Aug 2026· International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research· Vol 8· 0 citations· 33 references
Abstract
Problem: Social work education is still stuck in epistemologies of Eurocentrism that continues to perpetrate epistemic violence on the African systems of knowledge, where the Black students are sidelined and the practitioners are unprepared to serve the Black communities. However, the translation of Afrocentric theory into pedagogical practice is under researched, even though in recent years, there is increasingly more awareness about this crisis.
Method: The qualitative thematic synthesis of the interdisciplinary literature was the method of this study that involved Afrocentric theory, critical pedagogy, decolonial theory, and social work education. Based on the six-step model provided by Braun and Clarke, the analysis systematically found the patterns in both canonical and contemporary literature to create an overall conceptual framework.
Findings: The analysis showed that there were nine interconnected themes that were grouped into four areas, including epistemological (epistemic justice and centering African knowledge systems; validation of multiple ways of knowing; historical reclamation and counter-narrative) and curricular (representation of Black contributors; integration of African philosophical frameworks; diversified assessment modalities) domains and relational (collective learning communities and Ubuntu relationality; recognition of racialized identities and belonging) and institutional (institutional resistance and the labor of transformation) ones.
Contribution: In this paper, Afrocentric pedagogy is developed as transformative praxis, the dialectical unity of reflection and action to humanization and liberation, instead of simply adding content to it. It offers educators, administrators, and advocates with a consistent argument to support epistemological, curricular, relational, and institutional aspects of change in social work education at the same time.
Higher education in South Africa has been widely critiqued for privileging Eurocentric epistemologies that marginalise local knowledge systems and distance learning from the socio-political realities students inhabit. Such dynamics constrain students’ capacity to critically engage the historical and structural forces shaping identity, belonging, and wellbeing. Responding to these concerns, this study examines how a collaborative, arts-based pedagogical strategy centred on graffiti can advance more inclusive and socially responsive teaching practices for diverse student populations. Grounded in critical pedagogy and decolonial theory and informed by the group psychoanalytic concept of the social unconscious, the study conceptualises a graffiti installation as a participatory archive through which students explore the intersections of identity, power, place, and collective memory. A qualitative, participatory design was employed with 12 postgraduate students (7 psychology and 5 design students) across 2 private South African institutions. Through a series of facilitated workshops, participants engaged in critical dialogue, collaboratively created a graffiti installation in a public campus space, and reflected on the meanings embedded in the evolving artwork. Data were generated through the visual artifact, transcribed discussions, participant reflections, and facilitator notes, and analysed using iterative thematic and visual analysis. Findings indicate that the collaborative process enabled students to articulate complex experiences of identity, belonging, and mental health while situating these within broader socio-historical dynamics. The installation functioned as a dialogical and multimodal learning space that supported diverse forms of expression, legitimised experiential knowledge, and uncovered both visible and silenced tensions. The chapter’s original contribution lies in demonstrating how participatory visual methods can operationalise intellectual decolonisation in practice while advancing inclusive teaching strategies that engage cognitive, affective, and spatial ways of knowing.
S. Auld· International Journal of Stu...· 0 citations
This article critically examines the field of social studies education in the Latin American context, marked by structural inequalities, colonial legacies, and persistent sociopolitical tensions. From a theoretical-reflective perspective, it analyzes the epistemological foundations, pedagogical approaches, and political disputes shaping this field, arguing that social studies teaching must move beyond content transmission and function as a space for the formation of critical subjects. The study explores the transition from memorization-based models to constructivist, critical, and decolonial approaches, highlighting both their contributions and limitations. It conceptualizes the curriculum as a contested terrain shaped by power relations, where historical narratives, knowledge forms, and models of citizenship are defined. Additionally, it integrates contemporary dimensions such as digital transformation and critical literacy, the teaching of historical memory in post-conflict settings, and intercultural bilingual education as a decolonial horizon. The article argues that meaningful transformation depends on robust teacher education grounded in Pedagogical Content Knowledge from a critical perspective. It concludes that the renewal of social studies constitutes a pedagogical, political, and ethical project aimed at fostering subjects capable of interpreting and transforming social reality in Latin America.
Luis Felipe Lagos Bello, Josefina Cuello Daza, Samira Andrea Palomino Romero et al.· Ibero Ciencias - Revista Cie...· 0 citations
This study employed Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional approach to critical discourse analysis to investigate the potential of defamiliarisation, supported by collaborative online international learning, to help pre-service teachers in South Africa and Germany challenge neoliberalism and promote critical global citizenship. A group of pre-service teachers in South Africa and Germany (N = 54) were prompted to critically analyse capitalism’s global influence and articulate their ideas using creative illustrations inspired by the short online film Marx and I. The resulting artwork of a sub-sample of the South African student teachers (n = 7) shows their individual and collective reflections on global injustice, capitalism and human rights abuses, while that of the German student teachers (n = 7) emphasises the refugee crisis in Europe, environmental degradation and social exclusion. The research highlights the usefulness of defamiliarisation in producing context-specific criticisms and transforming student teachers’ perceptions of global socio-political environments. The authors found that defamiliarisation promotes a transdisciplinary approach to teacher education and is valuable for contesting neoliberal beliefs and prevailing narratives, thereby encouraging student teachers’ critical engagement with global challenges.
Z. Waghid, S. Leitner· International Review of Educ...· 0 citations
The curricular resignification of the Community Ethnoeducational Project (PEC) in primary education institutions cannot be understood as a technical adjustment of the curriculum, but as a historical dispute over the meaning of school, over who produces legitimate knowledge and for which lives they become teachable. Based on a critical analysis of literature and references located in the Colombian Caribbean, this article examines how contemporary education reproduces philosophical inertias associated with the coloniality of knowledge and "neutralized" forms of interculturality, while managing difference through policies, curricula and institutional devices that usually oscillate between folklore, segregation and essentialization. It is analyzed how the transition from the Institutional Educational Project (PEI) to the PEC requires recognizing internal tensions (normative frameworks, school culture, management management, evaluation) and external tensions (structural racism, territorial inequality, precariousness of the school-community link), as well as integrating community knowledge not as "annexed contents", but as principles of pedagogical, ethical and political organization of the curriculum.
Torres Pérez-María, D. Carmen· Journal of Intelligent Decis...· 0 citations
A sudden shift in teaching and learning modalities since the pandemic has confronted many issues and challenges. This happened in both well-developed and developing countries. Understanding how education remains an equalizer in terms of social justice is a key factor in its concept. Conversely, research on the concept of education for social justice, in the time of digital transformation, especially during and post-pandemic, becomes limited or scarce. This research is intended for the educational managers in the Philippine higher education institutions (HEIs) that were considered the top-performing schools in the 2022 Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET). The Narrative Inquiry is used as the tradition of inquiry through the topical stories of seven (7) school managers during the pandemic, focused on digital transformation and social justice in education. These stories were analysed and presented using Elliot Mishler’s Model of Narrative Analysis. The theoretical basis of this work is Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Perspective. From the narratives of the participants, teacher training and skill development, availability of ICT infrastructures and equipment, and a new culture among teacher education institutions must be established. Further, the significant role of the HEIs and the government in ensuring that education is accessible, equitable, and of high quality was highlighted. The results suggest that a proactive and responsive strategic and action plan must be designed and implemented based on the context of each educational institution to ensure that all concerns are appropriately addressed, mitigations are in place with urgency, and an improvement or enhancement of policies about quality and equity of education across all levels and geographic locations. Further, this will empower the school managers to design and implement action plans based on what is required by the situation and the problem they are experiencing.
This article aims to analyze Max Van Manen’s main contributions to hermeneutic phenomenology and their relevance for understanding teaching practice within the Colombian educational context. The study was conducted using a qualitative documentary approach, based on the analysis of the author's seminal works (1990, 1991, 1998, 2003, and 2014), as well as Latin American studies that have applied this approach in vulnerable rural and urban settings. As a methodological framework, the study adopted the five phases proposed by Van Manen—clarification of assumptions, collection of lived experience, structural reflection, writing and rewriting, and integration of particular structures—adapted by Fuster (2019) for application in educational research. The findings indicate that hermeneutic phenomenology makes it possible to move beyond technical and normative approaches to education by placing the lived experiences of teachers and students at the center of pedagogical understanding. Furthermore, pedagogical tact and pedagogical hope emerge as fundamental categories for interpreting teaching practice in contexts characterized by inequality, rurality, and post-conflict conditions in Colombia. It is concluded that hermeneutic phenomenology constitutes a reflective approach that strengthens educational research by fostering a contextualized, ethical, and critical understanding of teaching practice.
