Making room for alternative African epistemologies in Ethiopian higher education

Higher education institutions in Ethiopia are expanding in diversity of fields they offer to students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The opening and internationalization of new programs mostly responds to the demands of market forces on the one hand and the prospect of employability in t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Meskerem Lechissa Debele
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: College of education, Bahir Dar University 2023-06-01
Series:Bahir Dar Journal of Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.Ajol.Info/index.php/bdje/article/view/248756
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1823864723659030528
author Meskerem Lechissa Debele
author_facet Meskerem Lechissa Debele
author_sort Meskerem Lechissa Debele
collection DOAJ
description Higher education institutions in Ethiopia are expanding in diversity of fields they offer to students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The opening and internationalization of new programs mostly responds to the demands of market forces on the one hand and the prospect of employability in the national and global market on the other as perceived by incoming students. Accordingly, curricula are mostly shaped by the interests of national and global market forces. While this is necessary to a certain extent, the need to make sure that graduates have a well-balanced regional and international outlook that goes beyond too immediate priorities of market forces should be well kept in mind by higher education program developers and curriculum designers. One issue often raised by Ethiopian scholars and others in relation to the narrow outlook of most Ethiopian higher education graduates is the fact that they are mostly unaware of (or alien to) the lives, aspirations, struggles, dreams, and achievements of people in adjacent African countries and the African diaspora. This paper is an introduction of some of the alternative and moderately influential intellectual perspectives developed by African and African-American scholars that can help balance the one-sided world outlook of Ethiopian students which is primarily shaped by the perspectives of DWEMS (“Dead White European Males”) in different fields.
format Article
id doaj-art-df52242cb5d948d09a9fb7ac5ea4ec91
institution Kabale University
issn 1816-336X
2415-0452
language English
publishDate 2023-06-01
publisher College of education, Bahir Dar University
record_format Article
series Bahir Dar Journal of Education
spelling doaj-art-df52242cb5d948d09a9fb7ac5ea4ec912025-02-08T19:50:54ZengCollege of education, Bahir Dar UniversityBahir Dar Journal of Education1816-336X2415-04522023-06-01181Making room for alternative African epistemologies in Ethiopian higher educationMeskerem Lechissa Debele0Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, College of Education & Behavioral Sciences, Bahir Dar University Higher education institutions in Ethiopia are expanding in diversity of fields they offer to students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The opening and internationalization of new programs mostly responds to the demands of market forces on the one hand and the prospect of employability in the national and global market on the other as perceived by incoming students. Accordingly, curricula are mostly shaped by the interests of national and global market forces. While this is necessary to a certain extent, the need to make sure that graduates have a well-balanced regional and international outlook that goes beyond too immediate priorities of market forces should be well kept in mind by higher education program developers and curriculum designers. One issue often raised by Ethiopian scholars and others in relation to the narrow outlook of most Ethiopian higher education graduates is the fact that they are mostly unaware of (or alien to) the lives, aspirations, struggles, dreams, and achievements of people in adjacent African countries and the African diaspora. This paper is an introduction of some of the alternative and moderately influential intellectual perspectives developed by African and African-American scholars that can help balance the one-sided world outlook of Ethiopian students which is primarily shaped by the perspectives of DWEMS (“Dead White European Males”) in different fields. https://www.Ajol.Info/index.php/bdje/article/view/248756Epistemologies, African diaspora, African-American scholarship, Ethiopia, higher education
spellingShingle Meskerem Lechissa Debele
Making room for alternative African epistemologies in Ethiopian higher education
Bahir Dar Journal of Education
Epistemologies, African diaspora, African-American scholarship, Ethiopia, higher education
title Making room for alternative African epistemologies in Ethiopian higher education
title_full Making room for alternative African epistemologies in Ethiopian higher education
title_fullStr Making room for alternative African epistemologies in Ethiopian higher education
title_full_unstemmed Making room for alternative African epistemologies in Ethiopian higher education
title_short Making room for alternative African epistemologies in Ethiopian higher education
title_sort making room for alternative african epistemologies in ethiopian higher education
topic Epistemologies, African diaspora, African-American scholarship, Ethiopia, higher education
url https://www.Ajol.Info/index.php/bdje/article/view/248756
work_keys_str_mv AT meskeremlechissadebele makingroomforalternativeafricanepistemologiesinethiopianhighereducation