12021 39(2): 1-3 http://dx.doi.org/10.18820/2519593X/pie.v39.i2.1

 Editorial

EDITORIAL
A year ago, the new editorial team published its first edition 
of Perspectives in Education (PiE). In the past year, PiE 
has increased its publication output from a meagre one 
publication per year to four high quality publications: 
March, June, September and December. Annually, the 
March publication is earmarked as a special issue focused 
on a specific topic. Every issue carries a minimum of 
20 articles of good quality covering a broad spectrum of 
educational topics of relevance. We are also extremely 
proud that Perspectives in Education is listed on the ICI 
World of Journals list and has recently been included on 
the DOAJ while remaining included on the IBSS, Scopus 
and DHET lists. Because of our listing we are deemed 
accredited nationally and in many overseas countries and 
have recently received articles for publication from Russia, 
Morocco, Poland, USA, Australia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe as 
well as numerous other countries. 

In this issue our lead article is by Oron Jackson 
(University of Redlands) and Matthew Witenstein (University 
of Dayton) and addresses the need to create research 
spaces for underserved communities. The paper is aimed 
at engaging researchers and practitioners in an intellectual 
dialog that may contribute to the ever-expanding research 
on intersectionality to include the United States, European 
Union, South Africa and other global communities. It is 
argued that intersectionality has extended beyond the tenets 
of race, gender and class to include queer communities, 
religious issues, literacy concerns, pedagogical styles, etc. 
The article encourages discourse and provides a roadmap 
to examine intersectionality’s expansion critically and how 
that expansion can aid in improving the lives of K–12 public 
education students on an international scale. Moreover, the 
paper addresses whether intersectionality or its expansion 
served as a pivotal voice for marginalised communities and 
structures domestically and abroad. 

In this issue of PIE, we also devote a large part to the 
increasing importance of research in higher education. The 
articles explore several important aspects ranging from the 
aspirations of post-school youth (Devika Naidoo) and the 
school-university mathematics skills gap (Ilsa Basson and 
Madri Jankowitz) to very specific curriculum aspects. Ethel 
Abe Vitallis Chikoko and Stella Lubinga discuss the link 
between outcomes expectancy and career decision-making 

AUTHOR:
Jan Nieuwenhuis

DOI: http://dx.doi.
org/10.18820/2519593X/pie.
v39.i2.1

e-ISSN 2519-593X

Perspectives in Education

2021 39(2): 1-3

PUBLISHED:
11 June 2021

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Perspectives in Education 2021: 39(2)

self-efficacy of STEM students in a South African university. Nozuko Mbutho tackles the 
thorny issue of plagiarism and explores the literature on undergraduate and postgraduate 
student perspectives of plagiarism and related concepts in a global context. Her findings shed 
important insight on how students perceive plagiarism.

This issue also includes two articles dealing with teaching and learning in Health Sciences. 
In the first, Reina Abraham looks at how to adapt the delivery of clinical skills remotely while 
Róan Slabbert and Jeannette du Plessis explore quality assurance of peer assisted learning 
of health sciences extended curriculum students. We also carry two articles on universities of 
technology in which we explore low research productivity in these institutions (Isaac Abe and 
Virimai Mugobo) and the issue of knowledge and specialism in curricula of professional and 
sectorial fields of practices (Isaac Ntshoe and Ntsoaki Malebo). A key indicator of the academic 
worth, value and development of a university is its research capacity and publications. The 
universities of technology that merged from former technikons have been poorly ranked due 
to low research performance and these articles therefore constitute an important development 
in terms of their research productivity. 

The articles on curriculum aspects in higher education are making an important contribution 
in terms of the development of teaching and learning in higher education. The articles look 
at the landscape architecture pedagogy (Christine Price and Arlene Archer); success rates 
of third-year Accounting conversion students (Sophia Brink and Mareli Rossouw) and the 
attitudes of students towards Sesotho modules (Soyiso Khetoa and Sara Motsei). 

The second half of the issue focuses more on school education and the management 
thereof. We start with an interesting and thought-provoking article on the manifestations and 
effects of patriarchy in female-led secondary schools in South Africa (Makuena Bereng and 
Edmore Mutekwe). It shows how strong patriarchy still features in schools. Kabelo Moloantoa 
and Stephan Geyer report on research undertaken into a work-based support programme 
for teachers using Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs as theoretical lens. The findings supported 
existing literature that states that teachers face numerous malleable workplace challenges 
such as learner indiscipline, parental disengagement, overcrowded classrooms, considerable 
administrative work and burnout.

This issue also carries four articles on Foundation Phase teaching. For many years this 
was a very neglected research field and it is good to see that research in foundation phase 
teaching is really taking off. Two of the articles focus on inclusive education in this phase 
and the challenges of its implementation (Yolanda Mpu and Emmanuel Adu) and, secondly, 
teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of learners who experience barriers to learning in 
their classrooms (Mahlapahlapana Themane, Joel Mamabolo and Medwin Sepadi). The other 
two foundation phase articles look at literacy development. Roy Venketsamy and Sophia 
Sibanda report on their research on the strategies teachers use to develop literacy skills 
among English First Additional Language learners, while Schmidt, Condy and Tiba explore 
higher-order comprehension skills required to understand text. The aim of this study was to 
explicitly teach higher-order reading comprehension strategies to a Grade 2 learner who could 
not read for meaning. 

We also include some articles on learners with barriers to learning. Maximus Sefotho and 
Charity Onyishi introduce us to the challenges faced by learners with autism spectrum disorder 
(ASD) and their families in these learners’ school transition at different levels. Kolobe and 

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Nieuwenhuis Editorial

Mihai tackle the impact of ICT as an intervention tool for progressed learners in teaching and 
learning of English First Additional Language (FAL) comprehension in the intermediate phase. 

Mosimege and Winnaar assert that teachers use a variety of instructional strategies when 
they teach various mathematical topics and concepts. Some of these strategies have been 
found to positively affect the performance of learners, while others do not. The research 
reported on analysed data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies 
(TIMSS) 2015 study in which the teachers indicated the instructional strategies that they used 
in the mathematics classrooms. 

The final article in this volume deals with the very sensitive aspects in African culture. 
Nomawonga Msutwana reminds us that African women in the Xhosa culture used to hold 
powerful positions in the sexuality arena. This has changed in contemporary Xhosa culture, 
where they take up submissive roles. This is especially so in the teaching of certain aspects 
of sexuality, as Xhosa women are not supposed to give guidance in the sexuality of their male 
learners. In the article Msutwana discusses strategies used to explore Xhosa Life Orientation, 
Life Sciences and Natural Sciences teachers’ views of the meaningful teaching of sexuality 
education to Xhosa learners. 

As has become tradition, we close with a book review done by Saloshna Vandeyar of the 
book Teacher education for transformative agency: Critical perspectives on design, 
content and pedagogy by Carina America, Nazeem Edwards and Maureen Robinson. In 
the book the authors recognise the need to foreground the voices of teacher educators and 
highlighting successful practices in culture-rich classrooms. Hence, the focus of the book 
is on educational practices that inspire, encourage and revive. The book foregrounds the 
role of auto-ethnography in the telling of transformative stories by teacher educators that 
possess the knowledge and vocabulary to articulate these experiences largely within a critical 
pedagogy frame. 

I trust that you will find this issue of Perspectives in Education insightful and enriching and 
that it will impact on improved education practices in the long run that are grounded in the 
research reported in this issue. 

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