Community Engagement (CE) in South Africa is an increasingly important feature of the relationship between the university and a broader community, and may aid in bridging the entrenched social divisions of this nation. This will only be possible if CE succeeds in uniting the knowledge production interests of the university and the broader community. Through CE, knowledge production and dissemination from within the university should be made more relevant and applicable because it is based on a relationship or engagement with a community. Based on the perceptions of student volunteers in a CE programme at a South African university, this thesis set out to ask whether or not students are transformed through university-community collaboration. This research examines the perceptions and motivations of student volunteers entering community partnership programmes. More importantly, it asks whether these engagements are merely a “weekend special” consisting of shallow engagements, which last only a few hours a week that provide institutional window dressing; or well-intended engagements through which students build meaningful relationships and experience learning opportunities that prepare them for real world civic participation. As this thesis focuses on the student perspective, it explores whether or not CE has an impact, both personally and educationally or academically, on the lives of individual student volunteers. The literature on CE argues that students’ participation in CE opportunities should enhance academic learning, personal growth and promote a sense of citizenship or civic responsibility. Based on the perceptions of a small group of student volunteers at one university, this thesis identifies possible successes and limitations of CE volunteering programmes in order to see if what is promoted in the literature or institutional policies is being experienced or achieved in practice at universities. I argue that students are indeed transformed through processes of CE, often in unexpected ways, and despite many difficulties. Therefore, if CE provides students with more holistic learning opportunities while attending universities for academic ends, it is important to look at in what ways this is achieved.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:26907 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Levy, Simone Arielle |
| Publisher | Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | 104 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Levy, Simone Arielle |
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