30 October – 28 November 2019
The University of Notre Dame, Sydney, Australia

Carine Jonker was the recipient of the UP Post Graduate Study Abroad Programme which funded a research visit to Prof Caroline Mansfield (Dean of the School of Education) at the University of Notre Dame, Australia.  Carine is currently enrolled as a PhD student in Educational Psychology at the Centre for the Study of Resilience (CSR) at the University of Pretoria. She is supervised by Prof Liesel Ebersöhn (Supervisor; Director: Centre for the Study of Resilience), Prof Marien Graham (Co-Supervisor; Senior Lecturer: Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education) and Dr Surette van Staden (Co-Supervisor; Director: Centre for Evaluation and Assessment) for her doctoral study entitled “Pre-service teacher resilience and self-efficacy in a challenged education context.

The bursary enabled Carine to visit an international expert in the field of teacher resilience between October and November 2019. The visit specifically focussed on enhancing her knowledge and expertise in the field of pre-service teacher resilience. The aforementioned was enhanced by contact with other colleagues at different institutions through face-to-face discussions as well as conference calls.  Prof Mansfield is a highly valued research collaborator with CSR. She was also one of the project leaders in Keeping Cool (2009-2012) and BRiTE: Building Resilience in Teacher Education (https://www.brite.edu.au) (2013-2015) projects in Australia. Furthermore, Prof Mansfield partnered as an Australian international collaborator in the European project, Enhancing Teacher Resilience in Europe (ENTREE) (2013-2015) (http://entree-project.eu/en). Carine was fortunate to gain in-depth knowledge about aforementioned projects during here visit which was vital for her PhD study.

From left to right: Carine Jonker (University of Pretoria) and Prof Caroline Mansfield (University of Notre Dame) deliberating during a working lunch.