Resume

Prior to his appointment as Research Associate at the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies (AMCHES), University of Johannesburg, Dr Govender was Senior Lecturer at AMCHES (September 2019 - April 2024). He was the Education Thematic Lead of Save the Children South Africa from July 2016 to August 2019, responsible for programming in Early Childhood Development and Basic Education before joining the University of Johannesburg. With more than thirty years’ experience in the education and research sectors, he has worked as a teacher, trade unionist, researcher, policy analyst, consultant, programme developer and lecturer. He has also undertaken commissioned work for parastatals and policy think tanks, notably the Council on Higher Education (CHE), the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) and Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA). He has a PhD in Education Policy and Management from the University of the Witwatersrand (2008); and holds a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr Govender has several research-based, peer-reviewed publications to his credit, focusing on education policy analysis, teacher union-state relations and higher education transformation. He is currently working on issues related to student epistemic access, university histories and teacher professionalism and unionism.