Prof Yusuf Sayed, Research Leadership Chair in Teacher Education, says the renewed funding for the Chair from the National Research Foundation (NRF) is a testament to the hard work and effort of all members of the CPUT-based Centre for International Teacher Education (CITE).
“It is an affirmation of the support we have received from the university and faculty,” said Sayed. “It reflects a deepening of research at CPUT and the commitment and values of CPUT as becoming a research-intensive university.”
For the next phase the Chair and CITE will continue to deepen the work they have engaged with in the first phase which included developing new knowledge about teacher education, building research capacity and strengthening national, regional and international research partnerships.
“We will also seek to continue to actively enhance the impact of our research in the coming phase,” he added.
“I am pleased to communicate that the panel has recommended that funding for the Chair continue for the next five-year cycle and that this recommendation has been accepted by the NRF,” Dr Rocky Skeef, Executive Director: Reviews and Evaluations, wrote to CPUT recently.
Skeef also indicated in the letter that the panel’s recommendation outcome was reached by consensus.
CITE was founded in 2014 with the understanding that teacher preparation and teacher classroom performance are at the heart of enhancing education quality and ensuring that education acts as a vehicle for achieving equity and transformation in society.
CITE acts as a national, regional and international centre of excellence for research and policy dialogue about education policy and teacher education.
The specific objectives of the Chair are to:
- Develop a rigorous and robust programme of research and scholarship to advance knowledge in the field of teacher education;
- Support and build research capacity;
- Bridge the current education policy-practice gap in South Africa and contribute to evidence based policy making;
- Build on existing initiatives in the field of teacher education in South Africa and globally and;
- Initiate and build a platform of research, research capacity, policy discussion, academic debate, and collegial collaboration pertaining to education policy and education in South Africa.
