Quality assurance (QA) has gained momentum in South African higher education with national reviews of MBA, MEd, PGECE, BEd and ACE programmes. This article presents an overview of global trends in QA, and comments on some aspects particular to the South African national framework. It explores how the concepts of democracy, knowledge, and social justice can make a contribution to teacher education. I contend that a focus on civil responsibilities and viewing democracy as an evolving concept should be key considerations for education for democracy. To this end, I present an argument in favour of teacher education for democracy. With respect to knowledge, I contend that espousing a much broader conception of the concept would contribute meaningfully to a discussion on teacher education. Finally, I argue for teacher education for social justice and pose the questions: who is benefiting?, who is not benefiting? The concern of this article is that QA exercises may increase inequality further by excluding students who may be not be able to afford higher fees resulting from QA exercises.
From: SAJHE 20 (6) 2006, pp. 879-887
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