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Opening: Learning as a human activity  or experience

Presenter

Dr Shahieda Jansen is the Deputy Director: Academic Support & ICT in the Western Cape Directorate of the University of South Africa. She leads her value-driven division in operational and strategic matters, and steers student support services towards quality educational offerings and academic success. 

In her previous position as Manager of Student Counselling Services at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), she advanced her interest in culturally-embedded personal transformation, Africanised group psychotherapy and male-gendered personal transformation. 

Dr Jansen first engaged youth issues many years ago as a Research Officer at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She was part of a multinational (African and European) team who designed and implemented school-based HIV/AIDS health behaviour-change projects.  

At a recent Youth colloquium, she unpacked the pillars of Groups for Africa, her organically grown model of group healing sensitive to its location in Africa. The point of departure of this approach to small group transformation is that belonging is the root of performance. One of the five pillars of this model is collectivist personhood, the Ubuntu self. The rallying call of this model is that reclaiming personhood in accordance with African meaning frames of the Self, holds the key to progressive transformation of Higher Education. 

Dr Jansen is registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as a clinical psychologist as well as being a certified group therapist (CGAS). She is both a member of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) and the Southern African Association for Counselling and Development in Higher Education (SAADCHE). 

Presentation & Resources