Academic Development Symposium

Academic Development Symposium

Unisa Western Cape - Cape Town

Theme: "Higher Education for Social Justice and Development: How engaged scholarship transforms the academy and Society"

Dates:

• 7 September 2022 (08:30 - 15:00)
• 8 September 2022 (08:30 - 13:00)

Venue: Hybrid MS Teams Live Event & Cape Town Campus

Preamble

Over the past years, rising inequalities across Africa have caused increased socio-economic and environmental distress resulting in political instability. Nations are witnessing the increasing alienation of communities that struggle with access to quality education and training, health care, housing and social justice. This symposium will explore how the Post School Education and Training (PSET) sector can work with communities to address the large, intractable and relentless challenges facing our nation and continent. If knowledge is indeed power, then those with the ability to access, share, create and mobilize knowledge will have the power or capacity to affect change. It can no longer be business as usual. Now is the time to explore how engaged scholarship (ES) transforms the practice and presence of higher education into greater social relevance and responsiveness.

Join us as we:

• Engage critically with the vision of Higher Education as an asset for social justice in South Africa and in Africa, while exploring social justice signs, signals and trends on the African continent to strengthen our social justice networks and action across various sectors.
• Explore high-impact engaged scholarship projects that are active in diverse African contexts, with a focus on case studies,  interrogating what we mean with ES and what are the critical elements of ES in the PSET sector. Discover how engaged scholars connect teaching, learning and research endeavours with critical development networks for engaged curricula and engaged research that meet the needs of society.
• “Drink from our own wells”, by:
  • Learning about community and social justice from our rich African heritage.
  • Drawing from good practices from within the sector as a means of benchmarking a way forward.
• Learn how the PSET sector can effectively collaborate with government, business, civil society and communities to identify new sites of struggle and explore the conditions, agency, policies and strategies that are needed for social justice to be realised.