TRAINING INSTITUTIONS

Ubuntu Aspirations for Social Work and Social Development Work
Reviewing Training Programmes for Quality, Compliance or Accreditation

Social work and development training and practice is guided by 10 aspirations or standards as follows.

Tarajio Moja Aspiration 1	Workers to understand that their practice and service is an addition to practice and service that already exist in families, communities and other institutions of societies of Africa.
Tarajio Mbili Aspiration 2	That the practice and service must be founded on Ubuntu philosophy from where aspirations, values and ethics are derived.
Tarajio Tatu Aspiration 3	Professions shall work for political, economic, educational, environmental, spiritual, religious, social, cultural independence and development.
Tarajio Nne Aspiration 4	Workers shall use knowledge available in oral sources, written sources of Africa and emerging sources created by thinkers and researchers of Africa.
Tarajio Tano Aspiration 5	Wholism, which means looking at well-being, welfare and development from all facets of life.
Tarajio Sita Aspiration 6	Recognise and work with all culturally and academically trained providers of social and development services at all levels of society: family, village, community, country, societal, regional, continental and global.
Tarajio Saba Aspiration 7	Getting support, mentoring and guidance from Elders, reciprocally involving them and getting in conversation about new developments in social and development services.
Tarajio Nane Aspiration 8	Being in conversations with others and other professions through writing, reading, speaking, indaba and listening.
Tarajio Tisa Aspiration 9	Promoting productivity, sufficiency and sustainability for everyone and everything.
Tarajio Kumi Aspiration 10	Working with everyone for the renaissance, a future where there is abundance of peace, political, economic, educational, environmental, spiritual, religious, social, cultural independence and development for Africa and every other continent.

Aspirations in social and development work

The other name for tarajio or tarisiro means aspiration or expectation.

Key source: African Union, Aspirations of the African people in Agenda 2063

Reviewing Training Programmes for Quality, Compliance or Accreditation

Training programmes should be regularly assessed or reviewed for quality control, assurance and to provide evidence required for accreditation or re-accreditation. Important elements of the review process are:

Philosophical underpinning for the review
The standards being reviewed against
The reviewers
Use of review outcome
Review criteria
Review template

In undertaking this kind of review, the Made in Africa Evaluation approach principles are necessary.

Philosophical underpinning – Ubuntu

Training should provide the following skills:

Family skills
Community skills
Societal skills
Environmental skills
Spiritual skills

Standards

Standards are set by the government through regulatory or education body; by a professional body or cultural entity. Standards can also be set by a group of training institutions. They can also be research- or evidence-based, that is, based on research results. Global standards promote professional imperialism and are therefore not recommended unless there is concrete evidence they were developed from an indigenous and anti-colonising perspective, which has not been the case in both social work and development.

The key standards are:

Criteria	Standards
Resources	There are adequate resources to support quality teaching and learning. There is institutional capacity to deliver. The program will be able to keep running into the future. Class sizes are appropriate, physically and pedagogically.
Admission	The program is admitting the most appropriate candidates to train, without necessarily looking at academic achievement, but the appropriateness of the candidates to practice social or development work. Consideration of marginalization, including women, excluded tribes or communities. Local languages are prioritised.
Content and curricula	Content suits local realities, challenges and solutions Subjects meet the requirements of the professions Orature and literature used is relevant to the profession Training provided adequately covers: Family skills Community skills Societal skills Environmental skills Spiritual skills
Cultural and philosophical relevance	Teaching and learning that supports the society’s philosophy, values and ethics.
Decolonising	The curricula and resources and future direction must be set to support decolonisation.
African and global relevance	Curricula must support goals of the African Union and pan-Africanism in general Curricula should fit goals of the regional organisation, for example SADC, EAC etc Curricula should be relevant to solve global challenges, but to solve challenges of individual countries outside your own. If curricula fits another country not your own, then is is irrelevant.
Work learning (also known as work-based learning, fieldwork, placement or attachment)	Work learning is integrated in subjects, so that it can happen starting in the classroom. Supervised learning in the community is provided. There are multiple skills gained, from different work learning environments.

Reviewers

Reviewers are academics with expertise in the profession and experience in training, higher education and research. There can be 1-5 reviewers depending with the size of the assessing institution and the program being assessed. Reviewers should usually report to a larger committee which passes the outcome.

Use of review outcomes

Every review should result in an outcome, examples are no changes required, minor changes required, major changes required, placement under supervision for a period, suspension of the program and closure of the program.

Review criteria

This is a list of items being reviewed, for example:

Staff – academic, fieldwork and administration
Philosophy of the program, for example, how is Ubuntu a framework for the whole program
Community engagement
Institutional capacity – e.g. the university or college – infrastructure, leadership
Students recruitment – how many, are marginalised groups included, are requirements decolonised e.g. Should English or French be a requirement where the users of services do not use these languages
Assessments – are they relevant and contextual and decolonised
Alumni – former students, what do they say about the program, do they have jobs, are skills useful
Learning spaces – lecture rooms, tutorial rooms, practice rooms, community spaces
Library – is there local content
Syllabus for each subject – is the content contextual, is the literature local
Students support – to ensure they complete their studies
Changes – what changes were made to the program, if any
Alignment with national guidelines in higher education
Future plans and stability of the program
Decolonisation plan
Fieldwork plans and resources, including list of agencies for fieldwork and their capacity
Rural plan
Research, including research in higher education and pedagogies and higher degrees (masters and doctoral)
Committees responsible for research, teaching, fieldwork and community engagement
External markers and moderators
Suite of degrees and how students are supported to progress – bachelor’s, honours, masters, masters by research, doctoral and PhD

Review template

Review Criteria	Methods of data collection or sources of data
Staff – academic, fieldwork and administration	Meet with all staff Staff records
Philosophy of the program, for example, how is Ubuntu a framework for the whole program	Program Philosophy document Course Summary Program Description
Community engagement to ensure that syllabus responds to the needs of all communities	Verbal reports from staff Written reports Community meetings
Institutional capacity – e.g. the university or college – infrastructure, leadership	Meeting with university leadership Website
Students recruitment ro admission – how many, are marginalised groups included, are requirements decolonised e.g. Should English or French be a requirement where the users of services do not use these languages	Recruitment data
Assessments – are they relevant and contextual and decolonised External markers and moderators	Subject or Course Outlines View reports of external markers or moderators
Alumni – former students, what do they say about the program, do they have jobs, are skills useful	Interview or meeting with some former students Alumni surveys
Learning spaces – lecture rooms, tutorial rooms, practice rooms, community spaces	Observation and inspection of meeting spaces and places
Library – is there local content	Observation and inspection Library catalogue
Syllabus for each subject – is the content contextual, is the literature local	Subject or Course Outlines
Students support – to ensure they complete their studies	Meeting with student support offices or registrar of students
Changes – what changes were made to the program, if any	Written or verbal report
Alignment with national guidelines in higher education	Meeting with higher education authority
Future plans and stability of the program	Meeting with head of program, head of school and head of faculty
Decolonisation plan	Review of course/subject outlines, program philosophy, fieldwork and community engagements plan and library catalogue and assessments Meeting all staff Review the Decolonisation Plan document
Fieldwork plans and resources, including list of agencies for fieldwork and their capacity	Meeting fieldwork team Visit student on placement Review fieldwork subjects
Rural plan	Meeting with all staff Visit a rural community Review the Rural Plan document
Research, including research in higher education and pedagogies	Review research plan View publications Review CVs Met research teams
Committees responsible for research, teaching, fieldwork and community engagement	Meet each committee. View minutes
Supporting students to progress from primary, high school, diploma, bachelor, masters, doctoral degrees	Linkages with primary and high schools and education authorities to synchronize education