Frank Youngman

The Dominant Tradition in Adult Literacy – A Comparative Study of National Literacy Programmes in Botswana and Zimbabwe

The article highlights the renewed significance of adult literacy for international and national educational policy as a result of the World Educational Forum in 2000, at which a new vision of literacy was advocated. The difference between the new and old paradigms of adult literacy is considered. The article argues that the traditional approach which has dominated the international discourse on adult literacy has profoundly influenced national decisions. This influence is illustrated through a comparative analysis of national adult literacy programmes in Botswana and Zimbabwe. The programmes exhibit a high degree of similarity despite differences in the national contexts. The analysis shows that the traditional approach has been relatively ineffective in improving adult literacy levels. However, proposals for change influenced by the new paradigm have not been taken into account. Thus the examples of Botswana and Zimbabwe indicate the difficulty in displacing the dominant tradition in adult literacy at the level of national policy-making.

A departure from the past? Extension workers and participatory rural development: the case of Botswana

This article addresses the question of whether extension workers can change their attitudes and practices in order to promote participatory rural development by considering the case of Botswana. It discusses the emergent participatory extension paradigm which uses techniques such as participatory rural appraisal (PRA). It describes the new community‐based strategy for rural development in Botswana which includes the expectation that the extension services can be reorientated to facilitate increased community participation. Evidence is presented from research in 1995‐96 which evaluated a pilot project involving PRAs undertaken by extension workers in four districts. The project sought to find out systematically whether PRA could enhance the ability of the extension services to undertake participatory rural development. The findings suggest that extension workers can develop through training the attitudinal predisposition necessary for adopting a more participatory approach to extension practice. However, t...

Engaging academically with China in Africa – the institutional approach of the University of Botswana

In 2006 the University of Botswana adopted the Policy on Internationalization which had three objectives: 1) to expand international student and staff exchanges; 2) to expand international research co-operation; and 3) to enhance the internationalisation of all curricula. As a result of the policy, the University has developed a number of academic partnerships in East Asia since 2006. The policy made a commitment to increase the number of university partnerships, not only in the traditional areas of Europe and North America, but particularly within Africa and with key economic powers in Asia, which were identified as China, India, Japan and South Korea. The most intensive academic engagement within East Asia has taken place with China and a strategic institutional approach has been adopted to develop this engagement.

University of Botswana: A National University in Decline?

The University of Botswana (UB) was established by government in 1982 as a national university. Its historically dominant role within the country’s tertiary education sector and its significance in national life make it Botswana’s flaship university. While its historical evolution is fairly well documented, the same cannot be said about its contribution to the nation’s well-being. This chapter addresses this concern by examining UB’s contributions to research, capacity building, and policy development and by exploring how it has influenced the development of the higher education sector in Botswana. The study’s methodology was primarily a desk review of policy documents, historical records and annual reports produced abundantly by the government and the university itself.

Intellectual Leadership in Higher Education: Renewing the role of the university professor

and training to higher education. A comparative documentation of ratios of non-traditional educational pathways is excellently provided in table 6.2 and a similar analysis in 6.3. More analysis of table 6.3 could have been provided to interrogate the data before making conclusions. The seventh chapter would have been better written with categories and extent of disability before information on individual students. This is slightly covered on p. 104, ‘Disability as a transitional status’. Cases studied are good to provide evidence-based findings that learners do not have to be locked up in their homes on account of disability. In chapter eight a tough reality is provided, that over and above successes in the preceding one, there are learners who drop out of school, ‘The failed transitions’. This chapter would be better with more interviews and representations of cases that could not make it to higher education. Chapter nine captures time in the broad sense with the use of a critical feminist perspective. Data provided on table 1.1 are consistent with Afrocentric dualism of the use of male and female time with particular reference to African countries like my own, Botswana. In Chapter ten individual and collective identities have a strong relationship in paid work. It would have been interesting for the author to articulate reasons for not giving attention to unpaid work which is often ignored and not globally documented as work in official statistics, and how the two (paid and unpaid work) are disproportionately connected to identities. Chapter eleven reminds the reader that workplaces promote learning across one’s lifespan. Motivational factors in the desire to learn are consistent with andragogical assumptions in the field of adult and continuing education. The penultimate chapter is very balanced in articulating three phases of older workers’ transitions in patterns of employment and work changes. The use of biographies is crucial to depict the life of older adults and how they make transitions after 45 years. It is indeed crucial for older adults to continue learning so that they can develop alternative careers as they move towards retirement or self-employment so that they are not tied to one occupation. The importance of the final chapter is that it knits the 12 previous ones by providing justification or therapeutic suggestions on how to best manage, support, or challenge contemporary experiences of transitions. That transitions have to be closely managed cannot be overemphasized. A positive learning identity, agentic orientations, critical consciousness and narrowing the gap between different stages and contexts are some of the multi-dimensions of closely managing and supporting transitions. Overall, as stated above, this is a very useful contribution to the study of lifelong education.

The training of adult education personnel in Botswana

Abstract The article provides a case study from Africa on the issues involved in training adult education personnel. It describes the social and organisational context of adult education in Botswana as the background to a discussion of training needs. A quantification of full-time adult education posts is presented to give an indication of the scope of these needs. The provision of training is then analysed in terms of four different types — initial, middle-level, advanced and inservice. The need for more systematisation and co-ordination is identified and a central role for the University is suggested. The content and methods of training are considered and the central question of the impact of training raised. It is argued that the effectiveness of training must be assessed by a three dimensional analysis which situates the personal competence of the adult educator within an organisational and socio-economic context. Finally, research and evaluation are advocated as essential in two respects. Firstly, in order to develop the knowledge-base about the theory and practice of adult education in Botswana on which to provide the content of courses. Secondly, in order to analyse the training programmes themselves. The article concludes by suggesting a framework for the future development of training for adult educators in Botswana.