Although matters of faith, religion and spirituality are central to the lives of millions of people in the global South. and many faith based organizations are actively involved in development. few northern academics in the field of international development make explicit reference to religion's role in development. and, if they do, the subject is often subsumed under another category, such as culture. This study seeks to shed light on the interface between religion and international development in Canadian academic institutions: to what extent is the influence -- for good or ill-- of religion or development acknowledged in their programmes, publications, and curricula? This is accomplished by means of an analysis of references to religion in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies (CJDS) and Canadian Development Reports as well as in the course offerings of International Development Studies (IDS) departments at Canadian universities. Findings show that only about 1% of article titles and 2% per cent of abstracts mention the subject of religion in its broadest definition over the twenfy five year history of the CJDS. Of 2,684 IDS courses offered (including courses cross-listed with Religious Studies departments), some 3% mention religion in their titles, and 8% in course descriptions. However, upon closer examination, only a handful of courses directly analyze the relationship between religion and development. Findings from this research are further interrogated in surveys and interviews with key informants, in order to uncover some of the reasons for what is perceived to be a lacuna in IDS teaching and research. Various recommendations are advanced: positivistic biases in academia need to be acknowledged, more research should be devoted towards an area currently understudied, and northern academics must be challenged to consider the religious reality of southern life, for, in Robert Chambers' words, "Whose reality counts?" Clearly the religious dimension of global life needs to be afforded a sharper focus in the programmes, publications and curricula of IDS departments at Canadian academic institutions. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

[No Abstract Submitted] / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

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This study is a meta-analysis of the transformation of the curriculum for basic education in South Africa. The integration of indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) in the curriculum is one of the reconciliatory practices adopted in an effort to deal with the rights of indigenous people globally. The study analysed cases relating to IKSs and the curriculum in Canada for a case reference in juxtaposition with South Africa, in particular. Examples of cases drawn from elsewhere in the world have also been included briefly to justify the researcher’s claims for the urgent integration of IKSs into the curriculum, which complies with the human rights course of the rights of indigenous people. Cognitive imperialism – in the form of residential schools and their assimilation policies, which functioned in the context of an informal apartheid system as was the case in South Africa with Bantu education – has been an obstacle to transformation of the curriculum in the education system in Canada. However, the Canadian government of the day has been held to account for recognising the knowledge of the indigenous people (IP) of Canada. In South Africa, the curriculum continues to be characterised by the “mute” tendencies of perpetuating a colonial-type of curriculum, which is still being European in nature and is largely excluding African interests and cultural practices. The affirmation of the United Nations Organisation’s (UNO 2007) advocacy for recognising the rights of indigenous people by means of various international forums motivated a number of scholars globally to shift their attention to a research agenda on IP issues such as their IKSs in relation to education systems that should be transforming their curricular programmes. This study forms part of that indigenous research agenda by proposing that IKSs be integrated into the curriculum for basic education in South Africa, in response to the UNO’s declaration on crucial guidance to developing societies for transforming their education systems to include relevant curricula related to IP. The aim of this study is to explore ways in which the curriculum for basic education in South Africa can be transformed by, among other things, changing the paradigm of knowledge production through emerging concepts in developmental education and using, on the way to recovery, experiences of assimilation in the education system of South Africa, with reference to experiences from Canada, in particular, and elsewhere. An in-depth literature study relating to IKS perspectives of integration in the curriculum, and its implication for transformation in the basic education curriculum in South Africa, was done. The qualitative research approach was used and a cultural phenomenological design was used. Data were collected through a desk research, including pre-meta-analysis (PMA), meta-analysis (MA), in-depth desk research (IDR), and case studies (CSs). The collected data were investigated by means of a pre-meta-analysis, which demonstrated how the transdisciplinary approach can be used to immerse IKS in such a way that it may enable indigenous people to define their own perspectives instead of relying solely on Western research concepts of anthropology and history theorists, which have relegated IKSs to something “exotic”. The synthesis of data in this study “opened a window” to the researcher, which also assisted the researcher to understand the concept of “coming to knowing”1 as an antithesis of the language of conquest that is used in the hidden agenda of assimilation in a curriculum that continues to marginalise the representation of IKSs. The transformation of the curriculum in the education system of South Africa is a political initiative driven by government, by virtue of the establishment of the South African Chairs Initiative (SAChI) which has been entrusted with the task of developing education in the country in the different disciplines. One of the driving concepts of this particular chair, the South African Chair Initiative in Development Education (SAChI-DE), is the methodology of immersion that is based on the notion of “transformation by enlargement” (TbE). Using this methodology, the emergence of new concepts in transformative education is propagated, which, according to the findings of this study, may reverse the negative situation in which the indigenous worldviews is erased for indigenous learners (IL) throughout the world. The findings were used to invoke the attention of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), for them to consider validating the newly emerging concepts of the SAChI-DE, which can make a meaningful contribution to the guidelines for a suggested, Afriko-continuum curriculum for basic education at the foundation level. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / Ph. D. (Education)

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