Collaboratively Reimagining Teaching and Learning

Abstract

While there are regular calls for African universities to improve their teaching, finding ways to do this within the resources available in already stretched institutions, and at the scale required, have proven elusive. This chapter is a reflexive exercise, discussing the work of an international partnership, Transforming Employability for Social Change in East Africa (TESCEA), that aimed to reshape habits of teaching and learning in four institutions of higher education. The authors explain how they sought to enable teaching for critical thinking and problem-solving, ensure degree programmes were relevant to social and economic needs by engaging employers and local communities, and learning environments enabled both young women and men to learn effectively. It offers reflections on the change observed, the ways in which this was achieved, and the challenges encountered. The authors hope it adds to understandings of how change can happen in higher education, particularly in resource-constrained settings.