Contextualising PALAR to be Suitable for Use in Community–University Engagement in the African Context: The African Calabash Framework

Institutions of higher learning were always seen as being isolated from their community and operating as ivory towers. This view is rapidly changing due to growth in community–university engagements. And, to strengthen these collaborations between the university and the community we should use methods of engagement that are context relevant. The Nelson Mandela University through its Centre for the Community School has been making use of Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR) as a method of engagement when collaborating with community members. Given its Western origin, using this methodology as is, without contextualising it, could present challenges because the social and economic dynamics differ. Through the lessons we learned from conducting a study, which sought to understand how an Action Learning Set experienced the use of PALAR, we contextualised PALAR for it to be suitable for the African context. We developed the African Calabash Framework, which offers methodological and philosophical guidance on how PALAR can be used for community–university engagements in the African context.