Designing and Implementing a Course on African Philosophy of Education: Cultivating Cosmopolitan Justice

Abstract

We were asked to initiate our institution’s first ever massive open online course (MOOC). After several discussions, we agreed that African philosophy of education, more specifically, ‘Teaching for Change: An African Philosophical Perspective’ would be an appropriate MOOC to begin with, considering that Teaching for Change would be the first of its kind on African philosophy of education. Already, the idea of an African philosophy of education is considered problematic as it is erroneously and unjustifiably assumed that African traditions and cultures cannot be associated with a discourse as demanding and rigorous as philosophy of education. On the contrary, this is not our view, as every community or all communities for that matter have a philosophy and educational experience to share. African philosophy of education is thus a term we consider significant for relating a story on Africans’ ways of thinking, being and doing. In other words, an African philosophy of education accentuates the traditions, ideologies, cultures and narratives associated with diverse peoples on the African continent, and a philosophy of education from Africa would not be unrealistic at all.