Vegan Learners, Belonging and Everyday Exclusion

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At the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), academic excellence has become a shared family thread. From teaching and research to undergraduate and postgraduate achievement, Mrs Jyothi Valjee and her family’s journeys are deeply rooted within the Institution.

Against this backdrop, Valjee’s summa cum laude Master of Education in Educational Psychology marks more than academic success.

Her dissertation, ‘Examining the Inclusionary and Exclusionary Experiences of Vegan Learners in South African Schools’, supervised by Professor Shakila Singh, is grounded in lived experience shaped by teaching, personal transformation, and identity.

Valjee’s journey spans more than three decades at UKZN, where she began her studies in 1992 before later completing a Bachelor of Pedagogics, achieving five distinctions and two merit certificates. After nearly 30 years in the classroom, she returned to academia to complete her Honours in Educational Psychology in 2023, graduating summa cum laude and receiving five merit certificates. During this period, she endured a serious accident that resulted in spinal fractures, yet she began her master’s soon after, continuing her studies through a difficult recovery.

“There were many moments where I felt I could not continue. What carried me through was my family, and Prof Singh, whose patience and tenderness during my recovery gave me the strength to keep going, even when it felt impossible.”

Her son, Mr Ashail Valjee, also a UKZN Autumn graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Human Resource Management, distinguished himself by finishing first in his class, reflecting a strong thread of academic excellence in the family.

“We supported each other through long nights of study,” she said, describing a shared rhythm of discipline, focus, and mutual encouragement.

Valjee’s study was deeply personal. Raised vegetarian and becoming vegan in 2008 following illness, she drew on her own experiences of marginalisation within school environments.

She recalled being told by fellow teachers to “go graze outside” or being given a paper plate with leaves and sticks. She reflects that these comments were often framed as humour, yet they functioned as microaggressions that diminished her identity and professional dignity.

Situated within a context where meat is closely tied to tradition, culture, and social belonging, these experiences prompted a deeper question: “If this was my experience as an adult in a school setting, what were children experiencing?”

Her research identifies vegan learners as an overlooked group within inclusion debates, revealing how “normal” food practices are reinforced through school routines, curriculum content, and everyday language. Drawing on the concept of symbolic violence, she demonstrates how exclusion often appears subtle and normalised, while quietly invalidating difference and reinforcing dominant norms.

The narratives she collected reveal stark experiences. One learner was forcibly pressured by peers to eat KFC, with a teacher who further humiliated him. He described feeling “angry, physically unwell and guilty,” yet remained committed to his values. Another learner was chased in a laboratory with dissected animals while a teacher was present. In another instance, a learner was excluded from an art activity for refusing to use leather in drum-making.

“These moments showed how exclusion operates both overtly and subtly,” Valjee noted.

Across participants, learners described navigating school spaces through silence, humour, avoidance, or resistance. Avoiding tuckshops, bringing food from home, or minimising their visibility to escape ridicule. Belonging, for many, became a continuous negotiation between fitting in and remaining true to themselves.

Yet moments of inclusion, though often small, carried profound meaning. One teacher allowed a vegan adaptation of a recipe and praised a learner’s creativity. Another ensured a vegan option at a school event. These gestures created spaces where learners felt recognised and valued.

Her findings suggest that while inclusion is often interpersonal and episodic, exclusion is embedded within the structural and cultural fabric of schooling. She argues that schools must broaden their understanding of inclusion to recognise ethical and dietary identities.

“Inclusion cannot depend on learners adapting themselves. Schools need to anticipate diversity.”

Valjee credits Professor Singh’s humanity and compassion throughout her academic journey, noting support that extended beyond scholarship into a deeply personal period marked by health challenges. She also acknowledges her family, who sustained her through moments of uncertainty.

She describes the journey as one of resilience and connection, supported by her family, including her daughter, now at UKZN, and her husband, a lecturer at the University. She also acknowledges the South African Vegan Society for their support, and emphasises that the achievement belongs equally to the learners whose voices shaped the study.

Now planning a PhD, Valjee remains committed to advancing dignity, equity, and justice in education.

“Recognising vegan learners is not about preference, it is about justice and belonging in education.”

Words: Rakshika Sibran

Photographs: Sethu Dlamini