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Pre-service teacher education lecturers’ constructions and enactment of critical thinking.
(2025) Trim, Carolyn Faye.; Samuel, Michael Anthony.
Critical thinking (CT) is mandated in South African education policy as essential for educational transformation, yet its implementation relies heavily on individual practitioners. While extensive literature explores CT's theoretical value, limited empirical research examines how lecturers actually understand and practice CT in their everyday teaching contexts. This study investigated how Pre-Service Teacher Education (P-STE) lecturers construct and enact critical thinking, and the factors influencing their practices. The research employed an interpretive single-site case study design at one independent higher
education institution in eThekwini, South Africa. Six P-STE lecturers participated through lecture observations and semi-structured interviews. The study used currere as a theoretical lens to examine curriculum and policy documents mandating CT, while the Forcefield Model of Teacher Development helped identify influences on lecturers' CT constructions. Thematic analysis was applied to generate findings addressing the research questions. Key findings revealed that education policy mandated CT implementation without providing conceptual clarity about what CT entails or how it should be taught and learned. This gap left lecturers with limited practical guidance for implementation. Lecturers' understanding of CT was primarily shaped by their disciplinary backgrounds, which drew heavily from Western university traditions encountered during their own undergraduate education. Their CT enactments reflected these experiential encounters, with additional minor influences from home environments and high school experiences. The study concluded that in South Africa's complex educational context, lecturers draw from diverse sources, including disciplinary knowledge, higher education experiences, schooling, and personal backgrounds, to create their own approaches to CT. These self-constructed assemblages reflect lecturers' ingenuity in addressing the absence of clear implementation guidance. The research recommends that CT development would benefit from more deliberate national and institutional support that clarifies not only CT's theoretical importance but also provides practical implementation strategies, thereby better supporting P-STE lecturers in fostering critical thinking skills.
Risk management as an aid to improve student throughput.
(2024) Ramlall, Rajesh.; Ramrathan, Labby.
The South African higher education system is still challenged by low throughput rates. Despite the phenomenon being examined from various perspectives, the problem still persists. Measures to address the situation has had limited success thus far. The purpose of the study was to explore the use of risk management as a tool to identify and manage the risk of low student throughput rates paying particular attention at the Durban University of Technology. A case study methodology located within the interpretive paradigm was employed in this mixed method study. The interpretive paradigm enabled the researcher to focus on the individual perspective and experiences. The quantitative participants were second- and third-year students in the Accounting cluster (Durban Campus). Qualitative data was generated through semi structured interviews. Quantitative data was obtained through surveys issued to students. Qualitative data used a purposive sampling technique and quantitative data used simple random sampling. A limitation of the study was that it was based on a single institution. Based on the findings of the study it is recommended that the university adopt a risk management approach in relation to low throughput rates. In addition, the university should craft an ‘at-risk’ policy that provides specific details on the identification and management of ‘at-risk’ students. The policy should be widely disseminated to all relevant stakeholders.
Accessing audiology: epistemological experiences of newly qualified audiologists.
(2025) Makhoba, Goodenough Musawenkosi.; Reddy, Sarasvathie.; Pillay, Mershen.
Audiology was introduced in South Africa in 1936, originally to train exclusively White, Afrikaans, and English-speaking students to serve hearing-impaired patients from the same demographics. Although South Africa’s democratic transition has expanded access to higher education, including Audiology training for Black African First Language Speaking (BAFLS) students, the extent of epistemological access (the ability to engage with knowledge, meaningfully) remains largely unexplored empirically. As a result, this study addressed this gap by examining the experiences of newly qualified BAFLS Audiologists as they navigated undergraduate Audiology curriculum and the subsequent impact of those experiences on their professional practice. Guided by the hermeneutic phenomenological approach, this qualitative study drew on semi structured interviews with 10 newly qualified Audiology graduates from a South African university. These graduates were purposively selected to reflect their diversity in terms of linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds. Through content analysis, data were analysed into pre-existing parent themes derived from the theoretical framework. Thereafter, thematic analysis was used to identify emergent themes. Participants reported significant barriers to epistemological access during their undergraduate studies. These barriers included linguicism, racism, classism, and a Eurocentric curriculum that excluded Afrocentric perspectives. Teaching and assessment practices were often perceived as biased against the BAFLS students, leading to surface learning. Hence, the BAFLS students felt underprepared for a more Afrocentric clinical practice, citing insufficient theoretical grounding and difficulty bridging academic knowledge with professional skills. Participants also highlighted positive experiences with BAFLS lecturers, who, in their experiences, exercised more relatable mentorship and teaching approaches. In professional settings, they continued to face systemic exclusion, particularly in private practice, alongside ongoing racism, and classism. The persistence of Eurocentrism in both academic and clinical environments was a dominant theme. Overall, the undergraduate Audiology curriculum at the University of Interest (pseudonym) remains predominantly Eurocentric, limiting the epistemological access for BAFLS students and their preparedness for Afrocentric or contextually relevant practice. Although existing models of transformation have been proposed to recontextualise the profession, they largely remain unimplemented. As a result, this study calls for a Radical Implementation of Fundamental Transformation (RIFT) framework, which emphasises enforcing and operationalising these models to ensure a more inclusive and Afrocentric Audiology curriculum. Such transformation is critical for equipping BAFLS students with the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the diverseneeds of South Africa’s population.
Acute kidney replacement in children with acute kidney injury at Nelson Mandela children hospital: a single-centre experience.
(2024) Mahlase, Lindokuhle Gabriel.; Naicker, Elaene.; Levey, Cecil.
Overview is available in a PDF.
Succession planning as a tool to manage leadership turnover in Historically Disadvantaged Higher Education Institutions in South Africa.
(2023) Ngcobo, Raynolds Thabo.; Bhasela, Yalezo.
Leadership turnover remains a worldwide perennial challenge to institutions of higher learning. Against this background, this to study investigated how Historically Disadvantaged Higher Education Institutions in South Africa use succession planning as a tool to manage leadership turnover, focussing on the management of leadership turnover, establishing current practice in implementing their succession planning policies, analysing how they mediate the tension between succession planning policies and recruitment policies, ascertaining the implications of their succession planning policies and practices for leadership development, and investigating if leadership succession planning is incorporated into their talent management strategies. The descriptive research design was adopted to understand the effect of succession planning on leadership turnover. Qualitative research was conducted to understand and explain the subject matter under investigation. Seven Historically Disadvantaged Higher Education Institutions in South Africa, located in four provinces: Western Cape, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal, were selected for this study. The targeted population was approximately fifty participants, comprising Deputy Vice Chancellors, Registrars, Deans of Faculties and Executive Directors. Using the purposive sampling technique, twelve participants, who constituted the accessible population, were further selected. To collect primary data, semi-structured interviews were used. The data collected was then manually transcribed and analysed using the NVivo, Version 13.0 software, and thematic analysis to generate, organise and report the main and sub-themes emerging from the study. Findings showed that turnover at leadership levels in Historically Disadvantaged Higher Education Institutions could be managed through different strategies including, offering favourable terms and conditions of employment, internal and/or external recruitment, internal promotions, employee training and development, identification of people with potential, leadership involvement, and advance human resource planning. This study provides an in-depth understanding and knowledge of leadership succession planning in the seven Historically Disadvantaged Higher Education Institutions in South African and recommends that they continue to invest and implement in succession planning to manage leadership turnover through customised formalised processes.