EDITORIAL

Editorial

Labby Ramrathan

School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. ramrathanp@ukzn.ac.za

Since I am entering my fifth and last year as editor of the Journal of Education, I engaged in a reflection on my experiences over the last four years. In this issue of the journal, I focus my editorial on my reflections on the conundrum between authors wanting to publish and editors focusing on advancing scholarship through their journal; both want to publish, but from different perspectives on publishing. As I reflect on the fact that a substantial number of articles are rejected for publication against the few that do get published in an issue, in relation to knowledge as it pertains to this journal, I ask myself the fundamental question that Spencer (1884) raised: he wanted to know how we decide that some knowledge is worthwhile and to whom this responsibility should fall. While this question is philosophical, it speaks to the conundrum to which I refer. Access to publication platforms for knowledge dissemination, institutional demands in the context of neoliberalism, knowledge economy in the context of generative artificial intelligence, and the decoloniality debates complexify the conundrum to the point of helplessness for editors of a journal, who are sometimes referred to as the gatekeepers of what gets published and what does not. Perhaps the solution lies in developing scholarship on publication and the dissemination of scientific knowledge as a scientific field of inquiry that will open various opportunities for the dissemination of research and conceptual thinking so that journals become just one avenue of publishing.

In this issue of the Journal of Education, there are eight articles related to school and higher education. Some relate to process issues, some are conceptual, and some are subject oriented.

Quoting and paraphrasing in scholarly writing is a current on-going debate. In the article "The quote or paraphrase conundrum: Towards a unified theoretical and practical framework", Jabulani Sibanda offers some theoretical and practical insights on this conundrum by arguing for a shift from a rule-based binary conceptualisation to a contextually based continuum of quoting and paraphrasing. Continuing with the theme of academic writing, Mampoi Mabena, in her article, "Artificial intelligence meets academic writing: Examining ChatGPT's affordances and limitations in South Africa" argues that AI might foster over-reliance on such generative digital tools by students or it can support dialogically empowering learning. Shamola Pramjeeth in her article, "Ethics in the age of generative AI: Student perceptions, use and transparency in South African private higher education" tackles the issue of ethics in the use of generative AI tools from the perspective of students in higher education. Using data from a large sample size of students through a quantitative study approach, she offers some theoretical insight into how values, norms, and perceived behavioural control shape ethical AI usage.

Sumayah Ebrahim and Suraiya Rathankoomar Naicker, in their article, "The influence of a fully online postgraduate carousel model course structure on self-directed learning", shift the focus from writing to student learning. They explore the impact of fully on-line programmes on self-directed learning. Based on the findings of their study, several recommendations to better support SDL in online programmes are offered. Annelize du Plessis and Marius Pienaar' s focus on mentoring student in their article, "Rethinking university-based mentoring: Supporting pre-service teachers holistically beyond assessment" provides insights into reconceptualising university mentoring to support a more holistic approach to teacher preparation, which, they argue, centres around emotional support, accessibility, and constructive feedback.

For the school education system, Deidre Geduld and Felix Okoye highlight the issue of play-based pedagogy through their article, "Encouraging eco-pedagogical awareness through play amongst early childhood development educators: A reflection on the South African context." They argue that play-based pedagogy can serve as a transformative tool for fostering eco-pedagogical awareness and environmental agency among ECD educators and children. "Nurture: Psycho-educational e-mental health intervention on burnout for Grade R educators" by Anine Hanekom, Wanda van der Merwe, and Elmaré Mong continues the engagement on teacher well-being with a focus on how e-health interventions can assist teachers to deal with burnout.This issue concludes with an article by Magdeline Mmapaseka Stephen, Nomfundo Radebe, Emmanuel Mushayikwa, and Ngonidzashe Mushaikwa on rural girls' education in STEM subjects. Their article, "Investigating STEM identities of rural female learners and developing strategies to enhance STEM subject choices: A case of two rural South African schools" notes that through direct intervention delivered through STEM professionals and a careers booklet, girl learners' understanding of STEM fields strengthened their sense of belonging in STEM and influenced their choice of selecting STEM subjects in grade 10.

Reference

Spencer, H. (1884). What knowledge is of most worth. John B. Alden.