Tsediso Michael Makoelle is a Full Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Fort Hare, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. He is a visiting fellow at the International Laboratory of the Social Integration Research of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. Previously, he held various positions in South Africa and abroad. Prof Makoelle worked at Nazarbayev University for nearly ten years as a full professor, associate professor, then Director of Doctoral Studies, General Director for Research, and Vice Dean for Research at the Graduate School of Education. He has notably worked as a lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Centre Coordinator at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, the University of Johannesburg and the University of Free State, South Africa.
He is a distinguished scholar, having been awarded the prestigious Nelson Mandela Scholarship to the United Kingdom (UK). He holds the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Inclusive Education from the University of Manchester, UK, and a Doctor of Education (D Ed) in Education Management and Leadership from the University of South Africa (UNISA). He has recently defended a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) thesis in executive leadership.
Prof Makoelle’s teaching and research experience spans over 33 years, with the focus being on secondary and higher education. At the beginning of his career, Prof. Makoelle started his pedagogical work as a high school teacher and then head of department, vice principal and principal in several secondary schools in the Education Department of the Republic of South Africa.
He has written and published extensively on inclusive education, educational leadership, management, governance, and administration for national and international audiences and readership. Prof Makoelle has supervised many Master’s and PhD students. He is a member of several international research bodies. He reviews grants and funding applications for the South African National Research Foundation (NRF), reviews papers for several international Scopus and Web of Science journals and evaluates research theses for several universities in South Africa and abroad. He has also reviewed postgraduate courses and programmes for many universities and served on several international journals’ editorial boards. He has collaborated with universities from Russia, the US, the UK, Europe, and Africa. He is passionate about educational leadership and inclusive education, with research interests in school leadership, school effectiveness and improvement and inclusive pedagogy in countries of the South and beyond. He has devoted his research work to the framework of Participatory Action Research, which is informed by notions of critical, reflective practitioner, and transformative epistemologies.