Browsing by Author "Opobo, Timothy"

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    Engaged Scholarship through Community Social Labs: Advancing Indigenisation of Social Work Education in Uganda
    (Journal of Comparative Social Work, 2025-07-08) Opobo, Timothy; Abalo, Jannette; Kafuko, Agatha; Twikirize, Janestic M.; Awich, Eric Ocen; Mugumya, Firminus
    The indigenisation of social work education in Africa is a response to the limitations of Western-centric approaches to addressing complex local social issues. This paper explores the role of engaged scholarship and community social labs in indigenising social work education in Uganda. The study analyses data from four focus group discussions, and student WhatsApp conversations, to examine how these approaches facilitate meaningful community engagement and the integration of local knowledge into the social work curriculum. The results show that community social labs can help with cultural sensitivity and problem-solving that is relevant to the situation. They also demonstrate that institutional constraints and power dynamics may hinder this transition. Despite these issues, the study suggests that engaged scholarship through community social labs has significant potential to make social work education and practice in Uganda more culturally sensitive and responsive to local realities. Even with these challenges, the study suggests that engaging scholars in community social labs has a lot of potential to make social work education and practice in Uganda more sensitive to local cultures and needs.
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    Good School Toolkit-Secondary Schools to prevent violence against students: protocol for a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial
    (British Medical Journal Publishing Group, 2024-02) Devries, Karen; Tanton, Clare; Knight, Louise; Nakuti, Janet; Nanyunja, Barbrah; Laruni, Yvonne; Amollo, Mathew; Apota, John; Opobo, Timothy; Pearlman, Jodie; Allen, Elizabeth; Bonell, Chris; Naker, Dipak
    IntroductionNo whole-school interventions which seek to reduce physical, sexual and emotional violence from peers, intimate partners and teachers have been trialled with adolescents. Here, we report a protocol for a pilot trial of the Good School Toolkit-Secondary Schools intervention, to be tested in Ugandan secondary schools. Our main objectives are to (1) refine the intervention, (2) to understand feasibility of delivery of the intervention and (3) to explore design parameters for a subsequent phase III trial.Methods and analysisWe will conduct a pilot cluster randomised controlled trial, with two arms and parallel assignment. Eight schools will be randomly selected from a stratified list of all eligible schools in Kampala and Wakiso Districts. We will conduct a baseline survey and endline survey 18 months after the baseline, with 960 adolescents and 200 teachers. Qualitative data and mixed methods process data collection will be conducted throughout the intervention. Proportion of staff and students reporting acceptability, understanding and implementing with fidelity will be tabulated at endline for intervention schools. Proportions of schools consenting to participation, randomisation and proportions of schools and individual participants completing the baseline and endline surveys will be described in a Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials diagram.Ethics and disseminationThe ethical requirements of our project are complex. Full approvals have been received from the Mildmay Ethics Committee (0407-2019), the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (SS 6020) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (16212). Results of this study will be published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and shared with public bodies, policy makers, study participants and the general public in Uganda.Trial registration numberPACTR202009826515511.