The Changing Face of Colonial Education in Africa by Peter Kallaway

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Changing Face of Colonial Education in Africa by Peter Kallaway Tiana Nowzari The Changing Face of Colonial Education in Africa. By Peter Kallaway. New York: Routledge, 2020. Peter Kallaway is a South African professor emeritus at the University of the Western Cape. He has published several works on education and society in Africa within a colonial context. His new book provides an extensive analysis of the authority figures that held power over policymaking and which knowledge prioritized over others. The Changing Face of Colonial Education in Africa offers a comprehensive and nuanced examination of colonial history in South Africa and its influences on educational policies during the last phase and formal end of colonialism. Although the research focuses on a South African context, the author applies the narrative to the general context of African history to illustrate infrequently explored topics of development and education in Africa. The research explains the process and evolution of educational reforms that have aimed to change perceived social and educational problems. More importantly, it describes the intent to reform African culture and way of life through a Eurocentric lens. This book provides extensive knowledge of colonial education in Africa and touches on sociological concepts of colonialism and postcolonialism. The author delivers a compelling description of African history based on scientific research and development. This book contributes to sociological research, particularly to colonial and postcolonial theories. These theories can be applied throughout the author's research as it underlines the main social and educational influences throughout the development of education in Africa. At the beginning of the book, Kallaway offers a broad social background of Western capitalist and imperialist goals that ultimately had an impact on the decisions made within policymaking in education. International organisations, such as the International Missionary Council, helped configure the initial objective of "civilising the natives" by westernising them. Based on Eurocentric ideologies, the aim was to assimilate South Africans into a Christian society. The main principle sought to create Christian Africans at school who could implement Christian values in everyday life. The book considers the socialisation process within schools through colonialism and displays the relevance of using education as an agent for social change. It further exhibits how education acted as a tool to propagate colonial discourses throughout other civilizations. African knowledge and customs were undervalued compared to the inclusion of Eurocentric and, primarily, white-led strategies. Kallaway's work thus offers a demonstration of how education served to shape a society influenced by Western culture. Kallaway's work provides historical examples that are important when compared to other sociological research and knowledge. He compares policymaking to other international events of assimilation and colonialism, such as Indian and African-American educational reform, that sought to create an emerging culture contingent on Christian values in South Africa. In other words, his book offers an insight into general colonial theories and practices that are a grander narrative of colonial and Eurocentric discourses imitated across continents that aimed to colonise societies. Policymakers used pre-existing knowledge and experiences from international and historical examples that designed the approach to sketching educational policies. His work issues a comprehensible conception of the social changes that would ultimately influence the developing goals and policies in education. The author produces an in-depth insight into the underlying problems stemming from the gap between education and greater African society. From a Eurocentric lens, educational policies excluded African culture and traditions. However, this book sheds light on the advocacy for the inclusion of African values and customs in the decision-making process of policy implementation. The removal of culture and tradition in education emphasised the separation of Africans from their Indigenous lifestyles and knowledge. It also fuelled the advocacy for the reclamation of culture with the argument that it would promote the reintegration of Africans into changing societies. The mission developed through the emergence and contribution of scientific research-based methodology. The importance of scientific methodology in policy development demonstrates a continuously changing phenomenon needing to evolve to produce promising results. It introduced a new way to assess policymaking and reconstructed methods that create academic institutions. Kallaway writes about a chronological timeline of the methodology that narrated South...