Unisa online - Research, a strategic focus area for Unisa

Prof Nareadi Phasha from CEDU

It is a priority for Unisa to advance its research profile and to establish itself as a research-intensive university. As a university responsive to both national and continental needs, Unisa subscribes to the eight millennium goals which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015.

Against this background, Prof Nareadi Phasha’s research entitled “Gender-based violence in schools for learners with disabilities” was given a boost when she was awarded $21 000 to conduct a cross-national study covering South Africa and Kenya by the Forum for African Woman Educationalists (FAWE), an organisation which aims to strengthen gender research to improve girls’ and women’s education in Africa.

Prof Phasha from the College of Education needs to complete her study by October 2012. Through her study, she hopes to tease out school processes and practices that motivate gender-based violence as it pertains to learners with disabilities, and plans to analyse the contribution of this form of violence on the marginalisation and disempowerment of the group in question. The findings will be used to develop ways in which schools can contribute towards reversing the damage caused by an experience of gender-based violence among learners with special needs and in promoting safe learning environments.

Phasha’s interest to undertake this study was prompted by a desire to broaden her NRF-funded study on abused children with intellectual disability. The ramifications of gender-based violence are far-reaching: some could resort to irregular school attendance and may even drop out of school as a strategy to avoid such treatment at school. “When learners with disabilities and/or special needs feel such ramifications, the result becomes a double violation of their rights to education. This is so because in general the number of learners with disability and other special needs in schools is generally low due to societal biases and practices that deny them any supportive and safe learning environment,” said Phasha.

The relevance and importance of research and innovation at universities in general and at Unisa in particular will be discussed at the planned Research and Innovation Week in March, which aims to create awareness of research as a strategic focus area and acknowledge staff who have excelled in research.