Akademies
Head of Department
Prof Nhlanhla Mpofu
PhD (University of Pretoria); MEd; BA English (with Education) (Solusi University)
021 808 2284
nmpofu@sun.ac.za
FOCUS AREAS:
Language Education
BIO NOTE:
Nhlanhla Mpofu is the Chair of the Department of Curriculum Studies and an Associate Professor in Language Education. She holds a PhD in Humanities Education (English Education) from the University of Pretoria that was funded by a Margaret McNamara Education grant. Nhlanhla also obtained a Master's degree (cum laude) in English Language Teaching and Literature and Bachelor of Arts (with Education) in English and Communication from Solusi University. Nhlanhla is a rated researcher as well as a member of the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS). Since 2019, she has served as a member of the South African Council on Higher Education's Accreditation Committee.
She has been a Visiting Professor at Antwerp School of Education at the University of Antwerp, Belgium since 2022. From 2019–2022, Nhlanhla was a visiting professor at the Watson College of Education at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in the USA. Nhlanhla is an alumna of the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) at University of Antwerp, Belgium and Coventry University, UK. Nhlanhla is also a Fulbright alumna as she was awarded a teaching fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA from 2017-2018. She has also been involved in a range of teacher education and material development initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa in countries like Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe. More recently, she has served as an assessor for the Botswana National Research Awards. As part of the BAQONDE project (a collaborative project with four South African universities, (North-West University, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of the Western Cape and Rhodes University), and three European universities (Trinity College Dublin, University of Groningen in the Netherlands and University of Salamanca in Spain), Nhlanhla is one of the language experts promoting the use of indigenous African languages as a medium of instruction in tertiary education.
Her scholarship focuses on the difficulties associated with English as a second language and the language of instruction (ELI) across various disciplines and within multicultural environments. She seeks innovative methodologies extracted from current pedagogy and combines a strategic, epistemological, and pragmatic understanding of nuanced discourse within multilingual education systems. Her departure point is the framework of an epistemological repertoire, bound by contextual linguistic resources, which are all controlled by the practitioner. Her conclusions, which incorporate successful collaborations from both the global South and global North, have played a vital role in re-orienting second language education research by re-establishing and empowering the language teacher as a knower in the multilingual, multicultural, and superdiverse secondary school classrooms.
Dr CG America
TDC (Pen Tech), BA, BAHons, MComm (UWC), PhD (Stell)
Office number: 3015
021 808 3793
camerica@sun.ac.za
FOCUS AREA:
Business Education
BIO NOTE:
Carina America is a senior lecturer and subject co-ordinator of Business Education in the Faculty of Education at the Stellenbosch University. She graduated from the University of the Western Cape with a Master's degree in Commerce and completed her PhD in Education at Stellenbosch University. Her work and academic experience have been largely linked to business and business education. After qualifying as a schoolteacher, she taught in the fields of Accounting, Economics and Business Studies. Thereafter, she worked in the financial services sector, after which she joined the higher education sector as a commerce lecturer, first in a Business Faculty and then in an Education Faculty. She has published in accredited journals and presented papers at various local and international conferences, focussing on issues related to in-service and pre-service teaching in Business Education. She was also involved in various national research projects on curriculum and assessment and has written several technical reports. She postgraduate students and acts as an external examiner for numerous masters and doctoral theses. She also regularly reviews articles written for publication related to Business Education.
Dr Zelda Barends
B Ed (US), B Ed Hons (US), M Ed (NWU), PhD (NWU)
Office number: 4015
021 808 3930
zbarends@sun.ac.za
FOCUS AREAS:
Language Education and Language in Education – Early Childhood Education / Foundation Phase
BIO NOTE:
Zelda Barends is a senior lecturer and teacher educator in the Department of Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). Her research interests are within the broader field of early childhood education (5 – 9 years), with a particular focus on literacy, literacy teacher education, reading, reading instruction in the foundation phase, teacher education and work-integrated learning. She has published in all these areas and publications include journal articles, book chapters and popular articles in professional journals and publications. She lectures on under and post graduate programmes and serves as a research supervisor to master's and doctoral students.
Zelda Barends is the Associate Editor of
Reading & Writing, a peer reviewed, inter-disciplinary and inter-professional scholarly journal that explores how literacy is defined, enacted and promoted in a range of institutional, socio-cultural and disciplinary contexts', particularly within Africa and other developing countries.
Zelda is a member of the International Literacy Association (ILA), the Literacy Association for South Africa (LITSA) and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and her published research papers has highlighted her work in how the professional training and experience are combined to equip beginning teachers with the knowledge and skills needed for effective literacy teaching.
Dr Shannon Bishop-Swart
BA Ed (UP), ATCL Speech and Drama (London), MA TESOL (TC, NYC)
Office number: 3019
021 808 2282
sbishop@sun.ac.za
FOCUS AREAS: Teacher well-being, online learning environments (OLEs), reflective practice in education, and English as a Second/Additional language (ESL/EAL).
BIO NOTE:
Mrs Shannon Bishop-Swart is currently pursuing her PhD in Education Policy at Stellenbosch University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education from the University of Pretoria, an Associate Diploma in Drama from Trinity College in London, and a Masters in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University, through a Fulbright scholarship. She has 22 years local and international teaching experience, predominantly teaching high school English Language and Literature, and has taught across 4 continents, holding the positions of Head of English, Deputy Head of Academics and Lead Teacher Trainer. She is the co-founder of PACHEDO, an international education non-for-profit based in Uganda. Her research interests include teacher education with a focus on teacher well-being, online learning environments (OLEs), reflective practice in education, and English as a Second/Additional language (ESL/EAL). Before joining the Curriculum Studies department, she was the Intensive English Programme Coordinator and Lecturer at SU's Language Centre, working predominantly with international students' intent on improving thei
