The article interrogates and problematises the concept of freedom of religion in South Africa by drawing on unlearnt lessons from the Jonestown incident. The South African constitution provides for the right to freedom of religion; unfortunately, the implementation of this right has evoked various unforeseen trajectories, such as abuse, commercialisation of religion and violation of human rights. The article argues that freedom of religion is being misinterpreted and misunderstood; as a result, religion, as it is practiced, has caused it to become a social pathology. To problematise religious freedom, we earth this article in decoloniality, of which one agenda is to challenge all forms of coloniality as manifested through religious discourses. The main argument of the article is that freedom of religion in South Africa needs to be redefined, reconceptualised and reconstructed, not only through the lens of theological orientation, but also sociologically, constitutionally and with respect to human rights.
The Ambivalence of Freedom of Religion
331
This article seeks to problematise religious figures and politicians who use religious discourses, narratives and functions to justify oppressive hegemonic systems and structures. In doing so, we show how various religious figures have amalgamated or joined together with oppressive political figures to maintain the status quo, paving the way for what we term the 'consecration' and 'enthronement' of political figures. Furthermore, we show how religious figures who failed the ZANU PF's political part of their ideology, were dislodged from enthronement due to their different understanding of democracy. To problematise oppressive religious discourses used in the politics of an oppressive status quo, we position our article within critical emancipatory research (CER) discourse, by paying attention to its tenets, such as social justice, elimination of false consciousness, and emancipation. The article references our observations and findings, deriving from document analysis, on how religious leaders have related to the ZANU PF over the years. The argument is that religion, in the context of politics, should be aimed at improving human conditions, promoting social justice and achieving emancipation, and challenging oppressive political structures. It should unmask violence and represent all religious followers fairly and equally, regardless of political affiliation.
This article articulates pedagogic praxis for postgraduate supervision couched within sustainable learning environments with emancipatory aims. The paper probes the discourses of hegemony as a form of power that relies on non-coercive control by supervisors over students (master-apprentice model). Furthermore, it proposes a counter-hegemonic pedagogic praxis informed by critical emancipatory research. I amplify how postgraduate supervision could be a liberating experience, drawing from my own experiences as part of a supervisory team of 15 academics and cohort of 28 doctoral and 22 master’s students. The article interrogates the struggles on the continuum of power formations between supervisor and students. It proposes an alternative, liberating postgraduate supervision as a pedagogic praxis to counter the dominant discourse. It concludes by emphasising the importance of creating enabling sustainable learning environments with a promise of a counter-hegemonic praxis that requires rearranging master-apprentice relations.
Contribution/Originality: This study contributes to scanty literature in South Africa on parental engagement, academic self-efficacy, and school connectedness as determinant of educational attainment expectations. It brings result of parental engagement as the highest contributing factor followed by school connectedness and academic self-efficacy to educational attainment or learners.
INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUNDHigher education is the greatest driving force of social transformation as well as personal socio-economic development. It plays critical roles in combating poverty, sustaining development, driving national development and bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. According to three main functions of higher education as outlined by the South African government's proposed 2030 National Development Plan (NDP) which are: to strengthen social justice, equity and democracy by providing opportunities for social mobility and deal with apartheid injustices; to educate and equip learners with employability high-level skills needed by public and private sectors; and to produce new knowledge, assess and find applications for existing knowledge. Based on the above, Muola (2010) alluded that higher education inculcates needed values for good citizenship, societal growth and not
In recent years, South African higher education institutions (HEIs) have experienced unprecedented change. Radical restructuring has taken place across the country with almost all HEIs affected. This paper argues that while such radical reform initiatives were in fact necessary for the advancement of higher education in South Africa, it also had several unintended outcomes that need to be addressed. The state-driven project of merging institutions has presented dynamic challenges that threaten progress and desired advancement.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.