Search

The aim of this article is to survey and interrogate the university sector of the world ranked by international rankings critically as to the sector's pursuit of the sustainable development goals. Universities have a unique and indispensable role to play in the pursuit of the lofty objective of the sustainable development goals. However, when dealing with the global impact rankings, three provisos should be kept in mind, namely that academic autonomy is a prerequisite for a university and cannot be sacrificed, the sustainable development goals do not capture the entire round of challenges facing humanity and social metrics should be treated with circumspection, as these too have their shortcomings. Most universities, with the possible exception of a few very top-tier universities, seem not to be geared to make their contribution to the realisation of the sustainable development goals. However, pockets of excellence exist, also in the Global South, and in terms of internationalisation and comparative international studies, these should be capitalised on.

Hitherto the scholarly as well as the public discourse on the issue of language in education has largely evolved around the use of Afrikaans as language of learning and teaching. This article is an attempt to expand the discourse into three directions. The first is to include the other official languages as well in the discourse, secondly to consider not only the issue of language of learning and teaching, but also the study of the languages as subjects, and thirdly to take a system-wide view of the education system, assessing the extent to which the entire system is conducive to mother tongue education and to the promotion of multilingualism. The attempt is offered out of the belief that firstly, one of the preconditions for the empowerment and elevation of the official languages in South Africa to languages of learning and teaching, is the study of these languages as school subjects; and secondly out of the belief that the education sector in South Africa has a pivotal role to play in the promotion and realisation of multilingualism in South Africa. The study analyses the 2023 matric examination results, as these present a valuable perspective on these topics. The article commences with an overview of the societal-contextual and education system- contextual framework of languages in the education system of South Africa. While the desirability of education through the medium of the mother tongue has been indisputably argued, the choice or availability of language(s) of learning in teaching in any education system depends on a number offactors, including the official language of the national jurisdiction of the particular education system, and historical inertia. The teaching and learning oflanguages throughout history have occupied an important place in school curricula. Typically 25 percent of curricula time of national education systems is allocated to the study of the official language or mother tongue, and eight percent to the study of additional or foreign languages. With regard to which languages are selected for school curricula, the image of a set of concentric circles can be used. From the inside outwardly these circles denote the following: home language(s), official language(s), regional languages, world languages, and other indigenous languages. To commence with mother tongue as language of learning and teaching, despite the most congenial of constitutional guarantees and the most lofty policy statements, after thirty years since the dawn of the current socio-political dispensation, there is little evidence of the empowerment of the indigenous official languages as language of learning and teaching in education instutions. To aggravate matters, in the case of Afrikaans a trend to downscale the language as language of learning and teaching is evident, and it is difficult not to suspect animosity from government to phase out Afrikaans as language of learning and teaching. For the study of languages as subjects, it is heartening that copious space has been made available in prescribed school curricula, right up to matric level. For the National Senior Certificate (matriculation examination) at the end of Grade 12, learners are required to offer seven subjects, of which four are compulsory. The four compulsory subjects are two of the official languages (one Home Language and one First Additional Language), Mathematics or Mathematics Literacy, and Life Orientation. Furthermore, learners are required to offer three subjects, out of a list of 25 approved subjects. A maximum of two additional languages may be included in these three subjects. The 2023 matric examinations were taken in 28 languages, at all three levels namely Home Language, First Additional Language, and Second Additional Language. In the 2023 matric examination 48 385 learners completed the examination for the subject Afrikaans Home Language. This number has been growing the past five years. In the same year, 12 7 623 learners completed the examination for the subject English Home Language. It seems as if substantial numbers of Afrikaans first language speakers as well as first language speakers from the other indigenous language groups, completed the English Home Language examination. The number of matric examination candidates who took the language in Afrikaans as First Additional Language too is encouraging, and furthermore, the past five years this number has increased from 83 889 in 2018 to 9 7 654 in 2023. It appears that the picture of Afrikaans Home Language and Afrikaans Additional Language, English Home Language and English First Additional Language, and the other official languages as Home Languages, encompasses to a large extent the total image of the teaching and learning of the official languages in the South African education system. The study of the indigenous languages other than Afrikaans has not gained noteworthy traction in the South African education system the past thirty years. While the numbers of candidates who sat for the 2023 matric examination in the subjects Afrikaans Home Language and Afrikaans First and Second Additional Language, are heartening, it is for those having the interest of the Afrikaans language at heart still no reason to resign to unqualified self-complacency. In conclusion some recommendations for the improvement of practice are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to interpret the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic within the frame of the global higher education revolution. One of the striking elements of the contemporary world since 1990 is a global higher education revolution. While the most prominent feature of this revolution is massification, it is a multifaceted revolution, involving all aspects of higher education, including the curriculum, methods of teaching and learning, the academic profession, funding, relations between higher education and government and management. This article first outlines the societal drivers of this revolution, being demographic shifts, increasing affluence, the rise of knowledge economies, the neo-liberal economic revolution, the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution, the rise of multicultural societies, democratisation, individualisation and the rise of the creed of human rights and next key features of the revolution will be surveyed. The revolution is then critically evaluated by interrogating and using as yardstick the unique, indispensable mission of higher education in society. The changes that the pandemic are forcing in the higher education sector is then assessed against the potential of the disruption brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to redress or strengthen the discontents of this global higher education revolution.

The aim of this study is to investigate the scholarly impact of knowledge generated as part of doctoral studies in the field of education in South Africa. The transition rate of the 97 doctoral theses completed in the various fields of education in South Africa in 2008 into peer-reviewed articles and chapters in scholarly books, as well as the citation impact of these theses, were studied. It was found that the transition rates of these theses to journal articles and book chapters were low, as was their citation impact. Eighty three of the 97 theses did not transfer into any kind of publication, 70 out of the 97 made no citation impact, and 65 theses neither transferred to an article/a book chapter, nor did they receive any citation. The low scholarly impact of doctoral research in education in South Africa is related to a number of contextual and field-specific factors, identified in the survey of literature. The main recommendation made is the mapping of fields of education scholarship, making possible the identification of lacuna for research with high impact potential.

The aim of this article is to examine and assess Africa's higher education effort. The theoretical framework employed distinguishes between three dimensions of the higher education project: the quantitative dimension (measured in terms of higher education enrollments and enrollment ratios), the qualitative dimension, and the equality dimension. After the political and economic context of Africa as well as the historical evolution of higher education in Africa are sketched, higher education in Africa is analyzed and evaluated in terms of each of the three dimensions of quantity, quality, and equality. The development of national higher education systems really only began after the advent of independence in 1960, moved painstakingly slowly and even stagnated until the 1990s, when higher education developed an accelerated rate. While enrollment ratios, quality and equality in higher education in Africa lags behind the rest of the world, the growth in enrollments since 1990 is encouraging, and the current economic boom and political pacification of the continent bode well for the evolution of higher education in coming years and decades.

The aim of this article is to present a systematic, holistic evaluation of the South African education system, using international benchmarks as the yardstick. A theoretical model for the evaluation of a national education project is constructed. This consists of three dimensions, namely: a quantitative dimension, a qualitative dimension, and an equality dimension. International databases and the existing international taxonomies of national education systems are then used to evaluate the South African education system, along the three dimensions of the model. It is found that the weakest links are the facts that primary and secondary education enrolment ratios are not followed through to the higher education level; that input, particularly financial input, does not render a commensurate return in terms of the quality of teaching and learning, and learning outcomes; that the administrative component of the system and teacher input appear to be the two weak links in the system in this regard; and that stark inequalities exist in the education system. In conclusion, some recommendations for the improvement of practice and for further research are made.

Not only has the number of scholarly journals worldwide increased substantially in recent years but also the number of articles published in them. However, closer examination reveals that the percentage of articles actually published has remained in the region of 25%. This implies that much of researchers' time and energy has been wasted because of failure to have their research findings published. This has been occurring despite the availability of a surfeit of publications on the theme of "How to write and publish a scientific article". Analysis of the process of article writing and publishing reveals that it consists of four phases: writing and submitting an article, processes followed by the editor, actual review process by the reviewers, and how authors deal with the feedback. A literature survey shows that the last phase has not been discussed in the same detail as the other three. The authors contend that if prospective authors gave greater attention to this phase and learned from the findings outlined in this article, it would lead to an improvement in the quality of future submissions to a journal, of education in this particular case.

Some historically black schools manage to do quite well despite their circumstances, such as dire poverty. We aim at explicating some of the causal factors regarding the effectiveness of three schools in deep rural Mpumalanga, South Africa by tapping the perceptions of their learners. Data were collected from learner samples (four girls and four boys from each school, all of them black) by means of semi-structured focus group interviews. The results lead to the conclusion that the perceptions of disadvantaged black learners in this area, with respect to what contributes to their educational effectiveness, may also be understood in terms of hierarchical insights and awarenesses, the ontological basis of which seems to be successful pedagogical dialogue, with mutual acceptance as its fountainhead.

The aim of the research on which this article reports is fourfold. The first aim is to investigate the question of whether the existence of Christian-based education is justified. The second is to investigate the geographic extent of Christian-based higher education. The third is to assess the quality of Christian-based higher education. The fourth aim is to synthesise and interpret all these from a South African perspective. The findings of the research are that, based on demographic and human rights considerations, a case could be made for the existence of Christianbased higher education institutions. Christian-based higher education institutions are widely distributed, and some of these institutions have made it to the list of the highest ranked universities. However, it is argued that there is a need to develop an all-encompassing instrument to assess the extent and depth or quality of Christian-based higher education institutions. On the evidence of this international survey, a case is made out for the existence of Christian-based higher education institutions in South Africa. It is recommended that such Christian-based higher education institutions in South Africa uncompromisingly strive for the dual aims of Christian philosophical and education quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this lead article of this special issue of "Compare" is to assess the value of Jullien's vision for the field of comparative and international education today. The life, writings and ideas of Jullien are sketched, followed by a survey of the path of development of the field since the time of Jullien. In view of the exigencies of the early-twenty-first century, the article argues that Jullien's philanthropic vision holds up a beacon for a future trajectory of the field. This article also introduces the other contributions to this volume by using them to illustrate, to refine and to qualify this thesis.

Education systems are shaped by various internal and external contextual forces (De Beer, 2017). External contextual trends typically include language, demography, geography, technology, politics, and financial and economic trends. Religion represents one of these external contextual trends that can affect an education system (see Van der Walt, Potgieter & Wolhuter, 2010; Wolhuter & Van der Walt, 2018). Making use of established metableti-ccomparative methodology, this article seeks to highlight the impact of religion as a formative factor of education in the BRICS countries. Religion is treated significantly differently in the education systems of the BRICS member states. In schools in India and China, no religious activities are allowed in accordance with the respective constitutions, while any religious activities may take place in schools in Brazil, Russia and South Africa, provided that the activities comply with particular guidelines. Broadly considered, any religious activities are conducted in primary schools in Brazil, provided that attendance is voluntary. Religion in Brazilian schools is influenced by the strong position of the Roman Catholic faith in Brazilian society, which could potentially be detrimental to minority groups in Brazil (Senefonte, 2018:440). Learners in Russia, according to Russian law, are free to choose for themselves the religious module in which they wish to receive education. Schools in Russia do not, however, always implement this legislation correctly, since a school's resources actually determine which module the learners should take. The manner in which religion is being dealt with, causes unhappiness among learners and parents as they do not really have freedom of choice regarding the religious module in which they wish to receive instruction (Zöllner, 2016). The legislation in China clearly states that no religious activities may take place in public schools, yet the ruling party of China intends to enshrine tenets of atheism in learners in schools (Vickers, 2022; Wang & Froese, 2020). Compared to the other BRICS member states, China has the most officially, constitutionally recognised ethnic groups. In terms of legislation and policy formulations, the ethnic minority groups obtain various benefi s in terms of education. The wide variety of ethnic groupings poses various challenges to the government of China as the views of all these groups in the education system have to be taken into account. Various documents, including the South African Schools Act 76 of 1996, and other education policies provide clear guidelines as to how religion ought to be dealt with in South African schools. In South Africa, learners are taught various major deities worldwide. All learners in South Africa are exposed to the concept of religion through the subject Life Orientation (Grades 7-12). Teachers in South Africa face the challenge of respecting all kinds of religions and not preaching their own views on a religion. This challenge of respecting all religions can result in confl ict in schools, as learners may feel that they will be discriminated against if one type of religion is singled out, for example during assembly. This underscores the role and value of South African teachers in inculcating citizenship values (see Wolhuter, Janmaat, Van der Walt & Potgieter, 2020). The Government of India faces opposition from minority groups with regard to religion in schools as the socio-political hegemony religion is especially preferred in terms of the drafting of academic textbooks (Traub, 2018). This preferential treatment of a particular religion is contrary to the Indian constitution, as no single religion may be singled out, nor should any religion be discriminated against (Majumdar, 2018). The preference given to a particular religion in textbooks can result in a negative impact on the education system of India. The analysis and interpretation show that there is still a close relationship between religion and education in the BRICS countries. However, all five BRICS member states face different problems regarding religion and each of the five member states also deals with its problems differently. This conclusion is now unpacked in this summary, and in detail defended in the ensuing full text. In terms of dealing with religion, South Africa appears to be more tolerant than Brazil, Russia, India and China, although this tolerance still causes more problems for the South African government, in the sense of opposition from various adherents of a wide variety of faith groupings who would like schools to play a role in strengthening the religious beliefs of their children. Several court cases have been fought in South Africa as schools struggle to accommodate the wishes of all religious groups in South Africa (see Nthontho, 2020). In contrast to forces in all the BRICS countries trying to separate religion and (public) education, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the proto-charter of Human Rights Charters in the contemporary world, Article 26 states that everyone has the right to education, education should be oriented towards the total development of the child's personality, and that parents have a preferential right to decide on the type of education their children should receive. The BRICS member states can learn from each other how to deal with religion in schools, even though none have yet managed to deal satisfactorily with religion in education. The common factor among all five BRICS countries is that religion is used again and again (consciously or unconsciously) to reinforce political or ideological hegemony. It seems that the shortcoming in all these countries is pointing to a lack of recognition of the place and role of religion in the lives of their citizens and that secular-political objectives, notably the forcing of official ideological hegemony, as well as the achievement of national unity above the full recognition of religious freedom, are also stated in the education system and in citizens' choice of the kind of religious education of their children. As a result, the role of religion in creating a strong moral fibre for a society therefore never seems to come into its own. Moreover, judging by the United Nations Charter's Human Rights provisions on education, educative education (incl. teaching and learning), in accordance with its full scope of semantic value, does not currently come into its own. The same seems to be the case as regards the human right to parental advocacy with respect to religious education. The experience of the BRICS countries in terms of religion-in-education shows that it is sensible and even necessary, for example, along the path of enlarged parental speech in education and school autonomy, to allow more room for religious freedom in education. The BRICS countries are currently being proposed as the leading grouping of the Global South in a new formative world order. Against this background, current trends regarding religion-in-education in these countries therefore probably represent a bold example. However, it should nonetheless be denounced by the academic community and better examples should subsequently be extracted and presented from other national education systems from future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benchmarking is one way of ensuring academic depth and rigour in teacher education. After making a case for setting benchmarks in teacher education based on the widely recognised intra-education system contextual factors, the importance of also taking into account the external (e.g. the national-social) context in which teacher education occurs is highlighted. A five-step plan is offered for ensuring academic depth and rigour in teacher education through benchmarking. The process is illustrated with examples from the South African situation. The article concludes with an outline of the contextual conditions with which teacher educators in South Africa have to cope.

Based on the authors' wide reading in the field, this article suggests the notion of the narrative as a fitting and meaningful way of conceptualising and mapping the field of comparative education. Four prominent narratives can be identified in not only the field of comparative education (and the scholarly discourse on education) but also the public discourse on education. These are the narratives of the capability theory, neoliberal economics, the creed of human rights, and the call for social justice. These narratives are contrasted, and guidelines are offered for further research on reconstructing and reflecting on the current state of comparative education and its future trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1994, the eyes of the world have been on South Africa, observing with interest the societal reconstruction project, upon which the country had embarked. In this project, higher education is both the terrain and the perceived instrument of change. In this higher education system and its mission, the academic profession is pivotal--especially, the new up-and-coming generation of academics, who have entered the profession since 1994. Using data from the International Changing Academic Profession Survey of the academic profession, this article focuses on this new generation of South African academics: their teaching; their research and service activities; their biographical details; their international profile; their relations with institutional management; and their job satisfaction. The results of this analysis reveal that while the new generation is present in terms of numbers, they also face three challenges. These pertain to three critical areas, namely research productivity, internationalisation, and the creation of a satisfying work environment, amidst signs of seriously harmful managerialism. The article concludes with recommendations as to how to approach these challenges.

In the past 30 years, since c. 1990, a higher education revolution has taken place in all parts of the world. This has been a costly exercise, and while the global higher education revolution can boast an enrolment explosion and has opened the doors of higher education to many, it has taken place within the parameters of the neoliberal economics, meaning that the imperatives of social justice and equity have not been adequately responded to. The pivot between this contextual force of neoliberal economics and the contextual imperative for social justice in higher education is funding. South Africa is part of this global revolution, although the specific contextual ecology of the country too has had an impact on the form this revolution has been taking on. In this article, the issue of higher education funding in South Africa is investigated from the theoretical framework and with the methodological apparatus of comparative and international education. This framework and methodological apparatus are explained. Then the main tenets and context of the worldwide higher education revolution vis-à-vis the imperatives of social justice and equity are reconstructed, and the South African case is interpreted and assessed against this global canvas in order to suggest a forward trajectory for South African higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two pressing demands directed to the South African academy in the post 1994 environment, have been those of gender equity and of increasing research output. The progression of women to the higher academic ranks is a problem, not only in South Africa, but worldwide. In view of the importance attached to research output for purposes of academic promotion, raising the research output of female academics is therefore important beyond the reason of being an end in itself. This paper is a case study at one university of the intersection between these two issues. The aim is to assess the improvement of the research output of female academic members of staff relative to their male counterparts, in the post 1994 period. The data used in the study indicate a steady increase in the research output of female academics relative to their male counterparts. However, a significant gender discrepancy in this regards still remains. In conclusion some suggestions are made with regard to how to an increase in the research output of female academics may be facilitated.

While South African higher education has, in many respects, achieved remarkable achievements since 1994, a series of serious problems continue to beset the system, and a low internal (high attrition rate) and external (alignment with the employment market) efficiency. There also exist the problems of large scale youth unemployment and the policy of dual education and training which is not delivering results. Internationally one unique higher education has evolved these very same problems the Community College. This article traces the international track record of the community college and comes to a positive assessment as to its fit to the South African context.

The aim of this article is to determine to what extent South African higher education and the South African academic profession can hold their own, within the international constellation of higher education systems and academic profession contingents. The article uses the theoretical framework of current changes taking place in higher education worldwide, developed by the international CAP (Changing Academic Profession) survey of the academic profession. It also uses data emanating from the CAP survey. A disturbing picture emerges. Enrolment ratios in South Africa as well as rates of increase in enrolment ratios are lower than that of comparable higher education systems abroad. The distribution of students across various academic fields is lopsided. Scholarly productivity is low and the link between academics and society appears to be weak. The stranglehold of managerialism on South African academics is perceptibly present, and felt stronger than by academics in other countries for which data exist. Public spending on higher education is relatively low, and is receding on a steeper inclination than the international pattern. (Contains 3 tables.)

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 standards--which are measurable and quantifiable--are in place, then quality in higher education will be assured. The article uses the findings of the Changing Academic Project (CAP) to argue that quality and quality assurance in higher education have been permeated by the values and ethos of business and the discourses around efficiency and effectiveness that are driven by global competition. The Hong Kong and Singaporean cases are used as examples of policy borrowing on quality assurance. The article concludes that, given increasing private sector contribution to higher education, it has become necessary for some kind of government intervention to ensure that the higher education provided to citizens is of an acceptable quality. It also argues that quality and quality assurance have shifted from collaborative teaching and research, which promotes critical inquiry and community service, towards input/output considerations and performance measurement. (Contains 7 tables.)

Comparative Education (CE) in Teacher Education (ITE) receives little attention in the literature, and this attention is mainly focused on its decline in Western Countries. This article highlights, however, that it is not declining to the same extent in some countries in Asia, Eastern Europe and in South Africa. The study, upon which the article is based, explores a completely neglected aspect of CE in ITE--the perceptions of student teachers studying CE. The research was conducted among student primary teachers in Ireland and South Africa. Even though some similarities emerge, their perceptions are mainly divergent. It is in the analysis of this divergence, however, that a rich picture of student perceptions emerges. The main findings are: the Irish students knew much less about CE than their South African counterparts, and their main motivation for studying CE was to enable them to work abroad, whereas the South African students wanted to learn about other systems of education in order to improve Education in South Africa. Other findings concerning the extent to which CE is considered to enable student teachers to improve their teaching, are interesting and these are considered in the discussion section. (Contains 4 tables and 1 note.)

This article investigates the relationship between effective organizational culture and student discipline in a boys' boarding house at an urban South African school. Ethnographical methods (observation and interviews) were employed. The study reports on the results pertaining to organizational culture, namely, tangible manifestations of the organizational culture, that is, traditions, ceremonies, symbols, and the external and internal appearance of the boarding house. It also reports on the intangible manifestations, that is, students' and teachers' beliefs and the mission, vision, values, and norms of the boarding house itself. In conclusion, an explanation is tendered for the positive relationship that can be shown to exist between the organizational culture and learner discipline. (Contains 2 notes.)

This article is part of an international research project which is investigating the changing nature of the academic profession in twenty-two countries in the twenty-first century. This article focuses on the discourses of global competition; the permeation of a business ethos and higher education values; the quest for efficiency; diversification and changes in funding frameworks; and the increasing demand for higher education. The article draws from results of surveys made in the academic profession in South Africa in order to examine, firstly, the nature of the academic profession in South Africa and highlights the impacts of the global economy and new managerialism on institutional structures. Secondly, the article explores how these changes have brought about changes in the roles of academics and management in higher education institutions in South Africa. The article examines institutional demands on academics as a response to these changes, the permeation of business values and ethos in higher education institutions, and their implications for the academic profession and individual academics. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)

This paper surveys the past, present and future of teacher training in South Africa, in the context of the educational and societal reconstruction of South Africa. Before the twentieth century the bulk of the country's teachers were imported from Europe. In the twentieth century first a teacher-pupil system, then a system of teachers' training colleges and universities was used to train teachers. Towards the end of the previous political dispensation (which ended in 1994) enrolments had swollen, for social and political reasons rather than a rationally predicted demand for teachers, to the point that there was a gross over supply of teachers by 1994. The post-1994 societal and educational reconstruction program necessitated a complete overhaul of teacher training, the details of which are discussed below. Currently an ominous supply-demand imbalance is looming in the near future. This is, by all accounts, a world wide problem, and the paper concludes with suggestions for comparative education research to address this problem.

Learner discipline has been a major issue in South African schools for some time now. The issue of learner discipline in schools is complicated in that it involves at least six dimensions: the learner-, teacher-, school-, education system-, parental or family- and society-related dimensions. The purpose of this article is to present the results of a study on one of the hitherto under-researched dimensions of this complex issue, namely the dimension concerning the parents of school-going children. The article presents the results of a survey done on a purposive sample of 402 parents of learners at schools in two South African provinces. The survey explored the respondents’ views of the state of discipline of their children at home, their relationships with their children in the home environment, their views regarding discipline problems at school, their views on the management of learner discipline in schools and their views on the role of parents in curbing the discipline problems of their children at school. The investigation revealed that the respondents understood the need for sound discipline of their children both at home and at school, for a healthy parent-school partnership and for cooperation in this regard. They also displayed a positive view of the state of discipline of their children at home and at school, of their own and the schools’ management of learner discipline problems and of their own role as parents in terms of parent–school relations. However, when viewed together with research that examined the experience of learners, principals and teachers, and with evidence regarding the broader society, the respondents in this study seemed to be living with a false sense of complacency in that they tended to think that the discipline of their children at home and in school was as good as could be expected. Such a complacent attitude on the part of parents is detrimental to the maintenance of sound discipline both at home and at school. This research fills a lacuna in research in on the issue of learner discipline in schools, South African schools in particular in that it focused on the parental–family-home dimension. This project has underlined the importance of follow-up research for the purpose of exploring ways in which not only unwarranted parental complacency about the situation can be countered but also the (in)discipline displayed by learners at home and in school. [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]

Copyright of Acta Paedagogica Vilnensia is the property of Vilnius University 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.)

Currently education is widely looked upon as a panacea for all societal ills and challenges, and the global community is feverishly pursuing the provision of education to all. This article is a position paper defending the thesis that in the crusade of education for all, and the theoretical superstructure directing the discourse about education for all, a set of vulnerable groups in society has become invisible. The aim of this article is to bring this set of vulnerable groups into the map of the public and academic discourse on education and to serve as prolegomena for the drafting of a research agenda for the provision of education to these groups. The article commences with an outline of the historical evolution of models of social stratification dominant in both the public discourse and analyses in the social sciences. The prototype was Marx's model that laid down socio-economic status as the main dimension of social stratification. This dimension was later supplemented by two additional dimensions, with the result that the public and academic discourse about equality has come to be dominated by the so-called trinity of inequality: socio-economic status, gender and race or ethnicity. Through the cracks of this model have fallen a number of vulnerable groups, which have, therefore, disappeared from the public and academic discourse. Vulnerable groups in society can be defined as people who, because of a set ofparticular circumstances, do not have access to the same set of social support systems to which people typically have access. These systems include family structures (including structures of the extended family), systems of the immediate community in which these people live, governmental structures (such as access to social grants or protection offered by labour laws) and the various forms of capital identified by Bourdieu, namely physical or economic capital, cultural capital and social capital. The article enumerates and briefly discusses the following categories of vulnerable groups (without claiming this list to be exhaustive): refugees, dislodged people or illegal immigrants; the unemployed; street children; people dependent on social grants; parentless or guardianless children; the destitute; domestic workers; the poor; chronically ill people; people living from garbage; and car guards. Against this occurrence of vulnerable people in society, the potential of education as an ameliorative force should be assessed. After being on the fringe of society for centuries (even millennia) and being viewed as of no economic value, the decades after the Second World War suddenly saw an appreciation for the value of education. Causal factors to this new belief include the fact that adult literacy on a world level reached the 50% mark in 1955, the founding of UNESCO and the appearance of the Human Capital and Modernisation Theory. In a short time, education has come to be seen as a solution to every societal ill. Advocates for education can indeed marshal a raft of empirical research supporting their belief. However, the ameliorative societal effect of education is no universal, deterministic law. The societal effect depends on the learner(s) and the contextual ecology (geography, demography, social system, economy, political system and religio- and life philosophical systems) of each case. Therefore, while education appears to be the obvious way to empower people finding themselves to be members ofvulnerable categories, for this potential of education to be realised, the explication of the contextual ecology of each of the vulnerable categories should be placed on the Education research agenda, followed by a development plan for education for each group, based on the results of such analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter commences by depicting the rise of Africa as a force on the world map as a contextual background for a survey of the education expansion and reform project on the continent in the past 65 years - arguably the biggest education expansion drive in human history. The main lines of the education expansion and education reform in Africa are reconstructed. Education in Africa is then assessed in terms of three dimensions: quantitative, qualitative, and equalization. While being nothing short of spectacular, the education project in Africa faces severe challenges, on all three fronts of the quantitative expansion, quality, and equality dimensions. At the same time, as the African continent is embracing the world of the twenty-first century, this changed world is also adding its share of imperatives to education. Finally, the role of comparative international scholarship in negotiating these imperatives and challenges is noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]