Dr Maryam Jaffar Ismail

with over 35 years of experience in education, language teaching, teacher education, educational leadership, and higher education policy and reform. She previously served as Dean of the School of Education at SUZA from 2014 to 2020 and as the Tanzania Country Lead for the Regional Education Learning Initiatives (RELI) from 2020 to 2022. She is currently serving at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Tanzania as Assistant Director of Higher Education. She holds a PhD (Education) and an M. Ed. (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages ) from Monash University, Australia  and a B.A with Education from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) Tanzania. Her academic and professional work focuses on language-in-education policy, multilingualism, the language of teaching and assessment, teacher education, and innovative pedagogies. She is widely recognised for her contributions to Second Language Teacher Education and Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) and its discourse ELT/EFL, TEYL,TESL/TEFL, Teaching Kiswahili to Speakers of Other Languages, particularly in advancing student-centred and language-supportive pedagogies within ESL/EFL contexts. Her scholarship bridges policy and practice, with a strong emphasis on technology-enhanced learning, blended education, curriculum reform, and innovative teaching approaches.

Dr Ismail has led and contributed to several internationally funded education and research initiatives. These include the NORHED-supported Transformation, Language and Education for Development (TRANSLED) project; the World Bank-supported Zanzibar Improving Students’ Prospects (ZISP) teacher development programmes; the Partnership for Enhanced and Blended Learning (PEBL) supported by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and DFID, UK; the STEM for Success Zanzibar (S4Sz) project supported by the Milele Zanzibar Foundation; the Swedish Research Council(SRC) funded project “Understanding Understanding”: Supporting Understanding in the Classroom through Understanding Curriculum Structures implemented in collaboration with institutions in Sweden, the UK, Seychelles, and Tanzania; the Norway–Zanzibar Intercultural Cooperation on Teacher Education (NOZA) initiative; and the ADAPT project on adolescent 21st-century skills in East Africa supported by IDRC Canada, Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX), and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

Beyond academia and policy work, Dr Ismail serves as Chairperson of the Zanzibar Stone Town Heritage Society (ZSTHS) and collaborates with local and international heritage organisations, including the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO), UK. Through projects involving Stone Town Zanzibar such as Withstanding Change: Heritage Amongst Climate Uncertainty and Salt and Stone: Adapting Heritage for a Changing Climate, she promotes the intersection of education, cultural heritage, climate resilience, and community engagement both locally and internationally. She can be contacted at maryam.ismail@moe.go.tz or maryam.ismail@suza.ac.tz