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Development and sustainable impact the result of action learning journey

22 February 2024 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo SUPPLIED

Action Learning Workshop 2024 — Along with Prof Richard Teare (far right) are some of the workshop attendees, which consisted of a group of 15 students, academics, and community organisation leaders.

The Directorate Community Engagement at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently hosted Prof Richard Teare, the President of the Global University of Lifelong Learning (GULL). During his visit, he presented a workshop on action learning.

GULL, established 17 years ago, offers lifelong learning opportunities for people in communities and workplace organisations around the world. It provides frameworks and awards in support of lifelong learning.

Prof Teare described what the process of action learning entails and how it differs from the notion of ‘training’. According to him, action learning occurs when people learn from each other, create their own resources, identify their own problems, and form their own solutions. He stated, “The process is so enriching that every learner is able to identify personal and life-transforming outcomes. These commonly include expressions of enhanced self-confidence, self-belief, renewal, enthusiasm for learning, a new sense of direction and purpose for career and life – along with news skills, insights, and the sense of being equipped for the future.”

The workshop, attended by a group of 15 students, academics, and community organisation leaders, had an element of self-directed development, according to Dr Karen Venter, Head of the Division of Service Learning at the University of the Free State (UFS). “Participants learned how action learning can enable self-directed personal and professional development,” she said.

Skills and leadership characteristics

GULL pathways were also profiled to outline some of the innovative ways in which it can be used to facilitate continuous development aligned with professional certification. It offers three generic pathways, each with five levels (or certification points) leading to professional bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees,” explained Dr Venter.

“In practice, community leaders who have obtained one of these professional degrees can now become change agents for community development in their own community organisations, using the action learning pathway and certification offered by GULL,” she said.

Dr Venter added that a group of students from the UFS – the Active Community Citizens through Engaged Scholarship for Sustainability (ACCESS) group – embarked on a Professional Bachelor pathway certified by GULL last year. Not only did the group of 11 students successfully earn certification, including one Level Two certificate, five Level Three diplomas, three advanced diplomas, and one bachelor’s degree at the Engaged Scholarship Awards 2023, but they also developed a range of skills and leadership characteristics during the process. These include eco-brick making, vermiculture and gardening, eco-entrepreneurship, soap and candle making, and creative recycling, to name a few.

Furthermore, the pathway is underpinned by community-based research to drive initiatives of student structures towards implementing impactful community engagement in three clusters, namely sustainable environment, well-being, and social justice.

Addressing SDGs and embracing Vision 130

Lifelong action learning is one of the innovative approaches for the development of graduate attributes. In this light, the outcomes of not only the action learning workshop, but also the learning opportunities presented by GULL, align with the UFS Vision130. “Using action learning for bringing social change, students can address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and embrace the values of the UFS’ Vision130 – impact, care, excellence, sustainability, accountability, and social justice,” stated Dr Venter.

One of the attendees communicated the experience as follows: “I learned that action learning is a process for self-determined personal and professional development – the change starts with me developing myself and then sharing it with others.”

For further opportunities presented by GULL, visit the website here.

News Archive

Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture to focus on Leadership challenges

2006-03-27

Lecture to focus on Leadership challenges

n Thursday 25 May 2006 – Africa Day – the University of the Free State (UFS) will host the inaugural King Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture in honour of this great African leader and nation-builder.

Prof Njabulo Ndebele, internationally renowned writer and academic, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT), will deliver the inaugural lecture at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein on the topic: Reflections on the Leadership Challenges in South Africa.

“I see the lecture as part of a larger debate on leadership models, particularly the concept of African leadership, as well as the ongoing discourse about nation-building and reconciliation,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

According to Prof Fourie, the Moshoeshoe project was launched at the UFS in 2004 to coincide with South Africa’s first decade of democracy and was part of the University’s centenary celebrations, having been founded in 1904.

“Through this project the UFS seeks to honour a great African leader and demonstrate our commitment to transformation so as to create a truly inclusive and non-racial university,” said Prof Fourie.

“As the founder of the Basotho nation, King Moshoeshoe is widely credited for his exceptional style of leadership, displaying the characteristics of diplomacy, reconciliation and peaceful co-existence in his efforts to unite diverse groups into one nation,” said Prof Fourie.

As part of its ongoing Moshoeshoe project, the UFS commissioned a television documentary programme on the life and legacy of King Moshoeshoe. This was completed in 2004 and broadcast on SABC 2 later that year.

For further information, Me Tumi Tabane can be contacted at (051) 401-2828 or tabaneme.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za.

Abridged curriculum vitae of Njabulo S Ndebele

Professor Njabulo S Ndebele is currently Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UCT.

Njabulo Ndebele began his term of office at UCT in July 2000, following tenure as a scholar in residence at the Ford Foundation’s headquarters in New York. He joined the Foundation in September 1998, immediately after a five-year term of office as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the North in Sovenga, at the then Northern Province. Previously he served as Vice-Rector of the University of the Western Cape. Earlier positions include Chair of the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand; and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dean, and Head of the English Department at the National University of Lesotho.

An established author, Njabulo Ndebele recently published a novel The Cry of Winnie Mandela to critical acclaim. An earlier publication Fools and Other Stories won the Noma Award, Africa’s highest literary award for the best book published in Africa in 1984. His highly influential essays on South African literature and culture were published in a collection Rediscovery of the Ordinary.

Njabulo Ndebele served as President of the Congress of South African Writers for many years. As a public figure he is known for his incisive insights in commentaries on a range of public issues in South Africa. He holds honorary doctorates from Universities in the Netherlands, Japan, South Africa and the United States of America. He is also a Fellow of UCT.

Njabulo Ndebele is also a key figure in South African higher education. He has served as Chair of the South African Universities Vice-Chancellor’s Association from 2002-2005, and served on the Executive Board of the Association of African Universities since 2001. He has done public service in South Africa in the areas of broadcasting policy, school curriculum in history, and more recently as chair of a government commission on the development and use of African languages as media of instruction in South African higher education. He recently became President of the Association of the AAU and Chair of the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA).

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
26 March 2006

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