Chronicles on African Philosophy of Higher Education: A Colloquy Among Friends - Paperback

by Yusef Waghid (Volume Editor)

The central argument in this book revolves around the significance of an African philosophy of higher education. Such a philosophy is geared towards cultivating democratic iterations, co-belonging, and critique within human encounters. Together, these actions can enhance intellectual activism within and beyond the encounters. A philosophy of higher education is constituted by a philosophical act of reflexivity according to which (how), freedom (both autonomous and communal), cosmopolitanism (learning to live with differences and otherness), and caring with others (ubuntu) can be rhythmically practised. What makes an African philosophy of higher education distinctive and realisable is that practices ought to be based on iterations, co-belonging, and critique. If intellectual activism were not to become a major act of resistance on the basis of which educational, political, and societal dystopias can be undermined, such a philosophy of higher education would not have a real purpose. An African philosophy of higher education is an intellectually activist endeavour because of its concern to be oppositional to constraints in and about higher education. In conversation with such an understanding of this philosophy, contributors to this volume offer responses to why human freedom, cosmopolitanism, and caring with others (ubuntu) can be rhythmically enacted.

Author Biography

Yusef Waghid is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. His most recent (co)authored books include Education, Crisis, and Philosophy: Ubuntu within Higher Education (Routledge, 2022); Democratic Education as Inclusion (Lexington Books, 2022), Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021); and Academic Activism in Higher Education: A Living Philosophy for Social Justice (Springer, 2021).