Transforming epistemologies in the postcolonial African university? The challenge of the politics of knowledge

Amasa Philip Ndofirepi,Michael Cross

doi:10.11591/edulearn.v8i4.119

Abstract

The process of knowledge production, dissemination and consumption has captured much scholarly attention from a political viewpoint in recent times. Discourses on development, empowerment, transformation and democracy have revolved around knowledge and power and more precisely on the politics of knowledge. Institutions of higher learning, especially universities, globally, as nerve centres of knowledge production and distribution, have not been spared from the challenges of the politics of knowledge. In this conceptual paper, we theorise the dynamics of the challenges and opportunities of the politics of knowledge in the context of the postcolonial African university’s endeavour to transform epistemologies in higher education in the 21st century Africa. Our case is premised on three claims, namely that 1) the production and mediation of knowledge is a genuinely political process(Weiler, 2011b) 2) universities can be considered among the most political institutions in society (Ordorika, 1999) and 3) recontextualisation and transformation of university epistemologies (Weiler, 2011a) is a prerequisite for an authentic postcolonial African university.

Highlights

Social transformation sits at the extreme end of conceptions of social change with universities frequently deemed as key institutions in the processes of social change and development (Brennan, King, & Lebeau, 2004)
Some paradigms are so dominant to a point where they are unthinkingly acknowledged as true, until a "scientific revolution" creates a new paradigm of new knowledge. This draws us to the question whose knowledge matters (Weiler, 2011b) given the “contesting discourses in higher education curriculum restructuring” (Ensor, 2004, p. 339).We argue from the classical epistemological approach where “the creation of knowledge is a process of qualitative refinement and quantitative accumulation
We question when the African university epistemologies will be crafted by African scholars with a clear African outlook come into existence? We argue below that there is need for epistemological transformation in the universities in Africa as an anticolonial framework to liberate the social practices of unequal power relations emanating from colonialism and its aftermath

Summary

Introduction

Social transformation sits at the extreme end of conceptions of social change with universities frequently deemed as key institutions in the processes of social change and development (Brennan, King, & Lebeau, 2004). We engage with the notion of the politics of knowledge in the process (es) of transforming epistemologies in postcolonial African universities. The current status quo in the African university in terms of what is researched, taught and used as valuable knowledges is marked by a sharp binary between those in control of the discourse and those who resist it This debate quizzes the interplay between those who control knowledge production on the one hand, and those who resist the control of epistemologies in the African university, on the other. The paper starts by conceptualising the notions of transformation and epistemology before debating the dynamics of the relationship between knowledge, power and politics. We wind the debate by exploring the different alternatives for the transformation of epistemologies in the university in Africa and the challenges therein

Epistemology as the nature of knowledge

Concluding remarks