Browsing by Author "Shanyanana, Rachel Ndinelao"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Education for democratic citizenship and cosmopolitanism : the case of the Republic of Namibia
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011-03) Shanyanana, Rachel Ndinelao; Waghid, Yusef; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Education Policy Studies
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis analyses some of the major education policies in Namibia since the introduction of a democratic government in 1990. The analysis reveals that democratic participation through stakeholder representatives is an ideal framework to promote democracy in education discourses, that is, in policy formation, school governance and teaching and learning. However, there is a dilemma of a lack of inclusion, which is incommensurable with modern democratic theorists’ conceptions of democratic citizenship (both Western deliberation and African ubuntu). The thesis asserts that Namibia’s historical and cultural background has to be taken into consideration if a defensible democratic citizenship education is to be engendered and advanced. An examination and interpretation of the three phases of Namibia’s historical background, its pre-colonial, colonial/apartheid and post-apartheid education systems, were carried out in order to understand the current state of education and the type of citizens the country is developing through its education system. Central to this investigation were different conceptions of democratic citizenship, which indicate that deliberation, inclusion, equality, reasonableness, publicity, belligerence, hospitality, compassion and African humanness (ubuntu) are the features of a defensible democratic citizenship education. The exploration of the distinction between deliberation and ubuntu shows that Namibia’s context requires a minimal democratic citizenship framework with ubuntu if a lack of inclusion is to be eliminated. The discussion on democratic conceptions also draws on a minimalist and maximalist continuum of democratic citizenship education. The thesis argues that a minimalist form of democratic citizenship education, in conjunction with African ubuntu – which constitutes less deliberation and non-belligerence with more compassion, careful listening, respect and dignity – engenders conditions for an inclusive policy framework, school governance, and the cultivation of democratic citizenry through teaching and learning in Namibian public schools, and may eventually promote a defensible democratic citizenship education. This framework may create a favourable environment and potential for all participants to co-exist, and for the marginalised groups to also contribute to conversations. This framework is also considered plausible because it takes into account the local people’s historical background and cultural practices. Complementing the argument of this thesis is the exploration of the link between Namibia’s education system, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Moreover, an appeal is made for the Namibian citizenship education system to consolidate the idea of cosmopolitanism, that is; hospitality and forgiveness, if the NEPAD initiative is to be successful and if certain Millennium Development Goals were to be achieved by 2015.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Examining the potential of an ethics of care for inclusion of women in African higher education discourses
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Shanyanana, Rachel Ndinelao; Waghid, Yusef; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Department of Education Policy Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation argues that women on the African continent experience moments of internal exclusion in higher education discourses. Although women are statistically represented in higher education discourses, they remain subjected to internal exclusion on the grounds that their contributions are evidently unsubstantive. Through a conceptual analysis of women’s experiences of African higher education, the study reveals that internal exclusion can be attributed to patriarchy, male chauvinism, authoritarianism and a gendered view of equality, mostly generated in people’s social, political and cultural practices. I contend that a ‘non-gendered’ ethics of care can undermine the debilitating effects caused by the internal exclusion of women in higher education discourses. By examining the implications of a reconstituted ethics of care for teaching and learning at higher education institutions on the continent, the study offers some ways in which exclusionary higher education practices can be remedied. This dissertation contends that, if higher education in Africa were to halt the dilemma of internal exclusion and move towards engendering a reconstituted ethics of care, both conceptually and pragmatically, then it stands an authentic chance of cultivating compassionate, imaginative and responsible citizens who can reason, not only for themselves, but for humanity as well.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Reconceptualizing ubuntu as inclusion in African higher education : towards equalization of voice
    (Addleton Academic Publishers, 2016) Shanyanana, Rachel Ndinelao; Waghid, Yusef
    Inclusionary higher educational practices have become a topical issue in recent debates on the Africa continent. While the idea of inclusion in communal practices is embodied in the notion of Ubuntu in Africa, a number of silences and inconsistencies still remain in the way the marginalized groups (the poor, people with disabilities, women, homosexuals and so forth) are treated in African higher education (AHE). The dilemmas implicit in the idea of inclusion in contemporary higher education institutions (HEIs) in Africa restrict the marginalized group’s voices, thereby treating them as unequal members of the assumed equal society. This suggests that an African conception of Ubuntu in its current form may not bring about adequate transformation to the African higher education system. The underlying assumption in the existing conception of Ubuntu as a communal practice ‒ more specifically knowledge culture ‒ of seeing humanity in others provides sufficient grounds for the inclusion of all members of society. Employing Young’s (2000) interpretation of inclusion as exclusion, Ubuntu in dominant and current thinking and practices can be inclusive and exclusive simultaneously. The article proposes to re-examine the potentiality of an African philosophy of Ubuntu as a way of curtailing exclusionary practices in higher education (HE). As long as HE in Africa embraces Ubuntu as inclusion, a substantive form of inclusion may not be engendered. The article makes its argument using Rancière’s perspective of “equalization of voice.” By arguing for an Ubuntu of inclusion as voice, we make a cogent defense for thinking differently about African people’s communal practices, thus looking differently at their conception of a knowledge culture.