#FeesMustFall: An Internet-Age Student Movement in South Africa and the Case of the University of the Free State

Quality Enhancement in Student Affairs and Social Justice: A Reflective Case Study from South Africa

“…The new vice-rector did not recognise the importance of the work done. The focus rather turned to crisis management in the face of an escalation of student protests at the university in early 2016, as the #FeesMustFall and #EndOutsourcing campaigns of the SRC and the Free Education Movement turned violent (Luescher, Loader & Mugume, 2017). Nonetheless, while the review itself did not result in an explicit improvement and monitoring plan as envisaged in the process guidelines (see Figure 2 above), the newly appointed dean of student affairs eventually took many of the external panel recommendations on board when he developed an integrated strategic plan for the DSA (see DSA, 2016aDSA, , 2016b.…”

An investigation into the curriculum ideology that foregrounds the presentation of HIV/AIDS content in selected South Africa Life Sciences textbooks

“…While curriculum reform in South Africa has led to the adoption of the CAPS curriculum, poor student performance and the increase in the youth unemployment rate have led to various student protests locally known as #FeesMustFall protests (Le Grange, 2016). Even though these protests are primarily driven by university students, secondary school students have also voiced the same concerns Luescher, Loader, & Mugume, 2017. In particular, students are calling for a nation-wide curriculum reform that would ensure that basic and higher education curricula are decolonized and Africanised and that teaching, and learning are context-specific (Le Grange, 2016). Bhana and Pillay (2018) note that the #FeesMustFall protests were rooted in multiple social challenges that young people face, namely gender inequalities, sexual violence, and HIV/AIDS.…”

The Curriculum Ideology Recommended by Novice Teachers for Life Sciences in South Africa

“…As such, the objective of these curriculum reforms range from cleansing syllabi of racist language and controversial and outdated content, to the introduction of content and pedagogy which promotes social justice as defined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (du Plessis, 2013;Van Deventer, 2009). However, regardless of these curriculum reforms, poor student performance and a number of socio-scientific challenges remain well founded as evidenced in the recent so-called #FeesMustFall university student protests (Luescher, Loader & Mugume, 2017). In these protests, students and academics called amongst other things for the decolonization and Africanization of the curriculum by teaching context-specific content knowledge (Le Grange, 2016).…”