Learning to make change: Developing innovation competence for recreating the African university of the 21st century

209 Pages·2006·1.931 MB·English

by  Paul Kibwika

Learning
to make change
Developing innovation competence
for recreating the African university
of the 21st century
Paul Kibwika
Wageningen Academic
P u b l i s h e r s
Learning to make change

Learning to make change
Developing innovation competence
for recreating the African
university of the 21st century
Paul Kibwika
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Publishers, P.O. Box 220, 6700 AE
Wageningen, the Netherlands,
ISBN: 978-90-8686-017-3 www.WageningenAcademic.com
e-ISBN: 978-90-8686-589-5
DOI: 10.3920/978-90-8686-589-5 The individual contributions in this
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Table of contents
List of tables 9
List of figures 10
List of boxes 11
Acronyms 13
Acknowledgements 15
Introduction 17
Background 17
About this thesis 17
Context of the problem 19
The research problem 20
Objectives 21
Research questions 21
Justification 22
Conceptual framework 26
Methodology and methods 31
The mixed-grill: a review of challenges and opportunities for a university of the
21st century 41
Makerere University as shaped by the past 41
Are universities accountable to society? 46
Bringing universities closer to society and development 49
Can universities become learning organisations? 57
Systems thinking: a mechanism for transforming universities 60
Transformative learning and universities 63
Professional ignorance and non-professional experts: experiences of how small
scale vanilla farmers in Uganda learned to produce for export 67
Introduction 67
History of vanilla in Uganda 71
The role of conflict and competition in social learning 73
Farmer learning mechanisms and platforms 76
Functions for research and extension in social learning 80
Conclusions 83
Challenges of demand-driven research and extension services in Uganda:
implications for competence 85
Introduction 85
Initiative for learning to do IAR4D 89
The demand-driven National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) 97
Learning to make change 7
Implications for competence 102
Conclusion 105
Getting it right from the start: designing innovation competence development
programmes in universities 107
Introduction 107
Background to the programme 108
Designing the competence development process 109
Design challenges 122
Lessons learnt 123
Conclusion 124
Vision-based assessment of learning for change: the case of an innovation
competence development programme 125
Introduction 125
Triangulation: processes within a process 126
Putting processes into practice 128
Impact of the PM/SS programme on individual profiles 134
Lessons learnt 137
Outcomes of the competence development programme 141
Introduction 141
Outcomes 141
Challenges for enhancing and sustaining impact of the PM/SS programme 158
Discussion and conclusions: towards a new African university for the 21st century 165
Towards innovation competence for development 165
Learning for change: going beyond individualism to enhancing collective action 168
Inducing and managing change in social systems 169
Development of and access to tools for making change 171
Solution-oriented thinking and practice in an African university 173
Developing a culture of authenticity 174
Conclusions 175
Appendices
Appendix 1: Reflection on my own learning through doing a PhD 179
Appendix 2: Instrument for self-assessment on impact of the PM/SS programme 185
References 191
Summary 203
About the author 207
8 Learning to make change
List of tables
1: Levels of participation. 39
2: Contrast between teaching-centred and learning-centred approaches. 52
3: Comparison of the ideal situations for learning organisation and current situation
in universities. 59
4: Farmer characteristics. 70
5: Composition of participants. 93
6: Composition of participants. 113
7: Content outline for the learning workshops. 119
8: Composition of assessment team. 131
9: Triggers and profile indicators. 138
Learning to make change 9