The Dialectics of African Education and Western Discourses—Counter-Hegemonic Perspectives

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.

Handel Kashope Wright is Professor and Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education, University of British Columbia. He is co-editor of the book series African and Diasporic Cultural Studies. His most recent publications include the co-edited books Africa, Cultural Studies and Difference (2011 with Keyan Tomaselli) and Cultural Studies of Transnationalism (2012 with Meaghan Morris).
Ali A. Abdi is Professor of Education and International Development and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Research (CGCER), University of Alberta. He is also the founding editor of the online publication, Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education and co-founding editor of the new journal, Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry (with Cecille DePass). His recent edited volumes include Educating for Human Rights and Global Citizenship (2008 with Lynette Shultz) and Education and Social Development: Global Issues and Analyses (2008 with Shibao Guo).