Philip Higgs

African Philosophy and the Decolonisation of Education in Africa: Some critical reflections

The liberation of Africa and its peoples from centuries of racially discriminatory colonial rule and domination has far‐reaching implications for educational thought and practice. The transformation of educational discourse in Africa requires a philosophical framework that respects diversity, acknowledges lived experience and challenges the hegemony of Western forms of universal knowledge. In this article I reflect critically on whether African philosophy, as a system of African knowledge(s), can provide a useful philosophical framework for the construction of empowering knowledge that will enable communities in Africa to participate in their own educational development.

Lifelong learning revisited: an African educational discourse

In this essay we argue for an African discourse on lifelong learning in South Africa, in so doing exploring its impact on education policy statements, and how it plays itself out in issues related to the nature of learning, equity and redress, and access to higher education. Our exploration is located within the context of the African Renaissance and educational discourse. We prefer to speak of ‘resourceful human beings’, which we believe is a more humane metaphor, emphasising the social imperative of such a discourse. This essay posits learning as central to both economic and social cohesion, which suggests that lifelong learning cannot simply be driven by a need to secure economic prosperity but has to focus on the ‘capacity of citizens to exercise and enforce democratic rights and participate effectively in decision making’, as the National Plan for Higher Education (Ministry of Education 2001:7) indicates. We discuss endeavours towards equity and redress in terms of the creation of a more humane socie...

South Africa: Recklessly Incapacitated by a Fifth Column – The Academic Profession Facing Institutional Governance

The South African academic profession currently has to negotiate a battery of changes foisted down upon them. These changes relate to the education reform project of government, the societal reconstruction which also assigns a big role for universities, and the neo-liberal economic revolution. The sum total of all these changes is a serious erosion of the autonomy of the academic profession. Academic freedom is being drastically curtailed as academics have to put up with prescriptions and control from both government and institutional managers and bureaucrats. The CAP survey shows the extent of this control and the pernicious influence it is having on the academic profession. If it is accepted that academics can fulfill their mission optimally only in an atmosphere of academic freedom and when they are satisfied with their jobs, then this issue of managerialism needs to be addressed urgently.

Implementing the Online Learning Community in Africa: A Unisa Case Study

Recent global occurrences are significantly affecting institutions of higher education, particularly on the continent of Africa. In addition, the process of the democratization of education has inevitably led to the explosive demands by the citizens of the different African countries for open admission to institutions of higher education. Against this background this article discusses recent developments at the University of South Africa (UNISA) which have been concerned with the adoption of online distance and open learning approaches in order to achieve greater accessibility and the massification of educational products. This is especially pertinent during this era of technology-driven educational innovation, so as to make university programmes not only accessible but also relevant to the needs and aspirations of African communities.

The African Renaissance and the Transformation of the Higher Education Curriculum in South Africa.

ABSTRACT The curriculum is a critical element in the transformation of higher education, and as a result, I argue for the inclusion of what I refer to as an African epistemic in higher education curricula in South Africa. In so doing, attention is directed at the decolonisation of the curriculum in higher education in South Africa, which aims to give indigenous African knowledge systems their rightful place as equally valid ways of knowing among the array of knowledge systems in the world. In developing my argument, I maintain that a critical questioning of the knowledge included in higher education curricula in South Africa should be taken up in what I call transformative education discourses that examine the sources of the knowledge that inform what is imposed on or prescribed for curricula in higher education in South Africa, and how these higher educational curricula are implicated in the universalisation of Western and European experiences.

Key challenges facing the South African academic profession at the interfaces of management, interaction with the international academic community and service for society

Abstract The international Changing Academic Profession (CAP) research project is currently surveying the academic profession in 22 countries. At the planning conference of this study, three emphases in the contemporary professional environment of academics have become particularly persuasive: relevance, internationalisation and management. As part of the international research team of the CAP research project, the authors have applied the questionnaire of the CAP survey (which measures academics’ experiences and responses to these three trends) to a sample of the South African academic profession. The results show that while the South African academic profession has made the mind-shift from the traditional conceptualisation of the university as an “ivory tower institution”, rather detached from society in its pursuit of truth, to an institution relevant to the concrete and immediate needs of society, the profession could thus far not succeed in giving practical effect to this changed concept. While the South African academic profession has internationalised rapidly during the first decade after the repeal of the international academic boycott against South Africa, to the point where it has become more internationalised than its colleagues abroad, it has been losing ground again during the past few years. It is in its relationship with management that the biggest cause of concern for the South African academic profession lies. This research indicates that the South African academic profession finds itself in a highly prescriptive environment, over which it has little influence, and which it does not find very supportive of its teaching and research activities. In conclusion, follow-up research aiming at addressing these problems is recommended.

A Reconstruction of South African Philosophy of Education

In this article an attempt is made to defend a postmodern approach to philosophy of education which it is argued is best able to provide guidance and a context for dialogue in a culturally pluralistic society such as South Africa. The impetus for such a defense of a postmodern approach to philosophy of education is located in the challenge that faces South African education after the delegitimization of the Fundamental Pedagogics approach of the apartheid era.

Philosophy of education in South Africa: A Re-vision"

In this article an attempt is made to provide a re-vision of philosophy of education that will redress the legacy of the past in South Africa, and contribute to laying the foundations of a critical civil society with a culture of tolerance, public debate and accommodation of differences and competing interests. This re-vision of philosophy of education, which finds its roots in developments in philosophy in the twentieth century, and especially in the discourse of postmodernism, directs attention to a pluralistic problem-centred approach to philosophy of education.

Indigeneity and Global Citizenship Education: A Critical Epistemological Reflection

The epistemic theory behind indigenous forms of knowledge understands the production of knowledge as being initiated by the local as opposed to the universal. This emphasis, however, on knowledge production as being concerned with local knowledge immediately raises the question of how we should understand the local? What, to put it differently, makes certain knowledge local, as opposed to knowledge which can be considered to be universal? And perhaps of greater import, what is the relationship between local knowledge, and knowledge that is considered to be universal? Can both forms of knowledge be considered to be valid? These questions are of import, not only for determining the significance of indigenous forms of knowledge in knowledge production, but also, need to be considered in framing the epistemological and curriculum concerns of citizenship education. In proceeding I will argue for a (global) citizenship education agenda that is ‘relevant’ and culturally responsible by first presenting two responses that have been given to these questions in the context of epistemological theory. The first is the response that argues for the universal construction of knowledge. The second is the response that argues for the social construction of knowledge in which the universal is understood as a social construction. I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of both these positions and argue that in relation to the universal and social construction of knowledge the ‘local’ might well be under threat. Against this background I will then present a third response that legitimates local knowledge, and which is taken from Bruno Latour and his work on the extension of local practices. In conclusion, I will consider the import of Latour’s work for indigenous forms of knowledge in the production of knowledge, and what this means for a ‘relevant’ and responsible a (global) citizenship education agenda.

Teaching African Philosophy and a Postmodern Dis - Position

The teaching of African philosophy has drawn much attention by way of critical reflection and commentary. In this chapter, Higgs claims that the teaching of African philosophy should be opposed to that formulation of knowledge espoused by modern Western/European thought where rationality is closely connected to knowledge. Higgs further argues that the teaching of African philosophy should take cognisance of an African knowledge culture that does not only include the idea of what I refer to as “plural conversations in an inter-African context,” but also includes a cross-cultural epistemic which facilitates cross-cultural dialogue and understanding. In the light of this, the chapter proposes an orientation to the teaching of African philosophy that has cultural relevance insofar as it is mounted on concepts peculiar to an inter-African context, as well as in the larger context of a continuing cross-cultural dialogue. Such an orientation to the teaching of African philosophy acknowledges the necessity to develop the ability to grasp the fundamentals of indigenous African cultures and other cultures by way of adopting and living out what I call a postmodern dis-position.