Rural-origin students in South African higher education face multiple, overlapping forms of marginalisation that collectively hinder their academic access and success. Despite significant policy reforms aimed at expanding access and addressing historical injustices, the educational paths of these learners are still disproportionately affected by a combination of socio-economic deprivation, linguistic exclusion, gendered vulnerabilities, and technological marginalisation. This systematic review synthesises current empirical evidence to clarify how these intersectional barriers merge to obstruct the educational journeys of rural-origin students in South African higher education. It also critically examines how institutional policies and technological interventions may unintentionally reinforce or potentially alleviate these inequities. The study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, conducting a comprehensive search across multiple academic databases for studies published between 2018 and 2026. After a rigorous screening and eligibility process, 52 studies met the inclusion criteria and underwent thematic analysis guided by Nancy Fraser's trivalent social justice framework. Five overarching themes emerged: The multidimensional digital divide; linguistic exclusion and the devaluation of vernacular knowledge; gendered vulnerabilities and the burden of social reproduction; algorithmic bias and the risks associated with technological solutionism; and governance gaps alongside the failure of participatory parity. The findings revealed that existing equity frameworks inadequately address the structural dimensions of rural marginalisation. Achieving educational equity necessitates a fundamental shift towards intersectionality-aware, context-sensitive institutional policies that prioritise resource redistribution, cultural recognition, and the meaningful representation of students from rural backgrounds in decision-making processes.
This conceptual narrative review stems from a doctoral study that focuses on the teaching of values in the implementation of the secondary school curriculum in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean secondary school history curriculum provides for values inculcation grounded on Ubuntu. However, despite expansive research on the implications of Ubuntu on instructional practice, there is a gap on how it informs pedagogy for values teaching in secondary school history education. The study employed a qualitative approach which enabled an indepth exploration. The review focused on twelve papers on Ubuntu’s application on pedagogy and ten on values pedagogy in secondary school history education that were obtained from Scopus, Google Scholar and ERIC academic databases. Keywords such as Ubuntu and pedagogy, values education and secondary school history education as well as abstracts were used to select the reviewed papers. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse data which involved coding of relevant information to develop themes. Findings show that Ubuntu oriented pedagogy is interactive, practical oriented, learner centered and speaks to the experiences of learners. This paper provides insights on how history teachers can translate Ubuntu pedagogy to instil values in secondary school history education. For this to be effective, we recommend staff development of history teachers by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, use of diverse learner centered pedagogy in history lessons by history teachers and provision of multimedia to secondary schools by relevant stakeholders to ensure creation of engaging learning experiences in the implementation of the history curriculum.
Geometry problem-solving requires learners to coordinate conceptual knowledge, spatial representation, strategy use and the regulation of cognition, motivation and effort. This systematic review examined how self-regulated learning (SRL) operates in geometry problem-solving and which learner, task, social, instructional and developmental conditions shape it. A Scopus search reported according to PRISMA 2020 identified 1,298 records; database limits left 529, and eligibility screening retained 32 empirical studies published from 2021 to 2026. Twelve studies involved undergraduates or pre-service teachers, seven involved school pupils, one involved kindergarten children and 12 did not state the educational level in the extracted records. Study quality was appraised with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, and thematic synthesis identified four themes: planning and strategic regulation; monitoring, control and strategy adaptation; learner characteristics and outcomes; and instructional scaffolding and technology. Successful performance was associated with problem representation, strategy selection, monitoring, error detection, adaptation and evaluation. Diagnostic and elaborated feedback, content-focused peer feedback and supportive scaffolding were more informative than the presence of technology. Evidence on learner characteristics was mainly correlational, and evidence on young learners was thin. The review proposes a Process-Oriented Framework of Self-Regulated Geometry Problem-Solving that links input conditions, forethought, performance regulation, reflection, and outcomes and it is best supported for adolescent and adult learners. Future research should combine self-report with behavioural, longitudinal and process-tracing evidence and develop age-appropriate SRL measures for young children.
