Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Contribution of Schooling to Community Development in African Countries

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education

  • 153 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore how schooling contributes to community development in African countries. Seventy years after independence, the village school still resembles a foreign culture and functions as a method for extracting a minority of talented children from their communities while failing to equip the majority of youth with the appropriate knowledge to make a difference in their lives and communities. In the first part of the article, we discuss the weakness of basic education to be locally relevant. The cultural and linguistic distance between school and communities and families is given special attention. In the second part, we analyze the links between schooling and improvement in health and gender equality. This aspect seems to us one of the most indisputable achievements of schooling. In the last part of the article, we explore the prospects of an African school model for contributing to community development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Africa: Export crops do little to alleviate poverty. (2013). Africa Research Bulletin: Economic, Financial and Technical Series, 50(1), 19853C. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6346.2013.04997.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akkari, A., & Loomis, C. (1998). Toward a new understanding of language minority students’ experiences of bilingual education in the United States. Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée, 67, 31–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aliana, S. B. E. (2016). (Re) penser la démocratie délibérative en Afrique à l’aune de la palabre africaine: une approche philosophique par la théorie des capabilités. Africa Development, 41(2), 23–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anyamele, O., Ukawuilulu, J., & Akanegbu, B. (2017). The role of wealth and mother’s education in infant and child mortality in 26 Sub-Saharan African countries: Evidence from pooled demographic and health survey (DHS) data 2003–2011 and African development indicators (ADI), 2012. Social Indicators Research, 130(3), 1125–1146. Retrieved from https://libproxy.wlu.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.wlu.ca/docview/1878794156?accountid=15090

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Babaci-Wilhite, Z., & Geo-JaJa, M. A. (2018). A critique and rethink of modern education in Africa’s development in the 21st century. Papers in Education and Development, 30, 1–16. http://journals.udsm.ac.tz/index.php/ped/article/view/1459/1364

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. J. (1983). Imperialism, social control and the colonial curriculum in Africa. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 15(3), 237–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banovitch, A. (1965). Tendances actuelles de l’évolution du contenu de l’enseignement dans les pays de l’Afrique noire. International Review of Education, 11(4), 423–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brock-Utne, B. (2002). Whose education for all? The recolonization of the African mind. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Charton, H. (2017). De l’art de bien gouverner l’école en Afrique: domination gestionnaire et élimination des résistances. Education et sociétés, 39(1), 101–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Ketele, J.-M. (2016). L’indispensable rapport PASEC 2014. Revue Internationale d’Éducation de Sèvres, 72, 15–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei, G. (2000). African development: The relevance and implications of ‘indigenousness’. In G. Dei, B. Hall, & D. G. Rosenberg (Eds.), Indigenous knowledges in global contexts: Multiple readings of our world (pp. 70–88). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei, S. (2008). Possibilities in African schooling and education. In S. Nombuso Dlamini (Ed.), New directions in African education: Challenges and possibilities (pp. 229–248). Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dumont, R., & Mottin, M. F. (1980). L’Afrique étranglée: Zambie, Tanzanie, Sénégal, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinée-Bissau, Cap-Vert. Paris, France: Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elonga Mboyo, J. P. (2017). Reimagining Ubuntu in schools: A perspective from two primary school leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 37, 267–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143217728085

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enslin, P., & Horsthemke, K. (2004). Can Ubuntu provide a model for citizenship education in African democracies? Comparative Education, 40(4), 545–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etieyibo, E. (2017). Moral education, Ubuntu and Ubuntu-inspired communities. South African Journal of Philosophy, 36(3), 311–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2017.1269995

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (1968/1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Herder and Herder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gebreegzainher, K. A. (2016). Education and development; females’ education and fertility reduction in Africa: The case Tigray, Ethiopia. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies, 11(2), 102–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gérard, E. (1999). Logiques sociales et enjeux de scolarisation en Afrique. Politique Africaine, 76, 153–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gfeller, E. (1997). Un modèle africain d’éducation multilingue: le trilinguisme extensif. Revue Tranel (Travaux neuchâtelois de linguistique), 26, 43–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenough, R. (1961). Un rendez-vous africain: l’éducation en Afrique: problèmes et besoins. Paris, France: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harber, C. (2013). Political culture, education and democratic citizenship in Africa. In O. Ichilov (Ed.), Citizenship and citizenship education in a changing world (pp. 205–220). New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heyneman, S. P. (2003). The history and problems in the making of education policy at the World Bank 1960–2000. International Journal of Educational Development, 23(3), 315–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodd, M. (1987). Africa, the IMF and the World Bank. African Affairs, 86(344), 331–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane, C. H. (1961). L’Aventure ambiguë, Cheikh Hamidou. Paris, France: Julliard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayombo, C. C. (2018). Paulo Freire et la pédagogie de la conscientisation: Modèle de l’école africaine pour le changement sociétal. Paris, France: Editions L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korf, B., Hagmann, T., & Emmenegger, R. (2015). Re-spacing African drylands: Territorialization, sedentarization and indigenous commodification in the Ethiopian pastoral frontier. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 42(5), 881–901. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2015.1006628

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuépié, M., Shapiro, D., & Tenikue, M. (2015). Access to schooling and staying in school in selected Sub-Saharan African countries. African Development Review, 27(4), 403–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lauwerier, T. (in press, 2019). Global citizenship education in Francophone West Africa: A promising concept? In A. Akkari, K. Maleq, & S. Tawil (Eds.), Global citizenship education: Critical and international perspectives. Geneva, Switzerland: University of Geneva.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levinson, B. A., & Holland, D. (1996). The cultural production of the educated person: An introduction. In The cultural production of the educated person: Critical ethnographies of schooling and local practice (pp. 1–54). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macmillan Education Ltd. UNDP. (2018). Human development indices and indicators 2018: Statistical update. New York, NY: UN. https://doi.org/10.18356/656a3808-en

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Madeira, A. I. (2005). Portuguese, French and British discourses on colonial education: Church–State relations, school expansion and missionary competition in Africa, 1890–1930. Paedagogica Historica, 41(1–2), 31–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maurel, C. (2009). L’Unesco: un âge d’or de l’aide au développement par l’éducation (1945–1975). Cahiers d’histoire. Revue d’histoire critique, 108, 145–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meirieu, P. (1999). Des enfants et des hommes. Littérature et pédagogie.1. La promesse de grandir. Paris, France: ESF Editeur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mundy, K., & Read, R. (2017). Education for all: Comparative sociology of schooling in Africa and beyond. In Comparative and international education: Issues for teachers (pp. 303–334). Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munger, F., MacLeod, T., & Loomis, C. (2016). Social change: Towards an informed and critical understanding of social justice and the capabilities approach in community psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, 57, 171–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mwape, G., & Serpell, R. (1996). Participatory appropriation of health science and technology. Poster presented at the International Conference of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD). Quebec, Canada, August, 1996 (ERIC document ED417191.htm).

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2000). Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • PASEC. (2016). PASEC2014 –Performances du système éducatif burundais: Compétences et facteurs de réussite au primaire. Dakar, Senegal: PASEC, CONFEMEN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilon, M. (2018). Démographie, éducation et développement en Afrique. Marché et Organisations, 32(2), 63–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piper, B. (2016). International education is a broken field: Can Ubuntu education bring solutions? International Review of Education, 62(1), 101–111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9544-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Serpell, R. (1993). The significance of schooling: Life-journeys in an African society. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serpell, R. (1999). Local accountability to rural communities. In Education, cultures and economics (pp. 111–139). New York, NY/London, England: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serpell, R. (2008). Participatory appropriation and the cultivation of nurturance: A case study of African primary health science curriculum development. In P. R. Dasen & A. Akkari (Eds.), Educational theories and practices from the ‘majority world’. New Delhi, India: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serpell, R., & Adamson-Holley, D. (2017). African socialization values and nonformal educational practices: Child development, parental beliefs, and educational innovation in rural Zambia. In Laboring and learning (pp. 19–43). Singapore, Singapore: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, A. R. (1981). Education and development in Africa. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO. (1961). Conference of African states on the development of education in Africa. Addis-Ababa, 15–25 May 1961. Final report. Paris, France: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development, General Assembly Resolution A/Res/70/1, Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld [site accessed 10 November 2018].

  • Varly, P., & Mazunya, M. (2017). Burundi ASA (P161127) study 2. Report on the quality of education. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Abdeljalil Akkari

  2. School of International Policy and Governance, Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Colleen Loomis

Authors
  1. Abdeljalil Akkari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Colleen Loomis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abdeljalil Akkari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Comparative & International Education and Leadership, Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo, CA, USA

    Rosemary Papa

Section Editor information

  1. Faculty of Health, Education and Well-being, University of Wolverhampton, Walsall, UK

    David John Matheson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Akkari, A., Loomis, C. (2020). Contribution of Schooling to Community Development in African Countries. In: Papa, R. (eds) Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74078-2_12-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74078-2_12-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74078-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74078-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation