The School of Education hereby invites you to be part of an online webinar on Rurality and Rural Education presented by Professor Dipane Hlalele (UKZN).

The event will take place as follows:

Date: Thursday 18 June 2020

Time: 14h00 – 16h00

Event Format: Teams Meeting (Click here to join the event)

The Northern Cape has a huge composition of rural areas and that makes the concept of rural education important to the School of Education since a significant number of teacher graduates will serve in rural communities.

The concept of rurality, however, is a sociological concept drawn largely from the experiences of rural communities.

An appreciation of rurality and rural education is important for all Schools at SPU as it gives insights into the cultural capital that a significant number of our students bring with them to the university.

It also helps to put into perspective, current initiatives and offerings like online teaching and learning.

Prior to joining UKZN as an associate professor, Professor Dipane Hlalele was an assistant dean and senior lecturer at the University of the Free State. He was a principal and co-investigator in the Community engagement in rural contexts: a relational leadership strategy (2017-2019); Sustainable urban-rural learning connections (2017-2018) National Research Foundation (NRF)-funded projects respectively.

Prior to this, he was a principal investigator in Sustainable rural learning ecologies, Sustainable Futures for the People of the Afromontane and a co-investigator in the Adaptive leadership in community engagement and service learning NRF funded projects respectively. The accrued value of these projects is R2.7 million. 

He has supervised fifteen doctoral and twenty-three master’s degree students to completion; hosted four postdoctoral researchers and one teaching fellow and published over forty-five articles, peer-reviewed conference proceedings and chapters in books.

He has examined over eighty theses and dissertations from sixteen South African universities.

His current research interest draws from positive and community psychology as well as education and he therefore strives for and advocates helpful, hopeful and respectful research.

He currently sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Education.