Cultural Influences in Online Pedagogy and the Final Ends of African Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter explores the perceptions that custodians of African cultures such as parents, grand-parents, village chiefs, and other community leaders hold regarding what higher education institutions ought to achieve for their children, and the extent to which these final ends are being, or can be, achieved through teaching and learning in cyberspace. Using the African context of Botswana as a reference point, the chapter situates learning and teaching practices online in the context of culture. After exploring the literature on cultural worldviews, African expectations of higher education, and online pedagogy and technology, the chapter documents the understandings and perceptions of the final ends that higher education institutions ought to pursue held by 39 village chiefs, community leaders, and parents from different cultural groups and communities. Evidence from phenomenological interviews revealed that Africans held that Afro-communal purposes for higher education in which promoting virtue, supporting culture, facilitating cooperation, and contributing to socio-economic development were seen as the paramount final ends for higher education institutions. The findings support Metz’s (2019) theoretical model of the ends of African higher education institutions. The chapter argues that, for online pedagogy in African universities and colleges to be successful, it should be grounded in collectivism where emphasis is given to the use of synchronous communication systems for the delivery of learning experiences, pedagogical practices are framed within community of practice, students are exposed to education for morality to foster a deeper sense of being real humans, and a socio-economic development agenda is emphasised.

Citation

Brown, B.A. and Nthoi, O. (2022), "Cultural Influences in Online Pedagogy and the Final Ends of African Higher Education", Brown, B.A. and Irons, A. (Ed.) The Emerald Handbook of Higher Education in a Post-Covid World: New Approaches and Technologies for Teaching and Learning, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 289-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-193-120221014