Perceptions of the university of Zululand academics towards science shops
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Date
2018
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University of Zululand
Abstract
The study examined the perceptions of University of Zululand academic staff members towards adopting Science Shops. Science Shops represent a participatory action research programme which began in the Netherlands and introduced to the University of Zululand with a view to enhancing the university-community relationships. The study specifically focused on the academic staff members who participated in the NUFFIC training programme that gave birth to the idea of Science Shops. NUFFIC is a Dutch acronym of The Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education - translated into English. The study used a qualitative research approach to explore the perceptions of academic staff about SSs. Qualitative research techniques were adopted for the study. A semi-structured questionnaire with open-ended questions was designed and used to obtain information from the ten (10) academic staff members who participated in the study. Focus group interviews were also conducted with the participants as a way of seeking additional information which was not covered in the questionnaire. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the participants from the four (4) Faculties at the participating institution, namely Faculties of Arts, Commerce, Administration and Law (CAL), Education, and Science and Agriculture. Overall, results revealed that the participants perceived Science Shops as an important programme that merited adoption and integration into the University curriculum. The majority of the participants also believed that Science Shops had the potential to restructure the University for relevance (as its motto goes), in teaching, research and community service. Furthermore, Science Shops were seen as a possible means to generate alternative income for the University. However, some challenges were highlighted by the participants which they saw as needing attention before the Science Shop concept could fall on fertile ground. These challenges included the overpopulated classrooms, inadequate knowledge and orientation about community engagement research, and the nature of research in the Science Faculty which appeared not to be amenable to community participation.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master Of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies at the University Of Zululand, 2018
Keywords
perceptions --university staff --Science shops --South Africa