Democratic Development and the Role of Citizenship Education in Sub-Saharan African with a Case Focus on Zambia

In addressing issues related to problems of democratisation in Africa, this paper attempts to relate the issue to the need for citizenship education and the role that can play in social development. Citizenship should be central to the formation of viable civil societies that claim a tangible stake in national public spaces in post-Cold War Africa. These and related topics are discussed relative to new possibilities that could lead to the full realisation of the concept as well as the practice of enfranchised citizenship and inclusive social development in aspiring democracies in the Sub Saharan African context. The complexity of the development ‘problematique’ that Sub-Saharan Africa is facing is unique in that it is multi-dimensional, but above all else, politically located. It is, therefore, central to our discussions here that to correct the continent’s current schemes of underdevelopment, pragmatic schemes of governance must be achieved. To do that, we are suggesting, new possibilities of citizenship education should be formulated for the general African scene in general, and for democratising but still both institutionally and economically weakened Zambia

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) : a cultural and educational tribute

The death of Chinua Achebe is an epochal event, for he was arguably the most forceful intellectual who deployed his writing as an important method, even ‘weapon’, to counter the cultural, educational and mental colonizations that have befallen upon the African people.peer-reviewe

Recentering the Philosophical Foundations of Knowledge: The Case of Africa With a Special Focus on the Global Role of Teachers

The historical and actual marginalizations of African thought systems and knowledge constructions have been expansively responsible for the effectiveness of the dominant educational and governance systems imposed on Africa. The idea as well as the practice of these realities would conform to what Said (1993), Fanon (1967, 1968), and Memmi (1991) have called the cultural and psychosocial colonizations of both the physical and mental spaces of the conquered. The reality also speaks about the role of Europe’s most important thinkers such as Kant, Hobbes, and Voltaire, who all directly or indirectly paved the way for the projects of “de-philosophization” and “de-epistemologization” that still affect people’s lives. With the emergence of new cosmopolitanisms now creating highly multicultured societies in especially the so-called liberal democracies of the West, new contexts have also emerged of what one might counterintuitively call the “multiculturalization of knowledge marginalizations.” Thus there is an urgent need to aim for knowledge and learning multicentricities that both theoretically and pragmatically rewrite the learning trajectories of both the old colonized space and the new, still alienating multicultural classrooms. This article engages the historical and actual problematizations of the case and suggests some ideas for better possibilities that could enhance the schooling lives of current globally located learners

Oral Societies and Colonial Experiences: Sub-Saharan Africa and the de-facto Power of the Written Word

Part of a special issue on international perspectives on education and decolonization. The writer examines the devaluing of oral traditions in Sub-Saharan Africa through the written word of various colonial powers

Presidential Address - Education and Social Development: Global Perspectives

It is generally assumed that education leads to the well-being of societies and individuals, with the type of education intended here, usually representing the general formal systems of schooling that have been globalized throughout the world in the past 120 or so years. Clearly, such education, which replaced informal forms of schooling via the expansion of European colonialism, is not achieving social development for all. In this paper, it is contended that such platforms of learning are historically, culturally and linguistically decontextualizing, in especially current postcolonial countries, and as such, are not fully conducive to social development. It is therefore, suggested that new educational platforms be philosophically and epistemologically reconstructed, so they pragmatically fit the lived realities of different populations across the globe. In making these and related propositions, the works of such pragmatic educational thinkers as John Dewey, Paulo Freire and Julius Nyerere are selectively analyzed and referenced. It is generally assumed that education leads to the well-being of societies and individuals, with the type of education intended here, usually representing the general formal systems of schooling that have been globalized throughout the world in the past 120 or so years. Clearly, such education, which replaced informal forms of schooling via the expansion of European colonialism, is not achieving social development for all. In this paper, it is contended that such platforms of learning are historically, culturally and linguistically decontextualizing, in especially current postcolonial countries, and as such, are not fully conducive to social development. It is therefore, suggested that new educational platforms be philosophically and epistemologically reconstructed, so they pragmatically fit the lived realities of different populations across the globe. In making these and related propositions, the works of such pragmatic educational thinkers as John Dewey, Paulo Freire and Julius Nyerere are selectively analyzed and referenced

Education and Zambia’s Democratic Development: Reconstituting “Something” From the Predatory Project of Neoliberal Globalization

Zambia, a central African country of about 10 million people, is currently exposed to the nonsubjective forces of globalization, including institutional weaknesses such as high unemployment rates and chronic levels of poverty that ipso facto problematize its governance and social development priorities. The first part of the article focuses on an overview of the failure of the formal educational systems in the context of neoliberal globalization. The second part constitutes an examination of ideological orientations underlying neoliberal approaches to the management of the new global economic order. Here the influence of the World Bank in the educational sector is highlighted. The Bank’s ideological orientation is contrasted with educational approaches that should privilege human rights as the standard by which to measure development programs, initiatives, and considerations of ecological integrity. The third section, education for informed action for change through organization, is an overview of the work of a particular activist Zambian civil society association, Women for Change, who work with remote rural communities, especially women. Among the goals of this association is the elimination of poverty through gender analysis, popular education, and advocacy on behalf of marginalized segments of the Zambian population.La Zambie, un pays d’environ 10 millions de personnes en Afrique centrale, subit actuellement les forces objectives de la mondialisation, y compris des faiblesses institutionnelles telles que des taux de chômage élevés et de la pauvreté chronique qui, par le fait même, rendent problématiques la gouvernance et la gestion des priorités en matière de développement social. L’article débute par une vue d’ensemble de l’échec des systèmes d’éducation formelle dans le contexte de la mondialisation néo libérale. La deuxième partie de l’article porte sur les orientations idéologiques qui sous-tendent les approches néo libérales face à la gestion du nouvel ordre économique mondial, et met en évidence l’influence de la Banque mondiale dans le secteur éducatif. L’orientation idéologique de la Banque est comparée aux approches éducatives qui devraient privilégier les droits de la personne en tant que normes pour évaluer les programmes de développement, les initiatives et les facteurs à prendre en compte en matière d’intégrité écologique. La troisième section est un aperçu du travail d’une société civile activiste de la Zambie, Women for Change, qui œuvre auprès de communautés rurales isolées (surtout les femmes) et dont l’objectif est ‘l’éducation pour l’action éclairée visant le changement par le biais de l’organisation’. Un des objectifs de l’association est l’élimination de la pauvreté par divers moyens, dont l’analyse comparative entre les sexes, l’éducation des masses et la défense des droits de groupes marginalisés de la population zambienne

(Re) Imagining a Shared Future through Education for Global Social Justice

(Re) Imagining a Shared Future throughEducation for Global Social JusticeAli A. AbdiProfessor, University of AlbertaCanadaLynette ShultzAssistant Professor, University of AlbertaCanad