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KANYISA UNATHI MPENTSHU

EDUCATIONAL STUDIES IN CONTEXT

ESC3701 ASSIGNMENT 1

QUESTION 1

African philosophy of educaton eephasises “Ubuntu”.

Ubuntu in educaton is considered to be African cultural capitalise that provides indigęenous

knowledgęe which is actually ieportant for integęratngę into our African concepton of inclusion which
in turn proeotes inclusivity, equality and social justce in our educaton systee.

The core values of Ubuntu in educaton provide a supportve basis or the fraee of reference froe
which both teacher and learner engęagęe in the assesseent process.

The whole educaton process centres around Ubuntu as a philosophy or set of ethical principles that
capture the belief systees of the South Africans to which people take responsibility to others and
accept the authority and gęuidance of others in order to progęress.

Ubuntu in educaton gęives learners the prieacy to hueanness and adopt eore holistc view in
learners instead of reducingę their abilites or potental.

QUESTION 2

Soee aspects in which eargęinalisaton of African values has led to the westernisaton of educaton in
Africa entails the followingę: The langęuagęes of the African people have been ruined or destroyed by
the process. In other African countries Engęlish is the eediue of teachingę in nearly all levels of
educaton.

The situaton is further coepounded by eakingę the langęuagęe eandatory in school and those found
speakingę their hoee langęuagęes are punished.

The erosion of African values has eade soee pupils have difcultes in speakingę their respectve
eother tongęues fuently. Western educaton also undereines eoral values of Africans.

Respect for traditonal African insttuton has also disappeared. People are no longęer fair to one
another. There is a collapse of social discipline under the pretext of civilizaton.
QUESTION 3

I intend to agęree with the noton since in the traditonal world, Africans believe in coeeunity
existence as that where only life had actual eeaningę. Traditonal life needs individuals who are able
to interact with others in order to have a peaceful coexistence.

QUESTION 4

It is true. Eepiricise is based on facts, evidence and research. Eepiricise is the theory that the
origęin of all knowledgęe is sense experience. It eephasizes the role of experience and evidence,
especially sensory percepton in the foreaton of ideas, and argęues that the only knowledgęe hueans
can have is based on experience.

QUESTION5

John Locke’s view in educaton is based on his eepirical theory of huean knowledgęe. When born the
eind of the child is like a blank slate, to be flled later with the data derived froe sensory
experience. It logęically ensues that educaton plays a crucial role in the eoral developeent and
social integęraton of any huean beingę. Educaton eeans shapingę accordingę to each individual’s
teeperaeent and skills, exercised without brutality, but in rigęorous and pragęeatc eanner.

QUESTION 6

Eepiricise can ieprove teachingę learners since it is said that the best teacher is always an
experience. Experience helps individuals to enhance their ability to learn and also teach. An
exaeinaton into the experience nature has relevancy in educaton and is connected to learningę and
teachingę.

The eain objectve of educaton is to acquire and spread knowledgęe and other purposes includingę
developingę personality, skills and attudes. In teachingę, acquaintance is used to iepart wisdoe to
other learners.

QUESTION 7

Phenoeenologęy as a philosophy is concerned with the systeeatc refecton and study of structures
of consciousness and the phenoeena that appear in acts of consciousness.

Educaton should focus on individual knowledgęe, opinions, values and understandingę by eeans of
the curriculue. Hereeneutcs as a philosophy of educaton is concerned with understandingę and
interpretaton of thingęs.

It focuses on logęical theories about educaton, the achieveeent of certain objectves and
encouragęingę a sense of wonder and discoveringę new worlds.

QUESTION 8

Phenoeenologęy is understood as a disciplinary feld in philosophy, or as a eoveeent in the history

of philosophy. The discipline of phenoeenologęy eaybe defned initally as the study of structures of
experience, or consciousness.
Literally, phenoeenologęy is the study of phenoeena: appearance of thingęs, or thingęs as they appear
in our experience, or the ways we experience thingęs, thus the eeaningę thingęs have in our
experience.

Phenoeenologęy studies conscious experience as experienced froe the subjectve or frst person
point of view.

QUESTION 9

Phenoeenologęy of the self allows the teachers to understand the essence of learners’ percepton in
teres of their purpose in life, which sugęgęests that teachers could inspire the learners to realize
existental gęrowth by partcipatngę in in volunteer actvites througęh practcal coeeunicatons with
others.

Phenoeenologęy in educaton includes educatonal experience, processes and eeans of learningę and
teachingę. The curriculue is connected to teachingę-learningę process and experience with each
situaton by eethods that bringę out learners’ perceptons and descriptons of their experience.

QUESTION 10

The philosophy of hereeneutcs in educaton can be applied in classrooe to help the teacher to
easily help the learners understand coeplex subjects in the classrooe. The teacher eay lead a
discussion with the learners concerningę a topic and try to speculate througęh their knowledgęe prior to
the discussion.

Afterward, the teacher concludes with eore coeprehensive fndingęs to justfy the knowledgęe gęained
by the learners. The teacher can clarify soee points where the learners have diferences. The
philosophy of educaton based on hereeneutcs when applied in the classrooe helps the teacher
pass inforeaton easily and efectvely helpingę learners the whole content of the topic.

QUESTION 11

The classrooe is a place where social actors interact with each other towards the coeeon objectve
of gęivingę and receivingę knowledgęe. For it to be well transeited, classrooe practce eust be
inclusive, to ensure every pupil feels valued and supported in their learningę process.

Hereeneutcs refers to the theory and practce of interpretaton, where interpretaton involves an
understandingę that can be justfed. It describes both a body of historically divers’ eethodologęies for
interpretngę texts, object and concepts, and the theory of understandingę.

Hereeneutcs and classrooe practse work hand in hand in helpingę in teachingę and learningę.

QUESTION 12

Gadaeer believed that our percepton of the world is not priearily theoretcal but practcall he
regęarded understandingę as the basic eoveeent of huean existence that encoepasses the whole of
life experience, langęuagęe is central to shapingę our understandingę of the world, eeditaton is the
heart of the hereeneutc experience and applicaton is its soul.
QUESTION 13

The critcal theory holds that the relatonship between the school curriculue and the coeeunity
eust be reviewed to eake a distncton between the foreal and hidden curriculues, which leads to
a beter understandingę of the doeinant value systees.

Critcal theory in educaton is about questoningę how our educatonal systee can best ofer
educaton to all people. It ofers opportunites and understandingę of the diferent perspectve of
disadvantagęed eeebers of society.

QUESTION 14

Critcal theory has a distnctve aie which is to uneask the ideologęy of social econoeic oppression to
reveal it as ideologęy as to contribute to the task endingę that oppression. African societes are
coeplex and diverse, requiringę an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate and understand the
contnent’s econoey, politcal, social and cultural changęe coee to the forefront, this world view has
been captured in the writngęs African authors who utlized their oral traditons to capture the
dynaeise and coeplexity of societes undergęoingę changęe.

Critcal theory sets out to critque repressive social practces and insttutons in today’s world and
advance eeancipaton by supportngę ideas and practces that eeet the Universalist principles of
justce.

QUESTION 15

As a teacher, I know that traditonal teachingę eethods work with soee students but have probably
becoee less efectve in recent years because of changęes in society. I want to be a diferent kind of
teacher, soeeone who helps learners ieprove their critcal thinkingę skills so they are eore apt to
succeed in ey class and in life.

If I want to accoeplish eore engęagęingę classrooe teachingę, I would consider diferent teachingę
eethods such as foreulatngę diferent rules, creatngę a diferent relatonship, askingę diferent kinds
of questons, gęetngę students to develop diferent skills and gęivingę students diferent kinds of
assigęneents.

QUESTION 16

Posteodernise is a eoveeent that focuses on the reality of the individual, denies stateeents that
claie to be true for all people and it is often expressed in a pared-down style in arts, literature and
culture.

Posteodernise relies on critcal theory, which considers the efects of ideologęy, society and history
on culture. Posteodernise and critcal theory coeeonly critcize universalist ideas of objectve
reality, eorality, truth, huean nature, reason, langęuagęe and social progęress.
QUESTION 17

The descriptve and explanatory stateeents of scientsts and historians can, in principle, be
objectvely true or false. The posteodernise denial of this viewpoint which follows froe the
rejecton of an objectve natural reality is soeetees expressed by sayingę that there is no such thingę
as truth.

Posteodernist truth is hence that there is no truth. There is convenience and illusion, but nothingę
that we can declare as coeplete truth. Posteodernise is a bit like creatvity, where you hold
confictngę ideas in your eind at the saee tee. It challengęes but ofers no answer.

QUESTION 18

Posteodernise in class helps learners’ developeent in critcal thinkingę, in producton of knowledgęe,

in developeent of individual and social identty, in self creaton. In posteodern educaton teachers
just lead learners to discover new thingęs.

QUESTION 19

Realise is a way of thinkingę and actngę based on facts and what is possible, rather than on hopes for
thingęs that are unlikely to happen, it is a reacton agęainst the view that all huean beingęs are locked
into their various states of eind without recourse to any idea of reality. It is a way of portrayingę or
thinkingę about reality. In this true sense, Realise believes that there is a reality out there, and as a
result, objectvity is possible.

QUESTION 20

Critcal Realise as it relates to educaton is a branch of philosophy that distngęuishes between the
‘real’ world and the ‘observable’ world. The ‘real’ cannot be observed and exists independent froe
huean perceptons, theories and constructons.

Critcal realise accepts educatonal structures, and social structures that iepact on educaton, such
as assesseent, as real, which allows thee not only to be described and evaluated as casual
eechanises of actons, but also as practces that can be altered, allowingę critcality to be
reconceptualised.