunger has long-term and short-term consequences, as starving children are at risk of many forms of malnutrition, including wasting, stunting, obesity and micronutrient deficiencies. The purpose of this paper is to show that the child hunger and socio-economic inequality in South Africa increased during her COVID-19 pandemic due to various lockdown regulations that have affected the economic status of the population.Methods: This paper uses the National Income Dynamics Study-Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM WAVES 1-5) collected in South Africa during the intense COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 to assess the socioeconomic impacts of child hunger rated inequalities. First, child hunger was determined by a composite index calculated by the authors. Descriptive statistics were then shown for the investigated variables in a multiple logistic regression model to identify significant risk factors of child hunger. Additionally, the decomposable Erreygers' concentration index was used to measure socioeconomic inequalities on child hunger in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic.Results: The overall burden of child hunger rates varied among the five waves (1-5). With proportions of adult respondents indicated that a child had gone hungry in the past 7 days: wave 1 (19.00%), wave 2 (13.76%), wave 3 (18.60%), wave 4 (15, 68%), wave 5 (15.30%). Child hunger burden was highest in the first wave and lowest in the second wave. The hunger burden was highest among children living in urban areas than among children living in rural areas. Access to electricity, access to water, respondent education, respondent gender, household size, and respondent age were significant determinants of adult reported child hunger. All the concentrated indices of the adult reported child hunger across households were negative in waves 1-5, suggesting that children from poor households were hungry. The intensity of the pro-poor inequalities also increased during the study period. To better understand what drove socioeconomic inequalites, in this study we analyzed the decomposed Erreygers Normalized Concentration Indices (ENCI). Across all five waves, results showed that race, socioeconomic status and type of housing were important factors in determining the burden of hunger among children in South Africa.Conclusion: This study described the burden of adult reported child hunger and associated socioeconomic inequalities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The increasing prevalence of adult reported child hunger, especially among urban children, and the observed poverty inequality necessitate multisectoral pandemic shock interventions now and in the future, especially for urban households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the use of technology as enabler for sustaining teaching and learning by reviewing various local and international publications. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) in 2020, the Departments of Basic and Higher Education in South Africa ordered all institutions of learning to shut down and start using online education as a substitute for face-to-face teaching and learning processes. This sudden transition has without doubt caused an incredible amount of harm and disruption in our education system. In view of this, I am interested in exploring how a traditional, face-to-face university used technology effectively as a delivery tool to sustain teaching and learning during the Covid-19 crisis. The review conducted was aimed at answering the research questions: How can continuity of teaching and learning be strengthened during emergency situations such as that posed by the Covid-19 pandemic? Secondly, what were educators’ and students’ experiences and attitudes towards the use of technology as enabler for sustaining teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic? To answer the research questions, I conducted data searches with the help of librarians and other international primary search source indexes such as ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Educational Resource Information Centre (ERIC), Google Scholar, SAGE and Academic Search Premier. A total of 85 empirical papers were reviewed and analysed so that an aggregated understanding of using technology as enabler could be established. The results of this systematic document review revealed that technology has the potential to provide immediate feedback, improve workloads and access to education, thus making it an agent of sustainability. In addition, the review conducted revealed that Covid-19 reinforced the importance of technology and virtual learning in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to higher education has been one of the critical areas of concern in South Africa, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Corona-virus (Covid-19) pandemic has brought the systemic cleavages into sharp relief, with ‘access’ and subsequent ‘success’ emerging as an important variable. Availability of digital facilities and internet connectivity have been important factors in enabling participation in higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The advent of the pandemic has, however, brought a new context to the challenges of higher education access, deepening the precarious position of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, online teaching and learning intensified the digital divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, exacerbating the already existing inequalities in the South African higher education system. The paper reflects on the question of how digital divide and access to learning infrastructure exacerbated inequality among students during the Covid-19 pandemic in South African higher education. This question is particularly important, given the rapid digitalisation of the curriculum that many South African institutions are still struggling to align with. This paper aims to interrogate the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on South African higher education, highlighting the challenges of the digital divide and access to learning infrastructure using a social justice approach. The article draws on the work of Fraser (1999), which refers to the idea of social justice as distributional justice, re-allocating resources accessed solely by the privileged to the historically disadvantaged. It also aims to understand how the typology of inequality across the differentiated institutions affected the delivery of education during Covid-19. This is a qualitative research based on both secondary and primary data exploring official documents, statistics and published materials. The article argues towards a comprehensive and inclusive digital learning strategies with substantial coordination both from government and non-government stakeholders. It recommends that digital pedagogy and online platforms of learning should become an integral element of South African higher education services to ensure the continuity of education; this is necessary to avoid similar difficulties if crises that restrict physical movement occur in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This leading article to this special issue on "COVID-19: Opportunity to rethink and to restructure education in the world" is an overarching position paper, drawing on contributions made in papers in this issue, to argue the case that there is a compelling need to overhaul education research, in South Africa in particular, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity to do so. The South African education scene is surveyed and the survey reveals enormous challenges along all three dimensions of education supply: quantitative, qualitative and equality. The education sector in South Africa is clearly in need of guidance from the education research community. Education research activity, globally and in South Africa in particular, is surveyed and found to be seriously wanting in terms of the lack of theory, autochthonous and a unified, coherent theory, the small scale and fragmented nature of many research projects, the lack of practical impact, education scholars eschewing subscription to and building a normative superstructure in their research and the concrete problems of the education faculty regarding heavy teaching loads and difficulty in attracting funding for education research. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ravages it has brought to education have created the need and the opportunity to urgently and enthusiastically attend to these desiderata in Education scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify the practical and policy-based implications for the South African sport tourism organisations by highlighting strategic approaches to rethinking sport tourism planning and management. A content analysis of published academic and industry papers that focused on disaster management or mitigation within the sport tourism context, within a global and local context were analysed and thematically coded. The results reveal the vulnerability of the sport tourism industry to global threats while highlighting the lack of preparedness of this sector to strategically respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous pandemics and disasters may provide an impetus for rethinking sport event hosting as well as travel and tourism, however not without substantial financial investments and government support. The resilient theory emphasises the synergistic effects of crisis management in sport tourism. This study proposes strategies to guide industry stakeholders towards a research agenda that is based on identified gaps in knowledge within the sport tourism field in order to rethink sport tourism. This paper also contributes to the extant knowledge on crisis management and disaster management by incorporating strategic perspectives of resilient theory. There is significant value to current policies and practices regarding new strategic approaches to crisis management in sport tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing numbers of children of all ages grow up in out-of-home care institutions due to personal and socioecological risk variables that destabilized their families of origin. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted lives and development, there is particular interest in how children who grow up in out-of-home care institutions cope and develop. This paper reports the findings of a study that sought to document anchors of resilience in children who resided in a care institution run by a non-governmental, church-based welfare organization in one of the central provinces of South Africa. In line with recent developments in childcare, the organization mainly functions via smaller child and youth group homes across the province (compared to bigger children's homes in the past). In our qualitative, phenomenological study, we used the participatory, child-friendly, and less intrusive draw-and-write technique to generate data. We asked the 20 participating children of one of these group homes to make drawings that mirror their lives, and to write paragraphs in which they described their drawings. All were school-going children in care, aged from 12 to 19. There were 11 girls and 9 boys in the study, and one of these identified as "other." The grades ranged from 7 to 12 and they spoke African languages, namely Afrikaans, Sesotho, Setswana and IsiXhosa. We used inductive content analysis to process the data, and the findings indicate that, notwithstanding personal and socioecological risks during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the resilience of the participants was anchored by a number of universal personal strengths as well as socioecological resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine (Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd) is the property of Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Professional training programmes were, and continue to be, challenged by the implications of Covid-19. Psychology training programmes in South Africa rely on experiential learning as a cornerstone for developing minimum competencies. Covid-19 restrictions meant that teaching and learning, supervision, and work-integrated learning required reconsideration, shifts and upskilling of trainees and trainers. This was particularly important given the emphasis and value of Experiential Learning Theory in training psychologists. This paper uses collaborative autoethnography to reflect on the challenges, lessons, and future recommendations for the navigation of professional training in psychology in the Covid-19 era and beyond. The key reflections highlight the necessity for hybrid learning contexts in circumstances such as Covid-19. Leadership guidance and students' voices are invaluable assets that could facilitate a comprehensive and inclusive training programme during unprecedented times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of REMIE - Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research is the property of Hipatia Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper is a narrative, phenomenological description of the themes of experiences of some of my South African patients that collectively elicit anxious voices from the unplanned shift to online therapy while living under the world's longest lockdown in the shadow of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This paper thus presents a thematic description of moments in therapy, which illustrate the influence of lockdown on their sense of self, and the emergence of new anxieties not encountered before. Such themes are: i) new anxieties about death and dying; ii) new anxieties about loss of contact with friends and family and the emergence of existential anxiety; iii) new anxieties about current household relationships and the emergence of object loss; iv) new anxieties about the unplanned shift to online therapy and the threat of internet dis-connection, and finally; v) new anxieties about missing body parts of online therapy: Part-body-on-the-screen relating versus what-was-once-whole-body relating. As this paper is based on psychoanalytic theory, and the notion of intersubjectivity, my own experiences and thoughts are included in the therapeutic engagement. The core contribution of this paper is that it adds a voice to the other voices of other patients around the world who are also living under lockdown. Without this kind of narrative documentation, the world-wide therapeutic community may not know the extent of the anxieties of living under lockdown in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite progress, maternal and neonatal mortality and still births remain high in South Africa. The South African National Department of Health implemented a quality improvement (QI) programme, called Mphatlalatsane, to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and still births. It was implemented in 21 public health facilities, seven per participating province, between 2018 and 2022. Methods: We conducted a qualitative process evaluation of the contextual and implementation process factors' influence on implementation uptake amongst the QI teams in 15 purposively selected facilities. Data collection included three interview rounds with the leaders and members of the QI teams in each facility; intermittent interviews with the QI advisors; programme documentation review; observation of programme management meetings; and keeping a fieldwork journal. All data were thematically analysed in Atlas.ti. Implementation uptake varied across the three provinces and between facilities within provinces. Results: Between March and August 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted uptake in all provinces but affected QI teams in one province more severely than others, because they received limited pre-pandemic training. Better uptake among other sites was attributed to receiving more QI training pre-COVID-19, having an experienced QI advisor, and good teamwork. Uptake was more challenging amongst hospital teams which had more staff and more complicated MNH services, versus the primary healthcare facilities. We also attributed better uptake to greater district management support. A key factor shaping uptake was leaders' intrinsic motivation to apply QI methodology. We found that, across sites, organic adaptations to the QI methodology were made by teams, started during COVID-19. Teams did away with rapid testing of change ideas and keeping a paper trail of the steps followed. Though still using data to identify service problems, they used self-developed audit tools to record intervention effectiveness, and not the prescribed tools. Conclusions: Our study underscores the critical role of intrinsic motivation of team leaders, support from experienced technical QI advisors, and context-sensitive adaptations to maximise QI uptake when traditionally recognised QI steps cannot be followed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted that access to financial capital is a significant challenge for operators of informal income activities, exposing financial inequality. However, there is a need to understand why operators are not disposed to access loans even when offered. Drawing on qualitative research in Soweto, South Africa, beneficiaries of cash transfers who also engage in various income-generating activities were found to be sceptical of loans, even when the receipt of transfers in cash would allow them to borrow. This paper contributes to the debate about strengthening participation in the informal economy as a mechanism for dealing with poverty, unemployment, and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with chronic diseases (PWCDs) were severely affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, as they were prevented from making the necessary visits to health facilities for medical review and to collect their medication. The emergence of the health crisis and inadequate access to quality care affected chronic care management. The perspectives of PWCDs are not known, and therefore the research on which this paper is based sought to investigate the lived experiences of these patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological design was used to obtain the lived experiences of PWCDs identified for participation in the study by means of purposive sampling. Patients' experiences were obtained during individual structured interviews, and a checklist was used to gather patient characteristics from their files. Results: Three themes emerged from the study findings, namely poor healthcare services, the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic had devastating effects on PWCDs, in that they experienced barriers to accessing quality chronic care services and suffered psychological and financial difficulties that affected their health, life, needs and expectations. Conclusion: Policymakers should consider PWCDs when responding to a public health concern in the future. Contribution: The study findings may have an impact on future policies regulating the management of chronic diseases during epidemics, in order to improve patient health outcomes and satisfaction with healthcare services and the chronic care model based on the experiences of PWCDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]