Background The rapid expansion of digital learning in higher education has fundamentally altered the spatial and temporal dimensions, or chronotopes, of teaching and learning. This study maps the conceptual and intellectual landscape of educational chronotopes, exploring how critical pedagogy intersects with these shifting timespaces. Methods This study employed a quantitative bibliometric research design to examine publication trends and the intellectual structure of the literature. Bibliometric indicators, including citation and keyword co-occurrence analyses, were generated in VOSviewer to identify influential publications, thematic clusters, and research networks within Higher Education. Results The analysis identified four main paths shaping research on space and time in digital higher education: the integration of physical and virtual learning spaces into postdigital ecologies; pandemic-driven disruptions; the use of mobile and immersive tech to overcome spatial limits; and psychosocial and cultural factors supporting e-learning. Findings revealed a convergence between critical pedagogy and chronotopic views, emphasising intentional design of equitable digital environments that foster student agency and social interaction. However, the bibliometric network showed fragmentation among research themes, especially between emergency remote teaching, AI-driven systems, and critical pedagogy, highlighting the need for more integrated and sustainable digital education. Conclusion Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates that critical pedagogy greatly informs chronotopic design by advocating for equitable, decentralised digital spaces that validate student voice. Finally, the study identifies significant fragmentation within the literature, particularly between quantitative research on AI-driven e-learning systems and postdigital pedagogies, and between reactive pandemic studies and proactive instructional design. To navigate future educational transformations, this study recommends bridging these structural gaps to design sustainable, highly engaging digital learning environments.
Educational institutions worldwide are increasingly embracing curriculum reform through the integration of Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and technology, informed by their transformative impact on teaching, learning, and pedagogical practices. However, socioeconomic disparities and limited teaching resources encountered in the rural settings of the Global South, such as South Africa, hinder this transformation. IKS and technology offer a compelling opportunity to rethink mathematics education in ways that embrace global innovations while adapting to local contextual realities. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence on teacher preparedness, specifically how mathematics teachers' demographic, contextual, and professional training influences their ability to integrate technology and pedagogical indigenisation for mathematics curriculum transformation. Hence, this paper sought to examine how mathematics teachers can reimagine curriculum transformation through pedagogical indigenisation and technology in rural South African mathematics classrooms. To accomplish this exploration, the paper draws on data gathered from 95 purposively sampled respondents. We used a quantitative approach focusing on a survey questionnaire, guided by the positivist paradigm and underpinned by the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and data analysis was achieved through the aid of descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that teachers exhibit different degrees of TPACK and TAM dynamics, mediated by demographics, professional backgrounds, and context-specific characteristics. The findings lead us to argue that the transformation of the mathematics curriculum is dependent on effective, inclusive, and sustainable teacher training that foregrounds both technological fluency and cultural responsiveness. This study contributes to curriculum reform discourse by emphasizing the need for teacher preparation programs that address the complex, evolving, and context-sensitive nature of teachers' TPACK.
Makhosi Madimabe-Mofokeng, Heloise Sathorar, W. D. Nubia· Journal of education· 0 citations
In the face of escalating ecological crises and widening social inequalities, reimagining teacher education through eco-pedagogy becomes not only urgent but transformative. This article examines how eco-pedagogical principles can be embedded across a four-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) programme at a South African university to cultivate ecological consciousness and social justice. Framed within Freirean critical pedagogy and implemented through Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR), the study positions teaching and learning as relational, justice-oriented, and situated within the more-than-human world. The Anthropocene, understood here as both an epochal crisis and an ontological condition that exposes the interdependence of humans and the earth, provides the conceptual context. Grounded in Indigenous and situated knowledges as the ontological foundation for eco-pedagogy, the research extends the 4B model (Bridging, Becoming, Belonging, and Being) to integrate ecological awareness, ethical responsibility, and community engagement throughout teacher formation. Drawing on collaborative data from lecturers, student teachers, community members, and in-service teachers, the study proposes a developmental framework that disrupts curriculum silos and redefines teacher education as a site of ecological activism and curricular decolonisation. The article contributes to emerging scholarship that links ontological reorientation, participatory praxis, and curriculum transformation as interdependent dimensions of justice-oriented learning in the Anthropocene