African Education Research Articles

Global South in pursuance of the Global North: case of rural South African education and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Nations in the global South tend to embrace ideas, practices, and trends from the global North as the standard. This is in many instances at the expense of their suitability in the current situation and environment of the global South. For instance, issues revolving around the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a typical example. In recent times, the adjustments in the education and other sectors in the Global North to accommodate practices of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are beginning to flood the Global South where many basic and necessary infrastructures are lacking. Issues such as curricular review are being raised and considered, while conferences, workshops, seminars, amongst others are being organized to ensure that learning institutions are positioned to suit the demand of Fourth Industrial Revolution. For instance, coding is fast becoming a major subject to be considered even from primary schools, though not necessarily meeting the local demands.

Freirean Utopian Didactic: A Retrospective View of Education in the South African Education Environment

This study investigates how the utopian didactic in education can be achieved in South Africa. It is foregrounded by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s collective and forward-looking dreams about what education, in the shattered sense of the “now”, can look like if teachers and students participate democratically in the learning process. Education, in a general sense, is a form of learning in which knowledge, skills and habits are transferred and nurtured from one generation to the next. But, in the Freirean utopian didactic, education involves so much more than the mere transfer of knowledge. It is about transformation, both internal (the individual) and external (society). By allowing students to critically reflect and engage in honest dialogue with their teacher, education can lead to social injustices being challenged and, hence, being overcome. Freire’s utopian vision of education is one in which hope and imagination are celebrated in the quest for a better world. This vision is sorely lacking in South African educational environment today, which is still bruised by decades of inequality. Using a literature review, this conceptual article explored whether a Freirean utopian didactic can be applied to the current education system in South Africa and bring about the much-needed transformation. We have examined whether a utopian education can be considered a basic right in South Africa, according to the Constitution, and whether it can be applied more broadly to the African continent. For education to meet the needs of all learners in the education system, a utopian education system based on quality educational skills, values and equal distribution of resources is highly recommended.

Policy Reform in a Colonial Setting: A Historical Discourse Analysis of George Stark’s Advocacy for Technical-Vocational Education

Colonial education is often criticized for being conservative, static, oppressive, and irrelevant to the needs and interests of the colonized people. This theoretical paper, however, disrupts the established narrative of condemnation by challenging scholars of curriculum reform to take a fresh look at colonial education policy. This study teases George Stark’s policy of technical-vocational education for Africans by employing critical policy historiography as the theoretical framework and historical discourse analysis as its methodology. Two questions drive this theoretical paper: What were the central tenets of George Stark’s curriculum reform policy in Rhodesia, and what lessons can be drawn from this policy to inform contemporary education reform in Zimbabwean secondary schools? From the research findings, it cannot be disputed that Stark’s reform policy for African education in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was fervently racist and discriminatory, as it was framed within the overarching scope of white hegemony. But his advocacy for a practical technical-vocational curriculum for Africans seems pragmatic, visionary, and prophetic. These findings become more compelling when considering the current clarion call for worldwide technical-vocational education. As if policy planners are scavenging nuggets from Stark’s widely condemned colonial script, the Zimbabwe government is currently piloting a reform initiative to transform secondary education from an academic to a practical-oriented curriculum. In light of these findings, it appears there are several lessons to be drawn from Stark’s colonial policy for technical-vocational education to inform current curriculum reform and practice in Zimbabwe and globally. Keywords: Curriculum reform, colonial education, critical policy historiography, historical discourse analysis, technical-vocational education

Relational Supervision: Jegnaship And Eldering As Emancipatory Pedagogy For Black Teacher Supervision

The case delves into the historical and cultural roots of African education, emphasizing the vital role of elders and community in the learning process. It examines the impact of African educational philosophies, particularly from the Nile and Niger river valleys, on the development of character, humanness, and spirituality. The case explores the adaptation of these philosophies by African people during the Middle Passage and their application in Western contexts for the supervision of African American teachers. By interweaving culture, history, education, and storytelling, the authors aim to highlight the unique contributions of African American educational experiences. They argue that these experiences provide valuable strategies for the liberation struggle and the transformation of Black teacher development. The case also explores contemporary issues in the teaching profession, such as the limited presence of African American educators, pedagogical negligence, and professional marginalization, proposing culturally-centered tools for community preservation and well-being. The central theme is the importance of relational supervision rooted in African and African American cultural knowledge, which is seen as key to nurturing Black novice teachers and fostering their professional development.

Language and Education in Africa: A fresh approach to the debates on language, education, and cultural identity

Language and Education in Africa is a 244-page monograph comprehensively dealing with the topic. It comes at a critical juncture of the debates on African languages in education. Over this decade, the theme has become topical and the book reinforces earlier appeals to develop African education in the medium of languages of Africa and to thus reclaim African cultural identity. A continuing burden of Africa is the diglossic system, characterized by the dominance of former colonial languages in all formal domains. The book starts with a short discussion of Adichie’s novel Americanah. The novel has been translated into many languages but is unavailable in Igbo, the mother tongue of the author. This is identified as a specific ‘African absurdity’. Adichie’s views on the issue are discussed; they all point to the complicated relationship between cultural identity, language and education. This leads to the book’s three central questions: Why African languages are not used in education?, what are the possibilities for rational language and education policies? and how can large-scale cultural differences and similarities in Africa be described?

Salvaging the Educational System through Effective Leadership: A Case Study of Rural Secondary Schools in South Africa

The South African education system is currently experiencing various challenges such as school violence, drug abuse, vandalism and burning of school properties. Educationists, administrators, policy custodians and leaders of institutions are in a dilemma regarding effective managerial leadership of their organizations. This article discussed appropriate measures that institutional leaders must develop to ensure an open space for other community leaders to actively participate in the running of institutions. The rationale behind this paper was to come up with solutions that would help school leaders to lead and manage schools effectively and efficiently. A phenomenological study was conducted with an interpretive-constructivism approach in schools to establish the capabilities and competencies of school principals regarding the incorporation of other community leaders in their schools. Data was collected through face-to-face in-depth individual interviews with the School Governing Bodies (SGB) chairpersons, SMT members, LRC representing learners in the SGB, community leaders, religious leaders, and business leaders. Data was thematically analyzed and it revealed that: Principals have failed to open up space for community leaders to participate in school matters; Education leaders lack the competencies and capacities to share leadership with other community leaders. The study thus advocates firstly, for school principals through SGBs to accommodate Community Resource Centres (CRCs). Secondly, highly esteemed leaders from various community stakeholders should be involved in prominent school decision-making processes and problem-solving practices. Thirdly, training workshops should be conducted to help school leaders develop necessary leadership skills and to map out strategies to effectively involve community leaders in school matters. Fourthly, the institutional leaders must organize training workshops for both school and community leaders on how to work collaboratively and peacefully for effective school management. This article adds to the existing literature on enhancing the South African Educational System. Keywords: School Principals, Communal Support, Shared Competencies, Teacher Capability and Effective Leadership.

African higher education institutions catching up: The potential of 4IR in closing the digital deficits

The new digital cultures brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) are forcing universities to transform their practices as they prepare students for a future that will magnify the use of digital tools. Throughout the world, institutions of higher learning are gearing to maximise the benefits that could be gained from the 4IR. The concept, engaged university, ensures that the uniiversities will not leave the communities around them behind as they prepare for the future, for universities will play a huge role in contributing to the progress in societies. This conceptual article examines the opportunities of 4IR in African institutions of higher learning. The 4IR has potential to solve many of the ills in Africa, for the African societies still suffer ill health, poverty and illiteracy. The promise of the 4IR brings hope of minimising these ills as Africa moves towards advancement. Furthermore, there has been much balkanisation in African education hence some believe that the 4IR can create links between institutions within states and the entire African continent. Not only will new technologies transform research, scholarship and teaching, but these would also have impact on bringing forth new epistemologies although there is still a battle for more resources. The major challenge for 4IR in Africa will be to create links between new technological cultures and African cultures; universities are well-placed to face such challenges.

‘Technology is not created by the sky’: datafication and educator unease

ABSTRACT The pressure towards digital education is felt everywhere including in places with extreme digital divides. Resource-constrained educational environments are particularly threatened by datification manifest in the dominant business models of surveillance capitalism as there is less room in such contexts to refuse the ‘free’ offerings from big tech companies; it is these very contexts which are most vulnerable. Yet educators within such environments are not mere pawns of circumstance. While the realities of their structural constraints may be invisible or obfuscated, educators are driven by their own ‘concerns’, which in this case pertain to the needs of diverse students in very challenging circumstances as well as to their personal aversion to being monitored. This paper reports on findings from focus groups in a mixture of institutionsin South African education. Archer’s theoretical framework provides a lens to show how, despite very little choice, educators critically reflect on their circumstances expressing discomfort and unease.

Technology-Enhanced Learning, Data Sharing, and Machine Learning Challenges in South African Education

The objective of this paper was to scope the challenges associated with data-sharing governance for machine learning applications in education research (MLER) within the South African context. Machine learning applications have the potential to assist student success and identify areas where students require additional support. However, the implementation of these applications depends on the availability of quality data. This paper highlights the challenges in data-sharing policies across institutions and organisations that make it difficult to standardise data-sharing practices for MLER. This poses a challenge for South African researchers in the MLER space who wish to advance and innovate. The paper proposes viewpoints that policymakers must consider to overcome these challenges of data-sharing practices, ultimately allowing South African researchers to leverage the benefits of machine learning applications in education effectively. By addressing these challenges, South African institutions and organisations can improve educational outcomes and work toward the goal of inclusive and equitable education.

Assessment of Transformational and Autocratic Leadership on employee engagement in the South African Education Sector

Assessment of Transformational and Autocratic Leadership on employee engagement in the South African Education Sector

Student Teachers’ Experiences of Open Distance e-Learning Support in a Posthuman Era: A Learner Engagement Perspective

Online learning uses information and communication technologies which rely on reliable connectivity. While this is a giant step to widen access in South African education as shown by a number of studies conducted already regarding online learning, less focus has been paid on rural students which are under-resourced. They are presumed to have access and support to online learning and assistive ICTs that make online learning possible. Therefore, the focus for this study was on KwaZulu-Natal rural student teachers’ experiences of open distance e-learning in a posthuman era. The study focused on students’ experiences regarding online support tools like discussion forum and others as tools for student engagement and support on myUnisa platform. The problem was investigated using a descriptive qualitative case study, which used individual interviews. The study involved fifteen UNISA student teachers from KZN and the findings revealed that, notwithstanding the countless challenges, students were very passionate about the use of online learning in open distance e-learning and they showed a desire to engage more using different types of devices and platforms as they learn through social media and also showed that learning resides in technological appliances they use(posthumanism), hence the study’s conclusion and implications stress that the distance between the student and the institution, student and lecturer and student and other students can be mediated and reduced through proper student support services such as provision of gadgets for internet connection, proper telecommunications infrastructure, ICT workshops and training for all students and in posthumanism terms, formal integration of social networks in learning in light of the finding that learning is non-linear and resides in technological devices used to connect students.

On the Educational Potential of Ubuntu

Abstract The literature on Ubuntu is as prolific, as it is diverse. Over the past two decades the increasing attention has been devoted to Ubuntu in relation to African education. In recognising the richness of attention, which has thus been afforded to Ubuntu, this article attempts to offer something else. I consider the concept of Ubuntu as an African notion for education, in the same way that some Europeans describe bildung as education, and ta’dib, for some Muslims, means education. Hence, in this article, I firstly analyse the concept Ubuntu. Secondly, I show how Ubuntu relates to at least three meanings of education, namely, interdependent human action, deliberative inquiry, and socially responsive action. Finally, I make an argument for Ubuntu as a cosmopolitan practice, thus further enhancing its educational impetus before concluding with the rationale for Ubuntu, namely a cultivation of dignity.

Bringing the Science of Learning and Development Into the South African Schools

Transforming the South African education system after decades of apartheid remains a dream for all. This chapter contributes on how this dream can be achieved. To this end, I raise two arguments. First, transformation will require young people to become adept at handling tensions and dilemmas. Second, I propose that the science of learning and development (SoLD) has a possibility to develop such competences. I begin with a look at the colonial education curricula in South Africa until the dawn of a democratic dispensation in 1994. This is followed by a critique of the post-1994 curriculum. In closing, I propose the SoLD model as an alternative to the classroom in South Africa as a route to equity and justice.

The Emergence of Semilingualism in South African schools – Are the Stipulations of the Language in Education Policy to Blame?

This paper reports one of the findings of a study that was conducted to determine strategies that can be used to promote the use of indigenous African languages as languages of teaching and learning in South African schools. The problem that I sought to address was the lack of or insufficient use of indigenous African languages for teaching and learning in the South African education system, despite these languages being constitutionally recognised as official languages in the country since 1994. The study was conducted against the background of existing research both locally and internationally, which highlights the negative effects of offering education in a language that is not the learner’s first language or mother tongue. It was conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, one of the nine provinces of the Republic of South Africa, in which isiZulu is the predominant indigenous African language. Participants included a random sample of educators from primary schools and high schools, a random sample of language and education specialists in institutions of higher learning found in the province, as well as a random sample of learners in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase. Questionnaires, an observation schedule, and focus group interviews were used to collect data for the study. As part of the literature review, language policies formulated after the adoption of the new constitution in 1994, in particular the Language-in-Education Policy (LiEP) of 1997, were reviewed to determine their contribution to the language provision dilemmas suffered by indigenous African languages in teaching and learning. This paper reports on one of the effects that language provisions made in the LiEP seem to have had, which manifests as a lack of competence in both the language of teaching and learning and in the home (native) language among most black learners, a condition that has been termed “semilingualism” by some scholars. The implications of this phenomenon for language in teaching and learning are also highlighted. The paper concludes by making suggestions for a need to revise the LiEP to help overcome this emergent problem and improve the use of indigenous African languages in teaching and learning.

Tambach, Economic Change and Keiyo Struggle for the School, 1902-1939

The establishment of African Government School, Tambach in 1927, epitomised Keiyo and Marakwet struggle for what they considered a valuable asset to their society. Missionary enterprise had neither converted the two communities to Christianity nor created a school for them, as was the case in other parts of Kenya. Responsibility fell on the Local Native Council (LNC), which had become operational in 1925. The LNC wanted a secular education geared towards literacy for the Keiyo and Marakwet as opposed to the government and missionary type of education which was technical oriented and evangelical. While missionaries viewed western education as a vehicle for spreading the gospel, the colonial state demanded that African education meet the needs of the Uasin Gishu settler labour market. Both, however, were desperately handicapped by lack of resources and each Keiyo adult and Marakwet had to contribute two shillings each in the form of taxes to construct Tambach School. The colonial government reluctantly facilitated the infrastructural and curriculum development as part of their control and domination strategy. This essay builds on „the struggle for school‟ paradigm elaborated by John Anderson that Africans in Kenya played a major role in the early development and control of schools in Kenya. But for a start, such a history cannot be complete without a brief narrative of colonial economic change and of Tambach enclave as a hill station that was scenic and exotic, situated at mountain range of the picturesque Elgeyo escarpment.

The development of a behavioural competency framework for school principals

Orientation: More than two and a half decades into South Africa’s democracy, the majority of the country’s learners receive low-quality school education, adversely affecting upward social mobility. Ensuring quality education for all South Africans requires a combined approach of equitable resource allocation and effective school leadership that transforms resources into educational outcomes.Research purpose: The objective of the study was to develop a behavioural competency framework for school principals.Motivation for the study: While past studies highlight school leadership and management to be pivotal in the establishment and maintenance of well-performing schools, less is known about the behavioural competencies required by school principals.Research approach and method: Guided by a synthesis of literature on school management, critical incident interviews were conducted with a sample of 10 school principals with good track records. The salience of the literature-derived competencies was established, and the content supplemented by contextualising the competencies with specific behavioural denotations from the interviews.Main findings: Eleven key competencies emerged from the data: creating a school vision and setting strategic direction, setting goals and expectations, developing school staff, influencing and communicating, resourcing strategically, leading with compassion, maintaining a student-centred learning environment, making decisions, managing self, managing teaching and learning, and leading across school boundaries.Managerial implications: The competencies identified provide a blueprint to guide human resource management interventions aimed at establishing effective school leadership.Contribution: The study provides a rich source of information about critical school principal behaviours, explored from an integrated perspective that acknowledges the school context.

Identifying the factors impacting the uptake of educational technology in South African schools: A systematic review

The South African education system is considered one of the most unequal in the world. Providing learners with quality education and equipping them with the digital skills required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is essential. To achieve this, plans are in place to incorporate educational technology in schools. However, it is important to understand the factors and conditions which have had the greatest impact on this process. This systematic review outlines 5 aspects that have been found to influence the use of educational technology in South African schools: access to technical resources; skills, training and competence; efficacy and efficiency beliefs; pedagogical compatibility; and a supportive leadership and management structure. Recommendations based on these findings are provided which can inform policy and practice.

The Significance of Hand Tool Skills in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Focus on the Construction Concept

The study investigated the significance of hand tool skills in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) era in teaching the construction concept in a civil Technology subject. The construction concept is one of the most practical concepts in civil Technology that is learnt in the Further Education and Training stream in the South African education curriculum. It deals with issues that cut across bricklaying and plumbing among others. Purposive sampling was used to select six teachers to take part in the study. Classroom observation and semi-structured interviews were used as instruments for data collection. The Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework was used to support the study. Data were analysed descriptively for classroom observations and through verbatim quotes for interviews with teachers. The study's findings discovered that teachers lack knowledge and understanding of 4IR and that they fail to use instructional practices that prepare learners for the 4IR jobs because of a lack of support from school officials. Teachers also lack the essential technologies to prepare learners that would thrive in the 4IR workplaces; hence their instructional practices are still using hand tools in the construction concept, which is not significant to the current trends. The study recommends that the Department of Education needs to train teachers to be ready to prepare learners for the 4IR jobs within the construction sector.

Early literacy experiences of two children during Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa: A semi- ethnographic study

As the world came to grips with the coronavirus diseases (COVID-19), educational institutions and the society at large faced the challenge of figuring out how to continue with teaching and learning in such a context. Many countries, including South Africa made efforts to help contain and suppress the spread of Covid-19. In the South African education sector, about 13 million learners and 440 000 teachers were released before the end of the first school term in March 2020. In addition, 30 000 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, about 100 000 teachers were also required to end their term before the official closing date. For many young learners, the lockdown period meant that they would be at home with (a) Limited access to age appropriate, fun and explicitly educational resources to play with as many shops considered resources that could be used to develop children’s sensory skills as not essential goods (b) They had limited exposure to structured learning and play as most caregivers are not qualified ECD practitioners (c) Children could not play outside, visit playgrounds and parks, yet, freedom of movement, activity and exercise is important for every child’s development and young children learn best through play and experimenting (d) Most of their curriculum content cannot be fully taught using online platforms. Given this background, through a semi-ethnographic study, the paper documents the early literacy experiences of two 3 year old children during the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa. In addition, analysis of parents or caregivers’ feedback about their experiences in providing assistance to the young learners during the lockdown is presented. Findings of the study show that in both research contexts, literacy practices were different, but not lesser. Challenging as it was for the caregivers to support the development of literacy, the home environment provided many opportunities for learning.

:Studying While Black: Race, Education and Emancipation in South African Universities

:<i>Studying While Black: Race, Education and Emancipation in South African Universities</i>