In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed South African historically disadvantaged institutions, that had not yet reached advanced levels of technology use in teaching and learning, to find immediate solutions to salvage the disrupted academic year. Interactions with students, which had predominantly been face-to-face, shifted to various online platforms for lecturers to adopt emergency remote teaching approaches. Most of the lecturers were unprepared or incapacitated to make the shift to online environment. Studies have looked at the online teaching and learning experiences of students and lecturers during the COVID-19 pandemic but very few have taken an autoethographic approach to their inquiry and situated experiences in historically disadvantaged institutions. In this article, as lecturers, we use autoethnographies to provide an account of adjusting to interacting with students online during national lockdowns at a historically disadvantaged institution. The Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was applied to guide the study. This reflexive approach is valuable, as it captures professional encounters and reflections needed to understand the effects of rapid changes to teaching and learning in response to the pandemic. Given the education disparities that already existed between South African higher education institutions before COVID-19, the article contributes to the discourse on how historically disadvantaged institutions can advance higher standards of teaching and learning to serve students better. Our reflections point to the personal, technical and structural challenges of maintaining regular online interaction. Our findings show that different approaches and techniques were applied to adjust to virtual teaching and learning. As teaching and learning methodologies have the potential to ingrain social inequalities, we made recommendations on how to improve online interactions with students from historically disadvantaged contexts.

With globalisation and international trade, remittances and migration significantly influence economic activities, yet their impact on tourism income and gender-specific employment remains under-researched. This study uses autoregressive distributed lags and Granger causality to examine the effects of remittances and migration on tourism income and employment in South Africa. Three models are established as follows: for aggregate employment, male employment, and female employment, each with equations for tourism income and employment. Key findings from this study indicate that remittances significantly drive tourism income in both the short and long run across all models. Conversely, employment negatively impacts tourism income, hinting at sectoral trade-offs. Migration positively affects tourism income in the short run for male and aggregate models but is insignificant for female employment. Remittances boost male employment in both the short and long run, whereas their impact on female employment is significant only in the long run. Causality analysis shows a bidirectional relationship among employment indicators, with unidirectional causality from remittances to migration and from migration to income. This study recommends policies to support remittance inflows and their productive use in tourism, along with targeted interventions to reduce gender disparities in employment and promote equitable economic opportunities.

The purpose of the study was to assess the study designs and methodological approaches of published works on disability in South African higher education institutions from 2020 to 2021. A systematic review was performed as a method to achieve this. The reporting of this systematic reviews was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses standards. Electronic searches of Bielefeld Academic Search Engine, EbscoHost, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Wiley Online Library were conducted of electronic works published in English from January 2020 to December 2021. Publications of empirical research on disability in any South African higher education institution where data were collected during COVID-19 were included. Non-peer-reviewed publications, which explicitly indicated that data were collected before March 2020, did not have a South African higher education institution as a study site and were a desktop-only research or conceptual papers were excluded. Three studies were included ultimately. Ten elements were chosen for analysis based on the research purpose. The findings show that disability research has predominantly used qualitative designs and methods; an exploration that involves people with disabilities throughout the research process is limited and the inclusion of researcher positionality is limited. Arguably, this study is the first systematic review of empirical studies on disability in South African higher education since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results support the need for a trajectory towards the use of more diverse research designs and methods.

Background: Youth unemployment continues to pose a serious socio-economic challenge in South Africa, especially within township areas. Promoting entrepreneurship has emerged as a key strategy to enhance economic participation and self-employment opportunities among the youth. Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which personal attitudes (PA), social influence (subjective norms [SN]) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) shape entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) among unemployed young people. Setting: The study was conducted in Mdantsane Township, located in the Eastern Cape province. Method: The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative research approach, involving a purposive sample of 248 unemployed youth. Data were gathered using a structured and validated questionnaire informed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The results were analysed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). Results: The results show that PA (β = 0.388, p = 0.023) and PBC (β = 0.364, p = 0.004) significantly predicted EI, indicating that positive perceptions and confidence in one’s ability are strong drivers of intention. However, SN (β = 0.258, p = 0.103) did not have a significant effect, suggesting that social pressure plays a limited role in shaping EI in this context. Conclusion: Personal attitude and PBC significantly influence intention. Entrepreneurship programmes should therefore focus on enhancing youth self-efficacy and control perceptions while addressing structural barriers that limit agency. Contribution: The TPB framework effectively explains EIs among unemployed youth in Mdantsane Township.

Digital inequality in a developing context: A multifaceted approach critically explores the complex and persistent nature of the digital divide in South Africa, addressing a notable gap in existing scholarship. Drawing on secondary data, the book examines how digital inequalities manifest across key sectors such as education, healthcare, and agriculture – sectors vital to national development and individual well-being. These disparities are shaped by intersecting socio-economic, technical, and geographical factors, particularly the urban–rural divide. The volume underscores the importance of infrastructure development, digital literacy, affordability, and equitable access as central to bridging the digital gap. It argues that without targeted and sustained interventions in these areas, digital inequality will continue to hinder socio-economic progress and deepen existing structural inequalities. This scholarly book offers fresh perspectives and practical insights for researchers, policymakers and practitioners seeking to advance digital inclusion in developing contexts.