University of Staffordshire. ⢠Leeds College of Technology. ⢠Loughborough College. ⢠While all universities face challenges in achieving effective leadership and.
INORMS 2010 11th-15th April Cape Town Session 6: Building a 21st Century Profession
4/19/2010
CAMEL in Africa: Innovations in the Collaborative Leadership of Research Management in Sub-Saharan African Agricultural Universities Dr Jill Jameson 1, Dr Tim Chancellor 2, Dr John Orchard 2, University of Greenwich 1 School of Education and Training and 2 the Natural Resources Institute (NRI)
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CAMEL Community of Practice (CoP (CoP)) model
Collaborative Approaches to the Management of ee-Learning (CAMEL)
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• • • • •
JISC infoNet and ALT University of Greenwich University of Staffordshire Leeds College of Technology Loughborough College
• While all universities face challenges in achieving effective leadership and management of HE research, this issue is particularly acute in Africa. • Complex problems affect the capacity of African HEIs to contribute skilfully to Africa’s development and MDG targets by 2015.
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These include limited capacity to build research excellence, inadequate responses to global competition, a 'brain drain' of expertise, environmental challenges, and lack of good practice models in leadership, governance and management.
• Critical amongst HEI research leadership problems are also: weak physical, financial, social capital and development systems; limited competencies for resource mobilisation and management.
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There are many challenges. Yet missives from afar that ‘preach’ at Africa are unhelpful; there is a need to work collaboratively to engage regional stakeholders in democratic and critical dialogue for the development of appropriate tailored solutions.
• In partnership with the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), EDULINK and 5 European universities, • the University of Greenwich responded to these challenges - a literature review of good practice models in leadership to build research excellence in agricultural HEIs in Sub-Saharan Africa 09-10.
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The research of NRI in Africa
• Assisting with the repositioning of African HEIs to respond to many challenges requires mutual respect, trust, adaptive leadership and management (L&M) structures and personnel with cross-cutting professional skills.
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• Recommended models from global experience of leadership and management in education and agriculture included the CAMEL (Collaborative Approaches to the Management of e-Learning) JISC infoNet/ALT model for inter-institutional collaboration, derived from an agricultural community of practice (CoP) in Uruguay.
• The 'CAMEL in Africa' model recommends methods for effective inter-institutional collaborative leadership in a CoP, to achieve improvements in agricultural practices.
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• The model highlights the building of trust, honest critique, long-term planned collaborative processes, the establishment of safe ground-rules and advice from expert critical friends. Robust, sustainable, low-cost good practice recommendations for African university research leadership based on prior experience with CAMEL.
• African universities face many challenges in achieving effective leadership and management of higher education research. Complex problems affect the capacity of African higher education institutions (HEIs) to contribute skilfully to the continent’s development agenda and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets by 2015.
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Learning from: community of practitioners working together on research practical implementation = seedbed for trials = safe growth
‘good practice’ is: complex, situated, specific no theory can fully describe it: we know more than we can tell social process of learning ‘thick’/’fat’ case studies
(Polanyi)
(Vygoksy, Wenger) (local process)
legitimate peripheral participation
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opportunities of: being supported by mentors in a nomadic programme: visits to support each other and critique research practice
Design for Learning
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benefits for innovation of: honest critical reflection in a co-creative trusting environment enables you to engage in critique, ask searching questions, consider alternatives: • • • •
What What What What
good things happened this year? were your learning experiences? will you take with you into 2011? will you discard or leave behind?
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Without trust there can be no honest critique : need shared leadership and respect of values
Important features of CAMEL CoP model : • • • • • • • •
Long-term, planned, practice, expert facilitation Mutual respect, trust, honesty, agreed values Safety of Project Initiation Document (PID) Bottom-up nature of democratic involvement Shared nomadic visits at the place of partners Simplicity/limited number of partners (4-8) Sustainable mutual co-creation, low cost Respect for processes (products assumed)
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http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/camel/
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy/elidacamel
Working together, colleagues can build innovation opportunities through good leadership of research in African universities
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