African Curriculum Studies, Continental Overview

Africa is the second largest continent in the world and comprises 53 individual countries. Although one might broadly identify historical periods (precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial) in Africa's history, developments during these periods differ when it comes to individual countries. This may explain why studies with a curriculum focus in Africa tend be to be country specific, focusing on developments at a particular moment in time, and often emphasizing a single dimension of the curriculum problem. It is not possible in an overview of African curriculum studies to refer to developments in each of the 53 countries, so this entry provides a general picture of the kinds of studies that focus on curriculum design and planning, acknowledging that there are limitations in referring to Africa in any unified sense. By way of background, this entry briefly speaks about curriculum activities in precolonial and colonial Africa, but the main focus of this overview is on curriculum studies in the period after political independence was achieved in most countriesthe period following World War II, when control of colonies by European countries weakened.

Although there was no systematic study of curricula, attempts at curriculum development date back several centuries. Efforts at developing curricula at a local level can be traced back to the 14th century, when Islamic education reached Africa from the Middle East. Two main curriculum areas, Arabic and Islamic traditions, were taught to children at elementary Arabic schools called Quranic schools. At age 3, children learned short chapters of the Quran by rote. At later stages, children committed the meaning of verses to memory by repetition. Colonial education began at a later date with missionary education, when the first missions were opened in some countries at the beginning of the 16th century. Curriculum activity of this period involved the construction of syllabi for schools, which were mainly vocational and religious. Many have argued that missionary education destroyed African indigenous education. School curricula were replicas of those that existed in European countries and were therefore foreign and irrelevant to Africa's development. Curriculum changes only occurred when the colonial governments expanded their exploitation of a country's natural resources. After independence, curriculum studies focused on reforms linked to the development of national [Page 19]education policiesthese studies largely focused on explaining the successes and failures of postcolonial curriculum policy initiatives.

The field of curriculum studies in Africa is largely underdeveloped. There is a paucity of curriculum scholars, and as a consequence, there is very little research, theory, and writing on curriculum planning and design. In some countries, curriculum scholarship is conducted mainly by visiting professors, international consultants, and postgraduate students from Europe and the United States. There are no journals dedicated to African curriculum studies, few books have been written on the topic, and few (if any) conferences have been held on the continent specifically devoted to the study of curriculum development. Very few African scholars publish in international journals of curriculum studies such as Journal of Curriculum Studies and Curriculum Inquiry. Most articles published on Africa in these journals during the last decade are by South African scholars. However, a more representative picture of African curriculum studies might be gained from reading international journals with a more general focus on education. Specific journals that would be particularly useful are Comparative Education, International Journal of Educational Development, and International Review of Education. Insights could also be gained from reading national education journals, but these are not always easily accessible to international audiences. The International Handbook of Curriculum Research has two chapters devoted to curriculum studies in Africa: one focuses on the decolonization of the curriculum in Botswana and the other on what scholars write about curricula in Namibia and Zimbabwe. Insights into the study of curricula in Africa could also be gleaned from reading research reported in journals in established fields such as mathematics education and science education.

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