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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Learning to Live or to Leave? Education and Identity in Burkina Faso
Author:Hagberg, StenISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:African Sociological Review (ISSN 1027-4332)
Volume:6
Issue:2
Pages:28-46
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Burkina Faso
West Africa
Subjects:science
identity
education
adult education
Education and Oral Traditions
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
poverty
educational systems
Knowledge
Educational opportunities
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487325
Abstract:This article explores the linkages between education and identity in Burkina Faso and reflects on poor people's perception of education. It considers the central features shaping the ways in which education and knowledge are conceptualized in postcolonial contexts. In Burkina Faso formal education is represented in daily life as an expression of modernity. But education is also associated with identity. Adult education, such as alphabetization in local languages, has become an educational alternative of growing importance. It not only offers a means to bridge the divide between 'scientific knowledge' and 'endogenous knowledge', but forms part of identification processes as well, as exemplified by the teaching of local history in adult education in the village of Noumoudara. The growth of Franco-Arabic schools is another example of bridging between tradition and modernity. However, while formal education faces many problems in present-day Burkina Faso, Franco-Arabic schools and adult education are not panacea. There is a need to transcend the distinction between 'education for work' and 'education for empowerment' and to this end, the author argues for the necessity of investigating the sociocultural contexts in which different educational systems are implemented. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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