This special issue draws on the contributions from the 2016 International Consortium of Educational Development Conference (ICED) hosted for the very first time on African soil. The Higher Education Learning Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) co-hosted this conference in Cape Town, South Africa, with the theme,‘Ethics, care and quality in educational development’. The contributions to this special issue of CRiSTaL focus on the conference subthemes that explore various aspects of our practice through the lenses of ethics, care and quality enhancement. As much as the contributions tackled these conference themes, the authors enrich this edition with articles that are well researched and with a focus on innovative and reflective as well as practice-based focused approaches to teaching and learning.

This special issue includes 5 papers from South African and UK-based authors, as well as an invited paper from Dr Mary Lea and 3 book reviews. The papers address aspects of academic literacy and social justice in higher education, including physics and mathematics education, the role of religious faith as a tool for meaning making, challenging conceptions of decontextualised literacy, and bringing students' multiple language resources into teaching and writing to create more equitable and inclusive learning environments.

This issue includes 4 papers and 2 book reviews, and the subjects addressed include higher education as a public good, mentoring young researchers, social justice and human capabilities in higher education, new ways of approaching digital or online postgraduate education, and teaching masculinities in South Africa.

The papers in this issue address a range of concerns in higher education, including flexible provision of teaching and learning, academic writing education in the Sciences, teaching and learning grants and staff development, and academic literacy development at Masters level.

This issue's articles explore issues around student academic literacy development in the sciences,  teacher education in History, navigating the challenges of undertaking creative doctoral work, and the necessity of sound Humanities education and its relationship with the defence of academic freedom in South Africa. The issue also contains two book reviews of recent publications in higher education.

The articles in this issue challenge us to rethink discourses around transformation and knowledge within the university, as well as the kinds of environments that are conducive to both staff and student development.

This inaugural issue of Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning features publications from both South African and international authors. These papers deal with a range of pertinent issues in higher education and have resonance for a South African audience.