About
RESEARCH WORK
I combine my experience in the NGO, corporate, and academic sectors to bridge the gap between researchers, development practitioners, the government, and civil society organizations. Positioned within the educational and international development discourses, my projects have focused on youth and access to education; education in emergencies; girls' education; peace education in Africa; migration and education; internationalization of higher education; and creative and green economies. I have a strong working knowledge of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Selected Projects
I have done both academic and consulting research, working in various capacities, from team member to lead project investigator.
2022– 2023 PI: Mapping higher education beyond Agenda 2030: International students and digital learning in South Africa. National Research Foundation (NRF) Thuthuka.
2022– 2023 Co-I: Ibali: Storying new discourses of educational inclusion/exclusion in the UK, Nigeria, and South Africa. Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
2022-2023 PI: African International students in South African Higher Education: A multi-university study on e-learning experiences. UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and SARCHI Chair.
2022 PI: Transnational and intergenerational exploration of ecological heritage with youth in Southern Africa – gathering data for moringa commercialisation. AHRC-GCRF ECR funding of CTS Network Plus.
2022 PI: Pursuing higher education in contexts of socio-spatial exclusion: a scoping study of the educational trajectories of youth from informal settlements. Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE).
2022 Co-I: Universities as Sustainable Communities. Economic and Social Research
Council Network Funding of the Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF).
2020 –2021 PI: Youth agency, civic engagement, and sustainable development: Ideas for Southern Africa. AHRC-GCRF ECR funding of CTS Network Plus.
2019 Co-I: Street art to promote representation and epistemic justice among marginalized rural Zimbabwean youth. AHRC-GCRF ECR funding of CTS Network Plus.
Selected Consultancies
2017 –2018 Co-Investigator: South African Alumni Tracking Qualitative Study. International Education, New York (Ford Foundation International Fellowship Programme (IFP)
2017 Researcher: The deterrent effect of the Competition Commission’s competition enforcement regime, Impact Research International (for the Competition Commission, South Africa)
2017 Research Analyst: An Assessment of the Quality of the Data Reported by Beneficiaries receiving Funding from the National Lotteries Commission across three sectors of Arts, Charities and Sports in Free State, Limpopo, and Northwest Provinces). Impact Research International (for the National Lotteries Commission, South Africa)
2017 Data Analyst: A Special Study on Gender Norms Transformation for the Changing the River’s Flow for Young People Project in Zimbabwe. Impact Research International (for SAFAIDS)
2017 Researcher- Baseline Evaluation of the Choma Dreams Café project in Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu Natal. TK Research (for HIVSA).
2017 Data Analyst- Broadband for All – Implementation Evaluation. TK Research (for the Department of Social Development, South Africa)
Selected Publications
Books
Higher Education, Youth and Migration in Contexts of Disadvantage
“In this book Faith Mkwananzi provides an excellent illustration of the ways in which a qualitative capability analysis can provide a deeper understanding of social processes. The opportunities, aspirations and agency of young migrants in the South tell us more about how migration happens, and about the deeper layers of how social change occurs over time. It fills a gap in the literature on how capability theory meets social practice.”
—Dr. Ina Conradie, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Post-conflict Participatory Arts: Socially Engaged Development Rethinking Development Series
““The authors and editors of Post-Conflict Participatory Arts have brought together a jewel of a book, weaving together years of experience in many different countries with a strong theoretical framing. It offers much to practitioners and to scholars of both participatory methodology and of peace and social justice. Whether dance, photovoice, graffiti or participatory video, the book demonstrates some of the potential and limitations of participatory arts in challenging environments and offers hope and inspiration for those seeking to work across boundaries in post-conflict contexts”
Chris High – Lecturer in Peace and Development, Linnaeus University, Sweden
Other Publications
Book Chapters
Peer reviewed journal articles
Mkwananzi, F. (2022). Imagining possible selves: Perceptions of higher education among young asylum-seeking women in South Africa. In, A, North & E, Chase (Eds). ‘Education, Migration and International Development: Critical perspectives in a moving world’. London: Bloomsbury. Chapter 12.
Chikozho, J., Muntanga, W., Marovah, T and Mkwananzi, F. (2022). Collaboration in research: Insights from a participatory art project in Zimbabwe. In, F, Mkwananzi. & M, Cin. (Eds) Post-conflict Participatory Arts: Socially engaged development. London: Routledge. Pp.137-152
Chamberlain, L., Buckler, A. and Mkwananzi, F. (2021) Building a case for inclusive ways of knowing through a case study of a cross-cultural research project of out-of-school girls’ aspirations in Zimbabwe: practitioners’ perspectives’, in A. Fox, H. Busher and C. Capewell (Eds)Thinking critically and ethically about research for education: Engaging with Voice and Empowerment in international contexts, London: Routledge, pp. Chapter 3.
Ncube, A. and Mkwananzi, F. (2021). Conceptualizing a Win-Win in the Refugee and Higher Education Enigma: Insights from Southern Africa. In, I, Barreto (2021) (Ed). Handbook of Research on Promoting Social Justice for Immigrants and Refugees Through Active Citizenship and Intercultural Education. pp, 328-348.
Mkwananzi, F. (2021). Transitioning capitals in international student mobility. In, J, Kurzwelly. & L.E., D’Angles (Eds). Migrants, Thinkers, Storytellers: Negotiating Meaning and Making Life in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Capetown: HSRC Press.pp, 173-195.
Marovah, T. & Mkwananzi, F. (2020). Graffiti as a Participatory Method Fostering Epistemic Justice and Collective Capabilities among Rural Youth: A Case Study in Zimbabwe. In, M, Walker. & A, Boni. (Eds) ‘Participatory Research, Capabilities and Epistemic Justice’. Palgrave. 215-241.
Ncube, A. & Mkwananzi, F. (2020). Gendered labour migration in South Africa: A capability approach lens. In, F.T. Seiger., C, Timmerman., N.B. Salazar & J, Wets. (Eds). Migration at Work: Aspirations, Imaginaries & Structures of Mobility. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 65-90. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv16km21f
Mkwananzi, F. & Wilson-Strydom, M. (2018). Conceptualising higher education aspiration formation among marginalised migrant youth’, In, E, Sengupta & P, Blessinger (Eds). ‘Language, Teaching and Pedagogy for Refugee Education: Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning’, Volume 15, 27–41. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120180000015004
Mkwananzi, F., Cin, M. and Marovah, T. (2021). Participatory arts for navigating political capabilities and aspirations among rural youth in Zimbabwe. Third World Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1977620
Buckler, A., Chamberlain. L., Mkwananzi, F., Dean, C., and Chigodora, O. (2021). Out-of-school girls’ lives in Zimbabwe: what can we learn from a storytelling research approach, Cambridge Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2021.1970718
Mkwananzi, F & Cin, F.M. (2020). From Streets to Developing Aspirations: How Does Collective Agency for Education Change Marginalised Migrant Youths’ Lives? Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2020.1801609
Walker, M., Martinez, C. and Mkwananzi, F. (2019). Participatory action research: towards (non-ideal) epistemic justice in a university in South Africa. Journal of Global Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2019.1661269
Mkwananzi, F. & Mukwambo P. (2019). Widening Participation in Higher Education for Marginalised Migrant Youth Through Flexible Teaching and Learning Mechanisms, Journal of Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 21 (2). https://doi.org/10.5456/WPLL.21.2.100
Martinez-Vergas C., Walker, M. & Mkwananzi, F. (2019). Access to higher education in South Africa: Expanding capabilities in and through an undergraduate photovoice project. Educational Action Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2019.1612767
Mkwananzi, F. & Wilson-Strydom, M. (2018). Multidimensional disadvantages and educational aspirations of marginalised migrant youth: Insights from the Global South, Journal of Global Ethics, 14 (1), 71-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2018.1496349
Mkwananzi, F. & Wilson-Strydom, M. (2018). Capabilities expansion for marginalised migrant youths in Johannesburg: The case of Albert Street School, HTS Theological Studies Journal, 74,(3), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v74i3.5041
Walker, M. & Mkwananzi, F. (2015). Challenges in accessing higher education: A case study of marginalised young people in one South African informal settlement. International Journal of Educational Development, (40), 40-49.
Walker, M. & Mkwananzi, F. (2015). Theorizing vulnerable young people’s challenges in accessing higher education. Perspectives in Education, (33), 1.
Selected Presentations
Invited Papers
‘Equitable Partnerships in Research?’ Writing International Student Migration in Africa - Workshop, online. 11 November 2021.
‘The complexity of educational aspirations formation among young asylum seekers in South Africa: Intersecting agency and conversion factors.’ Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, 22 May 2018.
‘Re-thinking refugee youths’ educational aspirations: A Global South Perspective.’ Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom, 09 May 2018.
Seminars
‘Street art to promote Representation and Epistemic Justice among Marginalised Rural Zimbabwean Youth’. European Association of Development Research/Oxfam, Online, 16 July 2020.
‘Un-learning, learning, and re-learning during the research process.’ Institute of Education, University College London, London, United Kingdom, 14 May 2018.
International Conferences
‘Fostering sustainable academic environments through intra and inter collaborative research spaces’, Education for Sustainable Development: Building Africa through Higher Education for Sustainable Development, International Virtual Conference. 12 August 2021, Online, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
‘Students' agency and activism in creating sustainable institutions: The case of the Ubuntu Chain Initiative in South Africa’, Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA).30 June-2 July 2020, Online, Auckland, New Zealand.
‘Inclusive ways of knowing? Problematising the relationship between research and the design of inclusive education through a case study of storytelling-research with out-of-school girls in Zimbabwe’, (UKFIET). 17-19 September 2019, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
‘Street art as a way to promote recognition and build collective capabilities. Human Development and Capability Association Conference (HDCA). 9-11 September, 2019, University College London, United Kingdom. ‘Education for sustainable development: What can we learn from refugee experiences?’ Comparative International Education Society (CIES) Conference, 14-18 April, 2019, San Francisco, USA. .