Cultivating moral eyes: Bridging the knowledge-action gap of privilege and injustice among students in African universities

ABSTRACT

When opposing injustice, the failure to recognise wrong or translate knowledge into action are two problems with which moral education has to contend. The notion of ‘social restitution’ can be a helpful concept in addressing these challenges because it locates restitution at the level of interpersonal and communal moral responsibility. This is important because restitution is often seen almost exclusively as a government or institutional endeavour. This paper describes a study conducted amongst 72 students from four African universities in Sierra Leone, South Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon that includes dialogues and a self-location activity whose aim was to cultivate moral awareness of injustice. This process of self-location also provided a helpful basis for action based on everyday acts of social restitution.

KEYWORDS:

• Restitution
• belief-behaviour gap
• recognition
• action
• Cameroon
• Nigeria
• South Africa
• Sierra Leone

Acknowledgments

Helpful comments from colleagues attending the Association for Moral Education annual meetings in Santos, Brazil in 2015 and at Harvard University in 2016 are gratefully acknowledged. The authors acknowledge with thanks the award of a research grant from the Journal of Moral Education Trust that made this study possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a research grant from the Journal of Moral Education Trust.

Notes on contributors

Sharlene Swartz

Sharlene Swartz is the division executive of the Inclusive Economic Development research programme of the Human Sciences Research Council in Cape Town and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Fort Hare’s department of Philosophy.

Anye Nyamnjoh

Anye Nyamnjoh is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Emma Arogundade

Emma Arogundade is the Academic Coordinator at the School for International Training in Cape Town, South Africa.

Jessica Breakey

Jessica Breakey is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand’s School of Electrical and Information Engineering where she teaches Critical and Social Theory to final year Engineering students.

Abioseh Bockarie

Abioseh Bockarie is a PhD candidate in Development Studies at the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) Institute for Social Development.

Oghoadena C. Osezua

Oghoadena C. Osezua is a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.