Introduction to this special issue

Background: Elmarie Costandius was passionate about pedagogy, particularly from a social justice perspective, throughout her career in higher education. Although located as a senior lecturer in the visual arts programme at Stellenbosch University, she pursued the field of education in her postgraduate studies, when she completed a second Masters Degree in Adult Learning and Global Change in 2007 at the University of the Western Cape, as well as a PhD in Curriculum Studies at Stellenbosch University, graduating in 2012. She received multiple teaching awards both from her own institution, Stellenbosch University, as well as nationally. Elmarie was also a teaching fellow in the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at Stellenbosch University and was chosen to be part of the Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU) Fellowship programme, a national programme for outstanding teachers in higher education. In 2023, she won the TAU Fellows Award, which she felt honoured to receive-as she expressed it: