Modernist education and the myth of development in Africa

• In Event: The 70th anniversary of the International Review of Education: Reflecting on the history of comparative education and ‘development’ (Part 2)

Proposal

Arguments that link education to development are overwhelmingly rooted in functionalism as a grand theory and lean heavily on modernization and human capital theory. The assumption that African societies need to be modernized and that equitable access and participation in modernist education paves the way to a modernized Africa. Explanations of modernization have undergone metamorphosis as the concept modern and what constitutes valid and viable processes to modernize also change to to suit Western nations‘ shifting perceptions of human and nations. In this context, Africa’s historical conceptions of modern and her modernization processes that preceded and continued to exist as exterior to modernity were undermined. Modernity is herein understood as a specific brainchild of the European enlightenment that bred systems of othering, differentiating and hierarchizing humans and societies, leading to the rationalizing of a right to colonize and subjugate the othered. During colonialism, the “modern” African individual was one who could speak the language and mimic the cultural etiquette of the master, offered through limited educational opportunities as a privilege, not a right; today, in the so-called postcolonial Africa, a modern African individual is one who is equipped with some proficiency in Western colonial cultures, languages (e.g., English and French), and skills that include usage of technology emanating from the West. Culture, language, and technology are interlinked and the latter through the modernist educational system has become a key vehicle for the African to learn both language and culture. Consequently, equity and access in Africa are based on individual’s access to the modernist education and skills in technology. This paper will address the pervasive perception about the link between education and development and will provide an analysis of how theory (social, political, and economic) has shaped educational perceptions, policies and practices that sustain this myth in Africa. The paper will rely on a philosophical-theoretical analysis of the link between education and development within the historical context of Africa. Philosophically, this article holds a Pan-African perspective of what constitutes the continent of Africa, which looks at Africa as one continent and rejects the colonial and neo-colonial division of Africa into Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa as well as that based on colonial languages (e.g., Lusophone, Anglophone, Francophone, Arabophone, etc.). Sadly, this separating of North Africa is also evident in the way that the UNESCO Institute for Statistics groups the data by placing North Africa with Western Asia instead of as part of the African Continent. This not only eschews the data on Africa but also feeds the colonial perception of the continent, a fact that undermines the fight for justice in education and beyond. However, where the literature refers to Africa in such colonial terms, we will not change how the sources refer to the continent or parts of the continent. Theoretically the paper relies on Cosmo-uBuntu as an African theory that can contribute further insights into the problematic link between modernist education and development while offering alternative perspectives about, and possibilities for, lifelong learning in Africa.

Authors

• Kelli Harris, The Pennsylvania State University

• Sharmistha Barat, The Pennsylvania State University

• Jose Cossa, Pennsylvania State University