| Abstrakt: |
Community engagement (CE) has been noted as an important means of enhancing students' experiences in undergraduate programmes, because this promotes interdisciplinary conversations. In addition, it has the potential to challenge the colonial forms of disciplinary knowledge that have dominated thus far, and may play an important role as we seek to Africanise the curriculum. The Early Childhood Development (ECD) Residence Programme is a CE programme at Rhodes University, where community partners from ECD centres engage with student volunteers, over a period of one year. Such programmes are co-managed between the Rhodes University CE (RUCE) Division and community partners, as well as between community partners and student volunteers from a variety of programmes of study. This, it is hoped, translates into the building of mutually beneficial relationships. However, what do these relationships actually mean for the students and partners, and what are their benefits and challenges? Using the ECD Residence Programme as a case study, this paper argues that CE at Rhodes University is centred on the ethics of Ubuntu. Findings from an initial round of interviews and a focus group illustrate that the community partners and student volunteers build long-term, meaningful, and mutually beneficial relationships that extend beyond the boundaries of the CE activities in which they are involved. These relationships are based on values that include communication, respect, love, and care. This paper illustrates how mutually beneficial relationships are key to building and sustaining successful CE partnerships. We further note the potential for Ubuntu in CE to be transformative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
