Religion, politics, and democracy
Jeffery-Schwikkard, D. (2025). ‘South Africa,’ in M. Echtler & M. Burchardt (eds.), Global Secularity Sourcebook Vol. 5 Africa. De Gruyter. Open access.
Jeffery-Schwikkard, D. (2025). ‘'Book review: The secular imaginary: Gandhi, Nehru and the idea(s) of India', Religion, State, and Society.
Jeffery-Schwikkard, D. and Ndlovu, T. (2024). 'Who belongs in South Africa? ‘Tapestry nationalism’ in the African National Congress', Nations and Nationalism. Open access.
We analyse 50 years of annual statements from the ANC to explore evolving ideas of the nation, democracy, citizens, and the state.
Jeffery-Schwikkard, D. (2024). 'Religious citizens, secular states? Why states in sub-Saharan Africa provide minimal support to religion', Politics and Religion, 17(4). Open access. [Data]
Although people in sub-Saharan Africa tend to be more religious than the rest of the world, their states provide very little support to religion. This article explores why.
In this article, I develop a framework for analysing how political parties use religion. I identify how parties can use ambiguity strategically. I apply this framework in a systematic review of the literature on religion and political parties in South Africa.
Jeffery-Schwikkard, D. (2022). 'Book review: The masks of the political God: religion and political parties in contemporary democracies', Religion, State, and Society, 50(2): 240-242.
Education and government
Jeffery-Schwikkard, D., Li, J., Nagpal, P., & Lomas, T. (2024). 'Systematic review of character development in low- and middle-income countries', Journal of Positive Psychology, 19(4): 1-23. Open access.
This chapter examines how early childhood education teachers were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This article outlines how, when early childhood development is underfunded, schools and families respond in ways that further disadvantage low-income families.
Jeffery, D. (2021). 'Don't just read to your children, talk to them too', in Eric Atmore, Michaela Ashley-Cooper, and Lauren van Niekerk (eds.), Thought Leaders on Early Childhood Development in South Africa. Cape Town: CECD. Open access.
In this essay, I summarise recent research on how language development in young children is driven by interactions rather than simply exposure to words.
Jeffery, D. & Johnson, D. (2019). 'Whose fault is failure? Contested perspectives of academic support in tertiary educational institutions in South Africa', Research in Comparative and International Education, 14(3): 376-393. Open access.
This articles looks at how students in a vocational college engage with the academic support provided. Students did not want to access support because they believed it was not something that 'adults' did.
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