Abstract

KOOPMAN, Oscar  and  KOOPMAN, Karen Joy. Towards a phenomenology of the broken [South] African body as the site for research in education. Journal of Education [online]. 2024, n.94, pp.127-145. ISSN 2520-9868.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i94a08.

In light of the pervasive influence that neoliberalism has on the country's higher education sector and, subsequently, its research agenda, we argue that a recalibration of the philosophical and theoretical perspectives of education researchers is warranted. To this end, we advocate in this paper for a shift from the research subject being viewed, according to Barnacle (2009, p. 16) as a "brain in a vat" customary to positivistic thinking to a phenomenology of what we think of as the broken African body that views the African research subject in their fullness as a living, intersubjective, epistemic, bodily being shaped by invisible socio-political structures that condition both mind and body. This approach that centres on the search for understanding the structure of human consciousness, emphasises the influence that the historical, cultural, and social forces have made intrinsic to the African lived body. Accordingly, we argue that when we are conducting educational research the African body should be reframed as a vessel imbued with distinctive memories of various traumas of colonialism and apartheid, along with its resilience in regaining its balance from such perturbations. From this perspective we animate the crucial need by researchers to embrace the African body to enrich education in South Africa by engaging with the profound complexities of the South African context.

Keywords : educational research; South Africa; universities; African bodies; phenomenology.

        · text in English     · English ( pdf )