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  • Book
  • © 2017

Knowledge and Change in African Universities

Volume 2 – Re-Imagining the Terrain

Editors:

  1. Michael Cross

    1. University of Johannesburg, South Africa

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  2. Amasa Ndofirepi

    1. University of Johannesburg, South Africa

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • A major contention in the book is that African excellence should be measured against its own uniqueness as universities in Africa exhibit competitive knowledge processes on a global scale without losing the critical international dimensions
  • The book holds that decolonisation as change of ways and sources of knowing is a critical epistemological concern for the future of the university in Africa
  • The book suggests that knowledge for public good should be at the epicentre of the decolonised curriculum in the African university

Part of the book series: African Higher Education: Developments and Perspectives (AFHE)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-v
    PDF

  3. Africanising Institutional Culture

    • Thaddeus Metz
    Pages 19-41

  4. Pan-African Curriculum in Higher Education

    • Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo
    Pages 43-62

  6. Critical Scholarship in South Africa

    • Michael Cross, Amasa Ndofirepi
    Pages 83-100

  8. Knowledge and Change in the African University

    • James Otieno Jowi, Chika Sehoole
    Pages 121-138

  9. Managerialism as Anti-Social

    • Thaddeus Metz
    Pages 139-154

  11. The Challenges Facing Academic Scholarship in Africa

    • Bheki R. Mngomezulu, Marshall T. Maposa
    Pages 175-188

  12. Beyond Closure and Fixed Frameworks

    • Michael Cross, Amasa Ndofirepi
    Pages 189-194

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 195-198
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About this book

While African universities retain their core function as primary institutions for advancement of knowledge, they have undergone fundamental changes in this regard. These changes have been triggered by a multiplicity of factors, including the need to address past economic and social imbalances, higher education expansion alongside demographic and economic growth concerns, and student throughput and success with the realization that greater participation has not meant greater equity. Constraining these changes is largely the failure to recognize the encroachment of the profit motive into the academy, or a shift from a public good knowledge/learning regime to a neo-liberal knowledge/learning regime. Neo-liberalism, with its emphasis on the economic and market function of the university, rather than the social function, is increasingly destabilizing higher education particularly in the domain of knowledge, making it increasingly unresponsive to local social and cultural needs. Corporate organizational practices, commodification and commercialization of knowledge, dictated by market ethics, dominate university practices in Africa with negative impact on professional values, norms and beliefs. Under such circumstances, African humanist progressive virtues (e.g. social solidarity, compassion, positive human relations and citizenship), democratic principles (equity and social justice) and the commitment to decolonization ideals guided by altruism and common good, are under serious threat. The book goes a long way in unraveling how African universities can respond to these challenges at the levels of institutional management, academic scholarship, the structure of knowledge production and distribution, institutional culture, policy and curriculum.

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Keywords

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Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Johannesburg, South Africa

    Michael Cross, Amasa Ndofirepi

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Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Knowledge and Change in African Universities

  • Book Subtitle: Volume 2 – Re-Imagining the Terrain

  • Editors: Michael Cross, Amasa Ndofirepi

  • Series Title: African Higher Education: Developments and Perspectives

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-845-7

  • Publisher: SensePublishers Rotterdam

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature B.V. 2017

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-6300-845-7Published: 28 January 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 198

  • Topics: Education, general

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