Biography
Dr. Patience Kawamala is a Lecturer and head of the Department of Social Work at the Institute of Social Work. She holds a PhD in Health Sciences from the Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, a M.A Community Work (Bergen University College, Norway), an Advanced Diploma in Social Work (Institute of Social Work) and a Diploma in Education (Dar es Salaam Teachers’ College). As a researcher, she has broad experience on qualitative research methodologies, particularly on intersectionality perspective in conducting research on marginalized populations. She is currently a member of a team of consultants from the Institute of Social Work undertaking a consultancy on assessing progress on the implementation of the National Multisectoral Early childhood development program (NM-ECDP) under the Mtoto Kwanza Project of Children in Crossfire organization. As a lecturer and social work academic, she has a broad pedagogic experience on facilitating various modules such as advanced qualitative research methods, developmental social work, child protection, social work and law, social work with children and youth, social work with diverse populations, as well as supervising students’ dissertations and project papers. Dr. Patience has taken part in developing and reviewing curricula, whereby she has recently participated in developing the ECD curriculum for NTA levels 4, 5, and 6, which is now used as the standard National Curriculum for ECD training across the country. She has also been consulted in several writers’ workshop with the Ministry of Health and developed teachers and students’ practicum guides for a Community Health Programme run by various Institutes under the ministry. Furthermore, she was engaged in the Healing Families – Positive Parenting project which was run collaboratively by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), The Institute of Social Work and The Social Welfare Department, to impart positive parenting skills to parents with the aim of reducing and addressing child abuse and violence against children, both as a facilitator and a task force member. Her research interests include areas of Child Protection, Early Childhood Development, Human diversity, Children and youth participation processes, Women empowerment and Elderly care.
