HED4805 Assignment 3 (Detailed Response) Due 25 July 2025

Question 1 (25) Read the given extract titled, “Colonialism, coloniality and post-colonial Africa: a conceptual framework”, from Chapter 7 of the prescribed book (Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter, 2020), and then answer the questions that follow. Colonialism, coloniality and post-colonial Africa: a conceptual framework The post-colonial reconstruction of African societies cannot be limited to political and economic transformation. Due to the predominance of Western epistemologies and systems of education during and after colonialism, the African masses often became oblivious to their forgotten history. Western European colonial policies such as ‘assimilation’ (French) and ‘assimilados’ (Portuguese) were based on the rejection of local cultures for the adoption of a foreign, Assignment 03 History of Education Due date: 25 July 2025 Unique assignment number: marks 28 h European culture – essentially a denial of African identity. The African elite that worked in close collaboration and proximity to the colonial administration often became the main advocates of European culture. When African leaders met in Addis Ababa in 1963 to establish the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the objective was to liberate the continent from colonialism and apartheid. Although the last colonial system (apartheid) was abolished in 1994, African countries remain largely dependent on foreign aid which continues to compromise their political and economic independence. Without achieving its objectives, the OAU was dissolved in July 2002 and transformed into the African Union (AU), which aims to unite its 53 member-states politically, socially, and economically. The creation of the AU intended to address the old African problems through the promotion of democracy, good governance, and foreign investment (Carbone, 2002). Africa still seems to be suffering from the aftermath of colonialism, which has posed serious challenges to its economic development and independence. The colonial legacy has left behind structural inequalities that are difficult to eradicate. However, Smith argues that ‘there can be no social justice without cognitive justice’ and calls for an ecology of knowledge(s) that enable the co-existence of alternative ways of knowing and scientific knowledge (Smith, 2012:214). The inspiration of an African Renaissance, which is mainly about cultural and intellectual revitalisation, should become an integral part of transforming and 1953). These stereotypes became an integral part of the colonial educational systems. To maintain the political and social dominance of the colonial administration, the real history of the colonies were suppressed and replaced with the history of the coloniser, which was alienating to the local populations. The continuation of a colonial worldview and lifestyle after achieving political independence has become a defining characteristic of post colonial Africa that has to be confronted. Conceptually, Maldonado-Torres (2007) explains the irony of colonial continuity by drawing a distinction between ‘colonialism’ and ‘coloniality’. Colonialism designates political and economic relations in which the power of a people rests on a foreign colonial/ imperial power; while coloniality refers to institutionalised colonialism, i.e., colonial practices expressed in a longstanding pattern of culture, social relations, and knowledge production (Maldonado- Torres, 2007). This duality between colonialism and coloniality has previously been addressed by Mignolo (1999) who sees the imaginary of the modern/ colonial world as a function of ‘colonial difference’ that operates on a notion of a ‘coloniality of power’. Mignolo borrows the concept ‘double consciousness’ from WEB du Bois, which captures the dilemma of subjectivities formed within the colonial difference, i.e., the experience of anyone who has lived and lives in modernity from coloniality (Mignolo & Ennis, 1999:29-30). Double consciousness becomes a crucial concept in explaining the ambivalence and tendencies of liberated Africans towards colonialism. HED4805/101/0/2025 29 1. Elaborate on the concept “ecology of knowledge” as used in the text, in your own words. (5) 2. Differentiate between coloniality and colonialism. (10) 3. Do you think it was prudent and necessary to dissolve the OAU in favour of AU? Substantiate your answer. (10) Question 2 (25) Read the extract below titled, “Paradigms in education historiography”, from Chapter 2 of the prescribed book (Seroto, Davids & Wolhuter, 2020) and then answer the questions that follow. All the questions are based on the extract. Paradigms in education historiography The first fault line in the panorama of published research on the History of Education are the different paradigms. Thomas Kuhn (1971) defines a paradigm as the way in which a scientific or professional community views a field of study, the manner in which it identifies appropriate problems for study, and how it specifies legitimate concepts and methods. Four major paradigms in education philosophers typically begins with Socrates and Aristotle, then progresses chronologically through the canon of Western educational thought, i.e., St Augustine, Erasmus, Luther, Comenius, Rousseau, Spencer and Herbart, and ends with Dewey and Montessori in the early 20th century. A welcome exception and recent publication outside the Western world is the book by Gu Mingyuan (2014) Cultural Foundations of Chinese Education, which surveys 5 000 years of the evolution of thought that underpins education in China. Following Idea History is a history of Acts or a history ‘from above’: the history of policies and education Acts. This encapsulates the institutional types that were created; the purposes and curricula of these institutions, their methods; and the school attending population (which social strata attended these institutions). Some of these publications still contain a good dose of idea history too, as seen in texts including Duggan (1916), and Boyd & King (1975), who are part of 30 h the many texts which are still Eurocentric. However, there have been many publications on the History of Education that focus on circumscribed geographical areas (usually nation-states) outside of Western Europe and North America. An example is A Babs Fafunwa’s (1974) A History of Education in Nigeria. However, the problem is that these publications have never been integrated into the main corpus of the literature or scholarly discourse found in the History of Education. For example, the book by Fafunwa (1974) did not receive a review in any History of Education journal, despite providing ground-breaking literature on the largest education system in Africa. In the 1960s a new paradigm emerged. This social or grassroots paradigm, shifted the focus from ideas that shape education to actual education practice (Depaepe, 2002:2 3), and as such, education policies and changes are viewed in their broad social and political contexts (Wolhuter & Karras, 2016). Over time and in line with developments in the discipline of History and the Social Sciences, new topics gained prominence