Gachago also played a cardinal role in the organisation of the first ever South African Digital Storytelling Festival.
The festival, one of the outcomes of an EU-funded project, was held in Cape Town earlier this year and saw 20 international digital storytellers sharing their practices.
“My field of research is focused on the use of emerging technologies to transform teaching and learning. Over the last few years we have piloted and written about a range of emerging technologies such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Clickers or Podcasting to support student learning and engagement,” she says.
She adds that since her work exposed her to the injustices and inequalities that students deal with on a daily basis, she has become more and more interested in what the literature terms socially just pedagogies.
“Socially just pedagogies have grown out of a critical or radical pedagogies movement, which encouraged a critique of political, social, economic, and sociocultural issues in education, whilst foregrounding the importance of transgressive transformation of the educational project.”
Her centre’s digital storytelling projects, for example, create a space for students to engage across difference and explore what Deborah Britzmann calls difficult knowledges, such as power and privilege in South African classrooms, in order to challenge existing power dynamics in the classroom.
“In particular, in the context of an increasingly vocal and empowered student body, education needs to be about more than content acquisition, but in Martin Luther King’s word, need to encourage students to think intensively and think critically.”
Gachago believes in people following their dreams even if that means taking risks.
“I have left my home and have lived and worked in many different countries before making South Africa my home, getting out of my comfort zone was the most important thing I have done and keep on doing.”
She encourages women to challenge themselves and never be too comfortable.
“Surround yourself with other women you trust and enjoy working together, I have found working in teams has allowed me to push boundaries I wouldn’t have been able to do on my own.
She also challenges them to look beyond their academic institutions, and instead develop regional, national and international networks as they are living in the global world.
“Be yourself. That’s good enough,” Gachago tells women.
