HED4805 Assignment 2 (DETAILED ANSWERS) 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED

HED4805 Assignment 2 (DETAILED ANSWERS) 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED Answers, guidelines, workings and references .................... Question 1 (25) Section A of this question is based on the given extract from chapter 2 of the prescribed textbook (Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter 2020). Read the extract, and then answer the questions that follow. Geographical focus of research and of authorship Scholars, analysts, progressive scholars and academics in all education sciences and beyond, have expressed concern that the corpus of scholarly publications is dominated by researchers Assignment 02 History of Education Due date: 21 June 2024 Unique assignment number: 173892 100 marks 20 in the global world and that their focus is lopsided in favour of the Global North or themes favoured by the interests of the Global North. In a content analysis of articles published in the first 50 years of the top journal in the field of Comparative and International Education, the Comparative Education Review, Wolhuter (2008:330-331) found that countries of the Global North dominate the geographical focus of research. In addition, where countries of the Global South are the subject of research, it is dominated by researchers from the Global North (cf Wolhuter, 2018). Of the 18 523 articles published in the total pool of Thomson-Reuters indexed education journals for the year 2012, a mere 2.13% were authored by scholars in Africa (ibid). Depaepe and Simon (1996) do not include the geographical terrain of articles in their research but do provide an interesting analysis of author provenance. For the articles published during 1961 to 1989 in Paedagogica Historica, the rank-order of national provenance of authors is illustrated in table 2.2. The pattern for the period 1990 to 1995 does not differ much. However, in this period, the Global South fares worse with 1.6% of all authors (South Africa: 0.8% and Zaire: 0.8%) as shown in table 2.3. Table 2.2 National provenance of authors published in rank order, 1961 to 1989 National provenance of authors (Global North) 1961 to 1989 1. Germany: 22.7%; 2. US: 21.5%; 3. UK: 10.6%; 4. France: 7.4%; 5. Belgium: 6.5% National provenance of authors (Global South) 1961 to 1989 1. India: 1.2%; 2. Malaysia: 1.2%; 3. Nigeria: 0.6%; 4. Sri Lanka: 0.6%; 5. Argentina: 0.3%; 6. Oman: 0.3%; 7. Pakistan: 0.3%; 8. South Africa: 0.3%; 9. Thailand: 0.3%; 10. Zimbabwe: 0.3% (Source: Depaepe & Simon, 1996:426) Table 2.3 National provenance of authors published in rank order, 1990 to 1995 National provenance of authors (Global North) 1990 to 1995 1. Netherlands: 20.2%; 2. Germany: 17.8%; 3. Belgium: 14.0%; 4. France: 10.1%; 5. US: 7.0% National provenance of authors (Global South) 1990 to 1995 1. Only 1.6% of all authors in the Global South; 2. South Africa: 0.8%; 3. Former Zaire: 0.8% (Source: Depaepe & Simon, 1996) Freeman and Kirke (2017) deal with geographical foci in their analysis, although the limitation of their study is that it covers English medium journals only. Freeman and Kirke (2017:830) found that in geographical coverage, throughout the period 1952 to 2016, England and Great Britain dominated as geographical terrain of study. During the decade 1980 to 1989, 43.9% of all published articles dealt with England and Great Britain; in 2016, 25.7% of all published HED4805/101/0/2024 21 articles focused on England and Great Britain. While colonialism and colonial education policy remain an area of interest in the field, as do race and ethnicity, two provisos should be mentioned. On the second (race and ethnicity), research has been spurred by events in the Global North and is dominated by the Global North as terrain. These events include the 1960 Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America, the school desegregation movement in the same country, right up to the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the USA and the immigration patterns and increasingly multicultural composition of the population of the United Kingdom (UK). In 2016, 14 of the 19 articles in the “race and ethnicity” category identified by Freeman and Kirke (2017:843), were about the US. On colonialism and colonial education, the proviso can be tabled that the current imperative for the decolonialisation of education makes the attention given to colonialism and the neglect of decolonialisation appear rather lopsided. While many historians eschew recent history, where the “fog of proximity” makes the true significance of events hard to see, and not entirely without merit, it could be said that the Global South has had a long run of decolonialisation – sub-Saharan Africa over 60 years; in the case of Latin America, already more than two centuries. Its history merits attention. This call has also been made and elaborated upon by Davids (2013). The need to recentre History of Education in the Global South Most states in the Global South have been subjected to European imperialism in one form or another and dominated by “foreign” histories. The need to retrieve new processes of producing and valorising legitimate epistemologies, whether scientific or non-scientific, is imperative for the Global South. The validation of such knowledges will only happen when historians of the Global South revisit spaces and practices that are characterised by systemic oppression, discrimination, capitalism and colonialism. The Global South does not only refer to geographical location; it also refers to the pain caused by capitalism and colonialism at different levels. In the Global South, the majority of people were silenced, marginalised and unemployed and were victims of sexism and racism because of colonialism. History of Education practitioners in the Global South should not only become “culturally sensitive” when they conduct research, but also use approaches that form part of indigenous people’s cultures. The time has come for the Global South to discontinue mimicking its counterparts in the north in knowledge production and pedagogy. Research conducted in the south should take cognisance of different worldviews, which are closely tied to people’s relationship with the environment (McKenzie & Morrissette, 2003). In the quotation below, Santos (2014) stresses the need to adopt “epistemologies of the South”’, which will capture: a set of inquiries into the construction and validation of knowledge born in struggle, of ways of knowing developed by social groups as part of their resistance against the systematic injustices and oppressions caused by capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy (Santos, 2014). Europe and its history have been the centre of attention for too long. Asante (1998:1) argues that “to be centred is to be located as an agent instead of as ‘the Other’. Taiwo (1993:895) observed that “colonialism, at least in Africa, is distinguished more by what it excluded from the colonies than what it included”. Africa was described in terms of Eurocentric contexts and very often indigenous perspectives and history were ignored. Eurocentrism mediated the whole world in that any history that differed from Eurocentric thought was relegated to the periphery 22 and left unacknowledged (Blaut, 1993). Western educational thought was promoted through the works of scholars such as Augustine, Socrates and Luther. When the history of indigenous people was acknowledged, a Eurocentric lens was often used to assess the legitimacy of such a knowledge system. In the endeavour to recentre itself, the Global South must begin to unearth historical truths that have remained hidden for a long time, and which are fundamental for understanding where it comes from and its destination. These truths include: • The origins of the human race in Africa. This assertion is based on the discovery of the oldest known human skeletal remains at Omo, Ethiopia, dated to be 195 000 years old, which have proved to belong to anatomically modern humans (or homo sapiens sapiens). • The earliest known fishing expeditions were organised by inhabitants of Africa millennia ago. At Katanda, a region in north-eastern Zaïre (now Congo), an intricately crafted collection of harpoon points, polished and barbed in detail, were discovered. On the Cape west coast, near Langebaan, remains of “fish traps” used by the Khoi to catch fish can still be detected. This technique required a grasp of the functioning of high and low tides in order to trap fish inside the crevices created by rocks arranged as fish traps. • The first people to engage in mining minerals were Africans 43 000 years ago. Around 300 000 mining-related artefacts have been recovered including thousands of mining tools made of stone. • Africans pioneered basic arithmetic 25 000 years ago. The Ishango bone, the handle of a tool which has regular notches carved into it, was used for calculation and was found in the Ishango region of Zaïre (now called Congo) near Lake Edward. • Evidence suggests that African travellers may have landed in the Americas before Europeans. • A body of archaeological evidence demonstrates that the first people to settle in South Africa (Cape of Good Hope) were indigenous people, the Khoi or Khoikhoi. The other challenge for History of Education researchers in the Global South is to reclaim their research spaces. 1.1 What is meant by the expression “Global North and Global South”? (10) 1.2 Critically discuss #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall as critical moments in the decolonisation of the history of South African education. [15] ) 1.2 Critically review the state of research in the Global South and suggest what universities should do to encourage research in the field of the History of Education. (25) HED4805/101/0/2024 23 Question 2 [25] Critically review e historical “hidden truths” mentioned in the text that you would incorporate in a new Intermediate or Senior Phase History curriculum. Question 3 [25] Critically discuss #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall as critical moments in the decolonisation of the history of South African education. Question 4 [25] Write an essay in which you discuss how the philosophy of Ubuntu as an educational foundation influences your work as an educator?