EDITORIAL

Critical Issues and Alternatives in South African Post-School Education and Training

Salim Vally^I; Enver Motala^II

^IUniversity of Johannesburg, South Africa. svally@uj.ac.za; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9156-1775
^IIUniversity of Johannesburg, South Africa. emotala1@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7999-9720

This collection of articles analyses fundamental issues in South African post-school education and training. Undertaken by the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) in Community Adult and Workers' Education (CAWE), the nine studies challenge "human capital" theory assumptions about education. While politically conservative educational research tends to be disconnected from the multiple social and political problems facing working-class, urban and marginalised rural communities, the research and views proffered in this collection are rooted and find their inspiration in struggles for social justice and human rights in these communities.

In addition, this Themed Section/Special Issue of Education as Change posits progressive alternative approaches to the status quo. The articles offer critiques of the simplistic and unqualified assumptions about many ideas and practices shaping policies and associated discourses prevalent in society and in the academy. These critiques reveal the complex nature of the social relationships implicated in education and social life, and they demonstrate how these relationships exert a powerful grip on scholarly imaginations.

In the first article, Salim Vally and Enver Motala argue that alternative conceptions of social and education policy and implementation are not only possible but necessary. Such alternatives take on added urgency when viewed against the backdrop of policy failures in education and training. Irna Senekal, in the second article, offers a critique of the conventional community education curriculum and provides an alternative approach based on lived experiences in the Eastern Cape. Aziz Choudry, in the last article before his death in 2021 and the third in this collection, argues that research is key to daily organising and struggles for social, political, economic and environmental justice. In the fourth article, Mondli Hlatshwayo provides an analysis of the failure to provide the requisite information, communications and technological support infrastructure to students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Enver Motala follows with a contextual and historical analysis of thoughts on workers' control and self-management. Ibrahim Steyn, in the sixth article, advances two arguments: one, learning in social movements takes place in non-formal and informal ways; and two, power, based on "race", social class, gender and sexuality, impacts learning in non-formal and informal contexts. Brian Ramadiro, in the seventh article, reflects on the organisation and development of a bi/multilingual Bachelor of Education foundation phase programme offered at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. Sara Black provides a critique of technological solutions to educational equality, focusing in particular on South Africa's Open Learning Policy Framework and provoking "alternative imaginings about how technology and education might produce humanising and emancipatory education". In the final article, Enver Motala and Salim Vally problematise the complexities of knowledge co-construction and they explain the impact of sociocultural power in this co-construction.

The authors in this collection of articles have sought to examine the present realities to augment the body of writing about an alternative future.

We wish to thank all the authors for their contributions. We also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editorial team at Education as Change.