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Dr. Rejoyce Gavhi-Molefe is a Mathematical Scientist and Senior Manager of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) House of Science – a Hub of the AIMS Public Engagement based in AIMS South Africa. Her role as Manager of the House of Science includes the provision of leadership, direction and drive on the Public Engagement landscape; the development of sustainable Public Engagement frameworks; and the provision of capacity building and training for Public Engagement across diverse platforms and multidisciplinary approaches. She has been involved in outreach activities that aim to contribute to the upliftment of disadvantaged communities concerning mathematics and science education. She is a founder of MathAfrica, co-founder of the Canadian mentoring organisation MentorUP and the South African Women in Mathematical Sciences Association. She is a contributing author to the influential book, "Race and Sociocultural Inclusion in Science Communication: Innovation, Decolonisation, and Transformation.”
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Inclusive Science Engagement in South Africa:
Challenges, Enablers and Transformative Good Practices
In a continent where pressing developmental challenges are widespread, science and its public engagement are emerging as essential tools for improving the living standards of Africans. In South Africa, science engagement plays an additional vital role, in addressing the country's pernicious legacies of apartheid, which resulted in socio-cultural, racial, and gender imbalances prevalent in the science, technology and innovation ecosystem (STI). Scientists and researchers are expected to be hands-on in delivering transformative, effective, meaningful and impactful science engagement practices with Afrocentric intellect. However, young and emerging African scientists and researchers face profound challenges on this journey. Lack of training interventions and the dearth of adequately resourced capacity-building opportunities across the STI ecosystem significantly contribute to African scientists’ poor skills, knowledge, motivation, and expertise in science engagement.
As a means of tackling these challenges, the African-led good practice capacity-building framework of the innovative science engagement training programme - the Africa Scientifique (AS): Leadership, Knowledge & Skills for Science Communication was conceptualised and initiated in 2020, by African Gong. The Africa Scientifique (AS) Programme aims to support and provide young and emerging African scientists, researchers and academics with leadership drive, Afrocentric knowledge and emancipative skills for impactful science communication. The AS has been jointly delivered by African Gong in partnership with AIMS South Africa, to its Masters’ students cohort (annually, since 2020). It has proven to be a game changer in equipping African mathematical sciences post-graduates with the critical skills and aptitudes to effectively engage with and communicate their mathematical knowledge and research with the public (s), particularly groups of hard-to-reach and/or neglected and marginalised rural communities using their Indigenous African languages. Dr. Rejoyce Gavhi-Molefe, a contributing author to the influential book, “Race and Sociocultural Inclusion in Science Communication: Innovation, Decolonisation, and Transformation”, will share insights and the associated learnings concerning methodologies, approaches, tools and transformative practices that have emanated from the outcomes and impact of the AS programme, over the past four years.
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