This book explores the argument to reconsider the idea of a university in light of the African ethic of ubuntu; literally, human dignity and interdependence. The book discusses, through the context of higher education discourse of philosophy and comparative education, how global universities have evolved into higher educational institutions concerned with knowledge (re)production for various end purposes that range from individual autonomy, to public accountability, to serving the interests of the economy and markets. The question can legitimately be asked: Is an ubuntu university different from an entrepreneurial university, thinking university, and ecological university? While these different understandings of a university accentuate both the epistemological and moral imperatives in relation to itself and the societies in which they manifest, it is through the ubuntu university that emotivism in the forms of dignity and humaneness will enhance a university’s capacity for autonomy, responsibility, and criticality. This book would be of academic interest to university educators and students in philosophy of education, comparative education, and cultural studies.
Author(s): Yusef Waghid, Judith Terblanche, Lester Brian Shawa, Joseph Pardon Hungwe, Faiq Waghid, Zayd Waghid
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 208
City: Cham
Preface
References
Contents
Notes on Contributors
1: The University in the Context of Global and Local Knowledge Interests
Introduction
Alternative Forms of Knowing: Towards Global Citizenship Education
Summary
References
2: On the Transformation of the Public University in South Africa: Towards a Rupturing of Higher Education
Introduction
Between Economic Rationalism and Transformative Change Within the Higher Education Sector
Towards a Rupturing of Higher Education: The Quest for Objective Freedom
Summary
References
3: Ubuntu as an African Ethic for Higher Educational Transformation or Not?
Introduction
Ubuntu and Higher Education
Higher Education Transformation with Ubuntu
Summary
References
4: Ubuntu as an Act of Collaborative Engagement and Co-belonging: Implications for the Public University
Introduction
On Collaboration and Transformation
Pedagogical Engagement or Participation?
Co-belonging and a Transformative Higher Education Sector
Summary
References
5: Towards an African University of Objective Reason, Conscience and Humility
Introduction
Is a University of Reason Enough?
Towards an Ubuntu University of Conscience and Humaneness
Summary
References
6: (Re)-imagining the Indaba Concept: In Quest for a Communal African University of Deliberation, Freedom of Expression and Equality
Introduction
Indaba: Some Theoretical Underpinnings
Setting the Debate for an African University
The Notion of Deliberation from Indaba: Towards an African University
The Notion of Freedom of Expression from Indaba: Towards African University
Idealising an African University: Communality and Equality
A Critical Appraisal of the Indaba Concept
Summary
References
7: Communality, Responsibility and Public Good for Social Justice in University Education: Some Critical Reflections on an African University
Introduction
The Quest for Social Justice University Education: Contextual Setting in Africa
Communality
Responsibility
Public Good
Summary
References
8: An African University and Claims of Democratic Citizenship Education
Introduction
Comparative Education and the African University
Democratic Citizenship Education and the University
Towards Collapsing Goals of Democratic Citizenship and an African University
Summary
References
9: Teaching and Learning as Transformative Acts of Comparative Education
Introduction
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Teaching and Learning as an Act of Transformation
Teaching and Learning as an Act of Engagement
Teaching and Learning as an Act of Engagement: Waghid’s Interpretation of Freire’s Pedagogy of Hope
Teaching and Learning as an Act of Comparative Education
Summary
References
10: Teaching and Learning as Critique, Taking Risks and Disruption
Introduction
Violence and Social Justice: A Binary Relation?
From Critique to Disruption
From Risk to Transformative Pedagogy as Disruption
On Deliberation
Towards Responsibility
Summary
References
11: An African University, Caring with Humanity and Decolonisation
Introduction
An Ethic of Care: A Perspective of Nel Noddings
An Ethic of Care: Perspective of Joan Tronto
Towards a Pedagogy of Care: Perspectives of Yusef Waghid
Summary
References
12: Towards an Ubuntu University of Technology
Introduction
Implications of a Rigid School Curriculum on Higher Education
Educational Technology
Summary
References
In Response to Thokozani Mathebula’s Assertions of an Ubuntu University
Coda: The Possibility of the Ubuntu University in Post-Apartheid South Africa—A Critical Inquiry
Introduction
The Idea of a University as Given: Generic and Distinctive Angles
The Notion of Ubuntu as Agreed Upon: From a Diversity of Ethics, Politics and Philosophy
Possible Paths for the Ubuntu-Inspired University: Individual Philosophy, Political Participation and Global Citizenship
The Ubuntu University in Post-Apartheid South Africa as Fought for: Promising Directions
Summary
References
Index
