Teaching Africa and international studies: Forum introduction

Gallagher, Julia; Death, Carl; Sabaratnam, Meera; Smith, Karen

doi:10.1177/0263395716628886

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…A related issue concerns Western-dominance of what comes to be considered superior 'learning styles' and 'educational settings' (Xue, 2019; see also Gallagher et al, 2016). This is particularly significant when GP&TA is undertaken via Western analytical lenses.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the State: Global Policy and Transnational Administration

Moloney¹,

Stone²

2019

irpp

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The conceptual distance between the sovereign state and the global domain of policy making and administration is narrowing, challenging the prevailing methodological nationalism. The rise of global policy and transnational administration necessitates new conversations for traditional, often domestically focused, public policy and public administration studies. By expanding our analytical, theoretical, conceptual, and even our pedagogical approaches to include the kaleidoscope of global governance actors, levels of analysis, sectors, and concepts, not only is our policy research enhanced and deepened, but our ability to engage this complexity is enhanced.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the State: Global Policy and Transnational Administration

Moloney¹,

Stone²

2019

irpp

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“…(2021, p. 3) Analysis of practical decolonising efforts demonstrates the wide spectrum of issues. Worth mentioning are a special issue of the journal Politics on Africa in international studies (Gallagher et al, 2016) and a special issue of Teaching in Higher Education on decolonising the curriculum (Hayes et al, 2021). The former discusses whether the pedagogy of critical thinking can tackle Africa's often pejorative representation by 'outsiders' (Matthews, 2016), the assumption that Western actors can 'solve' Africa's problems (Routley, 2016), and African universities' opportunity to generate new perspectives on international studies as a whole (Niang, 2016).…”

Section: Overview Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

‘The unofficial curriculum is where the real teaching takes place’: faculty experiences of decolonising the curriculum in Africa

Laakso

Adu

2023

High Educ

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This paper analyses faculty experiences tackling global knowledge asymmetries by examining the decolonisation of higher education in Africa in the aftermath of the 2015 ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ student uprising. An overview of the literature reveals a rich debate on defining ‘decolonisation’, starting from a critique of Eurocentrism to propositions of alternate epistemologies. These debates are dominated by the Global North and South Africa and their experiences of curriculum reform. Our focus is on the experiences of political scientists in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. These countries share the same Anglophone political science traditions but represent different political trajectories that constitute a significant condition for the discipline. The 26 political scientists we interviewed acted toward increasing local content and perspectives in their teaching, as promoted in the official strategies of the universities. They noted that what was happening in lecture halls was most important. The academic decolonisation debate appeared overambitious or even as patronising to them in their own political context. National politics affected the thematic focus of the discipline both as far as research topics and students’ employment opportunities were concerned. Although university bureaucracies were slow to respond to proposed curricula changes, new programmes were approved if there was a market-based demand for them. International programs tended to be approved fastest. Political economy of higher education plays a role: dependency on foreign funding, limited national resources to conduct research and produce publications vis-à-vis international competition, and national quality assurance standards appeared to be most critical constraints for decolonising the curriculum.

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“…As discussed above, research mostly portrays current African leaders through the prism of nepotism, clientelism and belly politics (Gallagher et al . 2016), while only independence leaders seem to be recognised as driven by ideology. Thus, we do find in the existing record research into the discourses of Kwame Nkrumah (Nartey 2020) or Nelson Mandela (Dwivedi 2015), though more so from scholars in linguistics than political science.…”

Section: Existing Literature and This Article's Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Assuming our place in the concert of nations’: Burundi as imagined in Pierre Nkurunziza's political speeches

Filipi

Wittig²

2022

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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Pierre Nkurunziza died in 2020, just a few months short of completing his tenure as the first post-civil war President of Burundi. Critics have cast him as yet another rebel-turned-politician who came to office on a promise of a democratic transformation but became progressively authoritarian, particularly during his third, disputed term in office. As a political figure, however, Nkurunziza remains poorly understood. What kind of a worldview motivated his politics? Drawing on critical discourse analysis, we identify three recurring themes in Nkurunziza's key political speeches: anti-colonialism; unity and self-sufficiency; and discourse around ‘politics of a new beginning’. These themes were stable across time, indicating Nkurunziza's consistent worldview, but became more pronounced and radical as he faced growing challenges to his legitimacy from within and without. Far from being confined to rhetoric, the themes also manifested in concrete policy decisions, underscoring the urgent need to take ideology seriously in understanding the political trajectories of African leaders.

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Teaching Africa and international studies: Forum introduction

Cited by 7 publications

References 22 publications

Beyond the State: Global Policy and Transnational Administration

Beyond the State: Global Policy and Transnational Administration

‘The unofficial curriculum is where the real teaching takes place’: faculty experiences of decolonising the curriculum in Africa

‘Assuming our place in the concert of nations’: Burundi as imagined in Pierre Nkurunziza's political speeches

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