South African Journal of Childhood Education

Aims & Scope

The South African Journal of Childhood Education (SAJCE) is a peer-reviewed journal that provides a forum for the dissemination of research in childhood learning and development and the care and education of children from birth to 12 years.

The journal is interdisciplinary in scope and seeks to stimulate the exchange of ideas in a variety of subjects, contexts and issues in childhood education and childcare.

The editors welcome articles showing evidence of robust empirical research that is also theoretically strong.

SAJCE aims to be a scholarly forum in a specialised field that has long been neglected in the South African and regional educational research community.

The journal is open to a range of research genres and designs.

The choice of studies includes statistical research on young children’s learning and development, large scale surveys of learning environments, evaluation studies of teaching practice and school management, as well as ethnographic and case studies of individuals and groups of children or their teachers and care providers.

The journal has relevance to policy-makers, researchers, classroom teachers, school managers and teacher educators in childhood education and care.

The following are topical areas: -Numeracy and mathematics learning and pedagogy- Children’s development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts- Language and literacy learning and its pedagogy- Childhood play and children’s ‘design thinking’- Care and education for vulnerable children- Teacher education and development for primary school and early childhood development (ECD)

Metrics & Ranking

Abstracting & Indexing

Journal is indexed in leading academic databases, ensuring global visibility and accessibility of our peer-reviewed research.

• Scopus
• Google Scholar
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Web of Science

Subjects & Keywords

Journal’s research areas, covering key disciplines and specialized sub-topics in Psychology and Social Sciences, designed to support cutting-edge academic discovery.

Licensing & Copyright

This journal operates under an Open Access model. Articles are freely accessible to the public immediately upon publication. The content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing users to share and adapt the work with proper attribution.

Copyright remains with the author(s), and no permission is required for non-commercial use, provided the original source is cited.

Policy Links

This section provides access to essential policy documents, guidelines, and resources related to the journal’s publication and submission processes.

• Aims scope
• Homepage
• Oa statement
• Author instructions
• License terms
• Review url
• Board url
• Copyright url
• Plagiarism url
• Preservation url
• Apc url
• License

Plagiarism Policy

This journal follows a plagiarism policy. All submitted manuscripts are screened using reliable plagiarism detection software to ensure originality and academic integrity. Authors are responsible for proper citation and acknowledgment of all sources, and any form of plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, will not be tolerated.

For more details, please refer to our official: Plagiarism Policy.

APC Details

The journal’s Article Processing Charge (APC) policies support open access publishing in Psychology and Social Sciences, ensuring accessibility and quality in research dissemination.

This journal requires an Article Processing Charge (APC) to support open access publishing, covering peer review, editing, and distribution. The current APC is 14,000.00 ZAR. Learn more.

Explore journals without APCs for alternative publishing options.

Most Cited Articles

The Most Cited Articles section features the journal's most impactful research, based on citation counts. These articles have been referenced frequently by other researchers, indicating their significant contribution to their respective fields.

• Counting the cost: COVID-19 school closures in South Africa and its impact on children

  Citation: 49

  Authors: Nic, Servaas

• Challenges facing the early childhood development sector in South Africa

  Citation: 48

  Authors: Eric

• Overcrowded classrooms – The Achilles heel of South African education?

  Citation: 44

  Authors: Joyce, Corinne

• Investigating the comprehension iceberg: Developing empirical benchmarks for early-grade reading in agglutinating African languages

  Citation: 36

  Authors: Nicholas, Elizabeth, Nompumelelo

• An error analysis in the early grades mathematics – a learning opportunity?

  Citation: 30

  Authors: Roelien, Ingrid

• Play-based pedagogy: An approach to advance young children’s holistic development

  Citation: 29

  Authors: Prosper, Stef, Mariette

• The dream of Sisyphus: Mathematics education in South Africa

  Citation: 25

  Authors: Nick

• Assessment literacy of foundation phase teachers: An exploratory study

  Citation: 24

  Authors: Anil, Jane

• What the Annual National Assessments can tell us about learning deficits over the education system and the school career

  Citation: 22

  Authors: Servaas

• Foundation phase teachers’ (limited) knowledge of geometry

  Citation: 22

  Authors: Kakoma