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Chapter 7 Epistemic Insolence in the African University
Abstract
Globally, there has been increased importance placed on social justice in higher education centred on access or widening participation. However, there is limited focus on recruitment processes and practice, a crucial step determining access into and participation in higher education. Through the lens of capital and capability, an empirically grounded argument is presented for the need to re-imagine the social justice goals of higher education. Given the complex theoretical terrain of social justice and the tensions inherent in applying them in the area of recruitment, this chapter argues that current recruitment practice and processes in Zimbabwean teacher education institutions disadvantage some sections of the population. Bourdieu’s capital concept provides a basis for understanding how one’s stock of capital is shaped by one’s socio-economic background which in turn play a critical role in determining educational opportunities and experiences available to individuals. Simultaneously, Sen’s capability approach, a normative evaluative framework provides a basis for evaluating recruitment practice and processes in teacher education in Zimbabwe. The chapter uses Sen’s five instrumental freedoms to assess the conditions under which capabilities are formed, and how the removal of various forms of constraints may foster democratic participation.The chapter proposes more just and inclusive recruitment practices and processes in Zimbabwean teachers’ colleges.
Chapter 1 Deciphering the Conversations
Part 1 Setting the Scene for Social Justice in African Higher Education
Part 2 Access and Epistemic Complexities in African Higher Education
Part 3 Disability Issues in African Higher Education
Theory and Practice in African Higher Education
Inclusion as Social Justice: Theory and Practice in African Higher Education discusses the extent to which education enables equitable social access for diverse student populations in the context of historical sidelining of indigenous knowledge systems and epistemic injustice of colonial epistemologies in Africa. The goal is to theoretically unpack the social differentials and micro-inequities that practically disempower diverse students in African higher education. To this end, the book features aspects of diversity such as gender, rurality, refugee status and disability in general, with hearing and visual impairment as prime illustrations. It is argued that despite the ethically defensible and socially just policy and structural interventions for transforming higher education meant to redress the legacy of colonial injustices, urban universities present epistemological equity challenges for students from rural communities. Similarly, the opaque fate of students displaced from their home countries and currently studying in universities in host countries is analyzed. The book illustrates the access case for gender and disability in higher education using empirical studies and examples from Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Challenges facing students in higher education in these countries and the strategies the students devise to succeed in the institutions are analyzed.
Theory and Practice in African Higher Education
Inclusion as Social Justice: Theory and Practice in African Higher Education discusses the extent to which education enables equitable social access for diverse student populations in the context of historical sidelining of indigenous knowledge systems and epistemic injustice of colonial epistemologies in Africa. The goal is to theoretically unpack the social differentials and micro-inequities that practically disempower diverse students in African higher education. To this end, the book features aspects of diversity such as gender, rurality, refugee status and disability in general, with hearing and visual impairment as prime illustrations. It is argued that despite the ethically defensible and socially just policy and structural interventions for transforming higher education meant to redress the legacy of colonial injustices, urban universities present epistemological equity challenges for students from rural communities. Similarly, the opaque fate of students displaced from their home countries and currently studying in universities in host countries is analyzed. The book illustrates the access case for gender and disability in higher education using empirical studies and examples from Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Challenges facing students in higher education in these countries and the strategies the students devise to succeed in the institutions are analyzed.