Critical Study Of Community Engagement at A South African University

The last two decades have seen growing interest in community engagement and engaged scholarship in South Africa, which the South African government has recognized as a highly significant democratic process in Higher Education & Training Institutions (IHET). Post- 1994, when South Africa gained independence, community engagement was at the core of the academic mission and vision (White Paper, 1997). This research study captures the perceptions and experiences of community members, staff, policymakers and students who encounter community engagement programmes at the University of the Free State (UFS). It further unravels how policymakers and staff at the university understand community engagement and whether it subsequently leads to social justice, as currently envisioned by the university under investigation. My research utilises a qualitative methodology to capture thick and rich descriptive data, which helped develop in-depth knowledge of community engagement and engaged scholarship. The case study design was identified as the most suitable platform for the exploration of real-life contexts: firstly, of community engagement from the voices of community recipients/beneficiaries of these programmes; secondly, understanding scholarship of engagement from the narrative of UFS staff members who work or have once worked on these programmes; thirdly by describing the experiences of students enrolled in community service modules, and lastly it captures the views of policymakers involved in conceptualising these programmes. I collected data using document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and observations to investigate the phenomena of community engagement and engaged scholarship. I adopted a Foucauldian power frame to understand the complexities of this phenomenon, drawing from the way participants from the above- mentioned groups reflect and understand community engagement in an ever-changing context that is also characterised by dynamic power relations. The strengths of a Foucauldian discursive frame are the ability to raise issues of hierarchies of knowing and of knowledge, discursive power, and contestations around decolonisation as well as structural issues that are traditionally ignored when scholarship of engagement theory is applied in a conventional manner as opposed to co-creative, participatory, and transformative engaged scholarship. List of Abbreviations and Acronyms Higher Education & Training Institutions (IHET) University of the Free State (UFS) Engaged scholarship (ES)