E-books are now distributed via VitalSource
VitalSource offer a more seamless way to access the ebook, and add some great new features including text-to-voice. You own your ebook for life, it is simply hosted on the vendor website, working much like Kindle and Nook. Click here to see more detailed information on this process.
Language: English
Decoloniality and African Education is a vibrant and vital collection of essays that addresses the challenges, possibilities, and responsibilities for the future of de- and anti-colonial African education as it is taught in universities in the U.S. and Canada, particularly in Colleges of Education. It looks at the ways in which African education is taught in these countries, and how the curriculum for the topic is influenced by colonialization, thus restricting or removing altogether the essence of Africanness from the content of classes.
The themes of this book go beyond the mere rhetoric of decolonialization by creating specific approaches to dismantling colonial educational systems in North American universities as well as in Africa itself, creating a new environment for African education duly informed by local cultural resource knowing, known from grounded everyday practices of authentic African educators. In other words, it is a revision of educational practices informed by what educators know and are doing for the lessons in envisioning schooling and education in North America and Africa.
African educators are urged to think through solutions specific to the problems and challenges in schools today, and to meet the call of our times to provide education to young learners that not only empowers them, but also provides them with background knowledge, cultural grounding, and specific lessons that will enable them to craft their own futures. So how do we “do” decolonial education from the standpoint of African educators and learners everyday schooling practice and knowledge? Decoloniality and African Education argues that a careful embrace of African Indigenous and cultural knowings determine the successful response to this question. It engages both the “decolonial” and the “anti-colonial,” with a reading that the “decolonial” (as many have pointed out, see Parry, 1994) is a process and a path toward an end, which is the goal of the “anti-colonial” (see Dei, 2022).
Decoloniality and African Education is essential reading for students and scholars committed to the improvement of educational outcomes for African American students. It’s a book that empowers educators and raises awareness about African-based teaching environments. It can be used in a variety of courses, including African Studies, African Development, Anti-Colonial Thought and Indigenous Knowledge, and the Pedagogical Implications of Decolonization.
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
George J. Sefa Dei, Wambui Karanja, Ephraim Avea Nsoh, and Daniel Yelkpieri
2. Localizing Educational Administration and Management in Ghana—The Way Forward
Peter Kwegyir-Aggrey
3. Shaping African Educational Futurities through African Girl-Child and Women Education: The Case Study of Eddah Gachukia’s Work at The Forum for African Women Educationalists
Peter Otiato Ojiambo
4. Towards Decolonizing Language Education in Ghana: The Ecological Turn
David Dankwa-Apawu and Victoria Ofori
5. Towards a Decolonial Future: Ghanaian Teachers’ Collective Visions for STEM Education
Kenneth Gyamerah
6. Anti-Black Gender-Based Violence (aBGBV) as a Decolonial Framework and Black Feminist Intervention
Temitope Adefarakan
7. Training Teachers Differently: Decolonizing Ghana’s Teacher Education Program
Isaac Nortey Darko and Chloe Weir
8. To Decolonize or Not to Decolonize? Locking in Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic for Enhanced Education Systems in Africa
Felix Kwabena Donkor
9. A Brief Conclusion: Towards a New Beginning
George J. Sefa Dei, Wambui Karanja, Ephraim Avea Nsoh, and Daniel Yelkpieri
Editors and Contributors
Index
“Decoloniality and African Education is a timely work that contextually recasts contemporary debates on African education and decolonization. While there have been few somewhat scattered foci on the area, this volume illuminates new epistemically and instructionally elevated possibilities that connectively highlight the critical location, inter alia, of futuristic and localized African education reformulations. It thus, selectively achieves redemptive pedagogical and cultural reconstructions that are African in origin and objectives. It will surely benefit students, specialized scholars and policy makers in Africa and beyond.”
Professor Ali Abdi, University of British Columbia
“Unapologetically African centred scholarly work. I have said elsewhere that the time has come for those who want to carry the badge ‘an African/Black Scholar’ must demonstrate through words and actions how their scholarships show indebtedness to the Land, African Ancestors, Elders and the community. This is exactly the book has done. The book addresses critical questions about African education in the 21st century. Though the authors approach these questions with empathetic lens, they do not shy away debilitating problems facing African education. The book leaves readers with hope that the continent and its people can resuscitate itself from any terminal collapse. The book cautions that addressing African educational problems cannot be business as usual. Things should be done differently. As a proud son of the Continent, I am most grateful to the authors for giving readers something different and unique about African education. This is a must-have and a must-read book. Personally, I can’t wait to have my copy.”
Professor Paul Banahene Adjei, Memorial University of Newfoundland