The 2009 Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Community Engagement Award has been awarded to chemistry lecturer Joyce Sewry and science education lecturer Dr Kenneth Ngcoza.
The 2009 Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Community Engagement Award has been awarded to chemistry lecturer Joyce Sewry and science education lecturer Dr Kenneth Ngcoza.
Sewry and Ngcoza established a Chemistry teachers programme entitled “Collaborative chemistry workshops: Towards conceptual development and capacity-building” in 2007.
The programme involved forming a national curriculum statement with the help of physical science teachers from the Grahamstown area.
The Department of Education and a curriculum advisor of the Grahamstown district were invited to meetings during which a programme of workshops to help with the practice of teaching were arranged.
Initially 15 teachers attended these meetings and topics which were considered difficult in physical science were outlined.
These meetings were held once a week for 11 weeks. In February 2009, six teachers received packs of chemistry teaching equipment as a reward for attending at least 80% of the meetings.
During the meetings, Sewry, with the help of postgraduate students from the Department of Education, was involved in helping with physical science training, while the education department (in collaboration with the Grahamstown district office) focused on the theory and methods of teaching.
In October last year, a reflective meeting was held to discuss the difficulties of the project and to find ways of improvement.
“The project was not without its challenges,” said Dr Margie Maistry, leader of Community Engagement at Rhodes University.
“Teachers have many meetings, so it was difficult for them to attend these weekly workshops.” The lack of attendance and transportation problems were discussed in this workshop, and teachers were reimbursed for their transport costs.
Ngcoza was happy to have received the award of R35 000 and plans to use the money wisely. “With the funding, we hope to extend the project so that it includes physical science as well.
We also hope to resuscitate our Khula Project which prepares students in Grade 10 and 11 for Grade 12 as Khula means ‘to grow’”.
Sewry was also pleased with the award. “It was great getting the award. It’s always nice to be recognised.” She plans to use the funding to continue improving society.
“I will try to encourage other people to participate in community engagement,” she said. According to Maistry, the projects which were considered for the award had to be developmental and reciprocal, promote community partnership and benefit both the community and university staff and students.
The nominees had to provide definitions of the history, aims, scope, methodology, the process followed and the outcomes of the community engagement initiative.
Maistry emphasised the fact that the initiative had to be “a shared relationship between community engagement, research, teaching and learning.” The award will be presented at this year’s Rhodes graduation ceremony in April.
