CPUT and the University of Karlstad in Sweden are collaborating on a new community-based research project with a focus on gender-based violence (GBV).
Prof Penelope Engel-Hills, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences is the South African principal investigator on the study titled: Internationalisation for Knowledge Partnership and Social Transformation.
Funding for the project was received from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT).
“Our project has two legs. One is community-based research with a focus on GBV and the other is capacity-building for improved research skills for postgraduate students, supervisors and researchers using the community-based research approach,” said Engel-Hills.
The research will be carried out in a community on the south peninsula.
“An NGO in the community has come on board and we’ll be working with women in the community to look at what the community responses are to gender-based violence.”
Engel-Hills said there were NGOs and ordinary residents in the community who were offering counselling, employment and other options for women who had been affected by GBV.
“There is a lot of work being done but what we understood from the community is that they would like to know what works and what more they can do. We want to try to drive change through research and model ways that communities can positively respond to violence. Once we’ve looked at all the options we’ll consider implementing a new idea in the community. It’s all about what is right for that community and what they want.”
In terms of capacity building, the project aims to develop skills in innovative research methods and promote ethical awareness that will enable research in communities.
“We will be running workshops. We have already run a pilot at CPUT for our postgraduate students and we’re looking at two things. The first is the ethical dimensions of research in communities such as this one. The second is methodology. So we’ll put experts together and to do the training innovative ways.”
Engel-Hills said the researchers were hoping that through gathering “living knowledge” they would be able to make a positive contribution to social transformation as researchers.
“For me, it’s about what do we do responsibly with the knowledge we build to change lives. That’s the competence we need to develop in postgraduate students in order to build a generation of young researchers who can really contribute to finding solutions to the problems in SA in a meaningful way.”
Researcher: Prof Engel-Hills
Written by Ilse Fredericks
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