At its recent autumn graduation ceremony led by Prof Anton Ströh, Vice-Principal: Institutional Planning, the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria (UP) conferred 470 degrees and certificates, which included eight PhD degrees. One of the recipients of a PhD degree was Dr Wendy Carvalho-Malekane, a lecturer in Educational Psychology.

Sixteen master’s, 106 honours,  and 225 bachelor degrees in Education were also conferred, as well as 115 postgraduate certificates in Education and 24 postgraduate certificates in Higher Education.

In her thesis titled ‘Racial identity as narrated by young South African adults with parents from different racial and national heritages’, which was completed under supervision of Prof Liesel Ebersöhn, Dr Carvalho-Malekane explored how young adults with a multiracial heritage construct and negotiate an identity in a diverse and democratic South Africa. The findings indicated that the identity construction of the young adults who had participated in the study was influenced by family relations, culture and language, as well as by social relationships and milieus.

Dr Maria Annah Mnguni-Letsoalo completed her PhD degree under supervision of Prof Ronel Ferreira, with a study titled ‘Volunteers’ use of memory work to promote psycho-social support of clients facing poverty-related adversity’. Prof Kesh Mohangi acted as supervisor for Dr Hildah Lorato Mokgolodi’s research for her thesis ‘Harnessing experiential knowledge and skills of retired educators to inform career development programmes in Botswana’, while Prof Adelia Carstens supervised Dr Christiaan Marthinus Sander Prinsloo’s thesis titled ‘A curricular framework for English for academic legal purposes’. The thesis ‘Exploring perceptions of lecturers’ instructional communication as a reflection of instructional competence’ was completed by Dr Madikwa Hendrietta Segabutia under supervision of Prof Rinelle Evans, and Prof Ina Joubert acted as supervisor for Dr Margareth Georgina Steyn, whose research dealt with ‘Teaching the mathematical concept of time in Grade 2’. Dr Claire Symington’s thesis titled ‘The effect of life-design counselling on the career adaptability of learners in an independent school setting’ was supervised by Prof Kobus Maree, while Prof Saloshna Vandeyar supervised Dr Maria Tsakeni’s thesis on ‘The influence of teacher professional identity on inquiry-based laboratory work in school chemistry’.

The awards for best achievement in the BEd intermediate and senior phases went to Nicole Lisa Uhlmann and Franzelle Suzette Naicker, respectively. Other awards for best achievement went to Celesté Naude (BEd Further Education and Training: Education and Management Sciences), Claudia Schlettwein (Human Movement Science and Sport Management), and Tshepo Ronny Mokonyama (Natural Sciences).