PhD in Education student, Mr Luthando Molefe, recently presented research on Opening a “Rich” Community Engagement Container through Service-Learning towards the Community-Engaged Scholarship: A Student Perspective at the Community Engagement (CE) Conference held at Rhodes University.

Held under the theme: The Significance, Relevance and Impact of Higher Education CE for South Africa and the Rest of Africa, the conference highlighted the significance, relevance and impact of Higher Education CE for South Africa and the rest of Africa. Given that formalised CE is an emerging discipline within Higher Education, resistance by some academics remains prevalent. Therefore, the objective of the conference was to generate knowledge, both theoretical and practical, on the significance, relevance and impact of CE for Higher Education and its reimagined purposes.

‘In the light of Higher Education, service-learning can be described as an educational approach that aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice by introducing students to various opportunities of participating in an organised series of activities towards meaningful engagement in communities for societal change,’ said Molefe.

Using storytelling, the student-researcher creatively and critically opened a “rich” community engagement container (lived experiences) through the use of arts-informed research methodologies such as memory drawings and object inquiry concerning service-learning towards community-engaged scholarship within and outside of UKZN.

Through meaningful engagement with visual illustrations accompanied by written reflections, Molefe was encouraged to gaze at what he can learn from his lived experiences. More importantly, he was provoked to critically craft mosaic pieces towards the development and enhancement of the gospel of community-engaged scholarship to other fellow students at UKZN and outside as a community engagement practitioner.

‘During my undergraduate third-year studies, I was engaged in one module that was offered within the Science and Technology Education Cluster in the School of Education. It was completely based on research and service-learning where we, as students, were expected to conduct research on our service-learning projects. To achieve the service-learning component, we were expected to be placed in different placement sites… Fast forward, one experience touched me to the core: and that is when I decided to embark on a journey of being an agent for change by giving back to the community and its surroundings. This is what I have been doing over the years, including giving back to the community through a variety of initiatives,’ said Molefe.

‘Finally, I am of the view that transformative pedagogy can be achieved if service-learning can be linked to the academic classroom for each course and specialisation in a given context. This can, therefore, serve as a vehicle for the formation of mutually beneficial university-community partnerships for societal change and the achievement of concerned sustainable development goals by the United Nations,’ he said.

Molefe is grateful to Professor Angela James, Academic Leader for Community Engagement in the School of Education, who introduced him to the concept of CE and its significance and suggested how he could bridge the gap between the university departments for societal change. This was during his second year of study before they could meet in the research and service-learning module in his third year that she was facilitating.