SJE1924H
This seminar explores the significance and implication of education (as broadly defined) to the discourse of modernization and development in Africa. The course begins with the interrogation of 'African development' from an African-centred perspective. There is an examination of various theoretical conceptions of 'development' and the role of education and schooling in social change. A special emphasis is on the World Bank/IMF induced educational reform initiatives and the implications of 'authentic'/alternative development. The seminar will attempt to uncover the myriad interests and issues about Africa, including contemporary challenges and possibilities. The course critically engages the multiple ways of presenting current challenges of 'development', the interplay of tradition and modernity, contestations over knowledge production in 'post-colonial' Africa, and the roles and significance of Indigenous/local cultural resource knowledges, science, culture, gender, ethnicity, language, and religion for understanding African development. Other related questions for discussion include social stratification and cultural pluralism, formulation of national identity, political ideology and the growth of nationalism, and the search for peace, cooperation and social justice. Although the course basically uses African case material, it is hoped our discussions will be placed in global/transnational contexts, particularly in looking at themes common to many Southern peoples contending with, and resisting, the effects of [neo] colonial and imperial knowledge.