Professor Connie Zulu is currently Acting Deputy director in the school of Professional Studies in Education at the North-West University in South Africa. She is an educational management and women in educational leadership and management specialist. She has been in academia for the past 24 years, fourteen of which were devoted to teaching English and Academic skills to first year university students. She has taught and supervised postgraduate students in English and Educational leadership and management. Her research interests are mainly in the area of educational leadership and management particularly the role of women and all aspects of women’s experience in leadership and management. Her doctoral thesis focused on ‘Women in higher education management in universities’. Her current research areas include ‘women in educational leadership and management, and Discipline in Education institutions. She is the sub-area leader of a group of researchers within a Research unit in the Faculty of Education, as well as an active member of various academic committees within the institution.
In 2015 she obtained a National research foundation ( NRF) rating as an established researcher. Her main research focus is on gender and leadership in higher education and basic education ( primary and high school level).
She is interested in all areas of research about women in management, particularly their experiences as leaders (and managers) in universities and in secondary schools. As a postgraduate student supervisor and promoter, she has successfully supervised more than twenty students in educational management since 2009. She has published many articles, delivered conference papers nationally and internationally, contributed chapters in books –most notably a book on educational research in 2015. She is the research committee chairperson in the Faculty of Education and Training and the co-ordinator of a research entity dealing with Learner discipline and issues of learner misconduct in public schools.
Recent publications
Her recent publications include:
Zulu, C. (2017). Promoting gender transformation at a higher education institution in South Africa. In K. White and P. O’Connor (Eds.), Gendered Success in Higher Education: Global perspectives, pp. 195-214, Palgrave McMillan: Basingstoke.
Zulu, C. (2016). Navigating the terrain of academic writing in postgraduate research: The case of mature additional language students. In M. Mokoena and I. Oosthuizen (Eds.) A scholarly contribution to educational praxis, pp. 58-85, AOSIS publishers.
Zulu, C. (2015). Essentials of academic writing. In C. Okeke and M.Van Wyk (Eds.).Educational Research: An African Approach, pp.535-552, Oxford university Press: Southern Africa, ISBN: 97680199047871).
Funding
2009 – The Tercentenary Fund of the Bank of Sweden
2010 – Swedish Research Council
2016 – Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare
2019 – German Alexander Humbolt Foundation
Publications based on Network projects to date
Books
Refereed journal articles