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Worldviews, Knowledge and Education - EDU00064I

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  • Department: Education
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Eleanor Brown
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25

Module summary

The purpose of this module is to encourage students to think more critically about where knowledge comes from and explore different ways of knowing. It will analyse ways we can begin to decolonise education and consider worldviews that challenge dominant discourses.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2024-25

Module aims

The key aims of the module are:

  • Reflecting on where knowledge comes from and what makes knowledge legitimate
  • Critiquing Eurocentric approaches to knowledge, education and research
  • Exploring different worldviews in recognition of epistemological pluralism.
  • Analysing education viewed from around the world

Module learning outcomes

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understand the rise of dominant discourses about education, knowledge and research
  • Understand the impact of colonialism on education and research
  • Recognise a range of worldviews and challenges to dominant discourse on global issues
  • Analyse the power relations behind the way that knowledge is legitimised and understand a range of alternative worldviews
  • Examine approaches to education from around the world

By the end of this module students will be able to:

  • Academic and graduate skills
  • Collaborative problem solving
  • Collaborative filmmaking and use of editing software
  • Effective communication
  • Presenting research on a topic

Module content

Global Perspectives on Knowledge and Education
Week 1 - Where does knowledge come from and why?
Finding ourselves in the group
Decolonial thought overview
Week 2 - Discovering the Pluriverse 1
Colonial legacies on education
Afrocentric Epistemology - Ubuntu
Week 3 - Discovering the Pluriverse 2
Presentations on Afrocentric epistemology
The wisdom of Pacha Mama - vivir bien en abya yala
Week 4 - Discovering the Pluriverse 3
Presentations on Abya Yala epistemology
Asia? (swaraj, taoism, confucianism, Tagore)
Week 5 - Discovering the Pluriverse 4
Presentations on Asian epistemology
Eurocentric Epistemology (Reason and Empiricism)

Critiquing how we know and researching new ideas
Week 6 - What can we learn from opening up to other worldviews?
Consolidating discoveries
Documentary planning online - Group ideas
Week 7 - What can we do in the face of new ways of knowing?
Degrowth, environmental justice & activism
Documentary planning online - Technical skills
Week 8 - Why does it matter how we understand knowledge and education?
Decolonising education and the university
Documentary planning online - Technical skills
Week 9 - How can we make sense of challenges to dominant worldviews?
Postcolonial critiques
Documentary planning online - Facilitated group work
Week 10 - How do we feel about challenging dominant worldviews?
Worldviews, knowledge and education
Documentary planning online - Facilitated group work
Week 11 - Documentary Screenings and reflections
Part 1
Part 2

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Video pres/written reflection : Director's introduction to the short film		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Video pres/written reflection : Director's introduction to the short film		 N/A 100

Module feedback

Students will receive written feedback on their summative assessments. The feedback is returned to students in line with university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

The summative assessment will be assessed using the Imagining Alternative Futures bespoke rubric in order to assess non-written content alongside the written reflections.
The group project short film will be formatively assessed but it will be necessary for students to complete this in order to do the summative assessment, which will be assessed individually.

Indicative reading

Kothari, A., Salleh, A., Escobar, A., Demaria, F. and Acosta, A. (eds.) (2019) Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary. Tulika Books.

Bhambra, Gurminder K., Gebrial, Dalia and Nisancioglu, Kerem (eds) (2018) Decolonising the University. Pluto Press.

Sharon Stein, Cash Ahenakew, Elwood Jimmy, Vanessa Andreotti, Will Valley, Sarah Amsler, Bill Calhoun & the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective Developing (2021) Stamina for Decolonizing Higher Education: A Workbook for Non-Indigenous People. Retrieved from https://higheredotherwise.net/resources/

Sutoris, P. (2021) “Environmental Futures through Children’s Eyes: Slow Observational Participatory Videomaking and Multi-Sited Ethnography,” Visual Anthropology Review 37:2

Sutoris, P. (2018) "Elitism and its challengers: Educational development ideology in postcolonial India through the prism of film, 1950–1970," International Journal of Educational Development 60

Brown, E.J. and McCowan, T. (2018) Buen vivir’: reimagining education and shifting paradigms. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. 48(2) 317-323 DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2018.1427342


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.