Shireen Motala
Biographic Data
| ID | 3591157 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shireen Motala |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shireen |
| FAMILY NAME | Motala |
| SIGNATURE | MOTALA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Johannesburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1341-7019 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 38 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Equity challenges and opportunities in higher education
Indigenous Doctoral Education Policies in the Global South
While decolonising education policy has attracted much rhetoric, consistent if slow policy change in doctoral education has been evident in the Global South. In former settler/invader colonies, a commitment to social justice necessarily involves addressing the ongoing wrongs of colonisation, with a special focus on changing the conditions of doctoral education for Indigenous peoples. This paper traces policy developments for Māori doctoral studen…
Beyond decolonisation
Beyond decolonisation
The university in techno-rational times
This concept note was produced for a symposium held under the banner of Critical University Studies – South Africa (CUS-SA) at the University of Johannesburg in August 2022. The opening plenary session was addressed by Profs. Premesh Lalu, Sarah Mosoetsa and Sarah Nuttall. A summary of a paper prepared for this symposium by Michael Peters on the university in techno-rational times was presented as part of the panel. The rest of the symposium feat…
Epistemic decolonisation in reconstituting higher education pedagogy in South Africa
This paper seeks to understand how the curriculum is experienced across two higher education institutions to probe students’ understandings of epistemic access in the context of decolonisation debates. Three particular aspects of student experience of the decolonised curriculum and pedagogy are scrutinised. First, we look at the kind of sociality encouraged in the pedagogic encounter. Since a core function of education is social and cultural form…
Beyond heteronormativity towards social justice
Quantitative approaches, based on numerical analyses of operationalised variables, used to present teaching and learning trends in higher education, are pervasive. However, teaching and learning trends disaggregated by gender are generally collected and/or reported according to a binary operationalisation. The gender binary is associated with heteronormative dispositions. This paper examines the extent to which gender operationalisation, as it re…
Internationalization of Higher Education
Opportunities and challenges for research collaboration among the BRICS nations
BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are considered an important economic grouping, given their tremendous recent economic expansion and, at least in some cases, their transition from relative stasis to dynamic growth. Though the five BRICS summit declarations focus on mutual economic and trade cooperation, there have also been considerable attempts to enhance research collaboration. This study attempts to map out researc…
Equity and ‘No Fee’ Schools in South Africa
Despite almost 20 years of democratic governance in South Africa, there is growing evidence that equitable access to quality education remains elusive for the majority of its children. In 2007, the Department of Education declared 40 per cent of schools in the country to be ‘no fee’ schools and, by 2011, 60 per cent of all schools had been designated as such. This article examines the introduction and the effects to date of the no fee schools pol…
Privatising public schooling in post‐apartheid South Africa – equity considerations
Through an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data on school funding in South Africa, this paper aims to analyse the user fee policy option in public schooling in South Africa. Debate is ongoing about the role of private input into public schooling and whether this practice affects access (and the constitutional right) to basic education, and the effects of decentralised school finance policy and its outcomes. A central question is whether …
Physical access to schooling in South Africa
The Education for All and Millennium Development Goals commit national governments, international agencies and civil society to ensure that all children are provided with basic education. In South Africa this would mean full attendance in Grades (1-9). The achievement of universal primary education and gender equity across low-income countries are seen as critical to efforts to reduce poverty, increase equity and transform the developmental prosp…
Achievements and Contradictions in South Africa's Pursuit of Democratic Education
Quality and indicators of quality in South African education
Youth policies, programmes and priorities in South Africa
Surviving the System - a critical appraisal of some conventional wisdoms in primary education in South Africa
The motivation for this research arose from the startling statistic that only 51-62% of African enrolments in the first year of schooling will reach Std 6, many of whom take up to 12 years to reach this standard. The aim of the research was to investigate why survival and retention rates are so low, where the concentration of dropout and repeaters are in the first four years of primary school, and how 'quality' and 'efficiency' can be improved to…
Physical access to schooling in South Africa
The Education for All and Millennium Development Goals commit national governments, international agencies and civil society to ensure that all children are provided with basic education. In South Africa this would mean full attendance in Grades (1-9). The achievement of universal primary education and gender equity across low-income countries are seen as critical to efforts to reduce poverty, increase equity and transform the developmental prosp…
Surviving the System - a critical appraisal of some conventional wisdoms in primary education in South Africa
The motivation for this research arose from the startling statistic that only 51-62% of African enrolments in the first year of schooling will reach Std 6, many of whom take up to 12 years to reach this standard. The aim of the research was to investigate why survival and retention rates are so low, where the concentration of dropout and repeaters are in the first four years of primary school, and how 'quality' and 'efficiency' can be improved to…
Quality and indicators of quality in South African education
Privatising public schooling in post‐apartheid South Africa – equity considerations
Through an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data on school funding in South Africa, this paper aims to analyse the user fee policy option in public schooling in South Africa. Debate is ongoing about the role of private input into public schooling and whether this practice affects access (and the constitutional right) to basic education, and the effects of decentralised school finance policy and its outcomes. A central question is whether …
Beyond decolonisation
The university in techno-rational times
This concept note was produced for a symposium held under the banner of Critical University Studies – South Africa (CUS-SA) at the University of Johannesburg in August 2022. The opening plenary session was addressed by Profs. Premesh Lalu, Sarah Mosoetsa and Sarah Nuttall. A summary of a paper prepared for this symposium by Michael Peters on the university in techno-rational times was presented as part of the panel. The rest of the symposium feat…
Beyond decolonisation
Opportunities and challenges for research collaboration among the BRICS nations
BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are considered an important economic grouping, given their tremendous recent economic expansion and, at least in some cases, their transition from relative stasis to dynamic growth. Though the five BRICS summit declarations focus on mutual economic and trade cooperation, there have also been considerable attempts to enhance research collaboration. This study attempts to map out researc…
Equity and ‘No Fee’ Schools in South Africa
Despite almost 20 years of democratic governance in South Africa, there is growing evidence that equitable access to quality education remains elusive for the majority of its children. In 2007, the Department of Education declared 40 per cent of schools in the country to be ‘no fee’ schools and, by 2011, 60 per cent of all schools had been designated as such. This article examines the introduction and the effects to date of the no fee schools pol…
Surviving the System - a critical appraisal of some conventional wisdoms in primary education in South Africa
The motivation for this research arose from the startling statistic that only 51-62% of African enrolments in the first year of schooling will reach Std 6, many of whom take up to 12 years to reach this standard. The aim of the research was to investigate why survival and retention rates are so low, where the concentration of dropout and repeaters are in the first four years of primary school, and how 'quality' and 'efficiency' can be improved to…
Youth policies, programmes and priorities in South Africa
Quality and indicators of quality in South African education
Achievements and Contradictions in South Africa's Pursuit of Democratic Education
Privatising public schooling in post‐apartheid South Africa – equity considerations
Through an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data on school funding in South Africa, this paper aims to analyse the user fee policy option in public schooling in South Africa. Debate is ongoing about the role of private input into public schooling and whether this practice affects access (and the constitutional right) to basic education, and the effects of decentralised school finance policy and its outcomes. A central question is whether …
Physical access to schooling in South Africa
The Education for All and Millennium Development Goals commit national governments, international agencies and civil society to ensure that all children are provided with basic education. In South Africa this would mean full attendance in Grades (1-9). The achievement of universal primary education and gender equity across low-income countries are seen as critical to efforts to reduce poverty, increase equity and transform the developmental prosp…
Equity and ‘No Fee’ Schools in South Africa
Despite almost 20 years of democratic governance in South Africa, there is growing evidence that equitable access to quality education remains elusive for the majority of its children. In 2007, the Department of Education declared 40 per cent of schools in the country to be ‘no fee’ schools and, by 2011, 60 per cent of all schools had been designated as such. This article examines the introduction and the effects to date of the no fee schools pol…
Internationalization of Higher Education
Opportunities and challenges for research collaboration among the BRICS nations
BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are considered an important economic grouping, given their tremendous recent economic expansion and, at least in some cases, their transition from relative stasis to dynamic growth. Though the five BRICS summit declarations focus on mutual economic and trade cooperation, there have also been considerable attempts to enhance research collaboration. This study attempts to map out researc…
Epistemic decolonisation in reconstituting higher education pedagogy in South Africa
This paper seeks to understand how the curriculum is experienced across two higher education institutions to probe students’ understandings of epistemic access in the context of decolonisation debates. Three particular aspects of student experience of the decolonised curriculum and pedagogy are scrutinised. First, we look at the kind of sociality encouraged in the pedagogic encounter. Since a core function of education is social and cultural form…
Beyond heteronormativity towards social justice
Quantitative approaches, based on numerical analyses of operationalised variables, used to present teaching and learning trends in higher education, are pervasive. However, teaching and learning trends disaggregated by gender are generally collected and/or reported according to a binary operationalisation. The gender binary is associated with heteronormative dispositions. This paper examines the extent to which gender operationalisation, as it re…
The university in techno-rational times
This concept note was produced for a symposium held under the banner of Critical University Studies – South Africa (CUS-SA) at the University of Johannesburg in August 2022. The opening plenary session was addressed by Profs. Premesh Lalu, Sarah Mosoetsa and Sarah Nuttall. A summary of a paper prepared for this symposium by Michael Peters on the university in techno-rational times was presented as part of the panel. The rest of the symposium feat…
Equity challenges and opportunities in higher education
Indigenous Doctoral Education Policies in the Global South
While decolonising education policy has attracted much rhetoric, consistent if slow policy change in doctoral education has been evident in the Global South. In former settler/invader colonies, a commitment to social justice necessarily involves addressing the ongoing wrongs of colonisation, with a special focus on changing the conditions of doctoral education for Indigenous peoples. This paper traces policy developments for Māori doctoral studen…
Beyond decolonisation
Beyond decolonisation
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Economics (10 works) · Law (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Higher education (5 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (5 works) · Business (4 works)