Although a proliferation of participatory studies has explored youth sexuality in the African context, very few studies have included youth with disabilities. This is inevitably a result of the misconceptions surrounding disabled sexualities and youth with disabilities' competence in undertaking research. This article argues against these misconceptions by outlining a participatory sexuality study that worked with youth with disabilities as co-researchers in South Africa. In discussing the experiences of the young disabled co-researchers, the article troubles the constructs of power and empowerment in youth participatory research.

This article is premised on the understanding that there are multiple dimensions of the case-theory relation and examines four of these: theory of the case, theory for the case, theory from the case, and a dialogical relation between theory and case. This fourth dimension is the article's key contribution to theorizing case study. Dialogic engagement between theory and case study creates rich potential for mutual formation and generative tension. The article argues that the process of constructing and conducting the case is theory laden, while the outcomes of the study might also have theoretical implications. Case study research that is contextually sensitive and theoretically astute can contribute not only to the application and revision of existing theory but also to the development of new theory. The case thus provides a potentially generative nexus for the engagement of theory, context, and research.

This paper develops the notions of dialogue and dialogic space in relation to adult education projects with emancipatory agendas. It explores the philosophical genealogy of the notion of dialogue in order to establish a basis for the concept of dialogic space, surveying the works of seminal figures such as Plato, Buber, Bakhtin, Habermas and Freire. The literature survey identifies key themes and linkeages among theorists of dialogue. The paper goes on to discuss dialogue in relation to adult education projects and develops the concept of dialogic space. It draws on a historical case study of a South African adult education project, the Tuition Project, to illustrate the concept. It concludes by examining the conditions which make dialogue possible in adult education and discusses the broader application of the notion of dialogic space in the field.Peter Rule lectures in the Centre for Adult Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has experience in various capacities with a number of adult education organizations. His research interests include the history of adult education in South Africa, adult education and disability, and education as dialogue.

Despite changes in how disability is viewed, ethical requirements for disability research have hardly changed. Some ethical clearance procedures, processes and practices still consider persons with disabilities as not able, creating unease among researchers and research participants with disabilities themselves. This paper considers five ethical contestations arising from research in the area of disability in an African context: positionality, vulnerability, signed consent, anonymity, and research committee composition. We argue that ethical requirements in practice are still largely based on a medical model of disability and propose that culturally sensitive social and human rights models should influence disability research ethics.

This article argues that we have lost the plot in South African reading education. To find it, we need to move beyond the predominant mode of reading as oral performance, where the emphasis is on accuracy and pronunciation, to reading as comprehension of meaning in text. While reading research in South Africa has been conducted mainly in school contexts, this case study is of a school and Adult Basic Education and Training Centre in a rural KwaZulu-Natal community near Pietermaritzburg. It found that an oratorical approach to reading dominated in both settings. It suggests that developing the way in which teachers understand the teaching of reading and transforming the teaching practices of those who teach as they were taught in the education system of the apartheid era are key to improving the teaching of reading.