Leveraging Educational Quality in Southern African Educational Systems: A Practitioners� Perspective

About the Contributors

About the Contributors Munyaradzi Mawere is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Universidade Pedagogica, Mozambique. Before joining this University, he was a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Zimbabwe. Currently, he is completing his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Mawere is an author of six books and more than 40 articles with internationally accredited referred peer journals. He has also reviewed several journal papers in the areas of culture, environmental studies, ethics, education and literature. Patient Rambe holds a PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Computer Science and Informatics at the University of the Free State in South Africa, and a former Assistant Director in the Office of International Academic Projects situated in the Office of the Vice Chancellor at the same university. Dr Rambe is a former lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and has an impressive publication record in high impact peer reviewed journals and international conference proceedings. He has also reviewed multiple papers in conference proceedings and journal articles in the areas of educational technology, informatics, information technology, and higher education. Anitha J. Menon holds a PhD in Health Psychology from University of Nottingham, UK. She is the Head of Psychology Department, University of Zambia and the Chairperson for University of Zambia Committee on HIV and AIDS. Dr. Menon has been actively involved in various national and international research projects and has been the team leader for several including DFID funded Development for Higher Education (DelPHE) partnership and NORAD funded Master’s program (NOMA). She is a member of the editorial board for Journal of African Social Research; and Zambian Papers. She also continues to serve as reviewer for various national and international scientific journals including Medical Journal of Zambia, Journal of Psychology in Africa, African Studies, Journal of AIDS, Journal of Peace and Development Studies, BioMed Central and Sex Roles. She has also been actively involved in publishing and has more than 50 publications. Dr Menon also spearheaded the formulation of University of Zambia HIV and AIDS policy. She is also the recipient of the Best Professor of Psychology award for 2012 from World Education Congress. Jacqueline Jere-Folotiya is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zambia (UNZA). She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education from the University of Zambia in 2003. She was then awarded a joint scholarship between UNZA and Yale University to pursue a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology and graduated in 2006. This joint scholarship was as a result of the collaborative research that was being conducted between the two universities. One of the objectives of that research was capacity building for UNZA and this was achieved by training 4 students from UNZA at Masters level. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Philosophy in Education Psychology with UNZA and Jyvaskyla University (JYU) in Finland. She has published works in the International Journal of Psychology, Journal of Psychology in Africa, International Encyclopaedia of Adolescence, and Encyclopaedia of Special Education and has also contributed to several chapters in various books. Tamara Chansa-Kabali is Lecturer and Researcher in the Psychology Department at the University of Zambia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Education (BA.Ed) from the University of Zambia obtained in 2006. She pursued her studies in Child and Adolescent Psychology, a collaborated programme between the University of Zambia and Leiden University in the Netherlands. This programme was sponsored by the Lolle Nauta Foundation in Leiden and in 2009 she was awarded the MA degree. She is currently pursuing a collaborated PhD programme with the Universities of Zambia and Jyvaskyla. Her areas of research interest are in early literacy acquisition, family literacy, attachment, cognitive development, protective and risk factors in the homes, parenting, child health, Orphaned and Vulnerable children and cross cultural psychology. ...