Democratic citizenship education in Zimbabwe's higher education system and its implications for teaching and learning

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT : This study sought to access the implications of democratic citizenship education for higher educationin Zimbabwe between 1980 and 2015. Critical inquiry was used as the main research design and itwas adopted from social reconstructivism and transformation as frameworks informing thisresearch. The research used deconstruction as method, and this enabled the research to claimopenness in thinking about university education in Zimbabwe to unforeseeable in becoming – beingother than it is today, so that university education can contend with issues of inequality, corruptionas well as electoral and ethnic violence in whatever singularity.The main research question addressed in the research is: Does the Zimbabwean higher educationsystem contain a justifiable form of democratic citizenship education? This main question wassupported by the following sub-questions: To what extent is higher education in Zimbabwe informedby DCE? How committed are universities in Zimbabwe to educate for DCE? How did the economicand political situation in Zimbabwe between 1980 and 2015 determine the form of DCE in highereducation institutions of learning? How does a reconceptualised notion of DCE assist Zimbabwe'shigher education to address problems associated with social inequalities? In the light of the aboveresearch questions, this researcher gathered that Zimbabwe's higher education requires anextended view of liberal DCE for it to be able to fulfil its transformational and reconstruction agenda.This is in line with deconstruction as a reflexive paradox that reinforces the potential for DCE.The researcher also found that higher education in Zimbabwe is already conceptualised in liberalDCE but in a limited form, and that it is actualised, suggesting that it cannot resist electoral andethnic violence. More so, having literate citizens is not enough. Citizens must be literate in terms ofthe principles of democratic living, so that they may learn to participate democratically in the day-todayactivities of the communities where they live and shun violence. In the light of the abovefindings, the researcher recommends a DCE in becoming because this could potentially enablestudents and teachers to learn to think autonomously and to respect others with whom students cobelong.Furthermore, DCE in becoming could contribute to the discourses and pedagogicalencounters needed to cultivate responsible and emancipative individual agency in becoming humanswho respect community values and co-belong to the coming community. Finally, education inbecoming has the potential to make students see things differently, which will prevent them frommaking rush judgements. Such an education is still in becoming in Zimbabwe; it has not yet beenreached, but is still a process of becoming, which can be reached if teaching and learning enablestudents to enter into speech and thought without rush judgement.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University