The Quest for Ultimate Meaning and the Academic Curriculum : Proposals
Retitled extract from
Abdul Karim Bangura
"Fractal Complexity in Cheikh Anta Diop's Precolonial Black Africa
A Pluridisciplinary Analysis"
compiled by
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
This extract is directed at developing a new Africanist centred learning system, but is relevant for educational systems in general. I have added subheadings and sentences in square brackets to the passages to assist continuity in reading:
Ultimate Meaning
"[Chancellor Williams] argues that since neither Western science nor religion has provided satisfactory answers to three questions (From where do we come? Why? And where are we bound?), it is imperative for the Pan-Afrikan University to provide the space for discussing these eternal questions. This approach calls for the reorganization of the disciplines of the social and human sciences as well as the natural sciences into a holistic learning process. The reorganization should lead to a breaking down of the over-compartmentalization and overfragmentation of faculties, departments and branches of knowledge. It should explore the reunification of allied disciplines (which have been subdivided into sub-disciplines) into unified fields of study (Nabudere, Dani W.,"Towards the Establishment of a Pan-African University: A Strategic Concept Paper', African Journal of Political Science 8, 1:1-30. 2003.14). [Thereby moving towards pluridisciplinary research "the systematic utilization of two or more disciplines or branches of learning to investigate a phenomenon, thereby in turn contributing to those disciplines"-Bangura.10]
[The exploration of such questions of ultimate meaning is itself best conducted within a framework that integrates both institutional learning and the broader developmental context of the self as meaning is developed in dialogue with the full rage of life experience across time].
Life-long Learning
Life-long learning will bring adult learners to formal institutions of learning and remove the division between informal, non-formal, and formal education in line with African traditions and culture[ in which 'Learning and "culturalization" ...were considered continuing processes that "took place from birth until death with the family unit, extended family, the village and the entire community participating" (Nabudere 2003:19).13].
It will also provide for the cooperation in research between the Pan-Afrikan University and the communities, in addition to providing for the recognition of learning outcomes gained through their own contexts outside the formal education system (Nabudere 2003:20).
[Continuous learning in various contexts implies privileging the peculiarities of each person's learning experience as it unfolds in time and space].
Site Specific and Self Directed Learning
Hermeneutics is to be employed on...premises that encourage self-directed learning, which engages with the knowledge, interests, and real life situations that learners bring to their learning situations. This notion of site specific knowledge attempts to offer a corrective to the Eurocentric tendency of universalizing knowledge around Occidental centers and sites of knowledge which are privileged to the disadvantage of others, claiming to be the only sites of "rationality" and "scientific knowledge". Recognizing the other sites and centers leads to a truly multi-polar world of global knowledge culled from all sources of human endeavor (Nabudere 2003:8)".
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
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