Professor Harsha Kathard

Professor Communication Sciences and Disorders. Research director: Inclusive Practices Africa Research Unit

Qualifications

B Sp. & Hear Therapy 

M. Sp Path 

D.Ed

Introduction

Harsha is a NRF rated scientist (C2). She is a speech-language therapist and audiologist with a research focus on communication challenges  and supports in marginalised communities, innovations in service delivery, workforce, professions and professionalisation; disability inclusion in health, education and economies, decoloniality, curriculum change. She has served as Head of Department: Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Interim Head  Health Sciences Education, Acting Deputy Dean (Undergraduate Education) Faculty of Health Sciences and Co-founder of Disability Innovations Africa.

Teaching area  

Communication Sciences and Disorders  Fluency; school based interventions; service delivery; community practice , research

Health Sciences Education; Curriculum change; decolonisation

Disability Studies : disability inclusion; decolonisation, research methods

Research interest

Disability Inclusion in Health, Education, Economy; Inclusive Curriculum,  equitable population based service delivery

Professional memberships

Editorial Board: Pilot and Feasibility Studies

Publications

Kathard, H.  Padarath, A,. Galvaan, R., Lorenzo, T.   (2020).  SAHR editorial. Theme: Access to health care for persons with disabilities in South Africa, South African Health Review 2020. Durban, Health Systems Trust, URL: https://www.hst.org.za/publications/Pages/SAHR2020

Pillay, M., Tiwari, R., Kathard, H. Chikte, U. (2020). Sustainable workforce: South African Audiologists and Speech Therapists  Human Resources for Health, 18,47 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00488-6

Panday, S., Kathard, H., & Wilson, W. (2020). The validity of an isiZulu speech reception threshold test for use with adult isiZulu speakers. South African Journal of Communication Disorders, 67(1), 7 pages. Doi :https://doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v67i1.690

Sonday, A. Ramugondo, E., Kathard, H. (2020) Case study and  narrative inquiry as merged methodologies. A critical narrative perspective International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1-5.  DOI:  10.1177/1609406920937880/ ID: IJQM-20-0050.R2

de Vries, E., Kathard, H., Muller, A.(2020) Debate: Why should gender-affirming healthcare be included in Health Science Curricula. BMC Medical Education, 20(1).1-10 doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-1963-6

Abrahams, K., Kathard, H., Harty, M., & Pillay, M. (2019). Inequity and the Professionalisation of Speech-language Pathology. Professions and Professionalism,9(3) Special issue: South African Dialogue on Professions and professional work. https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.3285

Sonday, A. Ramugondo, E.,& Kathard,  H. (2019). Professional role transgression as a form of occupational consciousness, Journal of Occupational Science, DOI: 10.1080/14427591.2019.1630852

Borhan, S., Mallick, R. ,Pillay, M., Kathard, H., Thabane, L.(2019). Sensitivity methods for analysing continuous outcomes from stratified cluster randomised trials - an empirical comparison study. Contemporary Trial Communications, 15, 1000405 doi10.1016/j.conctc.2019.100405

Pillay, M. & Kathard, H. (2018). Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology: Practitioners’ Reflections on Indigeneity, Disability and Neo-Colonial Marketing. Disability and the Global  South, 5 (2), 1365-1384.

Pillay, M. Kathard, H. (2018). Renewing our cultural borderlands. Equitable population. Innovations for Communication (EPIC). Topics in Language Disorders, 38,2. 143-160.

Mallick, R., Kathard, H., Thabane, L., Pillay, M. (2018). The Classroom Communication Resource (CCR) intervention to change peer's attitudes towards children who stutter (CWS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials, 19, 43. doi:  10.1186/s13063-017-2365-x

Pillay, M.  & Kathard, H. (2018). Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology:  Practitioners’ Reflections on Indigeneity, Disability and Neo-Colonial Marketing. Paper accepted Disability and the Global South. Oct 2018 special edition.

Keeton, N., Kathard, H., Singh, S (2017).  Research article: Clinical educators’ experiences of facilitating learning when speaking a different language from the student and client. BMC Research notes 10.546, DOI 10.1186/s13104-017-2874-4

Petersen, L, Wilson,W & Kathard, H. (2017). A systematic review of stimulus parameters for eliciting distortion product otoacoustic emissions in adult human International Journal of Audiology,56,2.

Peta C, McKenzie, J, Kathard, H. Africa, H. (2016) "We are not asexual beings: Disabled women in Zimbabwe talk about their active sexuality.  Sexuality Research and Social Policy ISSN: 1868-9884) doi:10.1007/s13178-016-0266-5

Kathard, H., Pillay, M., & Pillay, D. (2015). A Study of Teacher-Learner Interactions: A Continuum Between Monologic and Dialogic Interactions. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2015 Mar 27. doi: 10.1044/2015_LSHSS-14-0022.  PMID: 25820538

Pillay, M., & Kathard, H. (2015). Decolonizing Health Professionals’ Education: Audiology & Speech Therapy in South Africa. Paper accepted for African Journal of Rhetoric, 7.

Cloete, T., Wilson, W., Petersen, L., & Kathard, H. (2015). Identifying a context-effective school hearing screening test: an emic-etic framework. International Journal of Audiology. Role: Posted online on March 13, 2015. (doi:10.3109/14992027.2015.1014575)