Leadership & Recognition

I have briefly referred in the Bio section of my portfolio to my role in assisting HEIs to develop their BCD programmes and course materials as the chair for the teaching and learning committee, of the National Professionalization Task Team.  There was no existing 'blueprint' for the BCD endeavour in South Africa, because Community Development (CD) is a new professional occupation and discipline. I play a critical role in this pioneering effort which requires from me to support 11 HEIs with this process. I am thoroughly enjoying it because of the collegiality of the academics involved and also appreciative of the opportunity to train people in the application of Bloom's taxonomy as a method, and with logical frameworks as a tool, for degree and course material development.  

Furthermore, I have been a member of SAQA task teams for qualification frameworks development and I am also an evaluator for the CHE for degree programme applications for accreditation.  Additionally, I am part of a SAQA Articulation Task Team which expanded my knowledge a lot in so far as horizontal and vertical articulation of qualifications.

I also taught and still teach several modules, present workshops and webinars at UWC and for other institutions (SACAP - where I am also an academic board member, Varsity College,  SIT in Vermont, USA, Tiso Foundation, UWC Information Systems Department and School of Pharmacy) in Research Methodology, Community Development and Engagement as well as Monitoring and Evaluation. See letters of appreciation at the end of this section.

Additionally, I have presented a series of Community Development Discourse workshops for the Department of Social Development.

Since the 2021 launch of the new Bachelor of Community Development at UWC, I have been the Head of the programme until now. Under my leadership, the BCD programme has been developed – from the accreditation application with CHE in 2016 to the professional approval and programme content which entailed: (i) establishing the programme, (ii) build capacity and mentor new staff, (iii) develop programme systems and procedures, and establish service level partnerships and agreements within the EMS, Arts & Humanities, and CHS. For example: Integrative assessment matrix template which Faculty of Education adopted and  Kreber and Cranton’s (2000) Model of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for reporting. (see examples of this matrix in Assessment Strategies  and the report in Evaluation: Learning & Teaching sections).  From the inception of the BCD programme until mid-2022, I was the sole academic staff member. Currently, the programme comprises five staff members. This afforded me the opportunity to develop and implement a one-on-one mentoring programme that has been highly appreciated by the staff and in the past year, colleagues at UWC have approached me to share this mentoring programme, seeking to apply it within their teams.

I am an examiner of postgraduate theses and moderator of modules at: University of Cape Town (UCT), Nelson Mandela University (NMU), University of South Africa (UNISA), and University of Kwazulu Natal (KZN).

Teaching & Training of Modules, Workshops & Webinars:

I taught and still teach several modules, present workshops and webinars at UWC and for other institutions (SACAP - where I am also an academic board member, Varsity College,  SIT in Vermont, USA, Tiso Foundation, UWC Information Systems Department and School of Pharmacy) in Research Methodology, Community Development and Engagement as well as Monitoring and Evaluation.

I have presented a Community Development Discourse Series for the Department of Social Development. (See the Leadership and Engaged Service Impact sections).

Reviewer of Discipline Specific Journals:

I am a reviewer for the following academic journals and the recognition thereof is available on my Clarivate (Web of Science, Researcher ID: ABN-5299-2022 and/or ORCID: https://orcid.org/, ID: 0000-0001-6226-9652 profiles.

• Southern African Journal of Social Work and Social Development (SAJSWSD). Unisa Press.

• Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement. UTS ePRESS.

• Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society. Taylor & Francis.

Engaged Scholarship and Professional Development

• I have been a lead member of the DVC Academic APEX Project: Framework for Integrated Scholarship from 2020 – mid 2023.  Since mid-2023, I am SoE-SI project coordinator.  This involves the implementation and capacity building across campus of the SoE-SI framework.  The latter of which I was also one of the lead drafters.

• I conceptualized the SoE-SI web portal which monitors and evaluate the UWC impact regarding its transformation agenda aligned to its IOP, S.A. NDP: Vision 2023 and the SDGs.  This involved building campus wide relationships and working with national and international bodies which monitor and evaluate the impact of HEIs.  I developed the Model for SoE-SI impact and its related metrics and coordinate the SoE-SI technical team for the design and maintenance of the web portal.  Noteworthy is the conceptualisation of the Professional e-portfolios for staff which the web portal generates for staff. 

• I developed and offer the SoE-SI capacity building training material. See available Creative Commons tools & power hour training slides in the Engages Service Impact section.  These materials have been requested by other HEIs to develop, monitor and evaluate their SoE impact.

• I am also the conceptual and research administrative support to the DVC Academic, Prof Lawack for her USAf project to conceptualize and launch an Engaged Scholarship Consortium (ESC) for HEIs in S.A. - expected launch date is November 2024. 

• My current involvement on various levels includes Ministerial Committees, Government Committees, Societal Committees and International Affiliations. (see the Engages Service Impact section) All of these contribute to the advancement of my learning & teaching, research and community engagement.

• I developed programmes (both formal and informal) and research projects that either established and/or strengthened existing partnerships with communities, community development stakeholders and HEI peers.

• Engaged scholarship and internationalisation is fundamental in the process of developing community development programmes and research projects. The same is true for developing SoE-SI and Postgraduate Capacity Building initiatives.

I hold positions in the following bodies/societies inclusive of some being ministerial and international appointments:

National:

1. CHE reference Group (i.e. CoP): CHE Bachelor of Community Development Qualification Standards.

2. Academic Board member: The South African College of Applied Psychology (SACAP)

3. Executive Board member: South African Higher Education Community Engagement Forum (SAHECEF)

4. National member: Ministerial Task Team (MTT):  Community Development Professionalization

5. MTT sub-committee Chair: Community Development Professionalization: HEI Community Development accreditation,  teaching & learning quality assurance

6. National member: RPL for Community Development Task Team

7. National member: SAQA NQF Articulation Task Team – Community Development Sector

8. Committee member: SSP supervision PGDip qualification framework for South Africa

9.  National member: Task Team: Drafting the Bill and Regulation Guidelines for Social Service Practitioners

International:

1. Inaugurated member of the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES) (2024 - current)

2. Vice Chair Operations: Community Development Society (CDS) and Board Member (2019-2021)

3. Affiliate Faculty: School for International Training (USA) Master’s programme: Sustainable Development Practice

4. International member: Advancing Research Impact in Society

5. International member: Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship

6.  International member: Network for Advancing and Evaluating the Societal Impact of Science

7.  International Registration: Australian Evaluation Association

8.  International Affiliation: Community Development Society

9. International Member: International Association for Community Development

10. International committee member: CDS Principles

11. International committee member: CDS board member selections