Johannes Seroto

Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Sustainable Development in Higher Education

Abstract The state of the environment seems to be under enormous pressure worldwide. Numerous and complex environmental problems and risks seem to be dominating the development programmes of nations, ‘fighting’ for space/inclusion and attention’ from already scarce and dwindling resources in order to stay afloat of complete extinction. Through conceptualization of the discourse, Western ways of knowing have thus far provided local and global nations with both useful and not so useful ways of knowing phenomena and understanding society’s reality. However, in the process of achieving this educational goal, other ways of knowing, especially indigenous knowledges have been marginalized. Broad based knowledge construction approaches allow for different ways of knowing to provide alternative solutions to problems and the diverse challenges societies contend with. It is for that reason that the researchers argue that curricula in higher education and other institutions of higher learning, cannot afford to continue to exclude or ‘peripherize’ other ways of knowing. The researchers further propose that in order that education programmes of development and sustainability education succeed in addressing the complex, uncertain and contradictory reality of present societies, education curricula should be underpinned by social critical thinking and capability approaches that not only foster understand in plurality, but also promote world citizenry.

Dynamics of Decoloniality in South Africa: A Critique of the History of Swiss Mission Education for Indigenous People

This paper presents a new framework to analyse missionary education in South Africa, using Grosfoguel’s conceptual and methodological lens of coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, and coloniality of being. Firstly, the paper introduces the theoretical lens that undergirds this study and describes the three above-mentioned dimensions. Rather than seek generalisations concerning missionary education in the historical record, the paper presents an analysis of the endeavours of the Swiss Mission Society as an example of Protestant evangelism in South Africa. I indicate how the Swiss Mission used education to racialise and hierarchise the indigenous people and how, in this process, knowledge and indigenous people were dehumanised. The argument is based on examples drawn from the Swiss Mission’s teacher training institution, namely the Lemana Teachers’ Training College, near Elim. Based on the paper’s critical analysis, I propose how power structures, colonised knowledge systems and beings could be decolonised.

Analysing the Presentation of the 1976 Soweto Uprising in Grade 9 History Textbooks

Abstract The Soweto Uprising comprised a series of protests led by secondary school students in South Africa that began on 16 June 1976. Historians and political analysts concur that the Soweto Uprising was a watershed in the national liberation struggle and ushered in the demise of the apartheid system. This article examines the presentation of the Soweto Uprising and related events in five purposefully selected South African secondary school history textbooks for Grade 9 learners using the four dimensions of Morgan and Hennings textbook analytical model. The aim of the study was to identify the omission/inclusion of certain historical facts and the implications for the development of learners’ critical thinking skills. The findings indicated that the omission of historical facts concerning the causes of the Soweto Uprising limits learners’ opportunity to make evidence-based, reasoned judgments about the topic; the use of primary and secondary sources to mediate the affective aspects of the Soweto Uprising is inadequate; the textual community that the history textbooks depicts lacks multiple voices and perspectives; and the narratives do not fully engage learners in complex and contested issues. It is recommended that history textbook authors adopt a multiple text approach to encourage critical thinking and to enable learners to assess historical claims and assertions independently.

The History of Initial Teacher Preparation in International Contexts

This chapter examines the history of teacher education in five nations – South Africa, Singapore, Chile, Finland, and United States – representing different continents, histories, political structures, cultures, levels of wealth, and economies. The nations were selected, in fact, because of this variability; Table 2.1 shows how widely they differ on a number of indicators. We hope the chapter will generate discussions about the role teacher education has played in national development and what teacher educators in different nations might learn from each other.

History of education at the University of South Africa (UNISA): 1961-present

Abstract Since 1961, History of Education at the University of South Africa (Unisa) has been part of a host of debates, paradigm shifts and transformative developments within higher education, at national level and even internationally affecting where the discipline was housed, by whom it was presented and the nature of its content. This article aims to trace these historical developments in History of Education at Unisa in an attempt to understand these developments within their contextual nature in order to come to some understanding as to its future.