Chronicles on African Philosophy of Higher Education


Book Description

The central argument in this book revolves around the significance of an African philosophy of higher education. Such a philosophy is geared towards cultivating democratic iterations, co-belonging, and critique within human encounters. Together, these actions can enhance intellectual activism within and beyond the encounters. A philosophy of higher education is constituted by a philosophical act of reflexivity according to which (how), freedom (both autonomous and communal), cosmopolitanism (learning to live with differences and otherness), and caring with others (ubuntu) can be rhythmically practised. What makes an African philosophy of higher education distinctive and realisable is that practices ought to be based on iterations, co-belonging, and critique. If intellectual activism were not to become a major act of resistance on the basis of which educational, political, and societal dystopias can be undermined, such a philosophy of higher education would not have a real purpose. An African philosophy of higher education is an intellectually activist endeavour because of its concern to be oppositional to constraints in and about higher education. In conversation with such an understanding of this philosophy, contributors to this volume offer responses to why human freedom, cosmopolitanism, and caring with others (ubuntu) can be rhythmically enacted.




Philosophical Adventures in African Higher Education


Book Description

This seminal volume delves into some of the doctoral research and pedagogical experiences within an African higher education context, making a case for the transformative potential of education and the integration of African indigenous philosophies into global educational practices. Through a collection of vivid narratives, the book situates philosophy of higher education by embodying the doctoral researcher and their initiation into academic life, revealing how doctoral pursuits in African higher education are not simply academic endeavours but deeply philosophical adventures that challenge, critique, and reimagine the role of education in society. Chapters advocate for a dynamic educational system that, rooted in African philosophies, nurtures democratic citizenship, embraces critical engagement, and fosters social justice. A call to action for researchers, students, and policy makers alike to view doctoral research as a powerful catalyst for change, the book offers fresh perspectives on addressing the continent's unique challenges, contributing to a more just and inclusive world. Ultimately considering the potential of academic research to shape the future of societies, both within Africa and globally, the book will appeal to researchers, academics and postgraduate students involved with the philosophy of education, higher education, and citizenship education, as well as these areas in African contexts specifically.




African Higher Education in the 21st Century


Book Description

African Higher Education in the 21st Century explores the philosophical dimension of higher education systems in Africa by analysing its ontological, epistemological and ethical foundations.




Philosophical, Educational, and Moral Openings in Doctoral Pursuits and Supervision


Book Description

This timely volume conceptualises and applies the philosophical notions of wonder, wander, and whisper, serving as evaluative paradigms for objective assessment of quality doctoral research work and supervision in South African higher education. Written by one of the foremost academics in the field, the book combines the normative philosophical, educational, and moral notions of wonder, wander, and whisper with academic life and studies, focusing on doctoral work and supervision not just as cognitive or scientific processes, but also as existential, ethical, and political shaping of the self. By reflecting on three decades of doctoral supervision, the author gives an account of how his students have been initiated into moral discourses of democratic citizenship education and the intellectual adventures they have embarked upon through scholarly texts. The book also presents itself as a decolonial venture that repositions and resituates doctoral education in resistance to the hegemony of colonisation, inhumanity, inequality, unfreedom, and injustice in Southern Africa. Ultimately arguing for the relevance of wonder, wander, and whisper in academic culture, the book will appeal to scholars, researchers, and postgraduates in the fields of higher education, philosophy of education, and sociology of education as well as African education and doctoral studies more broadly.




Rupturing African Philosophy on Teaching and Learning


Book Description

This book examines African philosophy of education and the enactment of ubuntu justice through a massive open online course on Teaching for Change. The authors argue that such pedagogic encounters have the potential to stimulate just and democratic human relations: encounters that are critical, deliberate, reflective and compassionate could enable just and democratic human relations to flourish, thus inducing decolonisation and decoloniality. Exploring arguments for imaginative and tolerant pedagogic encounters that could help cultivate an African university where educators and students can engender morally and politically responsible pedagogical actions, the authors offer pathways for thinking more imaginatively about higher education in a globalised African context. This work will be of value for researchers and students of philosophy of education, higher education and democratic citizenship education.




Towards an Ubuntu University


Book Description

This book explores the argument to reconsider the idea of a university in light of the African ethic of ubuntu; literally, human dignity and interdependence. The book discusses, through the context of higher education discourse of philosophy and comparative education, how global universities have evolved into higher educational institutions concerned with knowledge (re)production for various end purposes that range from individual autonomy, to public accountability, to serving the interests of the economy and markets. The question can legitimately be asked: Is an ubuntu university different from an entrepreneurial university, thinking university, and ecological university? While these different understandings of a university accentuate both the epistemological and moral imperatives in relation to itself and the societies in which they manifest, it is through the ubuntu university that emotivism in the forms of dignity and humaneness will enhance a university’s capacity for autonomy, responsibility, and criticality. This book would be of academic interest to university educators and students in philosophy of education, comparative education, and cultural studies.




Fostering Values Education and Engaging Academic Freedom amidst Emerging Issues Related to COVID-19


Book Description

This volume contributes to the advancement of comparative education in the world, more specifically in expanding understandings of the discourse of comparative education vis-à-vis educational transformation. Throughout the text, three critical elements that reflect comparative education as an open, inconclusive discourse come up: (1) There is sufficient pedagogical space for dissonance. It is always possible to compare one’s own authenticity with the epistemological position others hold dear and argue for. (2) The contributions in this book should not be read as absolute pieces of writing as that would undermine the flexible nature of education. It is important to point out that the opinions of the authors are temporary moments of attachment to persuasive claims. However, these claims are not cast in stone as new views continue to emerge from epistemological (re)positioning. (3) Our own reading of the book corroborates our interest in comparative education as a continuous discourse in the making. The contributions of scholars at the third symposium organized by WCCES provided a platform for them to pursue their knowledge interests. In addition, these interests have and will or ought never to be homogenous for that would be incommensurate with a defensible practice of comparative education.




Values, Education, Emotional Learning, and the Quest for Justice in Education


Book Description

In this book, emotional teaching-learning is explored as it is cultivated based on teachers’ and learners’ attraction to reasonableness and emotions and can give rise to a plausible form of decoloniality or decolonisation in and through education. It is argued that when the latter manifests, the democratic transformation of education might ensue. Put differently, decoloniality and/or decolonisation of education is a substantive way to look at the democratisation and, by implication, transformation of education and schooling. Readers are invited to engage with the meanings espoused throughout this book in the quest to cultivate a genuinely decolonial form of education in universities and schools, where values education should be enacted reasonably and emotively in such educational institutions. Teachers and learners cannot remain silent when oppressive and hegemonic forces of modernity continue to guide educational practices in institutions. Contributors are: Ahoud Alasfour, N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Emiliano Bosio, José Brás, Juan Carlos Rodriguez Camacho, Michael Cottrell, Lucimar Dantas, Amanda Fiore, Carla Galego, Maria Neves Gonçalves, Logan Govender, Beatriz Koppe, Sibonokuhle Ndlovu, Phefumula Nyoni, Adaobiagu Nnemdi Obiagu, Peter Oyewole, Theresa A. Papp, Martyn Reynolds, Kabini Sanga, V. Sucharita, Yusef Waghid and Emnet Tadesse Woldegiorgis.




African Philosophy of Education Reconsidered


Book Description

Much of the literature on the African philosophy of education juxtaposes two philosophical strands as mutually exclusive entities; traditional ethnophilosophy on the one hand, and ‘scientific African philosophy on the other. While traditional ethnophilosophy is associated with the cultural artefacts, narratives, folklore and music of Africa‘s peop




Mediating Learning in Higher Education in Africa


Book Description

This book enters the discourse of the scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education in Africa. The book provides critical insights comprising topical themes from transformation, citizenship and gender, researching to ethical perspectives of teaching and learning.