Exploring Western and non-Western epistemological influences in South Africa: theorising a critical democratic citizenship education

My decade-long research on democracy and schooling in a Xhosa township has led to an examination of epistemological influences on democratic citizenship from Western and non-Western (i.e. African) perspectives. While Max Weber advanced the notion of an autonomous citizen within Western democratic states, different philosophical and cultural assumptions operate in South Africa, where the individual is viewed as not separate from, but rather embedded in, the community into which one is born. This theoretical position – a person is a person through other people (isiXhosa proverb) – serves as a thoughtful starting point for theorising a critical democratic citizenship education. This article explores Western and non-Western influences through scholarly literature and practitioner perspectives. The goal is to consider the convergences and divergences between Western and indigenous knowledge with ubuntu (humanness), an African moral ethic, as its key construct.