Development Of Education In Africa Research Articles

The Changing Face of Colonial Education in Africa by Peter Kallaway

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...

The Challenges and Prospects of Science Education Development in Africa

In spite of the numerous groundbreaking innovations and inventions that science education can achieve in Africa, its growth in the continent is stunted. This retardation in development is as a result of fundamental problems which are discussed in the paper under the following headings: Insecurity, corruption, Unavailability of Laboratory Equipment and Instructional materials, Inadequate Funds, Inadequate Teacher Quality and Teaching Method, Difficult concepts in science. The paper highlights the challenges crippling the development of science education and the prospects its growth will have in the growth of Africa as a continent. Also, this paper focuses on the challenges plaguing science education in African Countries. It intends to reveal how science education is being prevented from becoming prominent in the national and sustainable development of African countries. It also discusses the prospects science education will have in the development of the continent if it was not plagued with difficulties. Some recommendations were made on the steps to take to improve the development of science education in Africa. Received: 2 May 2021 / Accepted: 15 June 2021 / Published: 8 July 2021

Publishing in Africa

This is the second instalment of a two-part article. Part 1 of this article appeared in Logos, 30 (3). Part 2 sets out a number of suggestions to strengthen the book industries in Africa, and the way forward, especially on capacity- and skills-building; training for book industry personnel; strengthening book professional associations, South–South linkages, and knowledge-sharing; encouraging international collaboration; the need for ongoing research and documentation; African books in the global marketplace; and the important but still neglected area of publishing in African indigenous languages. An Appendix provides a summary of the International Publishers Association (IPA) and Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) meetings on the African book industry, held in Nairobi in June 2019, together with links to a number of articles, reports, and press statements about the meetings.

Education and Politics in Africa

The article is devoted to the characterization of the models and the stages of formation of education systems in African countries and of their current status. The aim of the work was to analyze the impact of various factors on the development of education in Africa. In particular, the impact of military conflicts and the activities of terrorist organizations on the field of education were investigated. It also analyzes the increasing role of the world community in the development of education in African countries in recent decades. The main examples are the aspects of the activities of the terrorist organization Boko Haram, aimed at destabilizing and directly destroying the education system of Nigeria, and the impact of the Mali conflict of 2012-2013 on education. The activities of Boko Haram are widely covered in the scientific literature, but the article focuses on its aspects that are connected precisely with the negative impact on the educational system in Nigeria. The work broadens the perception of the challenges currently facing educational systems in Africa.

The Focus of Educational Development in Africa Since the Addis-Ababa Conference of 1961 and Tanananrive of 1962

The focus of educational development in Africa since the Addisa-Ababa Conference of 1961. In the wake of political independence of many African countries, delegates of thirty-nine (39) African states and five European colonial powers (Belgium, France, Portugul, Spain and United Kingdom) decided to meet in Ethiopia to discuss, the way forward in terms of education in Africa. This brought about the turning point in the development of education in the continent. This meeting gave an important meaning and a formal expression to the educational consciousness that had been after the Second World War. This was the first time that the problem of education was tabled and discussed essentially by Africans at the continental level. This conference became important because of the targets that were set, and for so many years it became the yardsticks for measuring the achievement (in quantitative terms) of educational development in Africa countries both the long and the short terms of Ashby Commission targets – upto 1970. This paper therefore made recommendations, looked at the dysfunctionality of some areas and suggested solutions. Keywords: Educational Development, Addis Ababa, Tanananrive, Ashby Commission. DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-3-16

「授業研究」の研究視角 ―アフリカ教育開発の文脈において―

「授業研究」の研究視角 ―アフリカ教育開発の文脈において―

China in the Center: What Will It Mean for Global Education?

This paper begins by reflecting on the significance of the 16th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies which was held at Beijing Normal University (BNU) in August 2016. Part I focuses on China’s experience in educational development since the late 1970s, and the support provided by organizations such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the World Bank, which facilitated the rapid restoration of China’s universities after the Cultural Revolution and supported a dramatic social and economic transformation. Part II goes on to profile China’s rich educational civilization and suggests that the normal university is uniquely suited to bringing that to a wider world. Part III overviews China’s programs of support for educational development in Africa and Southeast Asia, and suggests that these embody forms of dialogue and reciprocity that have the potential to open up refreshingly new approaches to educational thought and practice in the global arena.

Educational Development in Africa: Prospects and Challenges of Teaching/Learning History in Nigeria

<p><em>The paper discusses the challenges facing history teaching in Nigeria. The scope of the study is limited to private/public schools in Oyo State, Nigeria. The study starts by tracing the problem from the advent of missionaries to Nigeria in which their purpose of establishing mission schools was not to teach African history but to evangelize and to produce middlemen who will act as junior officers. The findings show that history as a subject was in the curriculum of both junior and senior secondary school. However, it was removed from junior secondary school curriculum and remained only in senior secondary school curriculum. Though only few senior secondary schools in Oyo State teach history subject due to lack of adequate knowledge by students in learning African history. Also, due to the reviewed policy, history teachers and textbooks are inadequate. Thus, in this present dispensation in Nigeria, African history education is facing challenges in terms of teaching and learning, apparently on the verge of extinction. The paper concludes by stating the methods of teaching history, prospects and challenges attached to it.</em></p>

Coloniality of knowledge, hybridisation, and indigenous survival: exploring transnational higher education development in Africa from the 1920s to the 1960s

This historical multi-case study uses the concepts of coloniality of knowledge, critical hybridity, and indigeneity in examining higher education development in Africa through the efforts of Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, two educational reformers and former international students in the USA. We develop a framework for examining how transnational interactions between the Global North and the Global South shape higher education development. Implications are presented for the importance of flexible theoretical understandings of transnational higher education interactions as well as higher education practices in international student and scholar exchange and other transnational higher education engagement.

A Philosophical Analysis of Emergent Issues in Art, Religion and Culture for Educational Development in Africa

A Philosophical Analysis of Emergent Issues in Art, Religion and Culture for Educational Development in Africa

Phenomenon in the History of Development of Education in Africa:
 Schools of the Kingdom of the Сongo (XV–XVI)

The article is devoted to the most interesting phenomenon in the history of the development of European education in Tropical Africa - the schools of the Kingdom of the Congo, the appearance and dissemination of which dates back to the end of the XV - the beginning of the XVI centuries. The role of the prominent Congolese monarch, Alfonso I, is shown in the Christianization of the kingdom, the spread of European education and the struggle against slavers.

A case for private sector participation in higher education development in Africa with specific reference to recovery in a globalized economy

This paper notes that while globalization is presenting opportunities for economic growth and development, it is also presenting constraints against the same. Subsequently, the authors argue, there is need to develop (through higher education) the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to harness the opportunities globalization is offering whilst avoiding the challenges that it is posing. However, in Africa, the reach and effectiveness of the public education system are limited in various ways. Therefore, the authors recommend increased involvement of the private sector in the higher education sector as a panacea for dealing with some of the gaps in public higher education. Keywords: Privatization, Globalization, Economic recovery

Water, water everywhere.: new perspectives towards theory development for rural education research in (South) Africa

The scarcity of rural education research in South Africa parallels the relative absence of theory development emerging from the developing world. Education research is influenced by the paradigms in which it is located and draws from established (and Western) theories of psycho-social, geo-spatial, economic, and political development (Moletsane 2012, 2). The questions posed by such theories (whether post-colonial, critical, gender or geo-spatial) require responses from developing societies measured mostly in contrast to ideals established or validated elsewhere. While Northern hemisphere theorists may be describing the implications (theoretical economic, education, or geographic) of globalisation, the agenda for the developing East, and especially Africa, is influenced by a geo-spatial context which remains rural. If the environment, as noted by Stromquist (2002, 158), remains a major concern globally, it is seldom acknowledged as a factor in higher education research with reference to a focus on education development in Africa. This article contends that suitable theory can be developed to pose questions concerning the efficacy of education in Africa concerning rurality and education research.

Koranic Education Centres: A viable educational alternative for the disadvantaged learner in Sahel Africa?

Within the international momentum for achieving Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), many African countries have made considerable progress during the last decade in terms of access to basic education. However, a significant number of children enrolled in the early grades of primary schools either repeat classes or drop out and never graduate. Moreover, there are currently about 30 million school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa who have never attended any form of schooling. In view of this situation, sub-Saharan African countries have been looking for alternative options to educate those who have not been accounted for in the formal school system. This note considers informal Koranic Education Centres (KECs) which are trying to fill the gap of schooling in the Sahel-Saharan strip. The author looks at the challenges this form of schooling faces and at how to meet them efficiently. He sounds out the possibility of using KECs to cater for those who have been left aside by formal schooling. Based on existing studies, data compiled by educational systems and a study conducted by the Working Group on Non-Formal Education (WGNFE) of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) in four West African countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal) in 2013, the author of this research note came to the conclusion that a holistic approach, where the two systems (the Koranic and the formal) collaborate and support one another, could effectively contribute to alleviating the dropout predicament and to reducing the number of unschooled children. It could offer a second-chance opportunity to dropout and unschooled children in the Sahel and Saharan zone. However, before this can become a viable alternative, a number of major challenges need to be addressed. Through its WGNFE, ADEA intends to further investigate the holistic approach of combining formal “modern” and informal “Koranic” schooling to come up with tangible recommendations.

Partnerships in Africa in the New Era of Internationalization

African universities have a range of cooperative arrangements with academic organizations and governments in many countries. This article discusses the various linkages that have contributed to higher education development in Africa.

Education as a Spiritual Journey: The Hidden Story behind the Evolution and Growth of Starehe Boys Centre and School, Kenya

In the last few decades we have witnessed a surge in western scholarship in areas of spirituality and education and the unabated debates pertaining to the same. The theoretical and dogmatic wars of whether to teach or not teach “creation theory” or “evolution theory” in the West especially US has been part of these unrelenting debates. Proponents of the need to make the education process spirit-centered underscore that “we are in a spiritual renaissance” or “global awakening” and many people globally are increasingly embracing sacredness and interconnectedness of life. Although the global West has witnessed the dubious dichotomy between spirituality and educational both in terms of theory and praxis, the global South and Africa in particular both its pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods has eschewed this ambivalence and synergy between education and spirituality and all research indicators attest the high reverence that has been given to spirituality within the education enterprise in both public and private schools. An African approach to all spheres of life has been spiritual and affirmation of Mbiti (1969) description of an African society as being “notoriously religious”. African deep and virile religiosity was one of the few spheres of African societies that was resilient to the forces of the new order that came with the introduction of Western education and Christianity. It is this religious re-conceptualization that has made both Christianity and Islam to grow beyond measure on the African continent for centuries compared to the global West. / The story of the role of missionaries in the development of education in Africa and its efforts to make education a religious undertaking, its contradictions and mixed effects is well documented and researched and is a subject I will not delve into in this paper. What is absent in the literature however, is the embrace of the same by many private schools that were begun by individuals and not churches in post-independence Africa. This paper sets to discuss the latter by critically examining the hidden story behind the evolution and growth of Starehe Boys Centre and School in Kenya and the centrality of spirituality in its unique evolution, mission and rapid development. Specifically, it examines: growing literature on spirituality and education; the evolution and role of spirituality in the growth of Starehe Boys and Centre and School and emerging reflective educational possibilities. / /

SPIAS: Evolutionary approach for Space Science Education Development in Africa

Most students in learning institutions in Africa have little or no knowledge or education on space sciences and technology. On the other hand strong space science researches are hindered due to a lot of factors such as insufficient funding and lessened political will. Only few educational institutions in Africa are solely involved in projects related to satellite activity that will widen the horizon or ignite students' interest on space sciences from scratch. There are no strong facilities in these endeavours in most of the countriessecondary or tertiary institution. This is really a setback and a clear indication of backwardness in space education in the school system. Space Science Project Initiative for African Schools (SPIAS) is a good strategy for the development of space education from the scratch in countries that are lagging behind in space Education.

Building capacity: challenges and opportunities in large class pedagogy (LCP) in Sub-Saharan Africa

Over the past 20 years most countries, particularly developing countries, have seen a large increase in the number of students seeking higher education. A consequence of this growth is increasing pressure on teaching staff and institutions, usually resulting in, among other effects, increased class size. Large classes of between 300 and 1,000, and even more, at the undergraduate level are not uncommon in a number of countries (Mulryan-Kyne in Teach High Educ 15(2):175-185, 2010). Large classes are often per- ceived as one of the major obstacles to the attainment of quality education. Despite the difficulties associated with teaching and learning in large classes, they remain a reality in many countries affecting learners across all levels of the education system and are often the only perceived option available to meet growing demand for higher education in Sub- Saharan Africa (Mohamedbhai in The effects of massification on higher education in Africa. Report from the Working Group on Higher Education of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, 2008). We contend that the challenges of delivering large classes can be confronted, and in many ways diminished, through the use of current and emerging technologies and enhanced faculty development. In this expository paper, we present findings from project activities focused on higher education faculty development and capacity building. The findings include both formative and summative development activities, as well as data collected in faculty professional development workshops and the results of two surveys. We use these data to lay out issues, challenges (e.g., skills, resources, logistics—including poor campus infrastructure), and opportunities (e.g., mobile capacity, distance tools such as Moodle) of large class pedagogy using a design-based research framework.

Half a Century of Education Progress in Sub-Saharan Africa (1960-2010)

Abstract In general, independence marks the end of education provision oriented to the needs of colonial countries and the start of a more inclusive education system tailored to native traditions and needs. This article presents a retrospective overview of the development of education in Africa since 1960, when a large number of countries attained political independence. It describes the existing educational systems which were mainly inherited from the colonial period and discusses developments in education provision (expansion of enrolment capacities and levels of education), access, retention and completion in relation to factors such as teacher supply and with attention to gender. In light of the trends that emerge from this overview, the article further identifies the gaps and challenges to be addressed in order to make universal access to a good quality education a reality. The empirical contribution of this study is based on national data collected since the 1960s by UNESCO, especially its Institute for Statistics. This annual series of national data allows comparability of education access/participation, completion, quality and outcomes indicators over time.

Uncommon Knowledge: World Bank Policy and the Unmaking of the Knowledge Economy in Africa

The World Bank is clearly one of the most influential global intergovernmental operators for international development assistance. In recent decades, the Bank and other agencies have invested immense technical and financial resources in a troubled and unprecedented mission of revitalizing and restructuring the development of education in Africa. A growing body of critique has emerged that articulates the failures of the revitalization mission, framing these exchange relationships as representing nothing but new patterns of embedded neocolonialism, dependency, and geopolitical asymmetry. The aim of this paper is to contribute to and disrupt these unfolding debates by examining how a set of theoretical paradigms have shaped the World Bank's priorities and approaches to education and development policy in developing countries at different times. The paper argues that the Bank embraced the neoliberal economic ideology and a narrowly defined interpretation of the ‘rates of return’ calculations to promote higher investment in basic education while systematically marginalizing higher education. The paper asserts that this polarized policy paradigm persisted within the Bank at least until the 1990s and has partly fuelled the preponderance of the critiques of neo-colonial dependency and hegemony. This paper opens a new analytic territory by examining the coordinates of two recent and increasingly significant World Bank policy paradigms: the ‘innovation systems’ and ‘global partnership’ approaches.