Session Information
23 SES 02 B, Global voices for Global Education and Global Citizenship Education
Symposium
Contribution
In a search for alternative approaches to studying global issues, this chapter presents some of the findings of a literature review around the concept of Ubuntu. Ubuntu can be understood as a knowledge system grounded in sub-Saharan African perspectives, traditions and realities that emphasizes the aspect of shared humanity between people and the importance of obligations that human beings have towards each other that lead to solidarity . It can be observed that through these values Ubuntu resonates with some of the principles and ideas that underpin global education. By engaging in a dialogue with various understandings and contestations of Ubuntu, I will elaborate on what role the concept can play in the theory and practice of Global (citizenship) education. I will argue that Ubuntu’s significance lies, first, in providing a ground for discussions about (re)designing international policy frameworks to draw from locally relevant knowledge systems; second, in contributing to human rights discourses by placing an emphasis on collective commitments and efforts to safeguard the collective welfare of people; and finally in enrichening the pedagogical framework of global (citizenship) education with non-Western approaches to understanding the world.
References
Odora Hoppers, C. (2015) Cognitive Justice and Integration without Duress The Future of Development Education: Perspectives from the South, International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 7(2): 89-106. Ramose, M.B. (1999) African Philosophy Through Ubuntu, Harare: Mount Pub. Santos, B. S. (2014) Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide, Boulder, CO: Paradigm. Shutte, A. (2001) Ubuntu: An ethic for the new South Africa, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: Cluster Publications Stuit, H. (2016) Ubuntu Strategies: Constructing Spaces of Belonging in Contemporary South African Culture, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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