ISSN 2756-3405
Review
African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies Vol. 7 (5), pp. 001-005, May, 2021. © International Scholars Journals
Review
Universities as learning organizations: Implications and challenges
Ngesu Lewis1*, Wambua Kyalo Benjamin2, Ndiku Juda3 and Mwaka Marcella2
1University of Nairobi P. O. Box 30197 Nairobi, Kenya.
2Moi University P. O. Box 3900 Eldoret.
3Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology P.O Box 196 Kakamega.
Accepted 22 April, 2021
Abstract
The learning organization is a concept that is becoming an increasingly widespread philosophy in modern organizations, from largest multinationals to the smallest ventures. As initially conceived by Senge (1990), the learning organization has a strongly humanist orientation, being a place where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. In order to implement learning organization techniques, public universities should tackle the five disciplines essential to a learning organization – team learning, shared vision, mental models, personal mastery and systems thinking. This paper poses the following questions: how are public universities committed to the following: creating continuous learning opportunities; promoting inquiry and dialogue; encouraging collaboration and team learning; est0ablishing systems to capture and share learning; empowering people towards a collective vision, and connecting the organization to its environment? The paper proposes the need for radical re-thinking and re-engineering of the core functions of public universities in developing countries.
Key words: Learning Institutions, Learning organizations, Leadership.
Ndiku Juda and Mwaka Marcella, Wambua Kyalo Benjamin, Ngesu Lewis*
Page: 1 - 5
Review
African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies Vol. 7 (4), pp. 001-011, April, 2021. © International Scholars Journals
Review
What if indigenous knowledge contradicts accepted scientific findings? - the hidden agenda: respect, caring and passion towards aboriginal research in the context of applying western academic rules
Norbert Witt
Faculty of Education, University of Regina, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]
Accepted 21 March 2021
Abstract
The statement in the title, what if Indigenous Knowledge contradicts accepted scientific findings (Fowler, 2000), is an expression of the dilemma people who research Indigenous Knowledge think they find themselves in when they are confronted with different interpretations of what it means to be human, or, as I may summarize it, with different cultural interpretations of human existence. I sense a certain amount of fear in this statement, which, indeed, suggests an Indigenous interpretation that threatens the accepted scientific worldview. The question is, of course, who the accepting entity is and what the acceptance is measured on. The statement was made by an academic (PhD) executive of a diamond company who, responsible for inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in the environmental assessment the company had to do before starting the mine, suspects contradictory interpretations on land use by the Indigenous people who occupy the land that should be developed by the company he represents. With this statement, he sets the stage for an analysis of research data on Indigenous Knowledge the company collected in order to follow recommendations of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (1996) that would dismiss the validity of the very subject, Indigenous Knowledge, that is to be integrated in environmental assessment done on Indigenous lands. His use of the term accepted scientific findings is unfortunate as he tries to recruit the academic community for reinforcing his view on the suspected contradictions of Indigenous Knowledge to scientific knowledge. He juxtaposes accepted, academic or scientific knowledge production to Indigenous, supposedly non-scientific knowledge, and in the process creates an image of a united academy which keeps Indigenous Knowledge out rather than integrating it, ignoring a development within the academy, carried by Indigenous scholars, which is opening paths to integrate Indigenous knowledge, although, admittedly, this does not happen without a challenge of the status quo. Looking into knowledge production anywhere we will find that the basis is observation, no matter where knowledge is produced. What is then the problem with acknowledging knowledge from others? One hint is given by Parsons (2005) who quotes on Thornhill (www.kronia.com) that “you have to observe what nature actually does, not what you think it should do”, a statement that refers to assumptions (hypotheses) that influence both the researchers’ observation and the analysis of it. I have to clarify here that he is referring to an academic establishment which, rather than trying to find new insights, tries to protect accepted paradigms. In this context any different interpretation of the observed fact s would pose a threat, and the very presence of Indigenous Knowledge might be seen as such. In this context, the rules of research and acceptance of knowledge production become a control mechanism that, rather than expanding knowledge, only allows a point of view that protects the Status Quo, preventing knowledge from real growth. In this way, the acceptance of knowledge researched according to those rules will be measured not on the basis of the philosophy of the people who hold this knowledge but on the degree of whiteness, meaning its closeness to the protected and privileged, western academic knowledge. I see Fowler’s (2000) statement within this context. What I will discuss are examples that show how the company uses academic research analysis to create a context which keeps Indigenous Knowledge out of the academic realm. Of course, the driving factor might be to validate the economic agenda of the company and devalue Indigenous concerns of destruction of their environment, source of Indigenous economy and, ultimately, their way of life. As legal interpretations were also used in order to justify such views on Indigenous Knowledge, I will discuss those interpretations, using some rulings by Canadian courts that contradict them. In the end, I will discuss the academic context, showing that, while there is a struggle by Indigenous scholars to integrate Indigenous worldviews, the doors for acceptance of Indigenous Knowledge are not as closed as the statement in the title of this paper might suggest. I will, however, also point out that there is a tendency to protect a Status Quo of scientific knowledge produced in the academy and that Indigenous Knowledge has not yet been completely accepted, and as long as control of knowledge production and interpretation of knowledge according to its degree of academic whiteness remains in the hands of the privileged, Indigenous people in the academy will have to struggle to have Indigenous Knowledge accepted. My examples refer to research of Indigenous Knowledge in the Omushkegowuk (Swampy Cree) community of Attawapiskat in Northern Ontario, Canada set up and supervised by the diamond company. My interest in this issue stems from my status of, albeit being non-Aboriginal, being a member of the community by marriage, being involved in community matters with all my in-law relatives living in that community. Having such personal connection to the people I also witness that due to the mistrust in the validity of their knowledge, Indigenous people still have a hard time trusting the claim of their colonizers to have moved beyond colonialism.
Key words: Indigenous research, Research in Indigenous communities, ways of knowing, Indigenous Rights, Treaty Rights, Knowledge production, analysis methodologies, control of knowledge, ethics.
Norbert Witt
Page: 1 - 11
Perspective
African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies Vol. 7 (2), pp. 001-007, February, 2021. © International Scholars Journals
Perspective
An environmental analysis of existence: The past, the present and the future
Babu J. Alappat 1* and Anil Kumar Dikshit 2
1Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016.
2CESE, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076, Inida.
Accepted 29 January, 2021
Abstract
Man, as a “being” with the unique capacity to think and reason, has always been curious about his end as well as the end of the known universe. Perhaps, that is the ultimate thing he can think about beyond which nothing exists. Not only in the religions, in science also, there are lots of queries and theories about the END, the total extinction beyond which it is the unimaginable “nothingness”. It is not at all surprising that, there are almost similar mentions about the final extinction in various religions that were established and developed in different parts of the world. Wherever the humans lived, these thoughts persisted with them. He wondered, if he could know the beginning of life as well as the beginning of the known universe, he would know at least something about the end. For that matter, the end is the same as the beginning. What was there before the beginning and what will be there after the end? Philosophy says it is “nothingness”. Science does not have a concrete answer to that as on today. Humans always looked at the stars and to the universe to get some clue about the beginning and the end.
Key words: Environmental Analysis, Space, Black Hole, Laws of Nature, Existence, Life and Death, Origin and Final Destiny of Universe.
Anil Kumar Dikshit, Babu J. Alappat *
Page: 1 - 7
Research Article
African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies Vol. 6 (8), pp. 001-012, August, 2020. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Integrating gender practices in religious education pedagogy in higher education; a case study of school of education, Makerere University, Uganda
Dr. Tuyizere Alice Peace
Department of Humanities and Language Education, College of Education and External Studies (CEES), Makerere University, P. O. Box, 7062, Kampala, Uganda. E-mail: [email protected].
Accepted 11 November, 2019
Abstract
From a pedagogical perspective, religious teaching-learning processes in higher education require more serious focus on present day gender issues than ever before. This is because the female student after leaving school has continued to be marginalized to perform household chores and dominated by her male counterparts who exercise authority over women in the public domain. One hundred and eighty-eight participants were selected for this study. They included teacher trainees offering RE in the School of Education, Makerere University. The study design was qualitative in nature. Interviews, observations and documentary analysis were used to collect and analyze data. The study found that integrating gender-friendly practices in RE pedagogy, significantly increased students’ orientations of their mindset orientations towards gender friendly-practices. More specifically, it shows that integrating gender-friendly practices in RE pedagogy can kick-start the slow but steady process of attitudinal and behavioral change regarding gender relations and operations. To this end, the study recommends that integrating critical and sensitive gender issues in RE teaching-learning processes in higher education can be a humble but coherent contribution towards the achievement of sustainable gender-based Development Goals (SDGs).
Keywords: Integrating, gender practices, religious education, pedagogy and higher education.
Tuyizere Alice Peace
Page: 1 - 12
Review
African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies Vol. 6 (8), pp. 001-008, August, 2020. © International Scholars Journals
Review
Colonialism and African cultural values
Benson O. Igboin
Department of Religion and African Culture, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel: +234 8057420868.
Accepted 19 May, 2020
Abstract
It is no longer a debate that pre-colonial African life was heavily influenced by religion. Almost every aspect of life was seen and interpreted in the supernatural. The belief that the ancestors played prominent roles in the maintenance of morality in the community hardly dies, even today. However, it is true that colonialism altered the belief and values of the Africans significantly, just as its structure was almost completely eroded. Today, the argument oscillates between a return to the ‘glorious’ pre-colonial past as the minimum requirement for moral rearmament and a total break with the past. This paper clarifies these positions and posits that even though it is not practically possible to have a total return to the past, there are certain cultural values that consistently define the African personality, history and belief that cannot be jettisoned without consequences. Through the gristmill of scholarly and analytical framework, this paper argues that these values are critical to African identity in a post-colonial, global community, and as such, there is the need to revisit some of them in order to keep pace with the history and identity in the face of current global challenges.
Key words: Colonialism, Africa, values, religion, culture, morality.
Benson O. Igboin
Page: 1 - 8
Research Article
African Journal of Philosophy and Religious Studies Vol. 6 (8), pp. 001-007, August, 2020. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Trans-African identity: Cultural globalization and the role of the symbolic-aesthethic dimension in the present identity construction processes
Francisco Javier Ullán de la Rosa
Department of Sociology, University of Alicante, Spain.Carretera San Vicente del Raspeig s/n - 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig - Alicante Spain. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel. 965903400.
Accepted 15 June, 2020
Abstract
Globalization entails a process, in any case irreversible, of intensification of transnational, trans-societal and trans-cultural spaces, events, problems, economic transactions, conflicts and biographies, a process not necessarily unfolding in a centripetal, homogeneous and single way towards the formation of a single world society and culture but rather in a polycentric, multidimensional, “messy” way, dialectically contingent on the local. As far as the cultural dimension of globalization is concerned, the new concept of the “global” comes into being as an identity of synthesis whereby such different groups as black communities across the Atlantic reaffirm their feelings of belonging, reconstructing them before the invasion of the global into their lives. This synthesis between the global and the local takes place by means of a dichotomy: the global takes possession of the infrastructural, structural and ethic axiological levels, leading societies towards a certain uniformization; the local remains at the aesthetic level of symbols and icons, shaping self-referred differential identities. The paper aims at exploring one of this new, postmodern, aesthetic, disembodied from a concrete set of cultural practices: one that we have labeled as the trans-African or black trans-national identity: that of all the communities that claim an African descent around the world.
Key words: Black identity, cultural globalization, postmodernity, glocalization, africanity, trans-african.
Francisco Javier Ullán de la Rosa
Page: 1 - 7