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Challenges in implementing digital health services in rural India
Full text linkIntroduction: The COVID-19 pandemic, with mandatory social distancing and lockdown, has shown the success of telemedicine in reducing geographical and time obstacles. This has stimulated its ingress into mainstream healthcare services as the safest means of interaction between doctor and patient during the pandemic. There are several barriers that need to be addressed in order to spread these digital services. Aim: This study explores the challenges to adopting telemedicine and its status in remote districts of Himachal Pradesh, India. Methods: A mixed-method approach was used to identify challenges found in remote healthcare facilities. A survey was conducted using a 20-item checklist to capture information regarding infrastructure, telemedicine equipment, manpower and demography of the area. During telephone interviews, questionnaires were used to evaluate the status of acceptance of telemedicine and challenges to its implementation in the remote State of Himachal Pradesh, India. Results: The study identifies the challenges as lack of awareness (75.9%), level of education of patient (44.8%) having primary education, age of the patient (17.2%), technically challenged staff (30%), followed by resistance to change (80%) and high workload with manpower shortage (60%). Conclusion: While there are other barriers, this study provides policymakers with insights into the current perceived challenges to telemedicine implementation, which they can address to increase the penetration of telehealth services, particularly in rural areas.
 
Publishing (mal)practices and their (re)colonising effects: Double affiliations in academic publishing
Full text linkThe present article discusses one of the lesser researched flaws in the South African Subsidy System (SASS) which was created to enhance research (output) done by and at South African academic institutions. By making use of decolonial theories and reviewing the research output generated by an organizational entity at a South African tertiary educational institution over the last six years (i.e., from 2016 to 2021), the authors propose the following: the recruitment of doubly affiliated appointees (specifically, extraordinary professors and research fellows) to boost the research output of tertiary educational centres constitutes a practice that violates the principles of SASS and consequently contributes to the epistemic recolonization of academy
Teachers’ perceptions on teaching comprehensive sexuality education in early grades in Chipinge, Zimbabwe
Full text linkThis study aimed at unraveling and comprehending teachers' perceptions of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) teaching in early grades. The study opted for a qualitative case study design in an interpretive paradigm with semi-structured interviews and document analysis as data-gathering instruments. Ten primary school teachers responsible for early childhood development were selected through purposive sampling. The collected data were analysed using a thematic approach. This study revealed that primary school teachers in Zimbabwe perceived CSE as essential in empowering early grade children with skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to protect them from sexual abuse. However, they were uncomfortable introducing it due to cultural restrictions. The teachers felt the need to be supported in the teaching of CSE in Early Childhood by being provided with a curriculum, appropriate professional development strategies and teaching materials. The study recommends the teaching of CSE at Early Childhood Development level. Parents should be educated on the significance and objectives of CSE for their children
21st Century South African Teachers in turbulent educational waters
Full text linkTeachers in the South African education system face numerous challenges that negatively affect their well-being and contribute to the high attrition rate in the teaching profession. As few studies in the South African context focus on teacher well-being, this article fills the gap by exploring how teachers experience profession-related challenges and how these affect their well-being. By merging the Force Field Model (Samuel & Van Wyk, 2008) and the PERMA Model (Seligman, 2011) as theoretical frameworks, four forces, namely contextual, institutional, programmatic and biographical, could be used as a lens to explore the push and pull factors that impact the well-being of teachers.
Data was collected using electronic open-ended questions and eight semi-structured individual interviews (case studies). The findings have revealed that factors that teachers identified as pushing them away from the profession are unsatisfactory remuneration, lack of resources, uninvolved parents, learner diversity, and an overwhelming workload. Pull factors that attract them to the profession are the stability and convenience of following a teaching career, feeling valued and being passionate about facilitating learning.
 
Mathematics and science teacher educators’ experiences of using the WhatsApp platform as a tool for supporting teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic
Full text linkThis article problematises the delivery of the curriculum after the sudden onset of lockdowns due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw the sudden cessation of all face-to-face teaching and learning at a South African University. The article reports on how the otherwise neutral WhatsApp social media platform was appropriated to become a serious teaching and learning tool for pre-service mathematics and science students. The study draws predominantly on connectivism learning theory to understand how WhatsApp was used to continue the teaching and learning project during the lockdowns. The sample consisted of ten (n=10) maths and science teacher educators on whom data was collected through questionnaires. The article reports on the opportunities and challenges the WhatsApp platform provided as well as how it reshaped the teaching and learning of maths and science
Designing an English language and literacies knowledge and skills test for ITE students in South Africa
No full textAbstract
Since 2016 the PrimTEd project has assessed first and fourth year student teachers’ English language and literacies knowledge and skills with a view to optimising what is offered in teacher education courses. In 2021, after a critical review of these Englsih language assessments, a process of test redesigning, which also provides professional development opportunities for language teacher educators, was initiated.
This paper reports on this process of modifying an existing test and, of a new design which is still work in progress. It is argued that the emerging test has the potential to contribute to improved English language teacher education at universities and to improved languages and literacies teaching and learning in South African primary schools.
Keywords: Assessment, PrimTEd English language project, test item development, Core Academic Language Skills Initial Teacher Education (ITE) professional development of language teacher educator
The dilemmas inherent in curriculum design: Unpacking the lived experiences of Australian teacher educators
Full text linkTeacher educators often find themselves squeezed between enacting a continually shifting teacher education reform policy, increasing standardisation and more strident accountability measures on the one hand. Balanced with best trying to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, different community settings and a profession that is well prepared for current and future challenges. In this paper, three teacher educators use narrative inquiry to interrogate these dilemmas and the way they play out in teacher education curriculum design work. The stories told are analysed and three themes of contexts, currency and connection are identified. A number of pro-active strategies to help teacher educators take an agentive stance to curriculum planning emerge. The analysis helped reveal a variety of ways teacher educators can use their knowledge of place, policy and working in partnerships to navigate through a highly regulated space
The use of information and communication technology in the teaching of Sesotho as a home language
Full text linkThis paper focuses on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the teaching of Sesotho as a home language. It seeks to answer the central question: To what extent have schools in South Africa embraced ICT in the teaching of Sesotho, and what should be done to promote more effective adoption of ICT in the teaching of Sesotho as an indigenous language. The study employed a qualitative approach. A sample of 12 teachers was drawn to participate in the study, with the sampling design adopting a multi-stage sampling technique. Our significant findings indicate disparities across schools on the extent to which they have embraced ICT-based instructional practices. This discrepancy may be explained in terms of lack of ICT training among teachers and shortage of resources among schools. In line with these findings, we recommend that the Department of Education capacitates schools by continuously training, motivating, and resourcing teachers
Decolonisation, knowledge construction, and legitimation at African universities in the 21st century: Relevance of François Lyotard
Full text linkThe events surrounding the fallist movement in South African, revealed the reality of the various forms of alienation experienced by African students at higher education institutions. The fallist movement did not only call for the physical removal of the reminders of colonial subjugation, but they also called into question the relevance of continually maintaining and perpetuating some aspects of colonial heritage, especially as it relates to knowledge construction at South African higher education institutions. Hence, the issue relating to transformation and knowledge decolonisation also came into limelight, with some students at the time calling for the overthrow of science as a system of knowledge; hence the #sciencemustfall. This can be placed in the wider context of the argument, replete in extant literature, that African centres of learning are founded on colonial epistemologies and forms of education. Apparently, it is a reality that hampers any effort of these centres of learning to achieve proper transformation and decolonisation. This essay utilised desktop methods to engage in the debate on knowledge decolonisation at African universities in the 21st century. Specifically, the article theorises on the philosophical basis for knowledge decolonisation and legitimation at African higher education institutions. 
“In the trenches”: South African vice-chancellors leading transformation in times of change
Full text linkAbstract
Background
South Africa is committed to developing and transforming universities in order to meet its development goals and university leadership is a key factor in the achievement of these goals. In the context of multiple challenges and historical inequalities, the role of the university vice chancellor is of critical importance. However, a focus on university vice chancellors is not a common focus on leadership studies in South Africa.
Aim
This paper examined the transformational goals and strategies of nine black university vice chancellors in South Africa in order to understand how they direct transformation of higher education in the country.
Methods
The paper draws from narrative inquiry underlined by transformational leadership theory (TFL) and focuses on in-depth interviews with university vice chancellors.
Results
The study focused on the key themes that direct vice chancellors’ transformational leadership strategies. These are devolution of power, the need to transform the institutional culture and attain social equity through putting students first and addressing the next generation of academic scholars.
Conclusion
The paper draws attention to the enduring imperative to transform universities through a social equity lens and the significance of vice chancellors’ transformational agendas and strategies in this regard. The local context of the university plays an important role in transformational leadership goals and strategie