​​​​​Please join the Department of Education Policy Studies in celebrating the phenomenal scholarship of Prof Yusef Waghid before his retirement at the end of 2023.

Date: 22 November 2023

Time: 10:00 - 12:30

Venue: Room 3008, GG Cillie Building

​RSVP to Simone Alexander at salex@sun.ac.za by 15 November 2023.

Yusef Waghid, a leading African philosopher of education, holds three doctorates in the fields of education, policy, and philosophy from the University of the Western Cape and Stellenbosch University in South Africa, respectively. As a tenured professor since 2002 he was honoured with the title of distinguished professor (2014-2023) on the grounds of his research excellence at Stellenbosch University. He has been a prolific author with 419 publications to date of which 54 are academic books and edited collections and, 89 invited contributions to books. He promoted 35 PhD candidates to completion, examined 58 doctorates and, received the Association for the Development of Education in Africa's prestigious Education Research in Africa Award: Outstanding Mentor of Education Researchers (2015). Throughout his tenure, he occupied leading management positions at Stellenbosch University, such as having been appointed Chair of the Department of Education Policy Studies (2003-2007, 2022); and Dean of the Faculty of Education (2007-2012; 2017-2018). In the main, his long-standing relationship with education began as a high school science teacher (1979-1996) before he joined higher education as a senior teaching advisor to advance his professional career in higher education (1996-).  

​His most notable scholarly contributions in the field of African philosophy of higher education feature in significant international scholarly books which include, inter alia, Towards an Ubuntu University: African Higher Education Reimagined (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2022, with Zayd Waghid, Judith Terblanche, Faiq Waghid, Lester Shawa, Joseph Hungwe, Thokozani Mathebula & Foreword by Carlos Alberto Torres); Education, Crisis, and Philosophy: Ubuntu within Higher Education (Routledge, 2022); Democratic Education as Inclusion (Lexington, 2022, with Nuraan Davids); Higher Teaching and Learning for Alternative Futures (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2021, with Zayd Waghid, Judith Terblanche & Faiq Waghid); Academic Activism in Higher Education: A Living Philosophy for Social Justice (Springer, 2021, with Nuraan Davids); Towards a Philosophy of Caring in Higher Education: Pedagogy and Nuances of Care (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2019); Education for Decoloniality and Decolonisation in Africa (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2019, with Chikumbutso Herbert Manthalu); Rupturing African Philosophy of Teaching and Learning (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2018, with Faiq Waghid & Zayd Waghid); and African Philosophy of Education Reconsidered: On Being Human (Routledge, 2014). In recognition of his high quality scholarly works that also appear in many leading education journals, the National Research Foundation in South Africa rated him as an internationally acclaimed scholar who provides exemplary leadership in advancing philosophy of higher education in Africa (B-1).

He pioneered Africa's novel MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on Teaching for Change, selected by the Sustainable Development Goals Academy of the United Nations: Class Central as a free online international course to learn about the United Nation's sustainable development goals (2016-2020). He was honoured with the editorships of two prominent academic journals, namely Citizenship, Teaching and Learning (2018-2023), and South African Journal of Higher Education (2005-2030). Between 2020 to 2021, he collaborated with renowned international scholars on a leading UNESCO pioneered research project, Education for Flourishing and Flourishing in Education initiated by the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. His advancement of higher education in Africa is also acknowledged by the Council of Higher Education in South Africa of which he has been a board member (2019-2026).

As a philosopher of education concerned with the advancement of the African discourse in the context of global citizenship education, he has also been appointed as joint-coordinator (2017-2023) of the Publications Standing Committee of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES). It is in this area of expertise that his current research initiatives had been considerably expanded into renowned edited collections such as Global Citizenship Education in the Global South: Educators' Perceptions and Practices (2023, with Emiliano Bosio, Brill, forthcoming);  Global Citizenship Education: Concepts and Practices. Special Issue of Citizenship Teaching and Learning (2022, with Emiliano Bosio, Intellect, forthcoming); Comparative Education Rethought (2022, with Zehavit Gross, Brill, forthcoming); Global Citizenship Education Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Global South: Embracing the De-colonial Shift. Special Issue of PROSPECTS Comparative Journal of Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment (2022, with Emiliano Bosio, Dortrecht: Springer, forthcoming); and two special issues of the WCCES journal (2002, 2023 with Zehavit Gross and, Ahoud Alasfour, respectively) advancing Comparative and International Education in the realm of global citizenship education, values education, and justice.

In sum, Yusef Waghid can be considered as an African philosopher of education intent on advancing democratic citizenship education, cosmopolitan education, and global citizenship education in the context of equitable redress and change, equality, non-discrimination, non-sexism, and justice for all. Epistemologically, he draws on multiple traditions of thought, most notably combining dominant aspects of Western and non-Western theories of knowledge to rethink philosophy of education in Africa.     ​

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