Decolonising African Higher Education for Transformational Development
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Date
2024-01-15
Authors
Falola, T
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Publisher
University of Lagos Press and Bookshop Limited
Abstract
Education perpetually interacts with the mind of the individual, bringing to consciousness hidden facts about identity, cultural perspective, and a reminiscence into the perceived past, which is often a strong indicator of cultural imperatives and identity. In as much as individuals have minds of their own, educational narratives can distort the preexisting beliefs and values encored or encoded in their faculties. The kind of education we receive directly affects the core of our being. Our perceptions and identity are determined and requisite to the kind of information imbibed. The implication is that every institution and social orientation of the members of a society are defined by the conduit of epistemological reverberations which are predominant in every era.
Predominant knowledge systems permeate the ecosystem of every society, gradually telling on the behavioural pattern of every agent and constituent of each society. This is evident in the noticeable results of the contradistinguishing cultural patterns of an era to antiquity. Precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial behavioural and orientational patterns differ as a result of their subjectivity to the social epistemological standpoints. It is crystal clear that society does not learn in a vacuum, and the epistemological immersion of the same into the pool dye that gives their respective social reflections is not done without influence or agencies. For there to be systems of knowledge that would condition the general disposition of people, there must be agencies that propel such knowledge. In the past, families, traditions, trade institutions, careers, and other knowledge systems were the viable agencies of social knowledge that were predominant in the pre European-educational systems. However, the twists and changes that occurred have today, made educational institutions the primary sources of ethos and epistemology.
Description
Decolonising African Higher Education for Transformational Development delivered by Toyin Falola. 54th Convocation Lecture of the University of Lagos delivered at the J.F. Ade-Ajayi Auditorium, University of Lagos
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Citation
Falola, T. (2024). Decolonising African Higher Education for Transformational Development. 54th Convocation Lecture of the University of Lagos delivered at the J.F. Ade-Ajayi Auditorium, University of Lagos, 46p.