The contribution of the South African Education Research Association to strengthening education research in South Africa

Abstract

The South African Education Research Association (SAERA) was established a decade ago to provide a national home for all education researchers and scholars and a forum where the interests of South African education would be critically engaged with for the public good. Its central aim is to contribute to the intellectual and scholarly field of education research in South Africa. Using documentary analysis of primary sources and interviews with past SAERA Presidents, we outline the process of establishing this new national research association as well as the strategies undertaken to realise its goals. These strategies include the Journal of Education, annual conferences, Special Interest Groups and early career researcher support. We critically analyse these strategies in order to identify their successes and challenges to date and discuss some future considerations for the association