In honour of Women’s Month, the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) proudly presents the Women of Impact Series. This series celebrates the outstanding achievements of our female graduates, partners, and project leaders in the Humanities and Social Sciences. We showcase the groundbreaking research, extraordinary dedication, and inspiring visions of these accomplished women. Through their innovative work and unwavering commitment, they have advanced in their respective fields and shaped a more inclusive and diverse future. Join us in celebrating their remarkable contributions and stories.
1. Can you share a bit about your journey and experiences as a project leader with the NIHSS, and how this has influenced your work and personal growth?
I led the project application while I was at WSU and the funding award was approved for my lead while at WSU- the need for practical solutions with COVID exacerbated girl child drop outs in EC rural school exposed me to lead a multi-stakeholder project, transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary with collaborations from 5 national universities and EC government. As an engaged scholar this project broadened my functional scholarship approach and practicality and ability to manage an inclusive stakeholder project for inclusive voices of the marginalized communities, departments, schools and girl children themselves. Learn to resources with limited resources through effective collaborations and equal partnership. From this project, I became part of the International project with HSRC, Canada, WSU and UKZN for a Women Rise IDRC funded project focusing on rebuilding for women in rural EC after COVID. And I became appointed into this project because of my ability to lead a transformative engaged action research based projects like this one with NIHSS funding in 2020.
2. How does your research and projects address the unique challenges and opportunities in your field, and what key insights or findings do you believe can drive meaningful change and impact in society?
The girl child project was set to bring IT solutions to learner dropouts from a multi-stakeholder perspectives and lived experiences of child children learners, parents, teachers and the department of education. We developed a predictive tool for learner dropouts that can be used by the department and the work can be duplicated in other SA provinces and we are in planning and resource searching to extend the project outcomes with other SA provinces and KZN will be the first one since I am now employed in UKZN.
The project involved a social science research approach of action participatory and as well as the development of big data analytical tool to predict learner dropouts and prevent them before a learn drops from school. It is a tool linked with required services like learner support, social workers, enforcement of child protection rights and ensuring safe schooling for learners.
The problems were as follows, bulling, sexual crimes and rape, forced marriages , pregnancies, family responsibilities, long distances to school, pushed to dropout by teachers if a learner is struggling with school work achievement as the schools are under pressure for best results, learners could not connect to online school work due to lack of tools and resources for such, girl children feeling unsafe at school and after school at times, child headed homes, where most girl children assumed the role of caring for their siblings
3. What does the celebration of Women’s Month mean to you?
It Means that, as women we have a role in society and wherever we are, our role must show impact for the better society. It means connecting with other women in platforms of exposure and sharing and learning from each other. Taking notice of where are as the nation in building better for women. It means celebrating the efforts of women before us and now and passing the baton to the younger generation. It means building an inclusive, productive society where both man and women can coexist peacefully.
4. What role do you see interdisciplinary collaboration playing in your work, and how has it enhanced the outcomes of your research and projects?
On the very start, the project was set to draw skills of different leading academics and researcher from social sciences, education, IT and health. The scope of the project realized that girl child learner dropout is a multifaceted problem that requires practical solutions through and intersectional lens of interdisciplinary collaboration for holistic solution. Moving from problem emphasis to solution setting. I have never seen a one size fit all approach with the diverse social ills in our social world. I believe in multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary work as a leading female academic.
Our work did not only developed the needed tool for IT solutions and embracing the call for IT for public good but we have also core produced academic papers that have been published nationally and internationally and have presented the work in academic conferences and workshops since. We currently have 5 papers submitted , 2 published internationally, 2 on positive review towards publication and one on submission stage. Each discipline lead had a responsibility to lead a publication with the team, like IT, Education and Social Sciences as well as health and demography.
Lastly the project also developed students towards their higher degrees in honours, MA and PhD