Decolonising Education in Islamic West Africa

Decolonising Education in Islamic West Africa
Author: Anneke Newman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2024-12-24
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1040273912

This book uses perceptions and experiences of Qur’anic schools in West Africa to outline a much-needed postsecular approach, reconsidering the place of Islamic education within African decolonial debates about educational pluralism, and the contributions of religious perspectives in academic and international development spaces. Decolonial theory is used to overcome the challenges of problematic Eurocentric and colonialist stereotypes about religious actors and faith-based schools which persist within international education scholarship and global policy agendas. Through fine-grained ethnography, chapters discuss how parents and young people today engage with classical Qur’anic schools, Islamic schools and French-medium secular education in Senegal, thereby exposing inequalities around gender, descent-based or caste identities and socioeconomic status, as well as their influence on young people’s pursuit of knowledge. These findings are valuable for scholars exploring the development-education-religion nexus and promoting Education for All in communities characterised by other-than-secular worldviews. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students working in the sociology of education, international education, anthropology and religious education. Practitioners involved in postcolonial and decolonial debates will also benefit from recommendations regarding educational reform in plural educational contexts.

Against Decolonisation

Against Decolonisation
Author: Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò
Publisher: Hurst Publishers
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2022-06-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1787388859

Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West’s direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing ‘morality’ or ‘authenticity’; it suffocates African thought and denies African agency. Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò fiercely rejects the indiscriminate application of ‘decolonisation’ to everything from literature, language and philosophy to sociology, psychology and medicine. He argues that the decolonisation industry, obsessed with cataloguing wrongs, is seriously harming scholarship on and in Africa. He finds ‘decolonisation’ of culture intellectually unsound and wholly unrealistic, conflating modernity with coloniality, and groundlessly advocating an open-ended undoing of global society’s foundations. Worst of all, today’s movement attacks its own cause: ‘decolonisers’ themselves are disregarding, infantilising and imposing values on contemporary African thinkers. This powerful, much-needed intervention questions whether today’s ‘decolonisation’ truly serves African empowerment. Táíwò’s is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators and synthesisers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant.

Africa and the Decolonisation of State-religion Policies

Africa and the Decolonisation of State-religion Policies
Author: John Osogo Ambani
Publisher: Brill Research Perspectives in
Total Pages: 76
Release: 2021
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9789004446410

This book argues that a view has taken root in Africa, which equates state-secularism to the aggressive removal of religion from the public sphere or even state ambivalence towards religious affairs. This view arises from a misguided interpretation of the practice of state-secularism particularly in France, Turkey and the US, which understanding is ill-suited for the sub-Sahara Africa's state-religion because the region boasts of at least three major religious traditions, African religion, Islam and Christianity, and blanket condemnation of public manifestation of religion or ambivalence towards it may offend the natural flourishing of this trinity and more. The contribution holds that most applications of state-secularism in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda favour the Christian faith, which during its tumultuous experiences in Europe survived the enlightenment, the reformation and like experiences socialised to co-exist with what are now called secular states. Additionally, due to the long history of Christendoms in Europe, Christian principles penetrated the colonial legal systems that were bequeathed to Africa at independence and the sustenance of the colonial legacy means that the Abrahamic faith has an upper hand in the state-religion relations' contest. The obvious loser is African religion which has suffered major onslaughts since the colonial days.

Decolonizing Heritage

Decolonizing Heritage
Author: Ferdinand De Jong
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2022-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316514536

An exploration of how Senegal has decolonised its cultural heritage sites since independence, many of which are remnants of the French empire.

Roads to Decolonisation

Roads to Decolonisation
Author: Amy Duvenage
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2024-04-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1040018505

Roads to Decolonisation: An Introduction to Thought from the Global South is an accessible new textbook that provides undergraduate students with a vital introduction to theory from the Global South and key issues of social justice, arming them with the tools to theorise and explain the social world away from dominant Global North perspectives. Arranged in four parts, it examines key thinkers, activists and theory-work from the Global South; theoretical concepts and socio-historical conditions associated with 'race' and racism, gender and sexuality, identity and (un)belonging in a globalised world and decolonisation and education; challenges to dominant Euro-American perspectives on key social justice issues, linking decolonial discourses to contemporary case studies. Each chapter offers an overview of key thinkers and activists whose work engages with social justice issues, many of whom are under-represented or left out of undergraduate humanities and social sciences textbooks in the North. This is essential reading for students of the humanities and social sciences worldwide, as well as scholars keen to embed Southern thought in their curricula and pedagogical practice.

Decolonising Education in West Africa

Decolonising Education in West Africa
Author: Anneke Newman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2025
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781003172475

"This book examines perceptions and experiences of Qur'anic schools in West Africa, outlining a much-needed postcolonial approach which considers the place of Islamic education within African decolonial debates about educational pluralism. To overcome the challenges of problematic Eurocentric and colonialist stereotypes about religious actors and faith-based schools (which persist within comparative and international education scholarship and global policy agendas), the author harnesses decolonial theory and uncovers through fine-grained ethnography how parents and young people today engage with classical Qur'anic schools, Islamic schools, and French-medium secular education. Chapters thereby expose the fault lines around gender, descent-based or caste identities, and socioeconomic inequality, and their influence on individuals' pursuit of knowledge. Drawing on an impressive body of supporting literature from history, anthropology, linguistics, African studies and Islamic studies, the book unpacks the characteristics of the Islamic West African context of Senegal, rendering its population's Sufi Muslim worldview accessible to researchers concerned about achieving the Education for All agenda. Advocating for a need to embrace greater plurality of African and Islamic perspectives, the book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of development and African studies, the sociology of education, international education, anthropology and religious education. Policy-makers and practitioners involved in postcolonial and decolonial debates will also benefit from this volume more broadly"--

Decolonising Colonial Education

Decolonising Colonial Education
Author: Mhango, Nkwazi Nkuzi
Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2018-09-24
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9956550272

This book on decolonising education chastises, heartens and invites academics to seriously commence academic and intellectual manumission by challenging the current toxic episteme – the Western dominant Grand Narrative that embeds, espouses and superimposes itself on others. It exhorts African scholars in particular to unite and address the bequests of colonialism and its toxic episteme by confronting the internalised fabrications, hegemonic dominance, lies and myths that have caused many conflicts in world history. Such a toxic episteme founded on problematic experiments, theories and praxis has tended to license unsubstantiated views and stereotypes of others as intellectually impotent, moribund and of inferior humanity. The book invites academics and intellectuals to commit to a healthy dialogue among the world’s competing traditions of knowing and knowledge production to produce a truly accommodating and inclusive grand narrative informed by a recognition of a common and shared humanity.

Decolonizing African Studies

Decolonizing African Studies
Author: Toyin Falola
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 691
Release: 2022
Genre: Africa
ISBN: 1648250270

Introduction: The Decolonial Moments -- Epistemologies and Methodologies -- Decoloniality and Decolonizing Knowledge -- Eurocentrism and Intellectual Imperialism -- Epistemologies of Intellectual Liberation -- Decolonizing Knowledge in Africa -- Decolonizing Research Methodology -- Oral Tradition: Cultural Analysis and Epistemic Value -- Agencies and Voices -- Voices of Decolonization -- Voices of Decoloniality -- Decoloniality: A Critique -- Women's Voices on Decolonization -- Empowering Marginal Voices: LGBTQ and African Studies -- Intellectual Spaces -- Decolonizing the African Academy -- Decolonizing Knowledge Through Language -- Decolonizing of African Literature -- Identity and the African Feminist Writers -- Decolonizing African Aesthetics -- Decolonizing African History -- Decolonizing Africa Religion -- Decolonizing African Philosophy -- African Futurism.

Internationalisation of Educational Administration and Leadership Curriculum

Internationalisation of Educational Administration and Leadership Curriculum
Author: Eugenie A. Samier
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2021-08-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1839098643

In light of a new wave of cultural mobility, how must educational leaders respond to the challenges of internationalising their curricula and accommodating diversity? This timely project bridges a gap in the field of educational administration by showcasing the development of curricular internationalisation across several countries.