Roné joined King’s College London in September 2022 as PhD student, researching school governance and social justice in South Africa. Her studies are funded through the Shaun Johnson Memorial Scholarship, a joint initiative by the Leverhulme Trust and Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

Alongside her studies, Roné teaches on the BA Social Sciences programme as a Gradudate Teaching Fellow.

Before joining King’s College, Roné was the Senior Manager: Development and Research at the South African youth activist movement Equal Education (EE), where she was responsible for research, strategic direction and fundraising in support of EE’s advocacy for equality in education.

Roné has also worked as a research advisor to Cambridge University's Faculty of Education and as a research assistant at the University of Cape Town. Roné serves as a Trustee of the Bookery, an organisation that creates dynamic school libraries that inspire a love of reading.

Research

Roné’s thesis is currently titled: School governing bodies and the state: Contesting power in South African schools.

Her primary supervisor is Sharon Gewirtz.

Her secondary supervisor is Sara Black. 

Roné’s research is focused on school governance and social justice in South Africa. Since the promulgation of the South African Schools Act in 1996, a striking feature has been the numerous court cases around its provisions on the powers of school governing bodies (SGBs) versus the state. These power struggles featured prominently during the transition and have continued since, as the state has sought to remedy historical inequalities, and SGBs at former white schools have sought to retain powers.

Roné’s PhD research investigates whether and how contested ‘social imaginaries’ (ideas and values) about public schooling and justice are useful in explaining how school governance arrangements developed during the transition and to make sense of continued power struggles.

Find out more about her research on her PURE profile.