School of Education

Sylvestre Nzahabwanayo, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Foundations, Management and Curriculum Studies
University of Rwanda, College of Education (UR-CE)
PO Box 55 Rwamagana
Phone : (+250) 788548057
Email : nzahabwanayo@yahoo.fr

Research Interests :
Citizenship, peace and values education for young people in conflict-affected communities ; social psychology using Q-Methodology ; and arts-based research.

Professional Achievements : Research Grants
• Co-Principal Investigator for ‘Research-led peace education as a crisis prevention in Central Africa Republic’. This grant was led by Kings London College (UK) in partnership with Aegis Trust. In this grant, we were mapping the practices of peace education in Rwanda with a view to develop and validate a peace education program in Central African Republic as a way of fostering South-South knowledge exchange.

• Project Coordinator for a UKRI GCRF Newton Fund project entitled ‘Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) at Home : Online psychosocial support through the arts in Rwanda (2020-22)’. The project MAP at Home provides mental health support through interactive online platforms, participatory arts workshops, and communications between young people, educators, cultural artists, and psychosocial workers across the five provinces of Rwanda. The project MAP at Home generates knowledge around the use of arts-based approaches for providing mental health support to youth through digital platforms especially in the context of COVID-19. The project is run in collaboration with the University of Rwanda (UR), University of Lincoln (UK), University College London (UCL), Uyisenga ni Imanzi – UNM (Rwanda), and the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace – IRDP (Rwanda).

• Principal Investigator for the grant ‘Building cultures of peace in Rwandan schools’ funded by the UK Research and Innovation Fund (UKRI). This grant is jointly run with the University of Rwanda (the lead partner) and Aegis Trust. The project aims to produce a holistic framework for defining and evaluating cultures of peace in Rwandan schools. The grant works on the basis of the following thematic areas : Curriculum, Pedagogy, Assessment and Teaching ; Social and Emotional Learning and Positive Discipline ; Mental health and wellbeing ; Inclusion – Gender Transformative Learning & Socioeconomic Disparities ; Inclusion – Special Educational Needs ; Cultural Arts and Humanities ; Democratic Governance and Youth Voice ; and Engagement with Parents and Communities. In terms of output, the grant has produced five peer reviewed articles, an edited book and five policy briefs.

• Co-Principal Investigator for ‘Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) : Informing the National Curriculum and Youth Policy in Kyrgsztan, Rwanda, Indonesia and Nepal’. In this project, in collaboration with the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), I am coordinating the development of a Continuous Professional Development Certificate (CPD) in learning and teaching using music, dance and drama in Rwandan high schools. It is hoped that the CPD will address the issue of learners ‘disliking’ the school, dropout, and high repetition rate. Most importantly, the CPD will serve as a tool for the implementation of the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC). The project is being piloted in Kicukiro district. More broadly, in Rwanda and other partner countries we also use performing arts – PA (music, dance, and drama) as a means for peacebuilding and promoting intergenerational dialogue for in and out-of-school youth. Also, the project uses PA as a two-way form communication between young people and policy makers. Here young people use PA to record issues affecting peace in their community and bring these issues to the attention of policy makers.

• Principal Investigator for ‘Using arts-based approaches to dialogue issues of sustainable development’, funded by UK Research Innovation Fund (UKRI) through the Network Plus Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF) based at the University of Bristol (UK). The overall aim of this project is to empower high school learners with basic research skills to explore and express issues of sustainable development in their local communities with a view to bring these concerns to the attention of policy makers using-arts based approaches such as music, dance, drama, and drawings. In selecting issues of sustainable development to be researched, young people place an emphasis on problems observed in policies, programs and practices related to poverty reduction and girls’ access to education.

• Principal Investigator for ‘Promoting youth engagement with policy makers through performing arts in Rwanda’, funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). This project focuses on the creation of civic spaces through which young people can more effectively engage with policy-makers to shape policy debates in the fields of democracy and human rights promotion in Rwanda. It seeks to promote and facilitate youth engagement within systems of participatory governance in Rwanda through the creation of youth-led, intergenerational spaces for policy debates and dialogue in the fields of peacebuilding and democracy promotion. The project employs a blended approach using arts-based methods in-person and online to remain agile to the changing circumstances of Covid-19, as well as extending the reach of the project to groups of youth typically excluded from participatory initiatives. The project’s aim is not only to build the capacity of youth to document and share issues hampering democracy and human rights in their respective communities, but also for policymakers to respond and engage young people in ongoing dialogue to enhance local participatory governance and conflict transformation.
Educational Background :
• Postdoctoral training in Curriculum Studies, University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa.
• PhD in Philosophy of Education, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa.
• MA in Social and Psychological Research, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa.
• Master of Philosophy in Philosophy, The Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Kenya.
• BA, Institute of Philosophy St Joseph Mukasa (Yaoundé, Cameroon) affiliated to Salesianum University, Rome
Publications :
Books
1. Nzahabwanayo, S. (ongoing). Citizenship and values education in Rwanda : The need for critical, democratic and cosmopolitan citizenship. The manuscript to be submitted to Routledge very soon.

2. Nzahabwanayo, S. (2012). Authentic and inauthentic Existence : Martin Heidegger versus Gabriel Marcel. Lambert Academic Publishers. ISBN : 978-3-659-21305-2.
The book is available at the following amazon link : http://www.amazon.com/Authentic-Inauthentic-Existence-Heidegger-Gabriel/dp/3659213055

Peer reviewed articles – Publication in ISI
3. Delphine, M., Nzahabwanayo, S. ; N., Gabriel, N., & Wenceslas, N. (2022). A Psychometric Analysis of the Study Skills Questionnaire for University of Rwanda Undergraduate Students at National Police College. Creative Education, 13(3), 862-885.
4. Williams, T. P., Nzahabwanayo, S., Lavers, T., & Ndushabandi, E. (2022). The Case of the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP). The Politics of Distributing Social Transfers, 90.
5. Bizimana, B., Njoroge, G. K., Tusiime, M., Nzahabwanayo, S., & Salmon, T. (2022). Acquiring Epistemological and Moral Autonomy in a Different Culture : An Educational Goal in Rwandan Secondary Schools. Multicultural Education, 8(4).
6. Pells, K., Breed, A., Uwihoreye, C., Ndushabandi, E., Elliott, M., & Nzahabwanayo, S. (2021). ‘No-One Can Tell a Story Better than the One Who Lived It’ : Reworking Constructions of Childhood and Trauma Through the Arts in Rwanda. Culture, medicine, and psychiatry, 1-22.
7. Bizimana, B., Njoroge, G. K., Tusiime, M., Nzahabwanayo, S., & Salmon, T. (2021). The Experience of Learners’ Thinking Autonomy in Rwanda. A Phenomenological Study of Tutors’ Implementation of Competence Based Curriculum. Multicultural Education, 7(12).
8. Breed, A., Dennison, K., Nzahabwanayo, S., & Pells, K. (2020). Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) : Curriculum for music, dance and drama in Rwanda. In The Applied Theatre Reader (pp. 152-160). Routledge.
9. Timothy P.W., Nzahabwanayo, S., Lavers, T., & Ndushabandi, E. (2021). Distributing social transfers in Rwanda : The case of the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP). ESID Working Paper no. 160. Manchester University : ESID, 1-31.
10. Mukingambeho, D., Nzahabwanayo, S., Nzabalirwa, W., Nizeyimana, G. (2020). Variability of study skills among undergraduate students of the University of Rwanda, National Police College. South African Journal of Higher Education, 5(35), 1-32.
11. Nzahabwanayo, S., Finchilescu, G., & Divala, J. J. (2019). What are the Qualities of Good Citizenship in Post-genocide Rwanda ? High School Teachers Speak Through a Q-Methodological Approach. Interchange, 50(4), 461-499.
12. Mukingambeho, D., Nzahabwanayo, S., Nzabalirwa, W., Nizeyimana, G. (2019). Levels of study skills among undergraduate students in Rwanda. The case for the National Police College. Interchange, 50(2), 221-247.
13. Nzahabwanayo, S. (2018). Identification and critique of the values education notion at work in the Itorero training scheme for high schools leavers in post-genocide Rwanda. Interchange, 49(1), 111-132.
14. Nzahabwanayo, S. (2018). What works in citizenship and values education. Attitudes of trainers towards the Itorero training in post-genocide Rwanda. Rwanda Journal of Education, 4(2), 71-84.
15. Nzahabwanayo, S., & J. Divala. (2018). What works in citizenship and values education. Attitudes of high school leavers towards the Itorero training in post-genocide Rwanda. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32(5), 190-210.
16. Nzahabwanayo, S., Horsthemke, K., Mathebula, P.T. (2017). Identification and critique of the citizenship notion informing the Itorero training scheme for high school leavers in post-genocide Rwanda. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(2), 226-250.

Book chapters
17. Manirakiza, V., Nzahabwanayo, S., Muhire, I., & Niyitanga, F. (2019). Legal Land Ownership in Rwanda : Overview of the effectiveness of land reform. In Greenen, S., Nyenyezi, A., & Ansoms, A. Conjoncture de l’Afrique Centrale, no 92, 411-435.
18. Nzahabwanayo, S. (2019). Isano rya Pearson [Pearson correlation]. In Mukama E., Nkusi L. (Eds). Ubushakashatsi mu bumenyi nyamuntu n’imibanire y’abantu [Research methods in the humanities and social sciences], pp. 124-151. African Minds.
19. Breed, A., Dennison, K., Nzahabwanayo, S., & Pells, K. (2020). Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) : Curriculum for music, dance and drama in Rwanda. In The Applied Theatre Reader (pp. 152-160). Routledge.

Policy Briefs

20. Nzahabwanayo, S. (2017). Reforming citizenship education in post-genocide Rwanda : The case for a revised Itorero training Scheme for high school leavers. Aegis Policy Brief. September, 2017. www.genocideresearchhub.org.rw.

21. Timothy P.W., Nzahabwanayo, S., Lavers, T., & Ndushabandi, E. (2020). Distributing social transfers in Rwanda : The case of the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP). ESID Manchester University : ESID.

Personal Statement :
Previously Prof. Sylvestre Nzahabwanayo served in the capacity of Head/Programme Leader of Professional Police Studies (PPS). He is also a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRD), and serves as a Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in South Africa.
Academic Rank :
Associate Professor