Projects

The aim of this research stream is to contribute to what is known about initial teacher education in relation to beliefs, knowledge, and skills that prospective teachers in South Africa receive in preparation for their roles in promoting equity, quality and contributing to building the future resource base for inclusive growth. It will focus on the following key challenges which has emerged in recent times:

• Crises, disruption and education delivery: unpacking new approach to pedagogy using new Technologies.
• Recounting the history of the evolution of teacher education policy in South Africa: a policy trajectory study.

A key priority is to address the “considerable” challenges facing teacher education and development in South Africa at the present time. In this respect, continuous teacher professional development programmes (CPD) are important for a number of reasons. They build both the teacher’s broad knowledge base and ensure that they remain continuously updated and responsive to key policy changes in education. At the same time, CPD serves to deepen the specialist skills in their subject or learning area by keeping abreast of new knowledge and developments in these knowledge domains. CPD also offers teachers the opportunity to improve their teaching and learning practice. These opportunities can be organized in the form of lectures, seminars, and workshops, but also, they can take the form of various other learning opportunities such as mentoring, coaching, participation in professional learning communities, or even through the curriculum.

• CPD to support inclusive education.
• CPD in Africa.
• Development of CPD impact tools.

This programme of research will interrogate the relationship between social citizenship, education, and inequality in South Africa. The main question underpinning this research stream is: what impact has educational inequality had on understandings of and the exercise of social citizenship in South Africa and how have these influenced ideas of a South African ‘good society’ based on social justice that is socially inclusive.

• Social upheavals and their implication on education.
• Research policy nexus.

This stream will include rigorous research about existing education interventions that seek to improve education quality and equity for all. This research stream aims to understand and identify explicitly what works and what doesn’t work, enabling and constricting factors that impact their efficacy and to understand under what conditions they do work.

• Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)