Browsing by Author "Openjuru, George Ladaah"

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    Christianity and rural community literacy practices in Uganda
    (Blackwell Publishing,, 2007) Openjuru, George Ladaah
    In this article, we examine how Christianity provides the impetus for local literacy practices in a rural community in Uganda. These Christian literacy practices form a central part of the literacy activities of the community and are manifested in a variety of contexts from public to private, using a wide variety of readily available religious texts in the community. Through examination of Christian literacy practices, the authors suggest that ethnographic research has the potential to generate information that can be used to enhance literacy learning in rural community life.
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    The Role of Religion in Written Language Maintenance and Shift in Uganda
    (Multilingual Matters 2019, 2019) Openjuru, George Ladaah
    The primary focus of this chapter is the ambivalent role of religion in language maintenance and shift in Uganda. This chapter draws its theo-retical framework from the work of Pauwels (2005) on language mainte-nance and shift. Indeed, Pauwels’ contribution is central to this area and provides a very good definition of language maintenance and shifts in the context of language contact. Furthermore, she considers factors and forces promoting both language maintenance and shift, relevant to the case of Uganda and the Christian religion. Basically, according to Pauwels (2005), both phenomena of language maintenance (LM) and language shift (LS) come about in the context of language contact. An outcome of this process is that one language may give way to the other as the domi-nant language. The contact of significance in this Ugandan language landscape was between European Christian missionaries and native Africans in Uganda. The missionaries introduced two aspects of language use: literacy, which contributed to language maintenance, and formal school education, which promoted the use of English in favor of local languages. The Christian missionaries created two powerful social institutions in Uganda: school and church. These two social institutions produced the conflicting forces of both LM and LS in the Ugandan language landscape, as I shall show in this chapter. Language use in this chapter will be con-sidered largely in terms of the written text (literacy) and to some extent spoken language as well. Religion, language, literacy and education have always been associated in Africa to the same degree as in other parts of the world. The three noted ‘Religions of The Book’ are Islam, Christianity and Judaism (Kapitzke,1999). Accordingly, religion, especially the Christian religion, through the activities of its missionaries, has done a lot in spreading alphabetic literacy in Africa (Venezky, 1999) and has triggered both LM, through the devel-opment of orthographies and printing in local languages, and LS, through the introduction of school education based on the use of English as the language of instruction and power in Uganda. Before going into a detailed discussion, it is important to look at the language context in Uganda. I will draw on the literature and also refer briefly to my field notes.
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    Transitioning Vocational Education and Training in Africa: A Social Skills Ecosystem Perspective VET Africa 4.0 Collective.
    (Bristol University Press, 2021) McGrath, Simon; Openjuru, George Ladaah; Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; Allais, Stephanie; Zeelen, Jacques; Wedekind, Volker; Ramsarup, Presha
    Editor's Preface This is the first volume for the Bristol Studies in Comparative and International Education (building upon the former Bristol Papers series) and one that clearly demonstrates our commitment to ‘critically engage with education and international development from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective’. In content, the book is ground-breaking for the ways in which it challenges traditional, and often northern, conceptualizations of vocational education and training (VET); insists upon analysing both VET and work in broad, relational and inclusive ways; develops and applies original theoretical contributions drawn from political ecology; and moves beyond ‘extractive’ modalities of research in this important arena. In terms of ‘process’, the book has further distinction and originality due to the innovative ways in which the 20 core authors/researchers have combined to form the VET Africa 4.0 Collective and wrestled with the decolonial challenges and dynamics of coproduction and joint authorship within the context of an externally funded international Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) partnership. For those interested in learning from, and advancing, more equitable international research partnerships, this book has much to offer readers across multiple fields and disciplines. The book is structured around three sections, the first of which establishes the historical and theoretical context (Chapters 1–4) while introducing the ‘social ecosystems for skills’ model that underpins the overall framework for the analysis. Section 2 (Chapters 5–8) develops and expands this model through a detailed and critically reflexive examination of the empirical data embedded within four contextually grounded South African and Ugandan VET case studies. Section 3 (Chapter 9) reflects upon the implications of the overall study for future research, policy and practice; and an important and insightful ‘Afterword’ reflects on the collaborative, multilevel research and writing process in ways that deserve close attention. This is a complex and sophisticated analysis with theoretical and empirical depth that provides an invaluable resource for all concerned with the future of VET policy, practice and research worldwide. It is a collective book that reimagines more democratic and relational futures for VET, challenges dominant orthodoxies, engages with the implications of both decolonization and climate resilience for the future of skills development, and interrogates the multiple power dynamics involved in advancing innovative international research partnerships within, and beyond, the VET arena. To cite the authors own words: ‘As university researchers, we must find ways of balancing the immediacy of the funded project and the need for stronger and longer lasting bonds in the locations in which we research, while also forming new, oftentimes nontraditional, relations across our institutions and our related partner networks’ (afterword). For these reasons, it is hard to imagine a more appropriate volume for the launch of our renewed book series with Bristol University Press. I am, therefore, more than pleased to recommend this work to readers interested in the contemporary challenges faced by VET in Africa and worldwide; and, most importantly, to all engaged with the theoretical and epistemological implications of decolonization for interdisciplinary research, comparative studies and international development.