Several problems disquieting the developing world render the post-colonial state unstable, with recurrent, often violent conflict. The seeming incurable vulnerability of the nation-state construct reflects inherent problems in its basic constitutional philosophy for managing diverse identities in the global South. It suggests an incapacity for equality and justice, undermining the moral legitimacy of the colonial-state model. This is illustrated using Central Nigeria or Nigeria’s ‘Middle- Belt’ through numerous identities, largely veiled in non-recognition and misrecognition by the colonial and post-colonial state and its conflicts. The baggage of colonialism stalks the developing world through unjust socio-political orders. Therefore, the post-colonial liberal constitution (using Nigeria’s 1999 Federal Constitution) and mechanisms it imbibes for managing diversity (Consociationalism, Federalism/Federal Character, Human Rights, Citizenship), is exposed to be seriously misconceived epistemically and cartographically. I argue that effective peacebuilding in the global South is impossible without Cognitive Justice, which is 'the equal treatment of different forms of knowledge and knowers, of identities’. I articulate a political constitutional philosophy grounded upon Cognitive Justice as a conception of justice, advancing normative and conceptual frameworks for just post-colonial orders. This provides foundations for a proposed reconceptualisation and restructuring of the institutional and structural make-up of the post-colonial state through a ground-up constitution remaking process, for new orders beyond colonially stipulated delimitations. In search of appropriate constitutional designs, I engage Multiculturalism, National Pluralism and Plurinational State scholarship by Western Political Philosophers and Constitutional Theorists (Kymlicka, Taylor, Tully, Keating, Tierney, Norman, Anderson, and Requejo etc), as they address particularly the UK, Canadian and Spanish cases, as well as Awolowo’s philosophies. I also engage recent plurinational constitutional designs operational in Ecuador and Bolivia, and propose that the latter hold more appropriate conceptual and structural pointers for effective peacebuilding in the troubled, pluralist global South.

Dans son analyse de la démarche de socialisation des enfants, Émile Durkheim met en garde contre « toute action positive destinée à imprimer une orientation déterminée à l’esprit de la jeunesse ». Notre thèse explore les déclinaisons contemporaines de ces « actions positives » qui émanent de l’État et de différents éléments de la société, et qui, en modifiant le fonctionnement cérébral, entendent orienter le comportement d’enfants non malades vers davantage d’attention et moins d’impulsivité. Cette orientation recouvre un enjeu politique : la réduction des inégalités dans les capacités cérébrales, qui tendent à devenir des inégalités majeures dans la société de performance contemporaine. Notre objet de recherche est constitué par les nouveaux pouvoirs exercés par les adultes sur les enfants, au moyen de techniques biomédicales nouvelles, en particulier par des substances chimiques : les médicaments psychostimulants. Les moyens biomédicaux s’exercent directement sur le fonctionnement cérébral, de manière intrusive, sans la médiation du langage et de la communication, et posent de ce fait des nouvelles questions liées à leur puissance d’action. Ce travail se donne pour objectif de contribuer à une théorie de la justice cognitive pour les enfants. Les nouvelles significations des inégalités d’attention dans les apprentissages, les enjeux sociaux de ces inégalités dans une société de performance et les nouvelles possibilités d’intervention biomédicales sur le fonctionnement cérébral des enfants convergent vers de nouvelles formes dans l’économie psychique des enfants. Il semble possible d’interpréter ces nouvelles forces à l’œuvre comme s’inspirant d’un principe de justice. Le débat autour d’une justice cognitive reflète alors le caractère ressenti comme insupportable socialement des inégalités d’attention et le caractère ressenti comme inévitable de la réponse pharmacologique qui lui est associée. Le recours à la théorie d’une justice cognitive implique, pour l’analyse des pratiques de prescription massives de Ritaline, de se situer au-delà du paradigme habituel de contrôle social et de contrôle des comportements par la médicalisation de la société. / The analysis of children’s socialization process made by Emile Durkheim warns us against any actions intended to have an impact on the orientation of the young spirits. Our thesis explores the contemporary range of these positive actions issued from the state as well as from different parts of society. Those ones, by modifying the proper cerebral functioning, are guiding the behaviour of non-ill toward more attention and less impulsivness. This subject has a significant political concern: the reduction of cerebral inequal capacities which tend to become more and more important in our contemporary performance oriented society. Our research investigates new powers exerciced by adults on children, through the use of modern biomedical techniques, and particuly through psychostimulant pharmaceuticals. Biomedical tools directly reach the functioning brain, in an intrusive way, without the intermediate of either language or communication, which therefore arises new questions about their power of action. The aim of this study is to contribute to a theory of a cognitive justice for children. The new meanings of the inequalities of focus in learning, the social issues of these inequalities in a performance society and the new possibilities of biomedical intervention on the functioning brain converge towards new forms in psychic economy of children. It seems possible to interpret those new forces in action through a principle of justice. The debate around a cognitive justice reflects the unbearable social aspect of the disparities in attention capacity and the hypothetically unavoidable pharmacological answers associated to it. The solution of the theory of cognitive justice involves, for the pratical analysis of the massive instruction of Ritaline, to be situated beyond the usual paradigm of social control and behavioural control through society’s medicalization.

abstract: This action research study examines what common perceptions and constructs currently exist in educating adult immigrants in Arizona and considers how might the integration of citizen science with the current English curriculum promote higher order thinking and educational equity in this population. A citizen science project called the Mastodon Matrix Project was introduced to a Level 2 ELAA (English Language Acquisition for Adults) classroom and aligned with the Arizona Adult Standards for ELAA education. Pre and post attitudinal surveys, level tests, and personal meaning maps were implemented to assess student attitudes towards science, views on technology, English skills, and knowledge gained as a result of doing citizen science over a period of 8 weeks. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

The integration of modern science and indigenous knowledge systems in the science education curriculum for South African schools represents social justice for the majority of South Africans as they determine the knowledge necessary for themselves and for future generations in the new South Africa. An exploratory research reveals tension and a dichotomous relationship between modern science and IKS, caused by false hierarchies that are influenced by factors such as colonialism, capitalism and modernisation to the exclusion of the core values held by indigenous people in their relationship with nature. The thesis demonstrates that the integration requires an epistemology that puts humanity first and a framework that accommodates both ways of knowing. This should allow for the best in the two systems of knowing to serve humanity in a dialogical manner. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

This dissertation on negating, resisting or affirming cosmological principle towards an African humanism leadership theory and model has evolved through an embryonic process that arose from the research ‘itch’ as regards the way in which post-colonial African leadership has been critiqued. This research ‘itch’ also focused on how the postcolonial leadership in Africa, were trail blazers in formulating liberation philosophies and ideologies that did not, unfortunately, translate into sustainable peace and development. Thus, this dissertation has been a journey of immersion into the public and macro-level discourse contained in pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial African leadership case studies. This enriching journey revealed a postcolonial African leadership which had focused on ideologies and philosophies and had deviated from the spirituality embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems. Hence, this dissertation examines relevant cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems for analysing African leadership; for the embryonic process that begins with the universal humanism perspective of African leadership, cognitive justice and transformation by enlargement, and basic African humanism perspectives. Thus, this study examines cognitive justice as the enabler of indigenous cosmologies and transformation by enlargement as the enabler of indigenous knowledge systems, both of which provide relevant cosmological principles for analysing African leadership. In addition, the dissertation analyses indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems from the African continent in an effort to distinguish between the various forms of leadership found in Africa and to generate an African humanism leadership theory and model. The indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems in this dissertation are from four regions in Africa, namely, North Africa (Egypt); West Africa (Ghana-Akan); the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia) and Southern Africa (Bantu). The methodologies used in the study include Afrikology and critical discourse analysis and enabled the research study to ascertain whether cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems are relevant for analysing African leadership. Critical discourse analysis enabled the geographic triangulation of African leadership and the indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems, thus resulting in the development of the African humanism leadership theory and model of individual dualism leadership. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

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)

This dissertation on negating, resisting or affirming cosmological principle towards an African humanism leadership theory and model has evolved through an embryonic process that arose from the research ‘itch’ as regards the way in which post-colonial African leadership has been critiqued. This research ‘itch’ also focused on how the postcolonial leadership in Africa, were trail blazers in formulating liberation philosophies and ideologies that did not, unfortunately, translate into sustainable peace and development. Thus, this dissertation has been a journey of immersion into the public and macro-level discourse contained in pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial African leadership case studies. This enriching journey revealed a postcolonial African leadership which had focused on ideologies and philosophies and had deviated from the spirituality embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems. Hence, this dissertation examines relevant cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems for analysing African leadership; for the embryonic process that begins with the universal humanism perspective of African leadership, cognitive justice and transformation by enlargement, and basic African humanism perspectives. Thus, this study examines cognitive justice as the enabler of indigenous cosmologies and transformation by enlargement as the enabler of indigenous knowledge systems, both of which provide relevant cosmological principles for analysing African leadership. In addition, the dissertation analyses indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems from the African continent in an effort to distinguish between the various forms of leadership found in Africa and to generate an African humanism leadership theory and model. The indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems in this dissertation are from four regions in Africa, namely, North Africa (Egypt); West Africa (Ghana-Akan); the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia) and Southern Africa (Bantu). The methodologies used in the study include Afrikology and critical discourse analysis and enabled the research study to ascertain whether cosmological principles embedded in indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems are relevant for analysing African leadership. Critical discourse analysis enabled the geographic triangulation of African leadership and the indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems, thus resulting in the development of the African humanism leadership theory and model of individual dualism leadership. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

The integration of modern science and indigenous knowledge systems in the science education curriculum for South African schools represents social justice for the majority of South Africans as they determine the knowledge necessary for themselves and for future generations in the new South Africa. An exploratory research reveals tension and a dichotomous relationship between modern science and IKS, caused by false hierarchies that are influenced by factors such as colonialism, capitalism and modernisation to the exclusion of the core values held by indigenous people in their relationship with nature. The thesis demonstrates that the integration requires an epistemology that puts humanity first and a framework that accommodates both ways of knowing. This should allow for the best in the two systems of knowing to serve humanity in a dialogical manner. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

This study presents a conceptual and theoretical framework for peace building and restorative action in the Arctic Barents Region where the Sami of the Scandinavian region live. Based on Johan Galtung´s theory of peace, the study approaches the issue of peace building and restorative action by considering the history of colonialism and the meaningful lessons drawn from it as a pedagogic field and with human development as the goal. Central to this imperative is the issue of cognitive justice. The study explores the peace potential in including indigenous knowledge systems and the ethics embedded in them in the developmental discourse going forward. The word “ethics” is explored within this imperative, with the study arguing that developing an ethical rationality compatible with the goal of peace and human development in this context is not primarily about the mastering of rules and principles or adjusting to modernity´s mores but about something far more fundamental, namely, the work of re-establishing the esteem for the Other – the very fundamental condition of human community – in a context in which respect for the intrinsic value, dignity and individual autonomy of others and therein their active participation in the world, are under severe strain. The remote space that is devoted to this fundamental relation with the Other in today's leading moral-philosophical discourse thus stresses the need to open up new “cognitive spaces” so that wisdom may emanate more freely from non-western traditions in order to expand the range of ethical rationality. This argument is supported by hermeneutical theory, especially that of Gadamer, the core of which is that communicative acknowledgement of the Other must be based exclusively on the Other’s premises, where the world of the Other is prioritised as the key for understanding oneself. The arbitrative lesson of hermeneutics is that true comprehension is not possible by evading the Other. It is at this point that Levinas’ analysis of the “face” becomes central: The Other is experienced “face-to-face”, meaning “without horizons” and refers to an experience before my will and freedom and which implies that I transcend myself when I acknowledge my responsibility for my Self as the responsibility for the Other. The study concludes that building peace by restoring indigenous systems of trust and hospitality is vital in any attempt to cope with current difficulties and for moving forward in a restorative paradigm. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)