The Emancipatory Nature of Transformative Agency
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Thifhulufhelwi, Reuben , Chikunda, Charles , Mponwana, Maletje
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436175 , vital:73232 , ISBN 9781009153799 , https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009153799
- Description: Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) research has established an impressive body of scholarship that advances social understanding of human agency in the transformation of society, much of which is captured in contributions to this volume (cf. Hopwood (Chapter 15); Sannino (Chapter 2); Stetsenko (Chapter 3); Bal and Bird Bear (Chapter 8)). The main tenets of this work, building on the historical legacy of Vygotsky and Marx, affirm that humans are not passive recipients of external stimuli or influences but are active co-creators of the world (s) they inhabit. They are capable of using and producing cultural tools to take power over their own volitional action (s)(cf. Sannino, 2015, Chap-ter 2 of this volume; Hopwood and Gottshalk, 2017). Vygotsky’s major legacy in coming to understand transformative agency is that the cultural tools produced and used as mediational means are critical in the emergence of transformative agency (Sannino, 2015, 2020, Chapter 2 of this volume; Stetsenko, 2019; Hopwood, Chapter 15 of this volume) and thus in the transformation of human activity. As shown by Sannino (2015, 2020), such tools offer stimulus for volitional action that can break paralysis, especially when conflicts of motives are experienced.
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- Date Issued: 2023
Integrating Afrocentric approaches for meaningful learning of science concepts
- Authors: Chikunda, Charles , Ngcoza, Kenneth M
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436248 , vital:73252 , ISBN 978-3-319-45989-9 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45989-9_
- Description: Economic and social development in any modern country re-lies heavily on a sound scientific and technological base. Es-sentially, science constitutes an area of any nation’s education system where many of the skills that are needed to stimulate development are learned, such as securing good health, fighting diseases, protecting the environment, farming and de-veloping agriculture and developing new industries and tech-nologies and even building resilience to climate change. There is a need therefore for a country to harness the intellectual and scientific capacity of its young people. Ironically, however, sci-ence (especially physical sciences) is one of the least popular areas within the educational system of most developing countries. Research shows that students’ and especially girls’ low interest in science and their relatively negative attitudes are at least partially attributed to the way science is taught at school.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Climate Change and Environmental Challenges in Southern African Development Community (SADC): Responses in the Age of Globalisation
- Authors: Chikunda, Charles , Mandikonza, Caleb
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437249 , vital:73363 , ISBN 9789462098367 , https://brill.com/display/book/9789462098367/BP000009.xml
- Description: There is evidence that one of the greatest controversies facing Africa today is how to make sense of the two leading global intentions of the 21st century: sustainable development and globalisation. These two paradigms appear to have some op-posing tendencies within them, some of which are contestable. Globalisation advocates for liberalisation; reduction or elimina-tion of state regulations on the market, free reign, and a high degree of rights to the large corporations that dominate the market. Globalisation also entails the cross flow of knowledge and knowledge forms.
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- Date Issued: 2014