About Us
UNIMA Family Literacy Project
The University of Malawi is the oldest institution of higher learning in Malawi, established in 1964 soon after independence. It was established by an act of parliament and accredited by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE). The University has four constituent colleges: The Polytechnic, College of Medicine, Kamuzu College of Nursing and Chancellor College. The University was re-established after the 2019 acts of parliament which created three Universities from delinked constituent colleges of the federal University of Malawi. Chancellor College retained the name of University of Malawi. The School of Education and Centre for Language Studies are located at Chancellor College. The mandate of the former is to offer pre-service teacher training programmes, postgraduate programmes in education and conduct educational research. The mandate of the Centre for Language Studies is to develop and promote local languages through research and language and literacy teaching.
School of Education and the Centre of Language Studies
Symon Chiziwa: UNESCO chair coordinator
Symon Ernest Chiziwa has attained the following academic qualifications; a Bachelor of Education (Humanities), B. Ed (honours) in Educational Psychology from University of Malawi, Master of Arts degree in Curriculum and Virginia Polytechnic and State University of USA. He obtained a Doctoral degree in Teacher Education from University of Malawi. He has research interests in wide spectrum of areas including curriculum design, development and implementation, education reform, pedagogical and assessment practices, Teacher Education, Outcomes based education, non-formal education, School leadership and Inclusive Education, Gender and Critical thinking. He is a lecturer in Educational Psychology, Adolescent Psychology, Child psychology and Guidance and Counselling 2004 to date with the University of Malawi- Chancellor College. He has served in different leader’s positions within and outside the university including, Dean of the School of Education, Senator of the University, Head of Education Foundations Department. He has made significant contributions in the areas of life skills, HIV and AIDS education and Curriculum Development at National and International levels. He has published more than 8 papers in academic journals. He has recently facilitated development of an out of school youth national functional literacy curriculum. Furthermore, he is conducting research in the area of teacher deployment and management and guidance and counselling services in secondary education in Malawi.
Dr Ahmmardouh Mjaya
Ahmmardouh Mjaya is a lecturer in linguistics in the Department of African Languages and Linguistics and a Ciyawo language specialist at the Centre for Language Studies at Chancellor College in the University of Malawi. He holds a PhD in research related to education and a Masters in Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning obtained from the University of East Anglia (UK) and a Masters in Applied Linguistics obtained from Chancellor College, University of Malawi (Mw). As a lecturer, he teaches linguistics courses including language and literacy. As a Ciyawo language specialist he teaches Ciyawo language to non-native speakers, translates various documents from English to Ciyawo and edits Ciyawo texts. He has coordinated a pilot adult literacy support initiative in Zomba, Malawi for the Centre of Advanced Studies of African Societies (CASAS) based in Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa. Ahmmardouh has led in the collection, compilation and publication of a Ciyawo monolingual dictionary through the NUFU funded Malawi Lexicon (MaLex) Project. He has led a language mapping team for Southern Malawi in an Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) funded Language Mapping Project.
Frank Mtemang’ombe
Frank Mtemang’ombe is a Deputy Dean of Education and Director of E-Learning in the University of Malawi. He joined the University in 2005 as a lecturer in Education Foundations and has served in different academic leadership roles including being Head of Education Foundations Department and Head of Audio-Visual Centre of the university. He is a forward thinking, highly committed academic with more than fourteen (14) years of university teaching and research experience. He has a strong commitment to knowledge exchange and research that directly supports the use of digital technologies for improved learning outcomes at primary, secondary and university level. The recurring themes in his work concern educational technology and equity, ICT management and policy implementation, mobile learning, and teacher development. He holds a PhD in Education from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. His PhD research was dedicated to understanding the practices and experiences of learners, educators, and scholars with emerging digital learning innovations in Malawi. He also has a Masters’ Degree in Digital Technologies Communication and Education from the University of Manchester, England and a Bachelor of Education obtained from the University of Malawi.
Lisnet Mwadzaangati
Lisnet Mwadzaangati is an enthusiastic researcher and lecturer in mathematics education at the University of Malawi with more than ten years of experience. She holds a doctor of philosophy degree in mathematics education and a master degree in Applied Educational Research. She is a self-motivated and dedicated lady with expertise in conducting different types of research. Lisnet’s expertise in educational research is a result of her determination in improving the quality of education in Malawi at all levels. Her research interest is in understanding issues foregrounding education quality in mathematics and other fields. Due to her strong passion for improving girls’ participation and performance in mathematics education, Lisnet focused on exploring practices that hinder girls’ participation and performance in mathematics. Having noticed that teacher knowledge is one of the major contributing factors to the poor quality of education in Malawi, Lisnet focused on exploring mathematical knowledge for teaching geometric proofs during her PhD. Lisnet is a research representative who coordinates all research activities conducted by the school of education. She is also a member of the project of “strengthening numeracy in early years primary education through professional development” which runs from 2017-2021. This is a joint project between University of Malawi (Malawi) and University of Stavanger (Norway) and is supported by the Norwegian Agency for Capacity Building in Higher Education (NORHED). Lisnet has also developed several training materials for different projects such the Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education (SMASSE) project funded by Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA), and functional literacy curriculum for out of school youth project by the Ministry of Labour, Sports and Manpower Development in partnership and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
Foster Gondwe
Foster Gondwe is a teacher educator and researcher in Education Foundations at the University of Malawi. He has a Master of Education degree from Hiroshima University, Japan, and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Malawi. He is a recipient of MEXT scholarship, currently pursuing a PhD at the Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC), Hiroshima University, Japan. He is a also member of the Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE), USA. His work focuses on Educational Technology, Teacher Education, and Comparative and International Education. Among his recent research work, include Malawi’s Education Technology Policy Analysis, and Comparative analysis of teacher education policies in Japan, Thailand and Malawi.
Tiffany Banda
Tiffany Banda is a PhD student (University of Witwatersrand), obtained a Master of Philosophy in Politics Democracy and Education (2004-2005) University of Cambridge – United Kingdom and Bachelor of Education with Credit (1997-2001) University of Malawi. She is lecturer in Education and Development in Africa. She assumed a number of responsibilities in the School of Education: Teaching Practice Coordinator (January 2015-2017) Faculty Representative and Co-Founder of the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic – University of Malawi (Chancellor College)- 2015-present, Deputy Coordinator for Post graduate Studies (June 2014 – Dec 2014), Project Coordinator - Sub Saharan Africa Family Enrichment (SAFE) (Nov 2012-Mar 2013), Full Time Cover Supervisor/ Supply Teacher – Parkway Middle school and Manor Community College, Cambridge (Dec 2007- July 2010). She has made presented at a number of national and international conference. Trainer of trainers – Sub Saharan Family Enrichment- SAFE (May 2003 –Sept 2004
Dr Jean Josephine Chavula
She is a Language specialist & lecturer in linguistics in University of Malawi, Centre for Language Studies, She holds a PhD (Linguistics) obtained from Leiden University in 2008: MA (Pure/Theoretical Linguistics) obtained from University of Malawi, Chancellor College in 2002: and Bachelor of Arts (Humanities) from University of Malawi, Chancellor College; Majoring in African Languages and Linguistics. As a Language Specialist at the Centre for Language Studies Duties include: offering translation, editing and interpretation services for various texts from English into local languages and vice versa, teaching local languages to expatriates and those interested; developing descriptive grammars, scientific terminology and orthographic principles for Malawian languages, conducting research in Malawian languages 2010 to date. She has served in various capacities including Acting Director, Centre for Language Studies 1st November 2017 to 31st August 2018, Deputy Head of Department, African Languages and Linguistics Department, Chancellor College, Acting Deputy Director, Centre for Language Studies. February 2008 to August 2009: Deputy Director, Centre for Language Studies. She has conducted a number of research and consultancies; January 2019 - March 2019 translation of Citumbuka and Chichewa video texts into English for MAFA project 01 November 2018- 30 June 2019: The effect of English only instruction on skill formation and labour market readiness of young Malawians August 2018. Translation of Real Fathers Guide from English into Chichewa. Save the Children, Zomba. AMAA project 2016 -2018: Coordinating the documentation of Folktales and compilation of dictionaries and glossaries for Chichewa, Citumbuka and Kyandonge. April - May 2017. Translation of data collection tools from English into Chichewa and Citumbuka for FHI 360 Health4life project. March 2017. ‘Most Significant Change’ research project, for Verité, an international labour organization among others.
Alick Kadango Bwanali
Alick Banda holds hold a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (Specialising in Translation Studies– University of Malawi (2006) and a Bachelor of Education (Humanities) from the University of Malawi. He is language specialist (from 1998 to-date) based at the Centre for Language Studies, University of Malawi. He offers the following services; Translation and Interpretation, Editing and Proofreading, Teaching Malawian languages to non-native speakers, Conducting Research in Language and related fields, conducting any other language and communication related consultancies. He has been involved in a number of projects; A Survey on the English only medium of instruction in Malawian Primary school – 2019; Most Significant Change story compilation – Verite (USA) – 2018; Compilation of Chichewa On-line Dictionary and National Language Mapping for Northern Malawi.