Repositioning African Philosophy of Higher Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This chapter critically examines African philosophy of higher education as understood in post-apartheid South Africa. With this approach in mind, it traces African philosophy of higher education in post-apartheid South Africa in four phases. The first phase shows how the unity of a single philosophy as a basis in our understanding of African philosophy of higher education transcends the seemingly particular, opposite and irreconcilable general outlook of the world, on the one hand, and science of questioning, on the other. The second phase revisits the generic and distinctive accounts of the role of higher education in post-apartheid South Africa – dual roles of the university. The third phase repositions African philosophy of higher education in post-apartheid South Africa on three different but similar planes. These are clarification of the meaning of African philosophy itself; ceasing to perceive the broad perspective of the world and the ‘science of questioning’ usages of African philosophy in higher education as opposing ends of a single style of inquiry; and preserving the universality of African philosophy of higher education as a single inquiry that guides the general outlook in schools of education. To achieve this end, the task awaiting African philosophers of higher education in schools of education is to strive for independent critical thought, reorient the discourse that has ‘frustrated’ professional philosophers and ‘neglected’ by general philosophers and advance scholarly knowledge in higher education in post-apartheid South Africa.