A series of policy shifts over the past decade promises to change how Americans decide where to send their children to school. In theory, the expanded use of standardized test scores and the boom in charter schools will allow parents to evaluate their assigned neighborhood school, or move in search of a better option. But what kind of data do…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' perceptions of the challenges that they face and the factors that facilitate and impede teaching and learning within the context of transformation at the University of the Witwatersrand. The paper also explores students' perceptions of transformation directly and their ideas related to…

One spring afternoon, a group of young black students enter a local eating establishment with one modest desire--to sit with friends and enjoy a cup of coffee. They wait patiently, but are only served dirty looks, cold shoulders, and some choice words. Such an experience was not uncommon in Chicago in the early 1940s. Segregation, though illegal,…

African mourning of loss of lives in South Africa has been shaped by discursive practices of both traditional African cultures and the sociopolitical developments under apartheid and in post-apartheid South Africa. This article reports on changes in mourning practices on the basis of a literature review and uses a collection of examples to…

Nearly six decades after "Brown" v. "Board of Education," the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that ushered in an era of efforts to integrate public schools, charter school advocates and researchers are shining a light on a number of those independent public schools that are integrated by design. Two new reports--one from…

This paper is concerned with three possible theoretical relationships, between education and social, economic and political development, that--(a) education improves society, (b) education reproduces society as it is and (c) education actually makes society worse. The paper then uses South Africa as a case study to critically analyse these…

In spite of numerous definitions of quality, consensus on what constitutes quality is less clear and contested. Using South Africa as a case study, this paper explores the current conceptual thinking and debates about education quality. Specifically the paper reviews selected South African policy texts to identify how some of the global dimensions…

This article examines student perceptions of racial segregation on campus in terms of interaction across racial groups. Theories of colorblind racial ideology are used to interpret data from 14 group interviews focusing on 1.) the degree to which cross-group interaction is desired, 2.) perceptions of racial separation among students at a…

The article examines the enactment of culturally relevant progressivism on the part of the principal of the Social Justice School, a small urban public high school explicitly committed to democratic education. Drawing upon extensive interviews and field observations conducted over the course of an academic year by a teacher-researcher within the…

In this article, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley illuminates the challenges and opportunities posed by demographic change in suburban school systems. As expanding student populations stretch the enrollment capacities of existing schools in suburban communities, new schools are built and attendance lines are redrawn. This redistricting process can be used…

South African higher education institutions, in line with international practice and as a result of the "social turn", are progressing towards mainstream academic literacy support for students. This shift has a political dimension in South Africa where, historically, disadvantage has had racial dimensions, in its departure from…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to provide analysis and insight which addresses the over-determined discrimination of so-called coloured and black South African women, not just on the basis of gender but racial hierarchies still prevalent as well in the rainbow nation. Design/methodology/approach: The observations grapple with reconciling the…

As in many historically black neighborhoods in the United States, the gentrification of northeast Portland rests on an older history of economic injustice perpetrated by banks, realtors, governments, and white property owners. Redlining was one piece of an elaborate puzzle denying people of color access to housing and to wealth. The term refers to…

How can we reduce ethnic friendship segregation in ethnically heterogeneous schools? The Common Ingroup Identity Model suggests that interethnic friendships are promoted by those intervention programs that focus on the interests students have in common. The authors argue that the outcome of these common interest interventions may crucially depend…

The erosion of the three interlocking dimensions of nature, society and self is the consequence of what Felix Guattari referred to as integrated world capitalism (IWC). In South Africa the erosion of nature, society and self is also the consequence of centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid. In this paper I wish to explore how the…