The College of Humanities hosted a one-day colloquium and the launch of a new book entitled Transforming Postgraduate Education in Africa on 23 February.
The online event was presented by the book’s editors Professor Michael Samuel, UKZN School of Education and Professor Hyleen Mariaye, Mauritius Institute of Education.
It was attended by contributors and academics from around the world, including Mauritius, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Mozambique, Kenya, Namibia, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, India, Chile and South Africa. Established and early career researchers and doctoral students also participated.
The book forms part of the UKZN Humanities Institute (HI) project, Alternation African Scholarship Book Series (AASBS) under the leadership of its Chair and Director Professor Johannes A (Jannie) Smit.
Smit said, ‘All 11 chapters of the book present original work in redirecting agendas for building the African Higher Education system. It makes a unique contribution to the field of postgraduate educational research in that it challenges the litany of negative depictions of the African continent and its Higher Education systems.’
The book shares a range of initiatives to design alternative curriculum to manage, organise, and co-ordinate postgraduate research and /or supervision within a deep transformative agenda of redress, social reconstruction and activating social justice.
The volume draws on stories of success told about Africa, for Africa, about programmes in Africa and by African researchers and points to the limitations of importing models of postgraduate education that emanate from Western hegemonic hallmarks. It foregrounds the need to work collaboratively and non-hierarchically, with mutual reciprocity and respect in transdisciplinary, inter-institutional, regional, continental and transnational ways.
Smit added, ‘The anthology moves towards a values-based agenda that underpins the theoretical orientation for how measures of success can be established when evaluating postgraduate programmes. The authors are drawn from across the African and international space, each contributing to making an argument for alternative framings to design and manage a transformative Higher Education space. Personal and programmatic responses, underpinned by philosophical intentions are the suggested goals for transforming postgraduate education in Africa.’
To bring these discussions to life, the colloquium critically examined and identified the lessons learned to contribute to designing doctoral education in Africa. It also challenged superficial conceptions of transformation and argued for deeper transformation that includes debates around the nature of supervisory relationships, and the design of doctoral curriculum programmes.
Samuel said, ‘The purpose of the colloquium was to promote dialogue around the discourses of postgraduate education and transformation in Africa. It is vital for us as academics to rethink our conceptions of borders: within disciplines, within departmental enclaves, across combative and competitive institutional settings and across national and transnational spaces. Doctoral success is not an individualistic achievement alone. Our graduands must contribute to quality service partnerships within and outside the University, and with the wider community. This reconceptualisation is truly a campaign for greater social justice. The colloquium and the book create an important starting point from which further research can be directed.’
The book is available online as an open access resource.
