TAFAEIA10U Education in Africa (compact course)

Volume 2014/2015
Content

This short course deals with meaning of education in Africa. The course examines how schools, as state regulated institutions, educate young people. The course specifically gives attention to how schools produce meaning ascribed to categories such as religion and culture, connected to identity politics and the formation of young social identities.

In many African countries, the education of children and young people is seen as a key answer to the challenges facing states and their ambitions of becoming social welfare states. However, the institutionalization of children and youth is far from being a straightforward or foreseen process.  On the one hand, what is going on inside the school is highly influenced by the life outside the school, and by everyday practices that often involve religion and various cultural idea. On the other hand, schooling and “going to school”, transforms ideas and ways of perceiving oneself and ways of life.

The overall purpose of this course is to critically analyze, conceptualize and discuss what is going on inside and in connection to schools, what the students learn and how such educational processes affect and are affected by young people’s lives more broadly.

The course draws inspiration from sociology of education, history of education, ethnography of education, curriculum sociology and classroom research. The course present and discuss conceptual approaches to the school and the classroom in relation to historical, cultural and socio-economic processes as well as to the everyday experiences of schooling. A number of cases (with focus on, but not limited to, East Africa) including secular forms and religious types of schools will be presented.

Learning Outcome

The aim is for the student to acquire the following qualifications:

  • Ability to select, in consultation with the instructor, a relevant sub-topic within the overall focus area of the course. The sub-topic will often be empirical in nature and geared towards specific conditions in Africa, but it can also be more theoretical.
  • Ability to independently and critically select relevant literature on the sub-topic to be studied.
  • Ability to independently and critically analyse the sub-topic in question and to place it within the overall context of the thematic course in question.
The teaching forms are lectures and discussions in class, pairs and groups.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Course Preparation
  • 272
  • Exam
  • 120
  • Total
  • 420
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Exam period
June 2015
Criteria for exam assesment

The grade of 12 is given at the exam when the student demonstrates:

  • Confident ability to identify and define a sub-topic and an issue of relevance to the overall theme of the course.
  • Confident ability to independently and critically select relevant literature on the sub-topic to be studied.
  • Confident ability to independently and critically analyse the sub-topic in question and the chosen literature.
  • Confident ability to conduct an interdisciplinary analysis of the sub-topic in question and to place it within the overall theme of the course in question.
  • Confident ability to communicate academic material in a clear, concise and well-argued manner.