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Dr Charles Kivunja

Charles Kivunja

Lecturer, Faculty of The Professions, School of Education

Qualifications

PhD (UWS) Leadership, M.Ed.(UWS) Leadership, M.Agric. Econ.(USyd), M.Sc Marketing (UNairobi), B.A. Hons (UMakerere), Dip.Ed. (UMakerere)

Contact

Email:
Room: FEHPS Building (E7) 334
Phone: 02 6773 2005 (or +61 2 6773 2005 overseas)
Fax: 02 6773 2445
Mobile: 0412 466 184

Charles Kivunja is a member of the Learning and Teaching as well as the Educational Leadership Groups. He conducts lectures and coordinates the units on Teaching for Active Learning and Planning for Assessment in the Bachelor of Teaching/Master of Teaching (Primary) course for pre-service teachers and, as well, coordinates the doctoral leadership unit: Professional Workplace Culture and Learning, and the Master of School Leadership and Management. He is Course Coordinator for the Master of Teaching (Primary).

Dr Kivunja won the UNE Excellence in Teaching Award for 2009.

He is particularly interested in qualitative research methodologies and is the Manager and Coordinator of UNE’s Leximancer qualitative software development project. His recent research is focused on leadership and its impacts on multigrade pedagogy and practice in African contexts, particularly in Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. His recent work in Uganda and Zambia investigates multigrade stakeholders’ perceptions about multigrade schooling, snippets of which can be viewed at UNE-SOE-African Research Adventure. In collaboration with national and international colleagues, he is also investigating the efficacy of low-threshold technology, such as solar-powered eTablets on multigrade teaching in rural schools in Uganda and of 3D-Virtual Learning Environments in selected primary schools in Polokwane and Limpopo Provinces in South Africa. 

Publications

Link to Dr Kivunja's publication list.

Affiliations

  • Fellow of the Australian Leadership Award (FALA)
  • Australian Association for Research in Education
  • Australian Council for Educational Research
  • Australian Council for Educational Leaders
  • Australian College of Educators

Research interests

  • Impacts of leadership on capacity building for multigrade pedagogy and practice in rural contexts, especially, Africa.
  • The role of multigrade pedagogy in achieving education for all children of primary schooling age especially in African countries.
  • Multigrade pedagogy as the engine to accelerate Millennium Development Goals for Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Efficacy of low threshold technology, such as solar-powered eTablets and iPads on learning and teaching in multigrade contexts in Africa.
  • Impacts of leadership on quality teaching and learning.
  • School leadership and management.
  • Relationship between structural-cultural dynamics and school
  • improvements.
  • Structural and cultural dynamics in NSW multi-campus colleges.
  • Distance education including online virtual classroom mode of teaching.
  • Perspectives on educational leadership.
  • Classroom management and pedagogy.
  • Leading authentic learning in an inclusive context.
  • Educational leadership and enhancing student governance in middle schooling and senior schooling contexts.
  • Authentic leadership and organisational behaviour.
  • Distributive leadership and leadership for learning.
  • Leading educational change.
  • Qualitative research methodologies
  • The use of Leximancer qualitative software in thematic, conceptual and relational analysis.
  • Educational research methods and design.    

Postgraduate research supervision in:

  • Educational Leadership
  • Learning and Teaching
  • Multigrade Pedagogy and strategies
  • Qualitative Methodologies.
  • Low threshold eLearning.