Dr. Sitsula is also one of the two founders and vice chairperson of the SAADA, and she is responsible for providing strategic leadership to the SAADA constituency. She works hand in and with the SAADA Chairperson and other SAADA stakeholders.

She was a pioneer / founder who undertook all the efforts of contacting doctors in education to come together for the purposes of forming a PhD association. In the process, she then got connected to Dr. Nkhumbuleni Tendani Ratshitanga who was also working on establishing an association of academic doctors. The two Drs merged their ideas, and that resulted on the establishment of the South Africa Academic Doctor Association (SAADA) at a meeting held on the 25 th of September 2023 at Dr. Sitsula’s house.

Career:

Passion:

1.)    Her great passion is teaching mathematics in a meaningful way that also makes sense to learners especially at the early stage.
2.)    She believes that indispensable goal of teaching mathematics at all levels is to involve learners in meaningful mathematics learning which occurs when learners make meaning of mathematics they are learning.
3.)    It is around this background that she makes it a point to find out ways on how to teach mathematics.

Qualifications

• PhD degree in Education in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education from the University of Zululand.
• Master’s degree in Education in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology from the University of Venda
• Bachelor of Mathematics Education with Honours and Bachelor of Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand.
• Further Diploma in Education in in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education from the University of the Witwatersrand.
• Further Diploma in Educational management from the University of Pretoria.
• Certificate on Assessor (in mathematics) course based on teacher education from North-West University.
• Certificate of Attendance in recognition of attendance and performance in the intermediate phase training from Mathematics Centre for Professional Teachers.




Focus of Her PhD thesis: Her PhD thesis dealt with the issues related to the teacher’s knowledge of ways of teaching mathematics that stimulate learner’s meaningful learning. The results showed that teachers’ Mathematics Pedagogical Content knowledge is generally quite weak which fundamentally limits meaningful learning. Drawing from the findings of her research, she proposed Tshisi Model as a model to facilitate meaningful mathematics practice at the intermediate phase. She anticipated that the findings of her study will give teachers and curriculum developers new insights into emerging issues on meaningful learning in mathematics classroom.

Dr. Sitsula’s Professional and Personal goals:

(1) Sitsula is a full time Mathematics educator in primary school level at Bergvlam Laer Skool.
(2) She is also a mathematics tutor for grade 4 to 8 learners. She started to offer Saturdays mathematics lessons from grade 4 to grade 8 in 1992 till to date.
(3) Writing teaching and learning mathematics guide
(4) Publishing mathematics articles.
(5) Develop mathematics clubs and debates.
(6) Give support to both parents and learners.

And her professional and personal Skills are:

(1) Illustrations mathematical concepts with real life experiences.
(2) Critical thinking and time management.
(3) Problem solving