Ivor Baatjes

Biography

Prior to joining the Trust, Ivor served as director of the Centre for Integrated Post-School Education and Training (CIPSET), Nelson Mandela University; co-host of the National Research Foundation SARChI Chair in Community Adult and Worker Education; board member of the National Institute for Human and Social Sciences (NIHSS); and Chair of the Education Policy Consortium (EPC).

He has worked across all the subsectors of the post-school education and training sector and is a member of the current Ministerial Task Team on Community Education and Training.

His research interests include the social and solidarity economy and its relationships with community-driven food, health, water and energy systems; adult and community education; higher education; workers education; and learning in social movements.

Ivor was senior researcher at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation (CERT) at the University of Johannesburg and previously director of the Centre for Adult Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). He was the founder and country director of the Paulo Freire Institute – South Africa and served as a member of the international advisors to the Paulo Freire Institute (Brazil). He also served as policy maker in the National Department of Education in the mid-1990s and as a member of several ministerial and departmental reference groups and task teams.