CHALLENGES FACED BY STUDENT AFFAIRS PRACTITIONERS IN EMBEDDING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE INTO STUDENT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PEDAGOGY. A CASE FOR ZIMBABWE (original) (raw)

Mainstreaming African Indigenous Epistemologies into Student Development in Higher Education: A Case of Zimbabwe

EAST AFRICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, 2021

Framed in the context of decoloniality, this study advocates for the embedding of African indigenous epistemologies into student development in university education in order to emancipate it from the pervasive Eurocentric hegemony. The thesis of this paper contends that student development in higher education has remained firmly anchored on Eurocentric ways of knowing at the expense of other epistemologies especially those from the Global South. Indigenous epistemologies are interiorized and marginalized. Efforts to Africanize the curriculum have largely been piecemeal and student development theory has continued to be underpinned by Eurocentric epistemology with a devastating impact on student identity and character development. This study employed the qualitative research paradigm in which three state universities in Zimbabwe were purposively selected as research sites. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with student affairs practitioners and were analysed qualitative...

Framing an On to-Epistemological Paradigm for the Decolonisation of Student Development Practice in Higher

The thesis of this paper argues that the out of class student development programmes in post-colonial universities and colleges in the Global South have remained Eurocentric and therefore are largely irrelevant to the needs of the indigenous people. Despite attempts to embed African indigenous knowledge into student development practice, the essentials particularly student clubs and societies have remained to a greater extent anchored on a Eurocentricepistemology that subalternises African knowledges and values. This has resulted in the moulding of graduates who shun their languages, knowledge, culture and belief systems. Further, Eurocentric knowledge systems are highly individualised leading to the production of graduates who are very individualistic ad selfish. These attributes are at cross-purposes with the African moral ethic of hunhu/ubuntu.It is against this backdrop that this paper calls for the decolonisation of student development programmes in higher education by incorporating indigenous African epistemologies and values.

The indigenous knowledge system of Credo Mutwa: a pedagogical challenge in higher education in South Africa

Curriculum Perspectives

This article discusses the vast indigenous knowledge system of the late Sanusi Credo Vusamazulu Mutwa as a critical and relevant pedagogy that can enhance the transformation agenda of an African university. It argues for the inclusion of Mutwa’s indigenous knowledge to form part of knowledge that will interface with other knowledges and be included in institutions of higher learning. It argues that the constant drives for an African university with an Africanised and decolonised curriculum must be entrenched by recognising indigenous knowledge holders as public intellectuals who can through social cohesion engage with scholars and students in higher education. It is a fact that indigenous wisdom remains a challenge and a contested terrain in higher education as it is observed that not only have institutions of higher learning admitted to the calls to decolonise, Africanise and indigenise the curriculum but these calls have been met with failures to recognise the intellectual emancip...

Sensemaking in Turbulent Contexts: African Student Leadership in a Postcolonial Context

Routledge eBooks, 2020

This study revealed the ways that student leaders make sense of their approaches to leadership in African student organizations in the United States. Seven leaders of recognized African student organizations in universities from the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and the South took part in interviews. Discourse analysis of interview data revealed the complexity of leadership discourses and practices in a postcolonial context in showing that African student organizational leadership (a) proceeds through the accommodation and resistance to dominant Western organizational and/or colonial discourses and (b) enables leaders to make sense of theirs and their organizations' identities in the context of discourses that marginalize African forms of cultural expression.

TOWARDS AN INDIGENOUS AFRICAN EPISTEMOLOGY OF COMMUNITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH

Issues of intellectual and cultural hegemony have long been critical foci in education debates in South Africa. This is evidenced in present times by the call for an African Renaissance in education, as well as, a growing discourse that demands the acknowledgement and inclusion of indigenous knowledge systems in the South African education system. This article considers the epistemological question that centres around the debate of whether there is, in fact, an indigenous African way of knowing, and if so, what the implications for higher education research would be.

Integrating indigenous african knowledge systems in teaching and learning at the Catholic University of Zimbabwe : a critical investigation

2020

The guidance and assistance he provided me with throughout the research study motivated me to complete the research. Thank you, Professor, for continuously checking on my progress and encouraging me to complete my research study. I would like to sincerely thank the administration at the Catholic University of Zimbabwe for granting me permission to carry out the research study without any interference and prohibitions. Special mention goes to Mr Mubonderi, the Chairperson in the Department of Humanities for facilitating and coordinating participants for both face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. Special mention goes to the research participants in both face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions for their cooperation and enthusiastic participation in the study. Their candidness and readiness to share their knowledge and experiences made the generation of information possible. I also thank my colleagues at work namely M. Mudzingwa. Dr B. Taringa, Dr K. Rusere and Dr L. Mandizvidza for their encouragement and for sharing their research experience with me. Special thanks to Mr D. Kuswatuka for editing my work and making me aware of errors during the research study write up. Evans Tavaguta and Anold Murwira I thank you wholeheartedly for providing me with recording equipment to use during the face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. Hilary Maswera thank you very much for transcribing the interviews. To all those I have not mentioned, but played a part in the research study I sincerely thank you. To God be the Glory. For God made everything possible and kept me in good health and focused throughout the study.

Towards an African education research methodology: decolonising new knowledge

Educational Research for Social Change, 2017

South Africa has a number of policies to protect and promote indigenous knowledge (IK). The increasing interest in research into indigenous knowledge and science education in southern Africa has led not only to the production of publications, but also to numerous conferences, seminars, research centres, projects, learning materials, and postgraduate courses. However, research methods that are aligned to indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) are yet to develop to the extent that IK policy, publications, and interest groups have. Notwithstanding some authoritative texts (Chilisa, 2012; Odora Hoppers, 2004; Smith, 1999), there is a need for research-based examples from the southern African context that can offer authentic and nuanced suggestions for IK researchers of what an African research methodology might be. In this paper we present a brief overview of arguments for research methods that are consistent with IKS, propose features of such research orientations, and some examples of research processes. We synthesise some of the knowledge we have gained in this field in South Africa and offer considerations and reflections that will contribute to the conversation and exploration of creative, culturally relevant, and ethical ways forward for participative IK research.

Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge in the Higher Education Sector for the Advancement of African Scholarship

Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development, 2019

This chapter argues that IKS could be used as a framework upon which African scholarship could be claimed and advanced without overlooking the importance and relevance of other knowledge systems. This framework can break superior-inferior, developed-underdeveloped binaries while keeping in mind the core mandate of education, especially in producing skills and a competent and knowledge-based society capable of dealing with both local and international challenges. The academic socialization on IKS would rather require an integrated approach to research which is also interdisciplinary in nature and aimed at interfacing other knowledge systems. This chapter is based on IKS case studies drawn from South African universities.

Institutionalizing the intangible through research and engagement: Indigenous knowledge and higher education for sustainable development in Zambia

International Journal of Educational Development, 2021

Universities have an integral role in the development of communities. This is underpinned by the notion that universities possess a social responsibility to be agents of change in relation to society's socioeconomic , political, and environmental issues. In Africa, the quest for sustainable development necessarily engages a consideration of the different forms of knowledge available. This is as a result of the rich and varied patterns of beliefs, behaviour, and values that permeate the continent and have persisted despite colonialism. In this paper, we assert that there is much to be gained from engaging Indigenous knowledge through scholarship and public responsibility. Through a qualitative case study design based on relational dialogues with academic researchers and university managers, we emphasize the attributes associated with constructing and acting upon Indigenous knowledge at one university in Zambia and the ways in which Indigenous knowledge can contribute to sustainable development through a community engagement remit. This work also seeks to centre African research and researchers in the discourse on higher education in Africa.