Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Educational Development and Knowledge Flow: Local and Global Forces in Human Development in Africa

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Higher Education Policy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Both local and global forces impact on educational and human development. This disrupts Africa's capacity to own, generate, and share knowledge. A disorganizing hybridism between African, Eastern and Western heritages exacerbates the difficulty. A social Darwinian perspective disparages but exploits Africanity. Furthermore, no extant theory captures the complex braids of Africanity, which tend to be reduced to evolutionary templates, therein trivializing them and misguiding interventions. We offer the concepts of a learning posture and a diversity paradigm as discovery constructs to bring Africa's hidden knowledge out of the traditional closet; into synergy with new technologies and into application for competency building for local knowledge generation and development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agar, M.H. (1986) Speaking of Ethnography, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 79pp.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ayandele, E.A. (1982) ‘Africa: the challenge of higher education’, Daedalus 112(1): 165–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchert, L. (1998) ‘Education sector analysis in Africa: an evolving case in mutual North-South learning’, Prospects 28 (3): 353–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cameroun. (1981) Encyclopedie de la Republique Unie du Cameroun [Encyclopedia of the United Republic of Cameroon], Douala, Cameroon: Eddy Ness, 338pp.

  • Creekmore, C. (1986) ‘Misunderstanding Africa’, Psychol Today 12: 40–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, B. (1969) The African Genius: An Introduction to African Cultural and Social History, Boston: Little Brown & Co, 367pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei, G.J.S. (1996) ‘African development: the relevance and implications of indigenousness’, Paper Presented at the Learned Societies' Meeting of the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID); June St Catherine, Ontario, CA: Brock University.

  • Easton, P., Capacci, C. and Kane, L. (2000) ‘Indigenous knowledge goes to school: potentials and perils of community education in the Western Sahel’, IK Notes 22: 1–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, J. (1978) West African Families in Great Britain, London: Routledge, 142pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erny, P. (1968) L’Enfant dans la pensee traditionnelle d’Afrique Noire [The child in traditional African social thought], Paris: Le Livre africain.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erny, P. (1973) Childhood and Cosmos: The Social Psychology of the Black African Child, New York: New Perspectives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fafunwa, B. (1974) A History of Education in Nigeria, London: Allen & Unwin, 264pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fanon, F. (1967) The Wretched of the Earth, Penguin: Harmondsworth, 255pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, J. (1971) The Role of Trypanosomiasis in African Ecology, Clarendon: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glanville, R.R. (1933) ‘Sierra Leone: rice cultivation’, Report of a visit to Ceylon and South India with proposals for Sierra Leone Freetown: Government Printer.

  • Howe, S. (1998) Afrocentrism: Mythical Past and Imagined Homes, London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lahlou, M. (1996) ‘Piaget, education and intercultural perspectives’, Prospects 26 (1): 121–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larson, J. (1998) ‘Indigenous knowledge systems in sub-Saharan Africa: an overview’, Indigenous Knowledge Notes 1: 1–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liebenow, J.G. (1986) African Politics: Crisis and Challenges, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 297pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Masefield, G.B. (1972) A History of the Colonial Agricultural Service, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazrui, A.A. (1986) The Africans, New York: Praeger, 348pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngaujah, D.E. (2003) ‘An eco-cultural and social paradigm for understanding human development: A (West African) context’, Graduate Seminar Paper (supervised by Dr Dennis H Dirks) Fall: Biola University, CA.

  • Nsamenang, A.B. (1992) Human Development in Cultural Context: A Third World Perspective, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 255pp.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nsamenang, A.B. (2004a) Cultures of Human Development and Education Challenge to Growing up African, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 192pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nsamenang, A.B. (2004b) The Teaching-learning Transaction: An Africentric Approach to Educational Psychology, Bamenda, Cameroon: HDRC Publications, 243pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nsamenang, A.B. (2005) ‘African culture, human ontogenesis with’, in C.B. Fisher and R.M. Lerner (eds.) Encyclopedia of Applied Developmental Science Vol 1 Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 58–61..

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogbu, J.U. (1994) ‘From cultural differences to differences in cultural frames of reference’, in P.M. Greenfield and R.R. Cocking (eds.) Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 365–391.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piaget, J. (1952) The Origins of Intelligence in Children, New York: Norton, 419pp.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K.R. (1959) The Logic of Scientific Discovery, New York: Basic Books, 480pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prakash, S. (2003) ‘The African virtual university and growth in Africa: a knowledge and learning challenge’, Findings 223: 1–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, P. (1985) Indigenous Agricultural Revolution: Ecology and Food Production in West Africa, London: Hutchinson, 195pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogoff, B. (2003) The Cultural Nature of Human Development, New York: Oxford University Press, 298pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saraswathi, T.S. (1998) ‘Many deities, one God: towards convergence in cultural psychology’, Culture and Psychology 4 (2): 147–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J.C. (1998) Seeing Like the State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serpell, R. (1992) ‘Afrocentrism: what contribution to science of developmental psychology’, Paper Presented at the First ISSBD Regional Workshop in Africa on the theme Child Development and National Development in Africa; April Cameroon: Yaounde.

  • Serpell, R. (1993) The Significance of Schooling., New York: Cambridge University Press, 345pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serpell, R. (1994) ‘An African social ontogeny: review of A. Bame Nsamenang (1992): human development in cultural context’, Cross-Cultural Psychology Bulletin 28 (2): 17–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tingbe-Azalou, A. (1994) ‘The social sciences and the challenge of development in Africa’, UNESCO-Africa 8: 76–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vessuri, H. (1998) ‘The pertinence of higher education in a changing world’, Prospects 28 (3): 378–391.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westermann, B.T (2001) ‘The place and function of vernacular in African education The International Review of Missions 1925. 14. Cited in Kishani BT On the interface of philosophy and language in Africa: Some practical and theoretical considerations’, African Studies Review 44 (3): 27–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2000) ‘Entering the 21st Century: World Development Report 1999/2000’, Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Zimba, R.F. (2002) ‘Indigenous conceptions of childhood development and social realities in southern Africa’, in H. Keller, Y.P. Poortinga and A. Scholmerish (eds.) Between Cultures and Biology: Perspectives on Ontogenetic Development, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 89–115.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nsamenang, A. Educational Development and Knowledge Flow: Local and Global Forces in Human Development in Africa. High Educ Policy 18, 275–288 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300090

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300090

Keywords

Navigation