Ali A. Abdi – författare

African social development is often explained from outsider perspectives that are mainly European and Euro-American, leaving African indigenous discourses and ways of knowing and doing absent from discussions and debates on knowledge and development. This book is intended to present Africanist indigenous voices in current debates on economic, educational, political and social development in Africa. The authors and contributors to the volume present bold and timely ideas and scholarship for defining Africa through its challenges, possible policy formations, planning and implementation at the local, regional, and national levels. The book also reveals insightful examinations of the hype, the myths and the realities of many topics of concern with respect to dominant development discourses, and challenges the misconceptions and misrepresentations of indigenous perspectives on knowledge productions and overall social well-being or lack thereof. The volume brings together researchers who are concerned with comparative education, international development, and African development, research and practice in particular. Policy makers, institutional planners, education specialists, governmental and non-governmental managers and the wider public should all benefit from the contents and analyses of this book.

Containing both theoretical discussions of globalization and specific case analyses of individual African countries, this collection of essays examines the intersections of African education and globalization with multiple analytical and geographical emphases and intentions. The 11 essays critically analyze the issues from historical, cultural, and socio-economic perspectives. Of interest to both educators and scholars who are interested in a more in-depth understanding of the current reign globalization, African Education and Globalization is an important and timely read.

Hundreds of thousands of African Canadian children demand and deserve quality education that promotes success both within and outside of school. Recognizing that the education these young people receive will shape their lives as citizens, the contributors to this volume provide an important, timely analysis of the educational experiences of African Canadian children and youth. With contributions from leading and emerging scholars, The Education of African Canadian Children critically responds to and comments on the historical, cultural, institutional, and informational contexts and problems of the learning lives of these children. The authors offer a comprehensive history of African Canadians' encounters with the education system, the current challenges they are facing, and opportunities for more inclusive and democratic educational practices that will better serve this population. Advocating for cultural redemption and learning success for a population that is not being served well by Canadian public education systems, this book will benefit teachers, students, government program managers, policy makers, and educational researchers. The first multi-authored work of its kind, The Education of African Canadian Children opens new debates and possibilities for change for those concerned with education in their communities and their country.

Essays that highlight the role of education in bringing about inclusive citizenship and human rights norms.Nearly sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in spite of progress on some fronts, we are in many cases as far away as ever from achieving an inclusive citizenship and human rights for all. While human rights violations continue to affect millions across the world, there are also ongoing contestations regarding citizenship. In response to these and related issues, the contributors to this book critique both historical and current practices and suggest several pragmatic options, highlighting the role of education in attaining these noble yet unachieved objectives. This book represents a welcome addition to the human rights and global citizenship literature and provides ideas for new platforms that are human rights friendly and expansively attuned toward global citizenship.

Essays that highlight the role of education in bringing about inclusive citizenship and human rights norms.Nearly sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in spite of progress on some fronts, we are in many cases as far away as ever from achieving an inclusive citizenship and human rights for all. While human rights violations continue to affect millions across the world, there are also ongoing contestations regarding citizenship. In response to these and related issues, the contributors to this book critique both historical and current practices and suggest several pragmatic options, highlighting the role of education in attaining these noble yet unachieved objectives. This book represents a welcome addition to the human rights and global citizenship literature and provides ideas for new platforms that are human rights friendly and expansively attuned toward global citizenship.

With the fall of apartheid in South Africa, expectations were high for the enfranchisement of the acutely underdeveloped majority in South Africa. But problems abound, and this educational study looks critically at the educational situation and puts forth a number of proposals that could produce better results in contemporary South Africa.Abdi urges that beyond the celebratory platforms of the political triumph over apartheid, there must be effective and culturally inclusive programs of education for the development of the highly disenfranchsed majority in South Africa.Deliberate programs of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa resulted in inferior education, cultural marginalization, political oppression, economic exploitation and resulting underdevelopment in the lives of the disenfranchised majority. In addition to historical and contemporary analysis, this study looks at the possibilities of formulating and implementing new programs of education and development that could effectively deal with such current problems as chronic unemployment, skyrocketing crime rates, stagnating learning systems, and the continuing formations of a huge underclass that may be losing its stake in the promised post-apartheid project.

African social development is often explained from outsider perspectives that are mainly European and Euro-American, leaving African indigenous discourses and ways of knowing and doing absent from discussions and debates on knowledge and development. This book is intended to present Africanist indigenous voices in current debates on economic, educational, political and social development in Africa. The authors and contributors to the volume present bold and timely ideas and scholarship for defining Africa through its challenges, possible policy formations, planning and implementation at the local, regional, and national levels. The book also reveals insightful examinations of the hype, the myths and the realities of many topics of concern with respect to dominant development discourses, and challenges the misconceptions and misrepresentations of indigenous perspectives on knowledge productions and overall social well-being or lack thereof. The volume brings together researchers who are concerned with comparative education, international development, and African development, research and practice in particular. Policy makers, institutional planners, education specialists, governmental and non-governmental managers and the wider public should all benefit from the contents and analyses of this book.

The sixteen chapters thus aim to be of interest internationally, to those who work in such fields as social and political foundations of comparative and international education, and development studies, including university professors, teacher educators, researchers, school teachers, tertiary education students, consultants and policy makers.

Drawing on critical pedagogy, post-colonial analysis, hermeneutic interpretation, and reconceptualist curriculum frameworks, the twenty chapters in this edited collection address, from interrelated perspectives, a gap in the scholarly literature on the theory, practice, and policy of global citizenship and global citizenship education. The book provides readers with analyses and interpretations of the existing state of global citizenship education in post-secondary institutions, and stimulates discussion about the field at a time when there is an intense debate about the current drive to «internationalize» tertiary education and the role global citizenship education should play in that process. International and interdisciplinary in its examination of post-secondary global citizenship education, the book will be useful in courses that focus on policy formation, curriculum development and theorizing in the field.

The Dialectics of African Education and Western Discourses addresses how continental Africans who have worked or are currently working in the Canadian academy address their dual legacy of African and Euro-American knowledge paradigms. Reflecting a range of approaches to hegemonic Euro-American paradigms that can be summarized as «appropriation, ambivalence and alternatives,» the authors bring African indigenous knowledge and praxes into play in addressing issues in various sub-fields of education from philosophy and gnosis to teacher education and classroom practice, memory work and storying to higher education policy and development studies, language and mathematics pedagogy to giftedness and special education. By simultaneously engaging Western and African worldviews, theory, policy and practice, the twelve essays provide an intervention in and contribution to critical approaches to education as a comprehensive global field and as an aspect of African studies.

The Dialectics of African Education and Western Discourses addresses how continental Africans who have worked or are currently working in the Canadian academy address their dual legacy of African and Euro-American knowledge paradigms. Reflecting a range of approaches to hegemonic Euro-American paradigms that can be summarized as «appropriation, ambivalence and alternatives,» the authors bring African indigenous knowledge and praxes into play in addressing issues in various sub-fields of education from philosophy and gnosis to teacher education and classroom practice, memory work and storying to higher education policy and development studies, language and mathematics pedagogy to giftedness and special education. By simultaneously engaging Western and African worldviews, theory, policy and practice, the twelve essays provide an intervention in and contribution to critical approaches to education as a comprehensive global field and as an aspect of African studies.

This book has received the AESA (American Educational Studies Association) Critics Choice Award 2013.There is a widespread, but mainly untenable, assumption that education in Western societies (and elsewhere) intuitively and horizontally aids the democratic development of people. An argument could be made that in contemporary liberal democracies, education was never designed for the well-being of societies. Instead of the full inclusion of everyone in educational development, it becomes dominated by those with a vested interest in the role of the liberal state as a mediating agent that, ultimately, assures the supremacy of the capitalism and neoliberalism. This book extends beyond a theoretical analysis of democratic education, seeking to tap into the substantial experiences, perspectives and research of a wide range of leading scholars from diverse vantage points, who bring themselves and their work into the debate connecting democracy and education, which elucidates the reference to counter-hegemonic possibilities in the title.

This book has received the AESA (American Educational Studies Association) Critics Choice Award 2013.There is a widespread, but mainly untenable, assumption that education in Western societies (and elsewhere) intuitively and horizontally aids the democratic development of people. An argument could be made that in contemporary liberal democracies, education was never designed for the well-being of societies. Instead of the full inclusion of everyone in educational development, it becomes dominated by those with a vested interest in the role of the liberal state as a mediating agent that, ultimately, assures the supremacy of the capitalism and neoliberalism. This book extends beyond a theoretical analysis of democratic education, seeking to tap into the substantial experiences, perspectives and research of a wide range of leading scholars from diverse vantage points, who bring themselves and their work into the debate connecting democracy and education, which elucidates the reference to counter-hegemonic possibilities in the title.

Despite decades of multicultural education policies, cultural minorities and the peoples of the First Nations continue to be marginalized in Canadian schools. In Education and the Politics of Difference, authors Ratna Ghosh and Ali A. Abdi expose the problematic constructions of difference in schooling contexts, where differences are either treated as surface issues that do not affect the lives of learners, or superficially celebrated in terms that do not question power relations in schools and society. This revised and expanded second edition engages the broad theories of multicultural and inclusive education, and provides case studies of Canadian multicultural education policies, such as the unique situation of Aboriginal education. With this discussion of how differences of race, class, gender, sexuality, and other differences are viewed — particularly in a post-9/11 world - this book extends the possibilities of a more open-minded global understanding and appreciation of difference. The book closes with a discussion of the future of multicultural and inclusive education, envisioning a school system where difference is normalized and seen as a fundamental human trait essential for social and human well-being.

Zambia, the butterfly-shaped, central African country has a population of about 11 million people, and as other Sub-Saharan African countries, has been trying to democratize since the early 1990s. Clearly, though, the promise of political reform did not fulfill the expectations of the public, and with about 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line, many Zambians are no longer confident that more open political systems can improve their lives. But the problem may not be inherent in the political process itself, and could be found more in the apparent disconnection between people’s needs and the way the country’s affairs are run. It is with respect to these and related issues that this book emphasizes the crucial relationship between education and political participation, and specifically highlights citizenship education as essential for Zambia’s social development.Social development, which should comprise, inter alia, the economic, political, and cultural wellbeing of societies can be enhanced by citizenship education, which focuses on elevating people’s understanding of their rights and responsibilities vis-à -vis government institutions, structures and functions. Indeed, it is the centrality of the political component in people’s lives, especially its relationship with public policy and public programs that should underline the important role of citizenship education. In describing these issues, the book analyzes the role of the media, women’s groups and youth in enhancing the political, educational, and by extension, the economic lives of the Zambian people. The book should interest students and scholars of Zambian (as well as African) education, politics, and social development. It should also be useful for policy makers, institutional managers and both public and para-public leaders in Zambia and elsewhere in the continent.

Zambia, the butterfly-shaped, central African country has a population of about 11 million people, and as other Sub-Saharan African countries, has been trying to democratize since the early 1990s. Clearly, though, the promise of political reform did not fulfill the expectations of the public, and with about 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line, many Zambians are no longer confident that more open political systems can improve their lives. But the problem may not be inherent in the political process itself, and could be found more in the apparent disconnection between people’s needs and the way the country’s affairs are run. It is with respect to these and related issues that this book emphasizes the crucial relationship between education and political participation, and specifically highlights citizenship education as essential for Zambia’s social development.Social development, which should comprise, inter alia, the economic, political, and cultural wellbeing of societies can be enhanced by citizenship education, which focuses on elevating people’s understanding of their rights and responsibilities vis-à -vis government institutions, structures and functions. Indeed, it is the centrality of the political component in people’s lives, especially its relationship with public policy and public programs that should underline the important role of citizenship education. In describing these issues, the book analyzes the role of the media, women’s groups and youth in enhancing the political, educational, and by extension, the economic lives of the Zambian people. The book should interest students and scholars of Zambian (as well as African) education, politics, and social development. It should also be useful for policy makers, institutional managers and both public and para-public leaders in Zambia and elsewhere in the continent.

This engaging edited collection highlights key discussions around educational inequity and related structures and sub-structures. Featuring a diverse array of contributors, Social Justice Education in Canada balances important knowledge, learning practices, and possibilities emanating from and embedded in antiracist and anti-oppressive education with instructive, grounding examples. The text confronts the idea of social justice as an abstract concept, discussing suggestions for rethinking educational systems and making changes that will benefit the learning lives of all students. With the aim to critically expand the emerging and increasingly active debates in this important area of educational and social development, this volume strives to collectively deepen our understanding and appreciation for critical social justice education.Organized into 14 chapters and featuring an epilogue written by Dr. Edward Shizha, the book critically deals with contemporary topical issues in education, including readings on cultural, racial, religious, Indigenous, language, socioeconomic, citizenship, disability/ableism, and immigrant/refugee status realities and their interwoven learning and teaching intersections. This text is an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate students of education across Canada.

This handbook brings together a range of global perspectives in the field of critical studies in education to illuminate multiple ways of knowing, learning, and teaching for social wellbeing, justice, and sustainability. The handbook covers areas such as critical thought systems of education, critical race (and racialization) theories of education, critical international/global citizenship education, and critical studies in education and literacy studies. In each section, the chapter authors illuminate the current state of the field and probe more inclusive ways to achieve multicentric knowledge and learning possibilities.

This handbook brings together a range of global perspectives in the field of critical studies in education to illuminate multiple ways of knowing, learning, and teaching for social wellbeing, justice, and sustainability. The handbook covers areas such as critical thought systems of education, critical race (and racialization) theories of education, critical international/global citizenship education, and critical studies in education and literacy studies. In each section, the chapter authors illuminate the current state of the field and probe more inclusive ways to achieve multicentric knowledge and learning possibilities.

With the limited availability of related foci in the area of critical educational studies, Critical Theorizations of Education is timely in both its topical relevance and time-space-themed discursive interventions. With its overall scope, constructed as both a counter-and-forward looking critical reflections and analysis of some of the most salient and contemporaneously active platforms of education, it prospectively and relatively comprehensively expands on dynamically intersecting learning and teaching contexts and relationships. As such, the volume’s contents by both established and emerging scholars, selectively locate the interplays of knowledge, learning and attendant power relations, which either transform or reproduce the status quo.Contributors are: Levonne Abshire, Claire Alkouatli, David Anderson, Neda Asadi, N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Gulbahar Beckett, José Cossa, Ratna Ghosh, Shibao Guo, Yan Guo, Carl E. James, Dip Kapoor, Festus Kelonye Beru, Ginette Lafreniere, Qing Li, Oliver Masakure, Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy, Greg William Misiaszek, Dolana Mogadime, Samson Nashon, Selline Ooko, Bathseba Opini, Amy Parent, Thashika Pillay, Edward Shizha, Kimberley Tavares, Alison Taylor, and Stacey Wilson-Forsberg.