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European Journal of Educational Studies 2(2), 2010ISSN 1946-6331© 2010 Ozean PublicationEuropean Journal of Educational Studies 2(2), 2010FROM EMPOWERMENT TO TRANSFORMATION: A CAPACITY BUILDING MODELFOR ACADEMICS IN DISTANCE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN AFRICADele Braimoh*, Osiki, J.O.** and Mpine Makoe**University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.**Faculty of Humanities, National University of Lesotho, Lesotho, Southern Africa.Email address for correspondence: jonathanosiki@yahoo.co.uk____________________________________________________________________________________________Abstract: Applying the benefits of the multi-dimensionality of empowerment, using transformative paradigms toboost capacity building, within academics in Distance Higher Education (DHE), is a vital part of the re-focusingof research perspectives in African Tertiary Institutions (ATIs). How and when the transformative package isutilized for a sustainable research dividend, among the stakeholders in DHE, and within acceptable norms, callsfor regular investigation. The study, therefore, using the transformative paradigms, examined how mentees andmentors’ relationship, curtails possible academic frustration, indolence, career stagnation, spiral of academicvictimization and other challenges, through a symbiotism of interconnectivity employed to facilitate adequateskills acquisition. The acquisition of relevant skills was therefore, instrumental to appropriate researchbreakthrough, personal development (i.e. increased self-awareness, openness, positive self-image,interdependence, etc) and overall community impact, national and or the African sub-regional advancement,growth and development.Keywords: Empowerment; Transformation; Capacity Building Model; Academics;Distance Higher Education; Africa__________________________________________________________________________________________BACKGROUNDA very fundamental product of education, generally, and in particular, higher education, is the development,facilitation and acquisition of lifelong skills for useful living. Lifelong skills that are regularly developed andvalidated retain their marginal utility and strengths when they can be annexed and directly applied as solution-drivenmechanism in bringing hope to global challenges, viz, socially, economically, politically and academically. Skills inlifelong Education (LE) are therefore reliable and positive-oriented weapon of change that is needed, especially, forthe re-engineering of erstwhile oddity in learning. Such re-engineering, revalidation and re-appraisals are required inbehavioural adaptability, instrumental for expected changes, both in academics and professional perspectives.Effectively pursuing these goals, as it were, presupposes that the major stakeholders in higher education (HE), asexemplified by programme facilitators (PF) and learners in distance higher education (LDHE) are directly goadedfor programme re-validation, and the re-orientation, for the resurgence of new curricular design, professionalbehaviour, skills development and acquisition which are necessary for quality education as well as sustainabledevelopment. Being nurtured, prepared and goaded for sustainable results, especially in this twenty-first century, isfunctionally epitomized in institutional-employee collective empowerment.The studies on empowerment generally, have had several imports in every segment of human life, including health,socio-economic, politics, and education. For instance, while Adetoun (2005) study implicated the importance ofempowerment in “Gender and HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, to curtail power-imbalances in discriminatory practices againstthe women folks, that of Osiki (2007a) was directed in the re-validation of preconceived African traditions forimproving household economies (i.e. income-generating activities). Further implication includes Osiki (2007b)where various behavioural techniques were utilized in demystifying research difficulties and challenges of distancelearners (DLs). In Osiki (2007b) for instance, when the Research Status Inventory (ReSI) was utilized in identifyingthe research difficulties of the Distance Learners (DLS), the findings, among others, indicated that over 95.64% ofthe DLS have not had previous research orientation, and would be happier if research methodology courses and, or119
European Journal of Educational Studies 2(2), 2010dissertation were not made part of the University programme. Similarly, it further showed that while only 16.1% ofthe participants liked research activities, another 78.4% detested especially the applied form of academic researchthat implicates the use of statistical analyses. Using the benefits of the Multi-behaviour psychological techniques,both in correcting emotional distortions of the DLS, with the concomitant upsurge in the participants‟ interest inresearch, Osiki (2007b), has therefore facilitated the concept of empowerment in HE.Recent events at the National university of Lesotho (NUL), Southern Africa, where research training workshop washeld (NUL Bulletin, 2008), had the title for the programme read as “Demystifying the Ph.D” posted for all heracademic staff members and postgraduate students. The NUL, as one typical University in Southern Africa, amongother few, has postgraduate students‟ enrolment of less than 15(although the emphasis here is on the Doctorateprogrammes) with the Faculty of Humanities having over 70% of the number. Among the sub-themes that attractedselected speakers from some African Countries are (a) „choosing your topic and supervisor‟ (b) „writing your thesisproposal‟; (c) „the architecture of a thesis‟; (d) „what examiners look for in a good thesis‟; (e) proposal writingexercise‟. What the NUL‟s experience portend in the aforementioned however, was to epitomise the dearth ofscholarly work (i.e. researches) especially in higher education in the African sub-region, while, also implicating theopen distance learning (ODL), in the twenty first century. The fallout of such events, also, without equivocation,points that: (i) embarking on research activity is not a child‟s play; (ii) emotions are involved in any reasonable andwell conceived research; (iii) research and continue research endeavour as well as the regular validation of researchoutcomes is continuous; (iv) results-oriented research and or investigation involves one kind of training or another;(f) experience in research can only be gleaned by getting involved in research activities.EMPOWERMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION (HE)Fundamental in this multi-etiological concept, is the notion of the very difficult circumstance of adequate definition.Empowerment is a process that challenges the assumptions about the way things are and can be (Page and Czuba,1999). The central contention in this definition is „power‟ and the product of power which is held in relation to thepeople and or other things. In their postulations, Page and Czuba contended that empowerment depends on; (a) thenotion that power can change; and where it does not happen, then there is no empowerment. (b) Secondly, thatempowerment also depends on the idea that power can expand (i.e. power got at the expense of others-„the zero-sumtheory‟). In the first contention, and which underpins Max Weber twentieth century maxims, ‘power is related toour ability to make others do what we want, regardless of their wishes or interest‟. It means by inference, that powerdoes not exist in isolation nor is it inherent in individuals; and since it is created in relationships, power and powerrelationships can change. The zero-sum conception of power according to Page and Czuba (1999) and which depictstheir second notion was based on the premise that „power will remain in the hands of the powerful unless they give itup‟.Although Page and Czuba‟s (1999) conception of empowerment merely focused on the socio-political dimension,other studies (Commonwealth of Nations, 2007; Chamberlin, 2008) provide additional dimension. Strictlydiscussing on „Commonwealth Youth Programme‟ (CYP), the Commonwealth of Nations in their signed plan ofAction for Youth Empowerment (2007-2015), conceptualise the term when it said „Young people are empoweredwhen they acknowledge that they have or can create choices in life, are aware of the implications of those choices,make an informed decision freely, take action based on that decision and accept responsibility for the consequencesof those actions’. Critical feature in the definition epitomizes the central theme of „accountability‟ and that, until theindividual accepts responsibility and can be accountable; the notion of their empowerment may be a nullity. Inconsequence therefore, until such a time and age, the individual can only be regarded as a mere „child‟. Thus, youthempowerment is an attitudinal, structural and cultural process whereby young people gain the ability, authority andagency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youthand adults (Vavrus and Fletcher, 2006). Providing the necessary experiences to empower the youth is oftenaddressed as the gateway to intergenerational equity, civic engagement and democracy building with multifariousactivities directly focused on youth-led media, youth rights, youth council, youth activism and youth involvement incommunity decision-making (Fletcher, 2005; Sazama and Young, 2006) as well as other methods, geared towardstheir mainstreaming.In Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) (2008) and as readily as the case may be, with most Institutions ofHigher Education (IHE), but with particular reference to some institutions in Africa, students are assisted throughprofessionals and peer tutors, in deficient and weak areas of their academic responsibilities including reading,writing, mathematics, chemistry and biology. Professionals and peer tutors, using the MVCC as a referent point,provide supplemental instruction to ameliorate learners‟ challenges as well as the emotional conditions predicatingpoor academic performance. As a rider to what the MVCC might have been known for, Osiki (2006), examining120
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