Bekisizwe Ndimande
Curriculum and Instruction
University of Wisconsin at Madison

My name is Bekisizwe Ndimande. I was born in Daveyton, a black township south east of Johannesburg, South Africa. Growing up in the township during the time of apartheid in South Africa, I experienced first hand the brutality of police on school campuses and in black townships. In response, I became part of student mobilization that advocated for equal educational opportunities. Our main purpose was to mobilize against police brutality and to resist the inferior Bantu Education that was enforced on township schools.

After graduating with a high school diploma in 1989, I took a part-time job as a taxi driver to raise money for college. Indeed, a year later I enrolled at the University of Durban-Westville, in Durban, South Africa to pursue a Bachelor of Pedagogics (B.Paed) degree. I arrived at the University of Durban-Westville at a time of political change in the country. Nelson Mandela, former President, had just been released from prison and restrictions against most political parties had been removed. A renewed atmosphere of justice, equal educational opportunities, and human freedom had prevailed. Management and faculty at the University of Durban-Westville were equally concerned about equal educational access, particularly for students who came from marginalized communities. As a result, the Faculty of Education established the Academic Development Program (ADP), which aimed at "crossing the bridge" between adverse learning conditions and college. As a junior, I was appointed as one of the faculty tutors to help in the ADP. I tutored Education 1 course in small groups and mentored a large group of freshmen and sophomores. I was eventually appointed assistant coordinator of the ADP program and assistant part-time lecturer in the department in 1996. In 1997, I was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Faculty of Education at the University of Durban-Westville as a symbolic acknowledgement of my contribution in the ADP and in the Faculty of Education in general.

In July 1996, I accepted the African Training for Leadership & Advanced Skills (ATLAS) Fellowship to pursue a Masters degree at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While in Amherst, Massachusetts, I worked with the Habitat for Humanity program. In the spring of 1997, we traveled to Barnwell, South Carolina to help build a church that was burnt down because of racial conflicts in the US South. The following spring, we traveled to the Islands of South Carolina to help with environmental projects in the Gullah communities. These two experiences, and others, have helped me realize how this world can become a better place if people can respect human lives, afford each other equal opportunities, and show cultural recognition and appreciation of all different communities, irrespective or race, gender, religion, and social class.

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research is in the area of Curriculum Theory and Educational Policy Studies. My work looks at curriculum and teacher education policy in the post-apartheid South Africa. I want to examine how educational reform policies can improve educational quality, thus improve the cultural and social conditions of all South Africans. I strongly believe that a thoughtful educational policy and practice can empower citizens to become critical thinkers so they could work toward finding solutions for existing social problems. A strong education system can lead to a democratic society, thus create a society that thrives on peace and justice.