Abstract: Submission #168

Biosketch As a social worker who is passionate about social justice in particular where children are maltreated I worked in the field of child protection, adoption and family care for ten years before returning to academics to complete my Masters Degree. As a senior lecturer at the University of Fort Hare, I am currently deputy HOD and the coordinator for the first year social work programme. I have a special interest in teaching, supporting and inspiring the first-year social work students as they adjust to the demands of the academic programme. I have completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education and Training and a Wheelock Certificate Diploma in Early Childhood Education, further increasing my knowledge with regards to early childhood development, vulnerable children and teaching and learning within a HEI. Although my love for teaching and learning is my first priority, I enjoy research and my research interests and publications relate to the fields of social work training, early childhood development and vulnerable children. In 2019 I co-edited and co-authored an early childhood development text that further inspired my interest in early childhood and shaped my PHD research. I completed my PHD in 2023 which focused on the development of an early childhood home visiting programme to support vulnerable children in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.