This study aims at building a positive perception towards the teaching and learning of arts and humanities and advocating for their scholarship given their value in the cultivation of human development in East Africa. The study is anchored in the stakeholders' theory of salience that claims that once latent stakeholders (who belong to arts and humanities) are supported via policy intervention, they survive. Without this support, scholarship and research in arts and humanities are adversely affected. Participants from four East African Community member states, i.e. Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya were involved. The findings show that the general public has less consideration of the teaching and learning of arts and humanities subjects with different and mixed perceptions such as fewer opportunities for employability, inability to justify its raison d'être and showcase its technological, scientific and economic contributions, inability to attract research funds, to name but a few. However, the contribution of arts and humanities to the human development ranging from their maintenance of a democratic society, literacy, creativity, resilience, understanding, critical thinking, communicative skills, and practical judgment to longterm civic results is also depicted. Hence, to ensure their survival, there should be a political will to promote them in one way or another.
This study was conducted in eight universities within the East African Community (EAC). Its objective was to investigate the endangerment situation of the Humanities in order to suggest some lessons for Rwanda in transforming the teaching of these subjects. The endangerment was measured in terms of stakeholder salience, declining student enrolment, government budget-cuts as well as the devalorisation of these disciplines and negative society perceptions towards them. The study investigates the causes and consequences of this endangerment and shows how the embattled disciplines can be helped to survive. It draws on the stakeholders’ theory of salience to argue that less salient stakeholders in universities can have their saliency strengthened through policy. Humanities are disciplines holding the key towards solving a set of complex social problems in the current globalised world because they offer a sure channel of imparting analytical and critical thinking skills, effective argumentation and negotiation skills. It is argued that if left unchecked, the current devalorisation of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) in favour of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) will eventually lead to a non-holistic education with inadequate skills for all categories of students, including science ones. Graduates need these skills to cope with challenging social demands in their workplace.
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