IJLTER.ORG Vol 19 No 4 April 2020

International Journal
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And
Educational Research
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Vol.19 No.4

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research
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Vol. 19, No. 4 (April 2020)
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VOLUME 19 NUMBER 4 April 2020
Table of Contents
Addressing Domestic Abuse and Violence via a Non-Formal Environment Seen as a Pedagogical Tool at
University ................................................................................................................................................................................1
Ivanna I. Parfanovich, Andrii Ya. Parfanovich, Vitalii G. Panok, Larysa V. Zdanevych and Liudmila I. Romanovska
Towards De-Colonial Agitations in University Classrooms: The Quest for Afrocentric Pedagogy.......................... 14
Bunmi Isaiah Omodan and Bekithemba Dube
Restructuring the Teacher Education System in Vietnam............................................................................................... 29
Quang Hong Pham and Nam Danh Nguyen
Factors Influencing the Sustainability of Quality Performance from the Viewpoint of Teaching Staff: An Applied
Study at the University of Petra.......................................................................................................................................... 44
Maram Fouad Abu Al-Nadi and Dina Mohamed Said Qarashay
Teachers’ Instructional Components of Warm-up Rehearsal in Elementary School Chorus in South Korea .......... 62
Seungyoun Hong
Intercultural Competence Development of German Nursing Personnel via Advanced Training Projects .............. 78
Natalya Bidyuk, Halyna Oleskova and Vitaliy Tretko
Comparative Study on the Use of the Educational Resources of PeruEduca by Teachers from Arequipa and
Moquegua.............................................................................................................................................................................. 94
Anyela Bejarano, Steve Pareja, Marco Córdova, Teresa Ramos-Quispe, Antonio Silva Sprock and Klinge Orlando Villalba-
Condori
Leadership Types and Digital Leadership in Higher Education: Behavioural Data Analysis from University of
Patras in Greece................................................................................................................................................................... 110
Hera Antonopoulou, Constantinos Halkiopoulos, Olympia Barlou and Grigorios N. Beligiannis
Formation of Lifelong Learning Competences in the Process of Professional Training of Future Lawyers........... 130
Uliana Z. Koruts, Valerii P. Petkov, Ehor S. Nazymko, Tetiana A. Denysova and Uliana M. Oliinyk
Strategies for Facilitating Listening Skills among Foreign Language Learners in US Universities ......................... 150
Dishari Chattaraj

The Effectiveness of Using Three-Dimensional Visualization Tools to Improve Students’ Understanding of
Medicinal Chemistry and Advanced Drug Design Concepts....................................................................................... 170
Heba ِAbdel-Halim
Probing the Differences Caused by Cognitive Variables on LET Performance: An Embedded Mixed Method
Study..................................................................................................................................................................................... 188
Michael B. Cahapay
Cognitive Domain Performance for Non-Laboratory Embedded and Laboratory Embedded Course .................. 206
Rohaya Alias, Noraida Mohd Saim, Nur Asmaliza Mohd Noor and Siti Hawa Rosli
A Correspondence Analysis of Fifty-Five Japanese Historical First-to Fifth-Year English-as-a-Foreign-Language
Textbooks............................................................................................................................................................................. 223
Tomoo Asai, Ryohei Honda, Kiyomi Watanabe and Toshiaki Ozasa
The Place of Creativity in EFL Omani Syllabus: A Content Analysis of Grade 12 Students’ and Teachers’ Books
............................................................................................................................................................................................... 248
Mariam Said Al Jabri, Fawzia Al Seyabi, Salma Al Humaidi and Abdulhamid Hasan
An Analysis of Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in the Learning of Economics.............................................. 268
Ari Saptono, Suparno Suparno, Agus Wibowo, Eeng Ahman, Ismiyati Ismiyati and Deni Sukayugi
Correcting Misconceptions in Fractions Using Interactive Technological Learning Activities................................ 291
Mohammad Ahmad Alkhateeb
Experimental and Research Verification of the Methodology of Forming the High School Students’ Artistic Taste
for the Vocal Heritage (Late XIX-Early XX Century) ..................................................................................................... 309
Yuliia V. Merezhko, Dmytro A. Lievit, Oksana P. Petrykova, Svitlana V. Gmyrina and Mariia S. Kasianchuk
Islamic Spirituality, Resilience and Achievement Motivation of Yemeni Refugee Students: A Proposed
Conceptual Framework...................................................................................................................................................... 322
Manal Ali Ahmed, Sahabuddin Hashim and Nik Rosila Nik Yaacob
Creative Teaching Strategy to Reduce Bullying in Schools........................................................................................... 343
Siti Irene Astuti Dwiningrum, Norwaliza Abdul Wahab and Haryanto Haryanto
Preferential Admission Policies for Ethnic Minority Students in Yunnan: Help or Hindrance ............................... 356
Dongyuan Deng, Seepho Sirinthorn and Andrew Lian

1
©2020 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.
Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 1-13, April 2020
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.4.1
Addressing Domestic Abuse and Violence via a
Non-Formal Environment Seen as a Pedagogical
Tool at University
Ivanna I. Parfanovich
Department of Social Pedagogy and Social Work, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk
National Pedagogical University, Ternopil, Ukraine
Andrii Ya. Parfanovich
Department of Social Pedagogy and Social Work, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk
National Pedagogical University, Ternopil, Ukraine
Vitalii G. Panok
Ukrainian Scientific-Methodological Center of Applied Psychology and Social
Work, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
Larysa V. Zdanevych
Department of Pre-School Pedagogy, Psychology and Professional Methods,
Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian-Pedagogical Academy, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
Liudmila I. Romanovska
Department of Social work and Pedagogics, Khmelnytskyi National University,
Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
Abstract. The purpose of the study was to identify how family abuse and
violence could be addressed via a non-formal educational environment
seen as a pedagogical tool at university. The study utilised an exploratory
case study design. Quantitative and qualitative data were drawn from
observations of sampled students’ performance in the programme
entitled “Legal and Psychological Domains of Domestic Abuse and
Violence” and through the interview. The Attitudes towards Domestic
Violence Questionnaire (ADV), the quiz entitled “Dimensions and
dynamics of family violence” was administered to measure the impact of
the domestic abuse and violence on the students’ awareness of legal and
psychological consequences. IBM SPSS Statistics software was used to
process the above data. MS Office Excel Software was used to
consolidated and process the data drawn from the interview. The study
showed that non-formal university settings have the potential to enrich
pedagogic tools for addressing domestic abuse and violence. The
prevention intervention had a positive impact on students’ awareness of
legal and psychological aspects of domestic abuse and violence, students’
perceptions of committing abusive and/or violent actions by men and

2
women in family settings. It was validated by measurements,
observations, and students’ feedbacks. The experiment raised some
implications like attracting experts, raising funds, finding sufficient
evidence, and cases to fill the programme content. Further research is
needed in developing methodology and instruments of evaluation of the
effectiveness of such intervention programmes.
Keywords: university education; pedagogic tools of non-formal settings;
educational intervention programme; domestic abuse and violence
1. Introduction
Domestic abuse and violence have been a social, legal, and psychological
(psychiatric) problem for many generations (Barnett, Miller-Perrin & Perrin, 2010;
Ghafournia, 2017; Odenbring, Johansson, Lunneblad & Hammarén, 2015).
According to the annual police reports, in Ukraine, the figures for the issue-related
cases are increasing by approximately 3% a year (111 cases in 2017, 115 cases in
2018, and 121 cases in 2019) (ZIK, 2020). This suggests that current measures do
not resolve the issue and additional targeted preventive interventions are
required (Stanley, Ellis, Farrelly, Hollinghurst & Downe, 2015). University
student youth seems to be a reasonable target audience because they are classified
as exposed current or former victims of domestic or peer abuse and violence
(Odenbring et al., 2015) and their experience can be used to change their own
beliefs and behaviour. Moreover, educational interventions are becoming
standard pedagogic tools that are mostly aimed at the legal and psychological
dimensions of the issue (Lloyd, 2018). They are widely used in both institutional
and community settings and have proven to be effective to deal with young
individuals’ life crisis and to prepare the latter for ‘violence-free relationships’ in
the future (Adelman, Rosenberg & Hobart, 2016; Gabriel et al., 2018; Heaven-
Oakland, n./d.; Owen, Antle & Quirk, 2017).
1.1. Literature review
The literature review found that the issue has been a widely discussed and
multifaceted legal, psychological, medical and scientific (educational dimension)
problem for over the last decades (Crowther-Dowey, Gillespie & Hopkins, 2016;
Parkinson & Rogers, 2019). The targeted domestic abuse prevention education
programmes are run either at secondary schools (World Health Organization,
2019) or by public organisations (European Union, n./d.). They are aimed at
cultivating a new culture of interpersonal relationships at schools and raise public
awareness of domestic abuse and violence (Lloyd, 2018; Wagner, Jones, Tsaroucha
& Cumbers, 2019; McKibbin & Humphreys, 2020). There are still debates in the
literature concerning whether the domestic abuse and violence prevention
education interventions should be based on a gendered approach (Stanley, Ellis
& Bell, 2011; Fenton & Mott, 2017). As it was found, those programmes are
delivered in conventional educational settings and using conventional
pedagogical tools. For example, the “Safe to Learn” initiative intends to train
children’s life skills through the organised activities ‘to shape their attitudes and
norms’ at schools (World Health Organization, 2019). The Master’s degree course
entitled “Abuse and gender violence: an interdisciplinary vision” also used

3
conventional university approach to engage students to explore the issue from
different perspectives (“Master’s course in gender violence”, 2015). The
specialised training and certification programmes for the professionals working
in the field of domestic violence prevention and elimination are also delivered
conventionally (Stover & Lent, 2014; Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria,
n./d.).
However, this approach might seem to be quite tactless in some delicate
situations that are better tackled in a non-determined environment in the
community-like atmosphere (Goldman, Assaraf & Shaharabani, 2013).
The study found few resources on intervention programmes to have been run in
non-formal settings at university and formally evaluated which created the gap
for the research.
Therefore, the purpose of the study was to identify how family abuse and violence
could be addressed via a non-formal educational environment seen as a
pedagogical tool at university.
The study sought to address the research questions below:
1. How did the prevention programme entitled “Legal and Psychological
Domains of Domestic Abuse and Violence” impact on students’ awareness of
legal and psychological aspects of domestic abuse and violence?
2. How did the prevention programme entitled “Legal and Psychological
Domains of Domestic Abuse and Violence” impact on students’ gender-related
perception of committing abusive and/or violent actions by men and women in
family settings?
3. What were the involved students’ perceptions of the project delivery format?
2. Materials and methods
The study utilised an exploratory single-case study design based on one group
pre-test and post-test data and was conducted at Volodymyr Vynnychenko
Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University. Quantitative and qualitative data
were drawn from observations of sampled students’ performance in the
randomised experiment and through interviews with them. The Attitudes
towards Domestic Violence Questionnaire (ADV) designed by Fox and Gadd
(2012) was used to explore changes in students’ perceptions of men’s and
women’s behaviour in situations of conflicts. The quiz entitled “Dimensions and
dynamics of family violence” (AVERT Family Violence, 2010) (the legal domain
of the issue) was administered to measure the impact of the programme entitled
“Legal and Psychological Domains of Domestic Abuse and Violence” on the
students’ awareness of legal and psychological consequences of the domestic
abuse and violence. The variables for the study were students’ awareness of legal
and psychological aspects of domestic abuse and violence, students’ gender-
related perception of committing abusive and/or violent actions by men and
women in family settings.

4
2.1. The programme
The prevention programme entitled “Legal and Psychological Domains of
Domestic Abuse and Violence” was designed to train the students in dealing with
conflicts and to raise students’ awareness of legal aspects of the issue (see the
structure of the programme visualised in Fig. 1). The training was followed by
Mock Talk Shows aimed at analysing real cases on the issues of domestic violence
and abuse. Ten sessions were delivered once in two weeks throughout the period
from September to the end of December of 2019 by expert practitioners and Mock
Talk Shows were held by the research team members supported by invited
practitioners who delivered the classes. They were domestic violence lawyers,
domestic violence counsellors (psychologists and psychiatrists), and domestic
violence social workers working in the field for more than ten years.
Figure 1: “Legal and Psychological Domains of Domestic Abuse and Violence”
programme design
The topics for the sessions were related to forms of domestic abuse and violence,
the ways to recognise them, legal punishments for committing them, effects of
domestic abuse on a young person, victimisation and barriers to leaving, means
and ways of dealing with conﬂicts, risks and causes for the commitment of family
violence and abuse, etc (see the topics outlined in Table 1). The format for the
Mock Talk Show was adapted from The Oprah Winfrey TV Show© and the cases
for the ‘shows’ were borrowed from the La Strada – Ukraine (n./d.). This is the
NGO that actively promotes information and provides training on prevention
and social assistance, and is active in the improvement of national legislation on
human trafficking, sexual exploitation of children, violence, discrimination and
human rights in Ukraine.
“Legal and
Psychological
Domains of
Domestic Abuse
and Violence”
Mock Talk
Shows
Legal counselling
classes
Conflictology
basics classes
Case-studies

5
Table 1: The outline of the topics distributed by session and hours dedicated to each
topic
#
session
Topic Hours
1 Forms of domestic abuse and violence. How to recognise them. 2
2 Legal punishments for committing them. Analysing cases. 2
3 Mock Talk Show. 2
4 Legal counselling basics. Building up mutual trust. Case-study.
Simulations.
2
5 Ethical issues of legal counselling on family violence and abuse.
Written communication. Persuasion techniques.
2
6 Risks and causes for the commitment of family violence and abuse. 2
7 Effects of domestic abuse on a young person: gender issues.
Victimisation and barriers to leaving: gender issues.
2
8 Mock Talk Show. 2
9 How to deal with abuse-based conﬂicts in a family. Analysing cases.
Quiz entitled “Strategies for Coping with Unhealthy Family
Behaviour” (Study.com, n./d.)
2
10 Mock Talk Show. 2
“Safe Families Club” as a non-formal learning environment was set up to run the
experiment. The project was advertised to potential participants using
presentations, posters, and announcements at some lectures. The objective of this
was to involve volunteers who were sensitive to the issue of domestic abuse and
violence and agreed to further assist the experts who ran educational prevention
interventions at three schools located in Kropyvnytskyi Town.
2.2. Sampling
Simple random sampling was used to hire volunteers for the study. Forty-three
students in their second, third, and fourth years, majoring in Psychology, Law,
and Journalism of Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical
University were encouraged to apply for participation in the training programme.
The primary rationale for selecting those majors was the fact that the topic of
domestic abuse and violence was related to the students’ specialism. They were
supposed to write a motivation letter which was used to shortlist 30 students for
the interview. It was conducted by a panel of two psychology experts in the field
of domestic violence and abuse. It included the questions as follows: 1) What do
you see as triggers of violence and abuse in families? 2) If you were your father,
how would you react to some misbehaviours of yours in the classroom? 3)
Describe the worst argument you had with someone from your family and how
you coped with it, etc. The selection criteria were non-violent thinking, non-
proneness to aggressive dominance, or gender humiliation, being a non-
vulnerable person. As the study utilised one group design, twenty-one students
(13 females aged between 19 and 22 and 8 males aged between 19 and 21) were
sampled for the intervention. They were considered mutually homogeneous as
they had gone through the above selection procedure. At this stage, the pre-
treatment measurements, including the Attitudes towards Domestic Violence

6
Questionnaire (ADV) and a quiz entitled “Family Violence & Abuse” (ClickLaw
WikiBooks, n./d.) were administered.
2.3. Major research-related ethical issues
Before the experiment, written informed consent was obtained from the sampled
students to address the confidentiality of their personal information (Cacciattolo,
2015; Akaranga & Makau, 2016). The “primum non nocere” [“first, do no harm”]
principle was followed at every stage of the study to avoid or minimise any
deliberate or potential harm. The sampled students were treated as non-
vulnerable (Drew, Hardman & Hosp, 2008) for a reason being that they lived on
campus but not with their families.
2.4. Instruments
The study used such quantitative tools as observation reports, evaluation sheets,
student attendance records, the Questionnaire on Attitudes towards Domestic
Violence (ADV) (Fox & Gadd, 2012) and quizzes entitled “Family Violence &
Abuse” (ClickLaw WikiBooks, n./d.) and “Dimensions and dynamics of family
violence” (AVERT Family Violence, 2010). To ensure the reliability of the
observation reports, behavioural code description was developed and three
assessors were hired to take records. Data were simultaneously collected by all
assessors on each separate session. Kappa Online Calculator (Statistics Solution,
n./d.) was used to assesses the inter-rater reliability of three raters drawn from
the observation reports, evaluation sheets, student attendance records. The kappa
coefficient was 0.74 which was substantial and proved that the measurements
were reliable.
The questionnaire on attitudes towards domestic violence proved to be an
effective tool that can be used to assess the effectiveness of domestic abuse
prevention programmes (Fox, Gadd & Sim, 2015). At the pre-test stage, it aimed
at exploring students’ experience of domestic violence and abuse as victims,
perpetrators and as witnesses.
IBM SPSS Statistics software was used to process the above data.
Additionally, the questionnaire for interviewing sampled students was used to
obtain qualitative data. It comprised five open-ended questions which were as
follows:
1) How did the programme influence your beliefs?
2) What were your gains from this programme?
3) Did you appreciate the non-formal format of the pedagogical engagement?
4) What were the problems you faced or challenged as a participant and assistant
in the project?
5) What do you suggest improving so that the programme addressed those
problems?
MS Office Excel Software was used to consolidated and process the data drawn
from the interview.

7
3. Results
The prevention programme entitled “Legal and Psychological Domains of
Domestic Abuse and Violence” and “Safe Families Club” have appeared to be the
most significant result of this research which brought a number of benefits to the
sampled students.
The repeated measurements of the students’ awareness of legal and psychological
aspects of domestic abuse and violence (see Table 2), students’ gender-related
perception of committing abusive and/or violent actions by men and women in
family settings proved the relationship between participation of the students in
the prevention programme and the changes to have occurred in the variables.
Table 2: Relation between the participation of the students in the programme and
their awareness of family abuse expressed as proportions of correct/incorrect answers
in quizzes before and after the intervention, in %
𝑛
Before Intervention After Intervention
𝑑𝑓
“Family Violence & Abuse”
Quiz
“Dimensions and dynamics of
family violence” Quiz
𝑛 = 21
IA CA IA CA
19
53% 47% 33% 67%
Note: IA – incorrect answers; CA - correct answers.
As can be seen, the proportion of the correct answers increased by 20% which
indicated the programme boosted students’ knowledge related to the issue.
The results that were obtained at pre-test and post-test stages through the
questionnaire on attitudes towards domestic violence and compared at the post-
test stage showed a decrease in victimisation (before the intervention: 𝐹1.0891 =
4.02; 𝑝 = 0.41; p < .001 VS after the intervention 𝐹0.9214 = 3.79;𝑝 = 0.37;𝑝 < .001)
and perpetration (before the intervention: 𝐹1.1062 = 13.31; 𝑝 = 0.04; 𝑝 < .001 VS
after the intervention: 𝐹0.9932 = 11.79;𝑝 = 0. 33; 𝑝 < .001) characteristics in the
sampled students. It suggested that the educational environment raised students’
self-confidence in dealing with violent actions towards them.
The change in perceptions of committing abusive and/or violent actions by men
and women in family settings also took place after the intervention (see Table 3).
Table 3: Change in approval of abusive and/or violent actions by men and women in
the family to have taken place due to the intervention based on the ADV
questionnaire (12-item version), item-total correlations (ITC), before and after the
intervention
#
of
question
Before Intervention After Intervention
𝑛
of
responses
approval,
%
ITC
𝑛
of
responses
approval,
%
ITC
1 20 83 .637 17 31 .560
2 16 39 .641 19 21 .591
3 21 47 .608 20 12 .598
4 13 56 .557 21 18 .512

8
5 20 35 .656 14 11 .523
6 18 51 .643 18 17 .511
7 19 63 .669 17 22 .533
8 15 78 .778 15 32 .611
9 21 74 .634 20 29 .602
10 21 66 .671 20 24 .594
11 17 41 .665 18 18 .601
12 19 52 .751 21 22 .627
Note: The questions are laid out in the order they appear on the questionnaire. ITC ‒ Item-total correlation
The figures in Table 3 illustrated a marked decrease in the approval of abusive
and violent deeds of partners in family settings.
The observation reports of the research team members and evaluation sheets also
proved that the students suggested two primary justifiable reasons for abuse or
violence from both sides (from men or women): who attacked or hurt first and
who cheated first. Moreover, females are easier than males to forgive their
partners either abuse or violence or cheating in their family relationships. Seven
out of eight sampled male students tended to justify a violent or abusive response
in the situations in which women were drunk or drugged or they
humiliated/offended males in some way (especially publicly), they were angry
and shouted at males.
The figures in Table 4 reveal the shift in sampled students’ knowledge of core
legal and psychological aspects of domestic abuse and violence and their skills
and abilities to deal with them before and after the intervention.
Table 4: Students’ pre-test and post-test measurement results in the knowledge of core
aspects of domestic abuse and violence and their skills and abilities to deal with
them, expressed as mean values obtained from measurements before and after the
intervention
N
KCLA KCPA SA
Cronbac
h’s alpha
SD t p
value
B A B A B A
n = 21 57.87 74.11 48.58 69.13 43.21 69.11 0.783
(> 0.7)
721 0.73 0.38
Note: B – Before; A – After; KCLA ‒ knowledge of core legal aspects; KCPA - knowledge of core psychological
aspects; SA ‒ skills and abilities to deal with the issues.
The above suggests that the sampled students experienced a statistically
significant change (of approximately 16%) in awareness of legal and psychological
aspects of domestic violence and abuse and improved their skills of dealing with
them.
3.1. Results of Semi-structured Interview (EG students, 𝒏 = 𝟐𝟏, 𝒅𝒇 = 𝟐)
Question 1. How did the programme influence your beliefs? Seventeen
respondents reported a radical change in their attitudes to some domestic abusive
and violent behaviours. Four participants were still convinced that women’s
behaviour was the key trigger of a conflict in a family.
Question 2. What were your gains from this programme? Twelve people reported
that they learned how to control their behaviour when the conflict situation

9
emerged. Seven people confessed that training sessions developed their self-
confidence when dealing with people causing trouble. One student reported
progress in communication with ‘difficult’ people. One participant found the
programme useful for their relationships.
Question 3. Did you appreciate the non-formal format of the pedagogical
engagement? Eleven people found the format to be optimal for this very issue.
Eight people stated it was OK for them. Two participants stated that the format
did not fit their learning style.
Question 4. What were the problems you faced or challenged as a participant and
assistant in the project? Two respondents reported they were overloaded with
information. Two participants stated that the format did not fit their learning
style.
Question 5. What do you suggest improving so that the programme addressed
those problems? Nineteen students suggested training them in NLP and debating
before the intervention.
The students’ responses to the interview questions imply that students were
generally positive about the format of the project and appreciated the outcomes.
4. Discussion
This study has been the first attempt in Ukraine to evaluate the effectiveness of
using prevention programme entitled “Legal and Psychological Domains of
Domestic Abuse and Violence” delivered through a non-formal environment at
university and how this programme influenced students’ gender-related
perceptions of committing abusive and/or violent actions by men and women in
family settings. Additionally, it aimed at exploring students’ perceptions of the
project delivery format. It was found that the students’ awareness of legal and
psychological aspects of domestic abuse and violence increased by about 20%, the
approval of abusive and violent deeds of partners in family settings decrease by
approximately substantially, the students’ skills of dealing with domestic violence
and abuse and improved by about 16%. The results that were obtained at pre-test
and post-test stages through the questionnaire on attitudes towards domestic
violence and compared at the post-test stage showed a decrease in victimisation
and perpetration characteristics in the sampled students, which indicated that the
educational environment raised students’ self-confidence in dealing with violent
actions towards them.
The above results addressed the questions of this study and complied with
literature highlighting best prevention practices in coping with domestic abuse
and violence (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2015; Katz & McGuire,
2018; Pisani Altafim & Martins Linhares, 2016). The findings, which were in line
with previous studies (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council,
1998), from the study proved that the quality of educational prevention
intervention improved when conducted jointly by a practitioner from the issue
field and an educator. This is due to the fact (Grimmer, 2016) that young people
are sensitive to issues like trust, betrayal, love, friendship, and respect the experts’
opinions, trust them more than their relatives or friends.

10
The study goes in line with Fox, Hale & Gadd (2014) stating that the concerns
related with domestic abuse and violence in young people should be anticipated
in the student-tailored education programmes in the class and out-of-class
activities at school and university. This was also found in the study that non-
formal university settings and the age of the students were favourable
prerequisites for addressing domestic abuse and violence. This study is also
consistent with the findings of Roy, Lindsay & Dallaire, (2013) whose research
demonstrated the importance of establishing cooperation with the specialist
facilitators from external agencies to support teachers in the educational
interventions of this kind.
The experiment provides a new insight into the prevention educational project
management that can be delivered non-formally and with the involvement of the
expert facilitators from the external institutions.
The reason for this is that high rates of abuse and violence, to have been performed
to and by young people, are found (see the Introduction section).
The study contributed to the pedagogic domain of dealing with the issue of family
abuse and violence by exploring non-formal university settings.
4.1. Limitations of the study
The results of the study might be challenged because of the number of sampled
students, the duration of the experiment, and instrumentation used to obtain
statistical data. Moreover, the study did not assess the actual behaviour of the
respondents but only their attitudes towards domestic violence and abuse. The
results of the research only rely on one group of sampled students. And one can
argue that there is no alternative explanation of the results.
5. Conclusion
The study showed that the non-formal university settings have the potential to
enrich pedagogic tools for addressing domestic abuse and violence. The
prevention intervention organised in the way presented had a positive impact on
students’ awareness of legal and psychological aspects of domestic abuse and
violence, students’ perceptions of committing abusive and/or violent actions by
men and women in family settings. It was validated by measurements,
observations, and students’ feedbacks. The pre-test and post-test results proved
that the project to have been delivered through the non-formal educational
environment had a positive outcome in terms of a reduction of victimisation and
perpetration characteristics in involved students and an increase in students’ self-
confidence in tackling violent actions towards them in both family and
educational environment.
The results obtained directly and indirectly from the research implied that the
issue is still gender-stereotyped and young people need extensive training in
establishing and maintaining relationships with representatives of the opposite
gender. The programmes of such kind should be incorporated into the university
curriculum as an optional or elective course. Furthermore, both teachers’ and
involved experts’ knowledge of students’ experiences and learning preferences
are a prerequisite for success of this intervention.

11
The experiment also raised some implications like attracting experts, raising
funds, finding sufficient evidence, and cases to fill the programme content.
Further research is needed in developing methodology and tools for evaluation
of the effectiveness of such intervention programmes.
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Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 14-28, April 2020
Towards De-Colonial Agitations in University
Classrooms: The Quest for Afrocentric Pedagogy
Bunmi Isaiah Omodan and Bekithemba Dube
University of the Free State
Republic of South Africa
Abstract. This study empirically conceptualised and rationalised
decoloniality as a way to bridge the vacuumed of Americentric
classroom hegemony in an attempt to reposition classroom with
Afrocentricism as a dominant practice in Universities. “Ubuntugogy” as
a transformational deviation from the Americentric teaching and
learning is adopted as a theoretical framework. The study is situated in
the transformative paradigm because its focus is to propose
“ubuntugogy” as a way to deconstruct Eurocentric hegemony in
university classrooms. Critical Emancipatory Research CER as an
epistemological movement that is channelled towards emancipation and
freedom from ideological enslavement is used as research design, and
the participants consist of 10 people, 5 actively experienced lecturers,
and 5 students were selected in the QwaQwa campus of the University
of the Free State. Free attitude interview was used to collect data from
the participant and the data collected were analysed using Thomas and
Harden’s three steps of thematic analysis. The study found out that the
curriculum and the perpendicular of language and cultural diversities,
and colonization of mind and irresistible western classroom system are
the significant challenges of implementing “ubuntugogy” in the
classroom. The study subsequently proposed curriculum adjustment to
accommodate trans-languaging and cultural diversities, and inculcation
of self-worth and self-esteem to respond to the western irresistibility in
the system with the conclusion that Afrocentric classroom may be one
dimensional and thus needs to be redirected to speak to the issues of
globalization.
Keywords: university classrooms; decoloniality; ubuntugogy;
afrocentricism; modernity
1. Introduction
21st-century classroom activities is characterised with the leftover of coloniality
otherwise acknowledged as modernity. Though the spate of modernity sounds
progressively inevitable to the echelon of school and schooling, most especially
in the global south, its trajectories have become a compulsory devil to the
factorisation and production of indigenous knowledge. In our argument, these

15
may not wholly take away the beauty of educational advancement and national
productivity, but the sociality, socialisation, discoverability and ingenious
constructivism are wallowing in the abyss of oblivion. This is supported by
Musitha and Mafukata (2018) and Omodan (2019), that the South Africa
education system still battling with the consequentiality of the Bantu education.
This lacuna is connected to the Eurocentric classroom mapping in our schools. In
these observations, no level of education in South Africa is exempted. This may
be the reason why Rodney (2012) proposed that “Africa should develop its
model of development” to jettison the modernised coloniality and euro-centrism
in schools.
In this article, we are joining our proposition with the assumptions of Lebeloane
(2018) that the curriculum deserves to be reconstructed to pave ways for the
implementers (Teachers/Lectures) who are the major classroom practitioners
(Omodan, Ekundayo & Omodan, 2018). That is, the curriculum must be
reconstructed to accommodate ethics and ethos of inclusivity, internalization of
indigenous knowledge, disengagement of the indignity of language,
indiscriminate sociality, and social justice. By ensuring these postulations, the
content knowledge that encompasses self-determined knowledge construction,
historically inclined ways of idealizing, pragmatic realities as means of knowing
will be determined by the environmental and epistemological realities within
learners’ conferment. However, the classroom on its own is not abstract, and it
does not exist alone without the students, teachers/lecturers and above all, the
instinct of actualizing students’ achievement and school productivity. This
means that human beings are the classroom and to which classroom is set to
affect, therefore, to erase the mirage of discourse from the deoloniality, the
minds and the mindset of the subjects must be decolonized.
Decolonising the mindset is a confirmation to the fact that Eurocentric and
Americentric classroom is not only from the intensity of the coloniality
(Mignolo, 2011; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2015) but the inability of the colonised to
discover the endemic of natural thinking, idealizing and “doing”. Hence, the
idea of deconstruction of students and teachers/lecturers’ mind cannot be
disconnected from the classroom decoloniality. Though the curriculum is the
guiding principles cum policies for teachers/lecturers and students, but the
mindset to bring it to reality is fundamental to individual perspective of the
socio-ecological realities of the classroom. From this, the quest to define and
redefine own experience beyond the idea of the long-standing coloniality
becomes activated. This, as described by Ngũgĩ (1986) as the politics and
politicking of language in African literature, is a constructive role in cultural
transition, historical reorientation, and love for social identity, which in our
argument is called Africanism. From this narrative, one could conclude that the
epistemologically “dismembered” ideas as a result of Euro/Americentric
pedagogies could be re-launched.

16
2. The place of Curriculum in Afrocentric Pedagogy
In order to ensure Afrocentricism in the space of Africa education and most
especially in classroom ecology, a concerted effort is needed to consistently
propel our education documents such as curriculum and other policies that
bother more on educational development. A redoubled effort in propelling the
idea of Africanising our curricular in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa needs
a serious study of the idea of Apartheid and if we have completely de-linked
ourselves from its rationality. This is what is needed to be able to delink our
epistemological praxis from the westerners. This idea of epistemological
disconnection according to Odora-Hoppers and Matiwana (2017) will ensure a
perfectly deconstructed Eurocentric way of doing. This according to him is
because South African and other African countries still produce knowledge in
line with the mirage of modernity. This is to say that the curriculum status quo
must be interrogated to establish what appeases the current way of generating
knowledge and give credence to ingenious knowledge as a practical concept.
This according to Luckett (2016) may not be achieved except if we start
questioning the temerity of who decides what counts, what knowledge is valid,
and to whom should take the lead, among others. This was supported by Joseph
(2017), that in order to dis-expand the colonial archive, the knowledge and the
historical development relating to curriculum must be deconstructed.
The school’s curriculum itself has been conceptualized from multidisciplinary
dimensions to mean what and how, when, and why the education system wants
its students to learn an arranged content planned for them in schools. Though
arguments exist that curriculum could be planned and thought, most
fundamentally could be taught as live (Lebeloane, 2017). This rationale behind
curriculum being taught as live, in our view, is to avail the students’ enablement
to be able to critique the way and process of implementation, which is one of the
beauties of decoloniality and “ubuntugogy”. In order to ensure unhindered
decolonization in university classrooms, the idea of Le Grange (2017) about the
various forms of the curriculum cannot be underrated. He deconstructs
curriculum in the classroom into two, which are explicit, hidden or null.
The explicit curriculum according to Lebeloane (2017) is a deliberately planned
learning content that exposes learners to the exigencies of themselves and their
environment, ranging from the past, present and the future. This kind of
curriculum according to Le Grange (2017) provides learners with skills to
critique, question and ameliorate issues by way of critical thinking. Some of the
materials or tools used in the type of curriculum are expert presentations,
textbooks, and readers among others. In our argument, it appears that this kind
of curriculum could enable learners to individually construct knowledge by the
virtue of what he thinks is best because it does allow the student to ask
questions to how and why. On the other hand, the hidden curriculum is the one
that indoctrinates the practitioners, which include students, teachers, lecturers,
among others into the dominant culture and values of the colonisers (Le Grange,
2017; Lebeloane, 2017). This we think is the fact that the content and the freedom
to critique and ask questions are not made known or taught in schools. In the
quest to decolonize the practical space, one could start to ask questions such as

17
5Wh; why, when, what, who, and how. Even the colonization of the mindset
may not be far from the hidden curriculum that is ideally Eurocentric.
3. Situating the Problems as lack of Africanised Pedagogy in the
Universities
In order to challenge the Eurocentric or Americentric classroom “way of doing”,
the contributions of university education in Africa cannot be underrated. This
level of education is the universal community of scholars. This is assumed to
contain various pieces of knowledge. It is where the face of a nation, to some
extent, is the light to the darkness as created by the coloniality. The problem of
this study, therefore, rests on the fact that observations and experiences showed
that universities even other levels of education had neglected the aesthetic of
indigenous knowledge (Senanayake, 2006; Kaya & Seleti, 2013). This is to say
that, the foreign way of doing has been accepted “hook line and sinker,” not
minding the locality of the differentiation in the environmental fragmentation,
cultural relativism, and the ecological prowess of all the stakeholders both
lectures and students are the order of the day. Even the organogram and
administrative functionality of the universities is not an exemption. Though this
article is only addressing the teaching and learning by defacing the long-
standing Eurocentric classroom mapping and replacing it with pedagogy that is
fitted to accommodate the use of local knowledge in the process of knowledge
construction. This is argued to mean Afrocentric Pedagogy.
However, it is observed that the “natural way of doing”, which could mean
“indigenous way of doing” is perceived to have been taken away the hegemony
of sense of belonging on the part of university teachers and students. This
problem could be linked to the national and university curriculum that arrested
the Afrocentric classroom constructivism instead of converging with the
personal and social needs of curriculum implementers (Odora-Hoppers, 2001).
This may have hindered the teachers and students’ social dimension of
knowledge construction by interpreting the issues below the value and cultural
lenses and awareness, making it looks like our own way of doing are below the
standard (Van Wyk, 2002). In line with this argument, though knowledge is
linked to interest and power domination (Badat, 1997) which is peculiar to
current university pedagogy the dominance of the long-standing coloniality in
the system. This according to Avis (1996) has regarded knowledge production as
hegemonic practices that propagated the rise in poverty, power dominance and
social breakdown in general productivity. Besides, our observation also shows
that the mindset of teachers, students, and other stakeholder are Eurocentric.
Our encounter with many lecturers and students on the trajectories of classroom
decoloniality makes me conclude that the mind of the lecturers is somewhat
stuck to the implementation of foreign ways of doing, at the expense of cultural
and local inclination.
Our encounter with students, most especially those studying science-related
courses, showed that many contents in the classroom are completely strange and
unable to link them to any concrete and practical realities around them. Among
many observations, universities in South Africa, most especially those located in
the rural ecology, are far from opening the space for local and or indigenous

18
knowledge productions. Even, the instructional materials that are used as aids to
learning are not exemplifying or relating to known knowledge. Classrooms in
the observed universities have been conducted from the “unknown to
unknown” as against “known to unknown” practice. This study is however
determined to empirically conceptualise and rationalise decoloniality as a way
to bridge the vacuumed of Americentric classroom hegemony.
4. Theoretical Framework: “Ubuntugogy” as an Approach
This study is grounded in the concept of “ubuntugogy” which in our view is
Afrocentric pedagogy that is rooted in Africanism called “Ubuntu”. Ubuntugogy
was propounded in 2005 and argued by Bangura to the best-hidden pedagogy,
which was branded by the qualities of culturalism, environmentalism, and
Afrocentricism (Ganyi & Owan, 2016). However, “Ubuntugogy”
metamorphosed from the philosophy of “Ubuntu”; Ubuntu, etymologically
emanated from Xhosa and Zulu languages (Samkange & Samkange: 1980) which
means Humanity and or Humanness (Omodan & Tsoetsi 2019). This is to say
that Ubuntu could be referred to as the quality of being human and humane
(Tworeck et al., 2015). These were conceptualised as “a person is a person
through others” (Khomba, 2011). From the above, ubuntugogy could be said to
mean an Africanised way of teaching and learning. This was conceptualised by
Bangura (2017) as an “art and science of teaching and learning that is dominated
by humanity and love towards others”. From the above, we can make bold to
argue along with Ganyi and Owan (2016) that “ubuntugogy” is a
transformational deviation from the Amenricentric teaching and learning
otherwise called “pedagogy.”
Ubuntugogy is, however, a system of teaching and learning that is centered on
the utilisation of indigenous and Africanised teaching and learning aids in the
classroom where culturalism and environmentalism take the lead (Bangura,
2015) in the teaching and learning input, process and output. This could also be
referred to as Afrocentric pedagogy. This theory is relevant in this study because
it propels the utilisation and galvanization of culturally and environmentally
inclined teaching aids, material and practice to dominate the process of
knowledge construction in the classroom. This will enable learners and the
teachers and in case of the university system, the students and the lecturers to
get along. This could manifest quick knowledge and assimilation because
African people are confirmed to crush on the process that enables employment
of indigenous spices to discourse. Such an atmosphere enables the lecturers to
dispense knowledge from the known to unknown. That is, when classroom
content is dispensed and simplified to the students using local examples and
materials, it will open their reasoning and be able to link the concept from
environmentalism thereby enhance their assimilation. In other to be able to
achieve this and inject it into the reality of the university classrooms, the
following research question and aim guided the study.

19
5. Research Question and Aim of the Study
The question of “how to concretize Afrocentric classroom practices to decolonize
the euro-centric classroom hegemony” piloted the study. In order to do justices
to this empirical discourse, the inconsistencies in the university classrooms and
the failure of its system to accommodate Afrocentric constructivism will be
explored.
6. Objectives of the Study
Based on the research question and aims of the study, the following research
objectives paved the way to unravel the problem of Afrocentricism in university
classrooms;
• The study investigated the challenges associated with the
implementation of Afrocentric Classroom pedagogy.
• The study probed into the possible solution to the challenges with more
focus on the implementation of “ubuntugogy”.
7. Methodology
This is situated in the transformative paradigm because its focus is to propose
ubuntugogy as a way to deconstruct Eurocentric hegemony in university
classrooms. Besides, the ontology and epistemic stance informing the study is
concerned with the social and historical nature in correlation to the classroom
reality (Chilisa, 2013). Critical Emancipatory Research (CER) is adopted as a
research design for this study, and this is adopted to enable researcher to
understand and respond to the issue of classroom sociality and interrogate social
justices in the curriculum implementation. In the argument of Dube (2016) and
Ngwenyama (1992), CER is a break-away ideology from Frankfurt school which
is centered towards reformation. In a similar perspective, CER is an
epistemological movement that is channeled towards emancipation and freedom
from ideological enslavement (Dube & Hlalele, 2018). That is, this choice of
design exposes the participant to the systematic social and ideological
enslavement eroded in Eurocentric pedagogy. CER is, therefore, appropriate to
stand as a foundation for this research process because it stands as anti-
injustices; it promotes emancipation and encourages freedom in the research
process for transformation. The research participants comprise of five university
students, and five lecturers in the Qwaqwa campus of the university of the Free
State, South Africa, totaling ten participants, who are active in classroom
activities, the selected student were fourth year and postgraduate honour
students who are assumed to be much experienced in university pedagogy. The
selected lecturers are those with at least four years’ experience in the system
with active classroom experience.
Free attitude interview was used to collect data from the participant; this
method of data generation is considered appropriate because it enables the
participants to discuss the issue as it appears to them. Free attitude interview is
regarded as a conversation that uncovers real thoughts about a particular
phenomenon (Creswell et al., 2016), and it helps the researcher to understand
people, their sociality, and the nature of the problem they live with (Mahoko,
Omodan & Tsotetsi, 2019). The data collected was analysed using three steps of

20
analysis prescribed by (Thomas & Harden, 2008), these steps according to them
involve coding text, developing descriptive themes, and generating analytical
meaning from the coded text. This becomes relevant to this study because it
enables the researcher to arrange the data according to the objectives of the
study. This further ensures the readers a coherence and cohesion of
understanding of the research and its findings.
8. Results and Findings
The results from this study were informed by the implementation of the
methodological stance as stated above, the principle of CER as research design
was fully followed and the data generated through the interview were coded,
schematised and analysed based on the objectives of the study. The objectives
were to explore the challenges associated with the implementation of the
Afrocentric teaching-learning system in the University classroom and to provide
possible solutions to the challenges to establish the need for Africanism in the
classroom.
9. The challenges associated with the implementation of Afrocentric
Classroom pedagogy
Sub-themes under objective one that was analysed based on themes from the
raw data are; curriculum and the perpendicular of language and cultural
diversities, and colonization of mind and irresistible western classroom system.
These were derived from the participants’ statements and triangulated with
literature. For stressless reading, the Lecturers were represented as LT while
students were represented as ST in the analysis below;
9.1 Curriculum and the Perpendicular of Language and Cultural diversities
Delinking, separating, and or distancing learners from Eurocentric pedagogy in
university classrooms could not be done in isolation if at all it is going to see the
light of the day. This is because no system of teaching and learning exist without
curriculum or policy backup, not only which, the language of teaching and
learning is also essential in classroom activities, management, and knowledge
production. This in line with the fact that curriculum and other policy document
is needed to delink epistemological praxis that could ensure a complete
disconnection of eurocentric knowledge construct (Odora-Hoppers & Matiwana,
2017) from educational practitioners and replace it with Africentric way of
doing and thinking. This is the ideal that is expected in the reality of this
discourse but the reverse is the case in the system as the participants' statements
seem to contradict. See the statements below;
LT2: “Inadequacy of indigenous instructors in schools has made all of us
accept foreign classroom culture as the best and it remains like that”
LT3: “Lack of resources relevant to the curriculum/shortage of textual
resources to refer to... Lessons that could incorporate Indigenous Knowledge
could be time-consuming”

21
The statement from LT1 lament that even there are approval ways with which
the classroom could be decolonised in the way of using “ubuntugogy”, there are
limited lecturers who can understand and implement the niti-gritty of such idea.
These scenarios according to him have practically made the people more
westernized to the extent that it may be difficult to retrace the hegemony of
Eurocentric in African classroom mostly in universities. Lack of human capital
such as lecturer to implement indigenous knowledge across the classes is the
only contributing factor to the challenges, but lack and shortage of locally
inclined materials and school resources according to the statement of LT3 is not
helping the mater. His idea could mean that the use of indigenous teaching aids
may exist but are not enough to ensure consistent use of indigenized teaching
aids all the time. The last statement of the LT3 also confirmed that the use of
indigenized teaching aids is not time friendly. To think of it, the intention is to
say that the use will not allow the lecturer to quickly address the needed issues
in classroom as and when due. This is not practically far from the fact that the
curriculum and/or the policy book that is piloting the university education in
South Africa is either silent or inactive about the incorporation of local content.
The use or not of this indigenized teaching and learning at times is not the sole
problem of the lecturer. According to the participants' statements, it bothers
more on the issue of diversities in South African classrooms. See the following
statements;
LT5: “Since a classroom consists of diversity, another challenge would be,
to know which IK from which cultures would be more relevant in a diverse
classroom...”
ST1: “Afrocentric education/ curriculum is one dimensional and does may
not speak to the issues of the global context and therefore in an ever-
evolving world where the education system seeks to produce 21st century
and global citizens, Afrocentric curricula may be irrelevant as it only
speaks to the history of one people”.
In the statement of LT5, one could confirm that the trajectory of classroom
diversities in South Africa, that is, that classroom consists of people from
different cultures that come with different socio-political-economic and cultural
backgrounds. In this case, it may be difficult for a lecturer to choose which
indigenous artefact or history and ways of going is better employed. Besides, the
lecturer may even not be familiar with more than one of two cultural and
environmental backgrounds. Therefore, such a teacher does not have a choice
than to use generally accepted teaching practices in the classroom. This is not far
from the analysis of ST1, who stressed that the Afrocentric curriculum is one
dimensional too and does not accommodate diversities of people that can
support the best global practice. This according to her is irrelevant. Moreover,
our understanding is because Afrocentric pedagogy may not accommodate the
people’s choice, most notably in the university system, where people from
various countries converge in the search for knowledge. However, the issue of
diversity that comes with language differences surface and because more
problematic to the implementation of indigenous knowledge. This is confirmed
by the responses below;

22
LT2 “Considering the place of African languages in the in a Eurocentric
society. Can they coexist or does it have to be either one of the languages”
ST3: “It is difficult to even begin believing in African ways of life in this
political era, most especially in the classroom. So, in other words, African
pedagogy still needs a lot of development for curriculum purposes”
The statement from LT2 gives a severe concern about the possibility of having
one language as Africans, which is practically in our view not achievement
anytime soon. Even in a country, there are many languages, South Africa, for
example, has up to 12 different languages that come with their peculiarities, etc.
This is in line with the argument of Ngũgĩ (1986) which states that there are
politics and politicking of language in African literature that clamoured for
social identity. This idea is not in isolation as the ST3 confirmed that it is
challenging to believe in the African way of life as a result of the unstable
political system that has characterized the continent. Maybe this statement is
coming as a result of politics that has been involving in the formulation and
implementation of policies and even curriculum. This trust diversion may not be
the focus of this study, but it gives meaning to the reason why many
implementers may not even trust the people in power for curriculum and policy
formulations. He further stressed that African pedagogy needs a very long way
to go. From the above, it is evidenced that curriculum and university education
policies are not very kin in the inculcation of Africanized way of practices in the
classroom and that the Language in the place of diversities is a significant
challenge in the classroom that is diverse like South Africa.
This finding is supported by Joseph (2017), that the only way to ensure indignity
as against the colonial archive, the knowledge and the historical development
relating to curriculum must be deconstructed. From the above analysis, it is
therefore found out that the Africanised factors are not yet in the curriculum,
and the perpendicular of Language and Cultural diversities is confirmed to be a
challenge to the implementation of Africanised knowledge production in the
classroom. This finding also goes in consonance with the agitation of Lebeloane
(2018) that the curriculum deserves to be reconstructed to pave ways for the
implementers. This is practically what the agitation for decoloniality through
ubuntugogy is preaching. That is, to ensure the possibilities of Ubuntugogy as a
way of decoloniality, the curriculum and languaging will not be an extraneous
variable in the process. Because decoloniality and ubuntugogy according to
Ganyi and Owan (2016, p. 35) is transformational teaching and learning which
could make teaching and learning process more acceptably productive to
students.
9.2 Colonisation of Mind and Irresistible Western Classroom System
This challenge is not new in the education system, and it is perceived that the
system is inclined with the western way of doing that is uneasy to be dismantled
based on its long-standing practices of modernity. This idea is not too far from
what has dominated the mind of the lecturers and the students. This according
to Van Wyk (2002) have hindered the socially constructed knowledge and
interpretation of values and culturalism because the westernized mindset of the
practitioners portraits the Africanised way of doing as below standards. This is

23
evident in the fact that knowledge is linked to interest and power domination
(Badat, 1997), which is the dominance of the long-standing coloniality in the
universities. This has gone a long way to congest the mindset of the people to
believing that only acceptable ways of doing are the westernized and anything
short of that is targeted uncivilized. This does not only exist in our observations
and literature but also in the participants' statements as illustrated below;
LT1: “Inferiority complex is the case, lectures and parents alike believe that
using indigenous languages in the classroom setting will rubbish their
personalities, hence their continuous insistence on the use of foreign
languages”
ST4: “Western knowledge has reduced African knowledge into fiction and
ridiculed it to something that is unorthodox”
ST4: “beside the classroom, even there is no much-written work that is in
the African context”
From these statements, one could confirm that there is decolonization of life,
thinking and doing. The statement of LT1, confirmed that there is an inferiority
complex among the lecturers and the parents. This is evidence according to him
that parent is not confident in the locally way of doing things thereby will find it
difficult to enroll their children in such schools. Furthermore, there is a feeling
that using indigenous language or classroom practice is proof that such may be
tagged as rubbish and thereby affecting their social personalities. Because of this,
they prefer to engrain themselves in the assumed civilized (westernized) ways.
This complex as examined above according to ST4 confirms that western
knowledge as reduced African knowledge to nothing and making it look like a
fiction that is wallowing in the illusion of reality. This is not palatable but in
reality, that is what is playing to the gallery. That is why the perceptions of
people are that the British schools that operate within the British curriculum are
better than the national curriculum ones. This challenge according to ST4 is not
only peculiar to this perceived systematic marginalization but also in the world
of records. The ST4 stresses that there is not much written that is done in the
African context. This may not be that there is no writing that is done is such
context but could be that many such have imbibed the westernized content to
prove their worth.
From the above analysis, it seems that it may not be easy to completely
decolonised classroom for the purpose of re-establishing “ubuntugogy”. The
reason for this may not be restricted only to the fact that practitioners have been
systematically colonised from the aspect of knowledge construction. But another
fact emerging from the field is that almost all the practitioners are western-
trained. See the statements below;
LT2: “it is going to be a challenge to decolonise the African classrooms
because most of the teachers, as well as the children, are raised in a modern
way”
L4: “Influx of foreign teachers/lecturers who do not have indigenous
knowledge of teaching into the schools”.

24
The argument here is that the challenge regarding the implementation of
Africanised classroom pedagogy is facing so many extraneous problems such as
the fact that many teachers are trained in a westernized manner and as well as
students, most of them grown up where there were little or no experience about
local and indigenous knowledge. This may not go well even in the ideal and the
discourse is coming to reality. This bothers more on the law of realism that says
what cannot be seen may not be real. The finding is, therefore, that the mindset
and the way of doing of the people in the system are already indebted to
colonization and wiliness to promote the persistence coloniality exists among
them. On the other hand, western pedagogy and its practices, according to this
study, were found to be irresistible, though these findings may not be absolutely
defined the mind and the interest of this research location. I, therefore, argue in
line with Avis (1996) that production of knowledge in the classroom has been
swept under the carpet of Eurocentric practices that have propagated in power
dominance and social breakdown in general productivities. This is confirming
the true state of Ubuntugogy in universities as opined by Owan (2016) that the
best of “ubuntugogy” is still hidden because it was branded with the beauties of
culturalism, environmentalism, and Afrocentricism.
10. Solutions to the challenges of Afrocentric Classroom Pedagogy
Sub-themes under objective two that were analysed based on themes from the
raw data are; curriculum adjustment to accommodate trans-languaging and
cultural diversities, and inculcation of self-worth and self-esteem to respond to
the irresistibility.
10.1 Curriculum and or Policy Readjustment to Accommodate Languages and
Cultural Diversities
Based on the above challenges as emanated from the participants alongside the
analytical interpretations, one could confirm that the curriculum needs to be
readjusted to accommodate the issue of cultural diversities, language differences
in order to be able to respond well to the issue and agitations classroom
Africanisation. This may not be achievable in isolation, that is, the practical
involvement of leaders, most notably, those in the affairs of higher education
should ensure that all these agitations are incorporated; this in our argument
may equip the practitioners with necessary weapons to deal with the
deficiencies and any hidden trajectories of “Ubuntugogy”. This call is not only
based on our argument, but on the participants’ statements also justified the
need. See below;
LT3: “Need to identify an Authority saddled with the power to implement
the proposed education policy or create one if there exists none for effective
implementation of the policy”.
From this, one could say all eyes are on the leaders, the curriculum planners, the
policymakers to gear up and propound all-inclusive law that will inculcate the
spirit of multilingualism that could enhance the learning and the use of multiple
languages by the teachers and even the learners. This is pertinent because it is
deduced that diversity in terms of language and culture may not allow the

25
actualization of Africanised classrooms in the university system. The below
statements are also justifying the need though in slightly different manners;
L3: “we need to adopt a far-reaching indigenous language that is sufficient,
flexible and trans-ethnically acceptable to operationalize the policy”.
ST3: “we need a position to appreciate African languages then we will move
into incorporating the African knowledge into the curriculum.”
In line with the above, the formulation of inclusive curriculum/policies on
education will only survive if it is adapted with “a far-reaching indigenous
language that is sufficient, flexible and trans-ethnically acceptable to operationalize the
policy”. This position will enhance the appreciation of African cultures, language
and ways of doing. From this analysis, it is hereby found out that curriculum
and or policy readjustment to accommodate languages and cultural diversities is
essential, this is not an idea that is in isolation, this is in support of the call by
Lebeloane (2017) that there is a need for a deliberately planned curriculum
content that will expose students to themselves and the environment by
exposing the historical linkage of issues to the present and the future. This is also
supporting the conclusion of Grange (2017) that various forms of the curriculum
cannot be underrated when it comes to educational transformation.
10.2 Inculcation of Self Worth and Self Esteem to respond to
irresistibility
Self-worth and self-esteem are one of the factors that strengthen students,
teachers, lecturers, and other practitioners, according to Jan et al., (2015) enhance
their skills, develop them both mentally and physically. The wellness and ability
of the stakeholder as mentioned above are essential in what and how the school
operates and implementation of academic plans are done (Omodan, Ekundayo
& Bamikole, 2018). Self-confidence and self-esteem have been found by
researchers to be essential in the performance of lecturers and the students
(Kususanto, Ismail & Jamil, 2010; Mbuva, 2016). Going by these, the
recommendation of the practitioners’ self-efficacy that could promote self-belief
and worth among them is not out of place. This is also mentioned in the
participants' statement as a means to make bold to defend one history and
dimensions of culture, see below;
ST1: Practitioners who are knowledgeable in that area of expertise must
come forth and Africanism as a narrative and the true history behind it
because there are too many accounts of our history.
LT1: Teachers/lecturers and parents alike should see indigenous languages
as keys to all-round improvement and should learn from countries like
China, Japan, Germany.
These statements are coming as a perceived result of lack of self-worth, esteem,
and efficacy coupled with boldness to display and define oneself to the people.
This does not only bother on the lecturers and or students, but Africanism must
also be defined and popularised with a carefully defined history that makes
unity in diversity. The boldness to defend oneself among many olds also

26
accounts for why LT1 admonished that parents and lecturers should see
indigeneity as a way of life, as a means for growth and development. The reasons
why LT1 referred to countries such as China, Japan, and Germany are because
those countries are examples of countries where indignity and traditional ways
of doing dominates. Moreover, this has helped them rise among the countries of
the world. It is, therefore, found out that inculcation of self-worth and self-
esteem to respond to the irresistibility of western ways of doing could be one of
the solutions that could enhance the implementation of Africanised ways of
doing. This is supported by the finding of Jan, et al. (2015) that building more on
the teachers’ and students' self-esteem is a panacea of productivities and
performance. This could also be linked to the fact that when there is boldness
and self-belief, to challenge the hegemony of any kind in the classroom will be
activated and any forms of oppression, whether systematic, physical or hidden,
will be challenged. This is because self-esteem is essential in the performing
abilities of lecturers and the students (Mbuva, 2016).
11. Conclusion
In conclusion, as findings would have it that the challenges of the Afrocentric
classroom operation in universities are inabilities of the curriculum to
incorporate the principles of Ubuntugogy, and the perpendicular of language
and cultural diversities. Another challenge is the colonisation of mind and
irresistible western hegemony in the classroom. All these were found to be
essential if the agitation will be sustained. Along these, the solutions were
provided which includes, the quest that curriculum should be readjusted to
accommodate trans-languaging and cultural diversities. Not only that, all the
practitioners are also enjoyed to be endowed with entire self-worth and self-
esteem needed to respond to the irresistibility of modernity in classrooms.
However, the need for mass orientation that focuses on socio-psychological
decolonisation of students and lecturers against the Eurocentric influences of
modernity towards broad and legitimate acceptance of the proposed Afrocentric
pedagogy policy in teaching through the production of indigenous knowledge
in the University system. Therefore, Afrocentric education/curriculum may be
one dimensional and thus needs to be redirected to speak to the issues of
globalization; this will enhance the concept to operate within the ever-evolving
world where the education system seeks to produce 21st century and global
citizens.
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29
Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 29-43, April 2020
Restructuring the Teacher Education System in
Vietnam
Quang Hong Pham
Thai Nguyen University,
Thai Nguyen, 250000, Vietnam
Nam Danh Nguyen*
Thai Nguyen University of Education,
Thai Nguyen, 250000, Vietnam
Abstract. This paper presents international experiences and the real
situation of the teacher education system in Vietnam. This research has
also shown some challenges that teacher education institutions would
face within the context of radical and comprehensive education
renovation. Based on analyzing the teacher education system and
teacher education management, the paper presents some viewpoints
and principles for restructuring teacher education as well as draws
lessons for Vietnam in renovating the teacher education model. Then,
the paper proposes the new teacher education model and reorganized the
teacher education system, in which the research determines some key
educational universities and their “satellites” educational universities
and colleges at localities across the country. The paper also suggests a
solution for establishing the connection between key educational
universities and their satellites among the system so that it could meet
the requirements of the labor market and society. These suggestions
help educational universities and colleges to reorganize their functions
and missions of training future teachers. The research also makes a
contribution to change the policies for teachers and teacher education in
Vietnam.
Keywords: restructuring; teacher education; teacher education system;
teacher training; educational university; Vietnam
1. Introduction
In the trend of globalization, teachers must work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic,
multi-religious, multinational, and multi-lingual environment. This trend
requires teachers must not only meet the national professional standards but
also towards the international professional standards to be able to adapt to this
*
Corresponding author’s e-mail: danhnam.nguyen@tnue.edu.vn

30
working environment. That is also the challenge to train global citizens to adapt
to the world labor market (Quang, 2013; Binh, 2013; Ayesha, 2018). Therefore,
the impact of international integration trends on the professional standards of
teachers is a matter of concern in the process of teacher training. Furthermore,
the teacher labor market in the globalization trend is broad, open, and flexible.
Hence, if the teacher does not meet the requirements of international standards,
there is a risk of being unemployed (Sang, 2011; Quang, 2013; Michael, 2018).
Consequently, teacher training or educational universities must train teachers
who have the competencies to adapt to the international working environment.
Vietnam has faced with an urgent need for industrialization and modernization
in the context of a socialist-oriented market economy and global integration. The
government has been implementing a radical and comprehensive renovation in
education and training. In particular, the general education program in the year
2018 has crucial changes from educational objectives, learning content, methods
to evaluation methods, implementation conditions, and management systems.
Therefore, it is very necessary to renovate the teacher education system to train a
new model of teachers that satisfies the educational renovation (Binh, 2013;
Quang, 2013). The search for teacher training models suitable for the new
context which is conducted with a series of workshops on teacher education.
Moreover, the Ministry of Education and Training has developed teacher
standards, school standards, and requested educational universities to renew
training programs, program, and institution accreditation. In this circumstance,
the paper studies the experiences of successful institutions in the world in
teacher education. It draws lessons for Vietnamese higher education for
determining the direction in modernizing teacher training models.
International studies have shown that teacher education programs in many
countries have gradually developed from low-ranked teacher training
institutions to comprehensive universities. In Vietnam, the educational colleges
trained preschool, elementary school teachers, and educational universities
trained high school teachers. These institutions are being upgraded into
multidisciplinary universities to meet the growing needs for high-quality
teachers. Besides, educational schools and teacher training colleges integrated
into universities, and non-teacher universities are allowed to involve in teacher
preparation (Quang, 2013; Binh, 2013; Hieu, Nam, 2019). Reconstruction of
teacher education programs aims at establishing a new teacher education model
at universities where a college of education collaborates with other academic
colleges to educate prospective teachers. The system formed by teacher training
colleges and local educational universities that respectively trained prospective
teachers for preschools, elementary schools, and secondary schools. In Vietnam,
teacher training colleges and educational universities were public, managed by,
the model of the central planning economy. The resources, recruitment of faculty
and enrolment of students, approaches of teacher education, and allocation of
graduates were all decided and controlled by the Ministry of Education and
Training. The objective of this study is to investigate the real situation in the
teacher education system in some countries in the world and to evaluate the
system in Vietnam. After that, the study draws lessons for teacher education and
suggestions for restructuring the teacher education system in Vietnam that

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