The Faculty of Education awarded ten doctoral degrees and 23 master’s degrees at the recent spring graduation ceremony in September. A further 377 honours degrees, one postgraduate certificate in higher education, 21 bachelor of education degrees and 45 advanced certificates in education were also awarded.

Dr Marlize Malan van Rooyen, a staff member in the Department of Educational Psychology, completed her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof Liesl Ebersöhn, with the title ‘Indigenous pathways to adaptive coping in rural communities’. Dr Maryke Mihai, a lecturer in the Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, completed her thesis, ‘Management challenges of an information and communication technology network in rural schools’ with Prof Jan Nieuwenhuis as supervisor.

Dr Janna Maree de Gouveia, also under the supervision of Prof Liesel Ebersöhn, completed her thesis entitled ‘Indigenous pathways to well-being as resilience outcome in rural communities’, and Dr Catherine Olayinka Adegoke completed her thesis, ‘Key factors in enhancing the resilience of HIV positive adolescent girls in Nigeria’ under the supervision of Prof Miemsie Steyn. Prof Venitha Pillay acted as supervisor for Dr Akinola George whose thesis is titled, ‘Lifelong learning and the advancement of career opportunities for women in the corporate sector’.

Prof Sarah Howie supervised two doctoral theses: Dr Phetolo Malau-Modiega’s thesis, ‘Development of a programme accreditation system to address quality in tertiary education institutions in Botswana’, and Dr Emmanuel Mogoboya Matsebatlela’s thesis, ‘The effect of the Higher Education Quality Committee’s institutional audits on public higher education institutions’.

Dr Refilwe Morongwa Ramagoshi completed her thesis, ‘Teaching of idioms as part of imaginative language in Grade 3 Tswana classes’ under supervision of Prof Ina Joubert, and Prof Rinelle Evans supervised the completion of Dr Herco Jacobus Steyn’s thesis, ‘Textese and secondary school learners: identifying textisms in formal written English’. Dr Alta Engelbrecht supervised the thesis entitled ‘The effect of computer technology on learning in a multi-linguistic language class’, completed by Dr Eva Sujee.  

View the Spring Graduation 2015 photo gallery.