One of the most complicated academic endeavours in transmission pedagogies is to generate democratic participation of all students and public expression of silenced voices. While the potential of mobile phones, particularly mobile instant messaging (MIM), to trigger broadened academic participation is increasingly acknowledged in literature, integrating MIM into classrooms and out‐of‐the‐classroom tasks has often been confronted with academic resistance. Academic uncertainty about MIM is often predicated on its perceived distractive nature and potential to trigger off‐task social behaviours. This paper argues that MIM has potential to create alternative dialogic spaces for student collaborative engagements in informal contexts, which can gainfully transform teaching and learning. An instance of a MIM, WhatsApp, was adopted for an information technology course at a South African university with a view to heighten lecturer–student and peer‐based participation, and enhance pedagogical delivery and inclusive learning in formal (lectures) and informal spaces. The findings suggest heightened student participation, the fostering of learning communities for knowledge creation and progressive shifts in the lecturer's mode of pedagogical delivery. However, the concomitant challenge of using MIM included mature adults' resentment of the merging of academic and family life occasioned by WhatsApp consultations after hours. Students also expressed ambivalence about MIM's wide‐scale roll‐out in different academic programmes.

WhatsApp instant messaging has potential to bridge information divides between educators and students. Its capacity to create personalised environments was harnessed to share collectively generated educational resources among previously disadvantaged students (PDS) students at a South African university. Data analysis combined mobile instant messagingmediated (WhatsApp) interactions among students and educators and student evaluations of WhatsApp"s value using blogs. Results suggest that students conceived WhatsApp as a lever for bridging access to peer-generated resources, heightening on-task behaviour and promoting meaningful context-free learning.

While research literature affirms the potential for social networking sites (SNSs) to democratise communication, their impact on micro-level, academic relations at university level has not been explored sufficiently in developing countries. The literature on SNSs (especially Facebook) has emphasised its appropriation for the marketing of university programs to prospective students and enhancing institutionallevel contact between university administration and students. As such, the impact of SNSs on micro-level (educator-learner and learner-peer) relations and relational power remains speculative. Mindful of how discursive types and discourses inform the construction of social power, this study employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) and educator-learners Facebook conversations to expose the exercise of relational power and social learning in these interactional spaces. Facebook postings are examined to explore academic relations and associated learner challenges like limited meaningful engagement with peers and content, superficial learning and general academic underpreparedness. The findings suggest the prevalence of formal authoritative (or hierarchical) discourses, few informal liberating (horizontal) discourses, nascent peerbased collaboration and limited learner engagement with theory. These phenomena generally point at first year students' under-developed study skills and less sophisticated literacies. The challenges and potential for transformative learning are explored and possibilities for effective engagement suggested.

Purpose Even though the influence of transformational leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) has been extensively studied in human resource management, evidence on the mechanisms through which transformational leadership affects OCB is only beginning to emerge. In view of the ambivalence about strategies of advancing OCB, this paper aims to establish whether and the extent to which the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB was mediated by organisational justice and affective commitment. Design/methodology/approach The study was based on a random survey of 300 employees from a medium-sized public university, and 122 employees from public and private sector organisations in Lesotho. Partial least squares structural equation modelling and process macro techniques were used to analyse data. Findings The results confirmed significant paths between transformational leadership and organisational justice; organisational justice and affective commitment; and affective commitment and OCB. The results further suggested that perceived justice and affective commitment were significant serial mediators between transformational leadership and OCB. Practical implications Elucidation of the nature of mediating factors between leadership and OCB would leverage organisations’ level of understanding of why transformational leadership is critical to promoting OCB, and hence encourage them to design programmes that would equip supervisors with skills necessary to enhance it. Originality/value This is one of the few theory-driven primary studies that examine the serial mediating roles of organisational justice and affective commitment in the transformational leadership – OCB relationship.

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