Honorary Research Associate, School of Education UCT

Research Associate

Interests: I am currently focusing on historical research in the Eastern Cape. Areas of interest include: mission education in the 1940s and early 1950s (Headtown particularly), schooling for ‘Coloured’ children in Grahamstown (Makhanda) and the ANC Defiance Campaign of 1952 in East London (kuGompo) and Port Elizabeth (Qgeberha).  I have also published extensively, and retain an interest in, the fields of higher, adult and professional education and recognition of prior learning.

Selected publications

Journal articles

• Breier M (2023) Proving a secret massacre – the case of South Africa’s Bloody Sunday, 9 November 1952. Journal of Southern African Studies, 49, 5-6, pp 781-804.  https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2352275
• Breier M (2023) Introduction: Histories of Protest in East London and the Eastern Cape. Journal of Southern African Studies, 49, 5-6, pp. 733-742. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2355810
• Breier M, Herman C and Towers (2020) Doctoral rites and liminal spaces: Academics without PhDs in South Africa and Australia.  Studies in Higher Education. 45:4, 834-846, https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1583727
• Breier M and Herman C (2017) The PhD Conundrum in South African academia. Higher Education Quarterly, 71, 352-368. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12134
• Breier M (2010) From ‘financial considerations’ to ‘poverty’: towards a reconceptualisation of the role of finances in higher education student dropout. Higher Education, 60, 657-670. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9343-5
• Breier  M, with Ralphs A (2009) In search of phronesis: recognizing practical wisdom in the Recognition (Assessment) of Prior Learning.  British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30 (4), 479-493. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425690902954646

Books and monographs

• Breier M and Beinart W (Eds.) (2025) East London’s Hidden Histories: Popular protest, women’s participation and police violence, 1930 to 1960. Cape Town: Breier and Beinart.
• Breier, M (2021) Bloody Sunday: The nun, the Defiance Campaign and South Africa’s secret massacre. Cape Town: Tafelberg.
• Breier M, Wildschut A and Mgqolozana T (2009) Nursing in a New Era: the profession and education of nurses in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
• Breier M, (2008) The RPL Conundrum: Recognition of Prior Learning in a teacher upgrading programme. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
• Breier M with Wildschut A (2006) Doctors in a Divided Society: the profession and education of medical practitioners in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
• Breier M (Ed.) (2001) Curriculum Restructuring in Higher Education in Post-apartheid South Africa. Bellville: Education Policy Unit.
• Prinsloo M and Breier M (Eds.) (1996) The Social Uses of Literacy.  Cape Town: Sached Books and Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishers.