{"id":5082,"date":"2025-06-19T23:06:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T23:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/early-childhood-development-a-case-study-of-university-community-engagement-in-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T03:19:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T03:19:55","slug":"early-childhood-development-a-case-study-of-university-community-engagement-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ijssass.com\/journal\/early-childhood-development-a-case-study-of-university-community-engagement-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Childhood Development: A Case Study of University-Community Engagement in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This article was originally published as: <strong>Early Childhood Development: A Case Study of University-Community Engagement in South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Original Article Link: <a href='https:\/\/journals.dut.ac.za\/index.php\/ajims\/article\/view\/1279' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Read Original Article<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Download PDF: <a href='https:\/\/journals.dut.ac.za\/index.php\/ajims\/article\/view\/1279\/922' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Click Here to Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Abstract<\/h2>\n<p>Third sector organisations are effective links between Higher Education Institutions and communities in promoting and expediting Community Engagement programmes tasked with raising awareness, fostering social responsibility and civic mindedness in students and, thus, contributing to the common good. In recognition of this,Durban University of Technology (DUT) pre-emptively enabled collaboration between the institution and a cluster of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in 2004. This paper examines one of the partnership programmes between the Gandhi Development Trust and the Durban University of Technology, the Early Childhood Development Values Education Project and the successful Community Engagement partnerships created with three academic departments of DUT. It focuses on the Department of Drama programme based on Bloomgarden\u2019s Preparation, Action, Reflection, Evaluation (PARE) framework integrating experiential and academic learning. The study draws on the theoretical lens of Dewey\u2019s Democracy and Education and Freire\u2019s Critical Pedagogy and uses the case study method to present the data gathered through the PARE phases. Foregrounded in the paper is the impact of democratic education characterised by values such as inclusiveness, participation, reciprocity, and an equality of respect for the knowledge and experience that everyone contributes to education and community building.<\/p>\n<h2>Authors<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Kanya Padayachee (Durban University of Technology, South Africa)<\/li>\n<li>Geoffrey Thomas Harris (Durban University of Technology, South Africa)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Keywords<\/h2>\n<p>early childhood development, community engagement, democratic engagement, critical pedagogy, community building<\/p>\n<h2>References<\/h2>\n<p>References not available for this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was originally published as: Early Childhood Development: A Case Study of University-Community Engagement in South Africa Original Article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[2153,1711,1709,1367,1710,1708],"class_list":["post-5082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-ajims","tag-community-building","tag-community-engagement","tag-critical-pedagogy","tag-democratic-engagement","tag-early-childhood-development","wpcat-124-id"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - 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