Dr Malangeni’s doctorate focused on a community school model that addresses the unique challenges facing schools in low-income communities.
"Reimagining schools as beacons of hope in socioeconomically marginalised communities" was the theme of a plenary session on Missionvale Campus.
Some 100 multi-disciplinary stakeholders attended the sessions, all with a vested interest in education and the future of schooling and representing a wide variety of sectors, emphasising the importance of collaborative efforts to address the challenges and opportunities within education.
From left, Dr Silindile Malangeni, Sharon Masiza, Dr Bruce Damons, Dr Noluvo Rangana and Professor André Keet, Acting Vice-Chancellor
Sharon Masiza, the Senior Director for Missionvale, Second Avenue, and Bird Street campuses, opened the day's events comprising a series of presentations on various perspectives and research findings on the pivotal role schools can play in uplifting marginalised communities.
In 2019, Nelson Mandela University's Centre for Community Schools (CCS) based on Missionvale Campus received a National Research Foundation (NRF) grant to address educational challenges in marginalised South African communities.
Their research, under the HOPES community of practice, aims to reimagine schools as sources of hope. CCS collaborates with stakeholders to explore effective, hopeful educational models.
Professor Veona Goliath from the University’s Social Development Professions explained that the name HOPES was co-generated, together as a team, asking HOPES mean and the acronym stands for Humanising, O - Heart; Pedagogy, Engagement and Schools.
“We come from history, there was marginalisation before, and it was in law. It was marginalising people by colour, it was marginalising beliefs, it was marginalising cultures, and it was marginalising political systems,” Dr Bruce Damons, Director of the Engagement Office, said in his presentation on historical and contemporary challenges facing South African schools.
Dr Silindile Malangeni, a researcher in Institutional Strategy and Planning, who recently graduated with her PhD in education on the Centre for the Community Schools, presented “A Community School: A South African Model Engagement with Participant.”
“A community school model is defined as a community school, as the connection that involves families and the community surrounding the schools. It is a way of organising schools that actively involves the local community in the education process, making schools more connected and supported by parents, local leaders and other stakeholders around the school who support the school improvement,” she said.
Dr Noluvo Rangana from Assessments and Graduation focused on “A critical participatory approach to co-construct school improvement plans, focusing on “How”.
“We speak about reimagining schools as beacons of hope through school improvement. We had to come to the space and suggest how we can go about doing it. Our study was more about the methodology,” she added.
The diverse expertise and perspectives shared at the event underlined the urgency of working together to foster sustainable and inclusive improvements in the education system.
Prof André Keet, Acting Vice-Chancellor, in his closing remarks, emphasised the importance of targeted initiatives and proposed the creation of a cluster of school-based programmes.
“There is a very important assumption that is valid for many decades that the University needs to have a dedicated programme on schools, not in the Faculty of Education but across the University.
"It is a proposition we have to put into the University space, so that we can support policy around the question of inclusive learning. We need perhaps a cluster of school-based Short Learning Programmes (SLPs) generated from the needs at schools and communities” he said.
The event was also used as an opportunity to elect a multi-stakeholder community coordinating structure to drive the cluster of programme activities to contribute to resolving issues.