Each one of these Honorary Members of ATTSVE are professors, lecturers, and researchers from South Africa who have done extensive work around issues of gender and HIV and AIDS. Each member was invited to present at the training and share their knowledge and expertise.
Dr. Relebohile Moletsane is a Professor and the John Langalibalele Dube Chair in Rural Education in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her areas of research and teaching include rural education and development, gender and education and girlhood studies. Moletsane is Co-PI (with Claudia Mitchell, McGill University) on an IDRC-SSHRC-funded partnership project: Networks for change and well-being: Girl-led ‘from the ground up’ policy making to address sexual violence in Canada and South Africa. She is a co-author, with Mitchell, C., Smith, A., and Chisholm, L. (2008) of Methodologies for Mapping a Southern African Girlhood in the Age of Aids. Rotterdam/New York/Taipei: Sense Publishers. She was a 2014 Echidna Global Scholar with the Brookings Institutions’ Centre for Universal Education (Washington, DC).
Mrs. Bongiwe Thabile Mkhize is a Lecturer at Mangosuthu University of Technology in the Department of Community Extension. She obtained her Diploma in Agricultural Home Economics from Owen Sithole College of Agriculture. After nine years of working for the erstwhile government Department of Agriculture, she decided to further her studies and receive a Bachelor of Agriculture degree from the University of Fort Hare and an Honours degree in Horticulture from the University of Pretoria. After fifteen years of her career as an Agricultural Extension Agent in the government ministry of Agriculture, she decided to change the career. She joined Mangosuthu University of Technology as a lecturer. She teaches poultry, Agricultural Extension and Small Stock production. She studied part-time and obtained a Master of Education degree from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Her Masters dissertation assessed the importance of integrating Experiential Learning in the curriculum of agricultural Extension to improve the technical skills of agricultural graduates. Besides teaching, she is also a member of the HEIDS/ HIV/AIDS- MUT-Curriculum committee. She is also a member of the South African Society for Agricultural Extension (SASAE). She believes in working in partnership with the industry which helps in exposing students to a world of real work. This helps to improve the quality of graduates and eventually graduates who will become wealth creators rather than employment seekers.
Dr. Jean Stuart is Senior Research Associate in the School of Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her research interests include using participatory and arts-based approaches that position participants as cultural producers to address socio-cultural aspects of health issues. This work is reflected in her active membership of the Centre for Visual Methodologies for Social Change and project leadership of Youth as Knowledge Producers: Arts-based approaches to HIV and AIDS prevention and education in rural KwaZulu-Natal. She has published on innovative teaching approaches and research methods in the area of HIV and AIDS.
Managa Pillay is a Senior Programme Manager: Curriculum and Research at the Higher Education and Training HIV/AIDS Programme, Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africa. She is a social worker by training, she then commenced and concluded course work on an interdisciplinary masters with Law and Social Work at the University of Durban Westville in 1997. She then received her Masters in Philosophy in HIV and AIDS Management from Stellenbosch University in 2007.
Dr. Naydene de Lange is Professor and HIV and AIDS Education Research Chair in the Faculty of Education at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Her research focuses on using visual participatory methodologies in addressing gender and HIV&AIDS issues, and integrating HIV&AIDS into Higher Education curriculum. Her Educational Psychology background and interest in Inclusive Education provides a frame for working towards the inclusion of those who are marginalised – using a ‘research as social change’ approach. Besides numerous peer reviewed published articles, she has co-edited three books, Putting People in the Picture: Visual Methodologies for Social Change, School-University Partnerships for Educational Change in Rural South Africa, and The Handbook of Participatory Video, and has also co-authored a book, Picturing Hope. She is a South African National Research Foundation rated researcher.
Nokukhanya Ngcobo is a lecturer in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Her research and teaching interests include language and gender, critical literacy, youth, health, sexuality, gender and HIV and AIDS in education, cultural identity and media, mother-tongue based bilingualism and multilingualism. Email: Ngcobon13@ukzn.ac.za
Sizakele Makhanya is currently an educator at Mangosuthu University of Technology. She is teaching Clothing, Nutrition and Health and Hygiene. She is a doctoral student at University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her topic is “Personal History Self-Study of Becoming an Educator at a University of Technology.” She completed her master’s degree at Walter Sisulu University. Her topic was “Improving Teaching and Learning at a Clothing Class of a University of Technology.” She has developed an interest in autoethnographic writing, and issues related to the relationship of HIV/AIDS and nutrition.