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Duo Grows and Conquers Together

There was total bliss in the Chibisa household when life partners Zviedzo and Admire Chibisa received their PhD degrees together– and both from the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand (UNIZULU).

The Zimbabwean pair’s story exemplifies what is popularly known on social media as “couple goals”. Together, they have achieved a significant milestone and have proven that being a couple is not only about wearing matching outfits but improving each other and achieving greatness together.

Admire is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education’s Maths, Science & Technology Education (MSTE) Department and Zviedzo is a specialist English teacher in a local school.

In retrospect, Zviedzo said: “It all started with my husband. I was content with my Diploma. My husband was very much into academics, and he always said: ‘I don’t want to leave you behind. Do something; I want to climb with you.’. He kept on motivating me even though I thought that it was not necessary.”

Sharing on how he balanced working and studying towards his PhD, while also raising their two sons, Admire said: “I had a goal of achieving my PhD before the age of 50, and with hard work, commitment, compromise and many sleepless nights, I achieved my dream.”

Zviedzo echoed her husband’s sentiments, acknowledging that the journey en route a PhD can be “tough at times”. With the support of those closest to you, however, success is guarenteed.

By the time Admire submitted his thesis, he had already published five papers in a space of about four months. He had already started with the supervision of students. He actually graduated together with a master’s and PhD student he supervised.

The aim of Admire’s study was to examine the factors that affect pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) acceptance and continued use of the Moodle learning management system (MLMS) in the context of a South African rural university. The results showed that the model explained 66.9% of the variance in PSTs’ behavioural intention to use the MLMS and 66.5% of the total variance in continued use, meaning that the model is a good predictor of acceptance and continued use of the MLMS.

Zviedzo’s study was on principals’ leadership styles which, according to her, are a major contributing factor to the performance of their schools. Based on the findings, the leadership style used by principals running successful schools was transformational. The study therefore recommended the transformational leadership style for South African schools.

Admire concluded: “We will always be grateful to our supervisors, UNIZULU for the spouse study benefit, because that took a lot of financial burden off our shoulders, and our boys for their support.”

The couple’s two sons have great role models in their midst. The elderly son has also recently graduated with an actuarial science degree from the University of Cape Town and he is pursuing his honours studies at the university of Pretoria. The young one is in matric in a local high school.

– Precious Shamase

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