Education, Indigenous Knowledges, and Development in the Global South Contesting Knowledages for a Sustainable Future.

Elamin, Salah

Anders Breidlid 2013. Title of book: Education, Indigenous Knowledges, and Development in the Global South Contesting Knowledages for a Sustainable Future. Publisher: Routledge, New York and London.

244 pages

ISBN13:978-0-415-89589-7 (hbk)

ISBN13:978-0-415-62988-1 (pbk)

ISBN13:978-0-203-09792-2 (ebk)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The author; Anders Breidlid is Professor of Multicultural and International Education and Development at Oslo (now Oslo and Akershus) University College, Oslo. Norway. He is a renowned researcher and well published author in fields of education, knowledge systems and epistemologies, HIV/AIDs pandemic and development. He is one of the academic activists at the front, in opposition of the hegemony of Western epistemology and cognitive violence against minority groups in the global South.

Professor Breidlid, a scholar from the North, travelled widely to and within many countries in the global South and had live experiences with peoples of the countries he visited and/or did research in. He carried out and is still involved in a wide range of research projects (including many case studies) in Sub- Saharan Africa and in Latin America and therefore he is well versed in the subject he deals with in the book.

The drive to write this book evolved from his experiences during his many visits to schools in the global South where he was convinced that there was something fundamentally problematic with educational discourses in many of the countries he visited. He met teachers in primary schools speaking a rudimentary form of a colonial language to pupils with even less knowledge of that language and noted that the content they teach was as alien as the language itself and therefore far from their cultures and world views.

Thus the intention of the author is to highlight the cognitive and epistemological issues that affect the learning of these pupils and impairs their identity construction. The book discusses the major impact that the dominating Western epistemology had on the education systems across the globe and on what has become to be known as "the global architecture of education".

Furthermore it focuses on the hegemonic role of the so called modernist, Western epistemology that spread on the wake of colonialism and the capitalist economic system and its exclusion and othering of non -hegemonic epistemologies.

The author questions and discusses in detail and depth the sustainability of hegemonic (Western) epistemology in educational systems of the global South as well as its facing of the imminent ecological challenges of our common planet. He asks whether indigenous knowledge systems would better serve the pupils in the global South and help promote sustainable development and the conservation of the limited resources of the Planet Earth that all humanity shares.

The author joins those scholars and activists who are struggling to resurrect indigenous knowledges from oblivion and show that they have important assets that need to be seriously considered in a world that is completely dominated by Western epistemology and knowledge production systems.

Structure of the book

The book comprises eight chapters as well as notes (9pp), bibliography (34pp), index (8pp) and 5 figures. After the introductory chapter the book discusses in Chapter 2 the hegemonic role of the so called modernist Western epistemology, its relation to and roots in colonialism and capitalism, its necessitation of the "uncivilized" other, as well as the impact and consequences of orientalism, modernity, modernization and the current globalization.

Chapter 3 examines the debates about who is indigenous and what are indigenous knowledges/ epistemologies. It highlights the assets and problematic aspects of indigenous knowledges and looks for possibilities of coexistence of these knowledge systems and the western system /epistemology in a third common space. It further takes on the global architecture of education and its alienating effects on students with alternative epistemological background.

The main bulk of the book (chapters 4-7) reports case studies based on field work from South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Cuba and Chile. These countries were chosen because, in addition to representing two continents in the South, they represent two trajectories of global architecture of education with the Islamist government in Sudan and Socialist government in Cuba as interesting contrasts. Cuba is reputed to have one of the best education systems in the South (as is shown in Education for All -EFA report published by UNESCO in 2011) and one that offers an alternative education discourse focusing on sustainable development. The predominantly positive reports on Cuba reflect and confirm the research findings of the author and coworkers.

The Mapuche of Chile is the only indigenous group in Latin America to successfully resist the Spanish invasion in the 19th century and get recognition of their territorial rights. There is a concern (and action) among the Mapuche that the education system of the country (Chile) should be inclusive of indigenous knowledges and worldview. As seen by the author the cosmovision and epistemological orientation of The Mapuche and Xhosa of 3 South Africa are inextricably linked to the holistic relationship between man, nature and the supernatural.

The author goes on to emphasize (from these and his other studies) the differences between indigenous and Western knowledge systems and the importance of these differences. The former do not put a demarcation line between man and nature whereas the latter is man-centered and exploitative of nature with disastrous results.

The book ends up with an air of optimism in its final chapter (Chapter 8). Here the author emphasizes the call for "the replacement of monological focus of Western knowledge production with various epistemological discourses, both in the classrooms and in the discussion of a sustainable future". He argues that education for sustainable development needs to reorient its epistemological focus by taking on board alternative epistemologies and navigate a terrain in the information flow that changed dramatically over the last decade. This makes the role of the school even more important in providing counter-narratives that can be facilitated by modern ICTs which are now more easily accessible and more widely used in the North and in the South despite of the digital divide.

Therefore the author joins those who call for a new space where all knowledge systems can co- exist and for the conscientization of the public about the threat to our planet in order to enforce a paradigmatic shift in power structures that may realize a sustainable future in which mankind can live in harmony with nature.

To conclude; the book is enjoyable to read. It is thought evoking and a "must read" book to anyone interested or involved in the current debates about the lopsided relations between the Global North and the Global South.

Reviewed by: Salah Elamin

Professor and Head of Staff Training Centre

Ahfad University for Women, Omdurman, Sudan