South African Journal of Higher Education

South African state-led pro-Palestinian activism and the reluctance of the academe to show solidarity

2025-09-08T08:12:10+00:00

South Africa’s higher education landscape remains fragmented and uneven, shaped by a long history of colonialism and apartheid. In this context, this article interrogates the inertia and silence of many South African universities in response to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Palestine, particularly the destruction of educational institutions and loss of academic lives. While the South African government has adopted an unapologetically pro-Palestinian stance—pursuing legal action through international courts—this principled political position has not filtered meaningfully into higher education institutions or the wider public discourse. The article explores the reasons behind the sector’s divergent responses, which range from muteness to active solidarity, and questions the thresholds of tolerance that seem to govern academic inaction. It argues that universities have an ethical and political obligation to engage in development activism as a form of academic activism.

Restorative justice principles: A leadership framework to de-escalate unrests in South African higher educational institutions

2025-09-03T14:00:10+00:00

The persistent unrest in South African higher education highlights the pressing need for an innovative approach to conflict resolution. This conceptual article explores restorative justice as a leadership framework to overcome this societal menace. Traditional approaches to managing unrest have proven insufficient to address the root causes of conflict. This article adopts a conceptual research design of a theory synthesis approach within the transformative paradigm. This involves reviewing, analysing, and conceptualising the integration of existing concepts and theories or literature streams. Restorative justice grounded in the value of empathy, accountability, and collaboration offers a transformative approach to promoting a culture of trust and mutual respect. This article emphasises the essential role of education leaders in championing this framework, emphasising strategies such as articulating a shared vision, providing professional development, creating supportive structures and modelling restorative practices. It is concluded that leaders who embrace restorative justice principles can de-escalate conflicts, enhance relationships and promote social cohesion.

The influence of teachers outreach to parents on students academic success

2025-08-29T05:49:53+00:00

This study examines the crucial impact of teacher-parent communication on students' academic achievement, with a specific focus on the Nigerian environment. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of parental involvement in education, socio-economic, cultural, and technological hurdles exacerbate the difficulties in effective communication, limiting teachers' efforts to engage parents. This study used a quantitative research approach to examine the influence of different communication strategies used by teachers and parents on the academic performance of students in four secondary schools located in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. The regression analysis findings indicate a robust association between successful teacher-parent communication and enhanced kid academic performance, highlighting the crucial importance of regular and high-quality interactions. The study emphasizes the need to use efficient communication tactics in order to improve parental engagement and, as a result, enhance student academic performance. This study enhances our understanding of the intricate nature of teacher-parent relationships and how they impact educational outcomes. It emphasizes the importance of continuously exploring and adapting communication strategies in response to the changing educational environment.

This article's structure is as follows: The background section delves into the importance of teacher-parent communication and its influence on students' academic achievement. The Aims and Objectives sections delineate the study's principal objectives and specific targets. The sections on research questions and problem statements outline the fundamental inquiries and contextual obstacles under investigation. The literature review analyzes prior research on teacher-parent communication, including various communication approaches, their effectiveness, and the challenges encountered. The Research Methods section provides a detailed account of the approach utilized in this study. The analysis section thoroughly examines and explains the gathered quantitative data. The Interpretation and Discussion section offers an in-depth examination of the results and their significance for educational practices. The conclusion follows, summarizing the study's contributions.

Issues of authorship threatening research integrity: Pointers for ethical publication practices

2025-09-03T14:11:49+00:00

Publication imperatives have insidious consequences resulting in academic misconduct and “ghostly” authorship practices. If not exposed, these behaviours threaten research integrity and credibility in higher education. This article explores the systemic forces spawning gaming practices regarding the incentives in the neoliberal era and the implications for science. An investigation of ethical publication practice information was conducted by analysing the author guidelines of the 163 journals where academics in the largest faculty at a research-intensive university published articles in 2022. Findings reveal the issues where guidelines are not consistently clear and information not easily accessible. Guidelines for ethical publication practices regarding journal guidelines for authors, collegial discussion, research integrity education, and author support could contribute to constructively navigating the pressures associated with ethical publication.

Global citizenship education and the subversion human injustices: A philosophical inquiry

2025-10-06T16:41:37+00:00

Literature on Global Citizenship Education (GCE) abounds, spanning a wide range of theoretical, pedagogical, and policy perspectives. Our own work accentuates GCE as an autonomous, deliberative, and decolonial praxis aimed at cultivating social and democratic justice through critical engagement and ethical responsibility. Yet, when one surveys the existing body of scholarship on global human injustices, what emerges is a sobering pattern of persistent and systemic violations of human rights, particularly evident in regions such as Northern Africa, Palestine, and Ukraine. These contexts expose the tensions between the aspirations of GCE and the realities of structural violence and geopolitical domination. In this article, we therefore revisit and reconceptualise a plausible notion of GCE, arguing that the continuing atrocities and gross human rights violations across the world undermine the legitimate enactment and transformative potential of GCE as a vehicle for justice and solidarity.

Understanding academic literacy facilitators’ perceptions of ChatGPT through framing theory

2025-08-29T05:51:44+00:00

Currently, ChatGPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer) causes disruption in sectors that run the gamut from retail and marketing to journalism and healthcare. This chatbot also affects higher education, with scholars either extolling its potential or accentuating its pitfalls. Advantages of early adoption of ChatGPT include fostering students’ self-directed learning and developing their research skills, while disadvantages mainly reflect educators’ concerns that it may harm the integrity of online examinations and make it difficult, if not impossible, to detect plagiarism. To determine educators’ perceptions with respect to the nature and application of ChatGPT in the context of students’ academic writing, this study conducted focus-group discussions with academic literacy facilitators from a South African tertiary institution. Working within a qualitative research paradigm and employing thematic analysis as a broad methodological approach, discussions were analysed using framing theory. The latter is a sociological concept based on the notion that a phenomenon exhibits myriad values, given that it is perceived through different frames that, in turn, impact the choices people make about that phenomenon. Understanding how educators perceive the nature of ChatGPT and to what extent they accept it paves the way towards challenging unrealistic expectations about ChatGPT’s human-like capabilities and addressing the ethical concerns that educators may have about its deployment in the writing classroom.

E-learning lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic experience for built environment education in Zimbabwe

2025-05-28T05:29:38+00:00

The COVID-19 pandemic and response efforts unprecedentedly disrupted social and economic activities worldwide. In the tertiary education sector, e-learning was embraced as a response during the pandemic. While this transition was important, learners in Zimbabwe experienced unprecedented challenges. This study investigates e-learning challenges and lessons for built environment education during the COVID-19 pandemic. A case study design was adopted wherein an online questionnaire was distributed and received from 471 built environment students of a selected public university in Zimbabwe. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean score (MS) and exploratory factor analysis were adopted for data analysis. Factor analysis revealed five (5) factors affecting a fruitful e-learning experience for built environment students: preparedness for e-learning, social interaction, technological and infrastructure issues, work ethic and e-learning literacy issues, and online class size and student attendance. The study highlights the importance of adopting policy interventions to promote economy to access data, acquire information communication technology (ICT) gadgets, and use interactive online platforms that encourage learner-to-learner and learner-to-instructor engagement. Considering that the study is based on the views of students from one institution of higher learning, caution should be exercised when generalising the results to other universities.

Technology-assisted doctoral supervision: Practice and lessons from Anglo-Saxon universities in Cameroon

2025-09-03T13:38:57+00:00

This study investigates how technology-assisted doctoral supervision in teacher education can improve the quality of the supervision process in Cameroon. It is an exploratory sequential mixed method which involves an initial qualitative phase with PhD students followed by a quantitative phase with PhD supervisors. The study was situated in the Affordances Theory mooted by Gibson (1979) that explains how technological affordances can support the supervisory process. The snowball sampling technique was used to select n=80 PhD students using 9 focus group discussion and n=210 doctoral supervisors who responded to the questionnaire. The qualitative data was analysed using thematic-content method while the quantitative data was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25.0, frequency counts and percentages and Pearson parametric test. Findings showed that there is a significant and positive relationship between the use of ICT tools on doctoral supervision and students’ output. Also, the non-use of ICT tools was found to have a slightly negative effect on doctoral supervision. While the use of ICTs by both supervisors and PhD supervisees was evident, it was mostly limited to phone calls and WhatsApp due to inadequate skills in ICT. With issues of globalization, crisis and pandemics, technology is relevant to improve on doctoral supervision. It is, therefore, recommended that the use of technology should be included in postgraduate pedagogy and teacher education to improve on the quality of doctoral supervision. A similar research work can be carried out in other universities in Cameroon and developing economies to corroborate the findings. A comparative analysis is relevant for generalization and improvement in doctoral supervision.

Healthcare sciences students perceptions of integrating dgital healthcare into the higher education curriculum

2025-09-03T13:32:12+00:00

To ensure healthcare professionals excel in a digitally advanced healthcare landscape, they must receive proper training. This study aimed to evaluate the awareness and perspectives of Healthcare Sciences students from various disciplines at a South African higher education institution regarding the integration of digital healthcare into the curriculum. A descriptive quantitative research design was employed, with data collected via an online questionnaire addressing awareness, perceived benefits, and challenges related to digital healthcare curriculum inclusion. Out of 138 participants, 52.9 per cent (n=73) reported a poor understanding of digital healthcare, and 79.7 per cent (n=110) indicated they had not taken a digital health course during their training. A statistically significant correlation (p=0.00) was found between awareness and formal training, suggesting that poor awareness is linked to a lack of formal training. Participants identified the potential benefit of using digital healthcare platforms to open a practice after graduation. However, 55 per cent (n=76) expressed concern that digital healthcare training might negatively affect cultural competence as a clinical skill. Health Sciences training institutions should integrate digital health skills into the core curriculum, emphasizing an experience-based approach. The curriculum should include patient interaction, cultural dynamics, standards and ethics, and technical skill development.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité: Changing erroneous conceptions of continuous assessment

2025-09-03T14:13:48+00:00

Scholars agree that assessment drives teaching and learning, which highlights the fact that the purpose of assessment is to enhance learning. In the framework of self-directed learning (SDL), the benefit of assessment for learning is promotion of SDL skills, such as critical thinking. Yet, data gathered from staff and students from a university’s education faculty during the first semester of 2023 (after three years of implementing continuous assessment) suggest that staff and students have distorted perceptions of continuous assessment and continue to struggle with it. Instead of being able to freely utilise the opportunity to promote learning in their respective disciplines, lecturers seem to be burdened by constraining programmes of assessment and administration, while students experience continuous assessment as nothing more than the challenge to complete multiple summative tasks, mostly in written form. This paper addresses misconceptions about continuous assessment in education. With the correct conceptual understanding comes the freedom to manage and facilitate assessment in diverse disciplines, to realise students’ critical thinking skills. We aim to demonstrate what is possible across the faculty, to set a common goal of excellence in assessment, and to foster enthusiasm for exploring possibilities in training innovative teachers. The participants completed one open-ended questionnaire aimed at gauging their assessment literacy. We share the findings that emerged from data analysis that involved assigning codes using ATLAS.ti™.

Technological support initiatives in living and learning communities: Insights from undergraduate students experiences

2025-08-29T05:51:00+00:00

In the past decade, the prevalence of electronic media has witnessed a notable escalation in use predominantly attributed to the increasing sway of digitalization. Covid-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions across the global educational landscape, precipitating digitalization. The widespread cessation of in-person lectures necessitated a swift transition to eLearning modalities and other institutional digital platforms. Despite the student’s status in terms of technology use preparedness, online classes and resource have been rolled out to ensure a continuation of education delivery in universities. Durban University of Technology (DUT) adopted an integrated learning management systems for its classes and introduced courses aimed at training students on the use of institutional digital platforms. These transformative efforts, assist students in the adjustment to the unexpected educational paradigm shift despite persistent challenges for technology literacy. Undergraduate students grapple with the constraints of disadvantaged technological skills, educational backgrounds, despite the infusion of supplementary support programs. The Technology for Learning (TFL) is a learning program introduced to train first year students on all DUT online learning management systems like Moodle, Office 365 suite, Ms Teams and OneDrive system in their Living and Learning Communities (LLCs). The primary focus of this research was to examine the contribution of TFL to the technology adaptation of undergraduate students into university life guided by the Technology Acceptance Model and the Social Constructivism theory. A qualitative approach was applied. Two focus group discussions involving 20 first-year student participants engaged in TFL training sessions across two LLCs were used to gather invaluable insights and experiences. The findings suggest, as a support program, TFL significantly impacted undergraduates’ students learning by fostering the adoption and understanding of learning management systems use in HEIs. Key themes emerging from the study included heightened confidence in information search and grasp. There was an indication of better understanding of institutional learning management systems. Based on these results, the study recommends a continuation of the ongoing development of TFL support initiatives within LLCs housing undergraduate students. These initiatives have the potential to provide additional support education to technologically disadvantaged students navigate a fast-paced learning environment, thereby ensuring that no student is left behind.

Threshold concepts: linking complex meaning in financial instruments with students’ prior knowledge in accounting and their lived experiences

2024-05-04T13:28:00+00:00

Educators often face challenges in teaching accounting concepts and terminology in a way that helps students truly understand their meaning. In the specialised field of financial instruments, identifying and foregrounding the complex meanings of threshold concepts is often challenging. This study identifies five threshold concepts in accounting for financial instruments and describes how these concepts are bounded in the financial accounting discipline. Student participants describe how they navigate through the liminal space of troublesome knowledge to transformative knowledge and whether these concepts, once grasped, enable the irreversibility of knowledge and understanding. The findings indicate that students experienced the concepts conceptually difficult and troublesome, specifically relating to language. The findings suggest that connecting threshold concepts with prior knowledge and contextualising their meaning with students’ lived experiences led to irreversible knowledge.

A four frame analysis of factors impacting the uptake of the scholarship of teaching ad learning in a college of education

2025-05-27T14:40:26+00:00

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) lies at the intersection of various disciplines and involves post-secondary practitioners conducting inquiries into teaching and student learning for the purpose of improving teaching and learning. While the SoTL is present in the South African higher education institution’s strategic goals, there exists a challenge in the uptake of the SoTL by academics. Literature reveals several tensions between academic disciplines and the SoTL identities, namely workload and time, disciplinary-based and methodological-based disparities, the relative “value” of SoTL in relation to disciplinary research, lack of knowledge around what the SoTL is, and/or what it entails, which all serve as some of the challenges facing the growth of the SoTL. In an attempt to place the practice of, and challenges to the SoTL in context, this phenomenology sought to explore the impediments to the SoTL at a South African higher education institution through the lens of the Four Frame Analysis (Bolman and Deal 2008). The frame serves as an agent to disrupt conventional wisdom prevalent within institutional cultures, to shift thinking and to enable leaders to uncover the levers and barriers of the SoTL. Findings indicate the importance of aligning and resourcing of the SoTL strategic goals. Recommendations include professional development in the area of the SoTL and the review of funding and rewards strategies that impede the multi- and inter-disciplinary SoTL.

Researching indigenous knowledge (IK) in higher education in Zimbabwe: prospects and challenges.

2025-09-03T14:10:42+00:00

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) discourses are confronted by several challenges ranging from methodological, attitudinal, political and financial in nature, yet IK’s agency in 21^st century Africa and beyond cannot be doubted. In this article, we show that although a small number of academics are actively engaging in Indigenous Knowledge (IK) research, there remains limited support from other stakeholders along the IK value chain. The data were gathered through in-depth interviews with IK scholars, a review of relevant literature, and informal discussions with colleagues. The data was collated into a narrative and content analysis was used to analyse it. This article made the thesis that a handful of academia in Zimbabwe is doing commendable research on IK but the missing link is that their efforts are not complemented by stakeholders for communities to sustainably benefit from research. There must be “ringed funding” towards IK and a seamless chain of flow of research output from the researchers to the policy makers, implementors and the public as the end users of that information. The connecting cogs in this value chain are conspicuously not connecting.

A study of year three and year four science education student teachers’ nature of science beliefs and their science teaching and learning beliefs

2025-08-29T05:47:50+00:00

The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of science (NOS) beliefs, science teaching and learning beliefs held by year-three and year-four science education student teachers, and how those beliefs related to each other. The study was underpinned by the epistemological development theory. Researchers conducted a quantitative study involving one hundred and eighty-four year-three and year-four students enrolled in a four-year Bachelor of Education degree. The study revealed that: (i) year-four student teachers held significantly more sophisticated NOS beliefs than year-three students; (ii) year-four science teaching and learning beliefs were significantly “reformed oriented” than year-three students, and (iii) no statistically significant correlation existed between the year-three respondents’ NOS beliefs as against their science teaching and learning beliefs. However, there was a statistically significant linear association between the students’ NOS beliefs and their science teaching and learning beliefs at year-four level.

Using first year curriculum principles as an evidence-based approach to design and evaluate a first year seminar

2025-09-03T14:01:06+00:00

This paper expands on and contributes to work in the field of transition in higher education, specific to the First Year Seminar (FYS). Although several studies have examined the efficacy of FYS programmes in supporting students’ transition into university, there is not much literature with a clear focus on the planning, execution, and evaluation of these programmes, particularly in the South African context. As such, the aim of this study is to use an evidence-based approach to design and evaluate an FYS. The research methodology draws on the constructive paradigm and makes use of a non-experimental, qualitative research design by employing a document analysis. Curriculum documents from the FYS at the University of the Free State (UFS) are analysed to answer the research question, “how can evidence-based FYS programmes be designed?” The study draws on Transition Pedagogy as the conceptual framework, specifically focusing on its First Year Curriculum Principles for design. Key findings indicate that the nature of the FYS at the UFS – a hybrid seminar integrated into the curriculum across all faculties – does meet the criteria for evaluating FYCPs. However, this investigation was also useful in determining ways to improve the design of this FYS to better support students’ transition into university. The implications of these findings are promising for the development of well-designed and evidence-based FYS programmes as core contributors to supporting first-year students’ transition into university.

Gender equity in leading a South African private higher education institution

2025-05-27T14:39:11+00:00

There is a scarcity of research focusing on gender equity in higher education leadership in the African context or reference to the standing of gender equity in the private higher education institution. Thus, this study sought to explore gender equity in leading a South African private higher education institution. Using a generic qualitative research approach, data collection was undertaken using semi-structured interviews, and a focus group with eight institutional leaders from a South African private higher education institution. The data from the study revealed that gender stereotypes persist in private higher education institutions, defining which roles women must hold and how they must be managed and regarded inside the institution. As demonstrated by the study's findings, there is no clear policy on leadership appointments, which leads to unfair practices in selecting leaders, such as an old boys club that advances male leaders. As a result, defining leadership and its responsibilities and context becomes significant. It is recommended that South African private higher education institutions establish a comprehensive, transparent policy on leadership and the support thereof, recognising the dual track faced by women in the policy to advance gender equity in the leading of these institutions.