Exploring Community-University Partnership Initiatives in Different Contexts: Inspirations and Visions

Boughey, John and Cele, Lulama and Joye, Eunephacia and Fernando, Shanti and Earle, Benjamin (2013) Exploring Community-University Partnership Initiatives in Different Contexts: Inspirations and Visions. In: CU Expo 2013, June 12-15, 2013, Corner Brook, NL, Canada. (Submitted)

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Abstract

With funding from the Department of Science & Technology (DST) South Africa’s rural-based universities have been pilot sites for the establishment of Community-University Partnership Programmes (CUPPs). Reading off the original DST documentation concerning this project, the aim of the CUPP might be synthesized as: …. to simultaneously facilitate and effect change in higher education institutions and their surrounding communities through collective and innovative efforts, arising out of equal, fair, democratic, reciprocal, interactive and sustainable partnerships between stakeholders, which promote the identification of shared goals. The implication of this is the need to adopt a research-based approach which in the interests of equal partnerships eschews the traditional privileging of academic over indigenous knowledge, but recognises that even open-ended exploratory initiatives need to unfold within the constraints imposed by time and money. The need to consider both of these perspectives led to the creation of a hybrid model of Participatory Action Research augmented and supported by selected Project Management tools, known as ProAct. The theoretical underpinning and description of the ProAct model have been presented and workshopped locally, nationally and internationally. In the CU Expo 2013 session proposed, the model will be briefly described, but the major focus will be on the opportunities, challenges and lessons to be learnt from the practical implementation of the model, as seen through the eyes of academia (represented by the team leader of the CUPP) and one of the University’s community partners, a rural-based all-female agricultural co-operative (represented by the co-op’s Chairperson).

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