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Philosophy and Critical Thinking Skills

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Philosophy and Critical Thinking Skills
Article Information | Authors:
Matsephe M. Letseka1
Elza Venter2 Affiliations:
1Department of Educational Studies, University of South Africa, South Africa2Department of Teacher Education, University of South Africa, South Africa Correspondence to:
Matsephe Letseka Postal address:
PO Box 392, University of South Africa, 0003, South Africa Dates:
Received: 05 July 2011
Accepted: 29 Sept. 2011
Published: 12 Nov. 2012 How to cite this article:
Letseka, M.M. & Venter, E., 2012, ‘How student teachers understand African philosophy’, Koers – Bulletin for Christian Scholarship 77(1), Art. #25, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ koers.v77i1.25 Note:
This article was developed from a paper delivered at the Koers-75 Conference on ‘Worldview and Education’, held in Potchefstroom, South Africa, from 30 May to 02 June 2011.Hierdie artikel is ‘n verdere ontwikkeling van ‘n voordrag gelewer by die Koers-75 Konferensie oor ‘Worldview and Education’ in Potchefstroom, Suid-Afrika, vanaf 30 Mei tot 02 Junie 2011. Copyright Notice:
© 2012. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS OpenJournals.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | | | How student teachers understand African philosophy | In This Original Research... | Open Access |
• Abstract
• Abstrak
• Introduction
• What is African philosophy? • Ubuntu • Communalism
• Critical thinking in African philosophy
• Importance of critical thinking
• Research method and design • Philosophical inquiry • Document or content analysis • Extended literature review • Sample selection • Ethical considerations
• Findings • Conflation of African philosophy with ubuntu • Conflation of African philosophy with African traditions and culture • The misconception that African philosophy



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Heidegger, M., 1956, What is philosophy?, College & University Press, New Haven.Higgs, P. & Smith, J., 2006, Rethinking our world, 2nd edn., Juta, Cape Town.Hofstee, E., 2006, Constructing a good dissertation: A practical guide to finishing a Masters, MBA or PhD on schedule, Exactica, Johannesburg.Holsti, O.R., 1969, Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, London.Hountondji, P., 1983, African philosophy: Myth and reality, Hutchinson & Co. publishers Ltd, London.Letseka, M., 2000, ‘African philosophy and educational discourse’, in P. Higgs, N.C.G. Vakalisa, T.V. Mda & N.T. Assie-Lumumba (eds.), pp. 179−193, African voices in education, Juta, Landsdowne.Masolo, D.A., 1994, African philosophy in search of identity, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.McMillan, J.H. & Schuhmacher, S., 2010, Research in education – Evidence-based enquiry, 7th edn., Pearson, New York.Mbiti, J.S., 1969, African religions and philosophy, Doubleday, New York.Mbiti, J.S., 1975, Introduction to African religion, Heinemann, London.Morrow, W., 1989, Chains of thought: Philosophical essays in South African education, Southern Book Publishers, Johannesburg.Morrow, W., 2007, Learning to teach in South Africa, HSRC Press, Cape Town.Neuman, W.L., 2006, Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches, 6th edn., Pearson Education, Inc., Boston.Nieuwenhuis, J., 2010, ‘Introducing qualitative research’, in K. Maree (ed.), First steps in research, pp. 47−66, Van Schaik, Pretoria.Nyamapfene, K.A. & Letseka, M., 1995, ‘Problems of learning among first year students in South African universities’, South African Journal of Higher Education 9(1), 159−167.Oruka, H.O., 1990, Sage philosophy: Indigenous thinkers and modern debate on African philosophy, E. J. Bill, Leiden.Oruka, H.O., 2002, ‘Four trends in current African philosophy’, in P.H. Coetzee & A.P.J. Roux (eds.), Philosophy from Africa, 2nd edn., pp. 120−124, Oxford University Press, Cape Town.Patton, M.Q., 2002, Qualitative research and evaluation methods, 3rd edn., Sage, Thousand Oaks.Priest, G., 2006, ‘What is philosophy?’, Philosophy  81, 189−207.Pring, R., 2007, ‘Reclaiming philosophy for educational research’, Educational Review 59 (3), 315–330.Ramose, M.B., 2002, ‘The philosophy of ubuntu and ubuntu as a philosophy’, in P.H. Coetzee & A.P.J. Roux (eds.), Philosophy from Africa, 2nd edn., pp. 230−238, Oxford University Press, Cape Town.Ramphele, M., 2001, ‘Citizenship challenges for South Africa’s young democracy’, Daedalus: Journal of American Academy of Arts and Sciences 130(1), 1−17. Senghor, L.S., 1976, Prose and poetry, ed. & transl. J. Reed & C. Wake, Heinemann African Writers Series, Nairobi.Shutte, A., 1993, Philosophy for Africa, University of Cape Town Press, Cape Town.Sindane, J., 1994, Ubuntu and nation building, Ubuntu School of Philosophy, Pretoria.Sindane, J. & Liebenberg, I., 2000, ‘Reconstruction and the reciprocal other: The philosophy and practice of ubuntu and democracy in African society’, Politeia 19(3), 31−46.Slonimsky, L. & Shalem, Y., 2006, ‘Pedagogic responsiveness for academic depth’, Journal of Education 40, 35−58.Tempels, P., [1959] 1976, Bantu philosophy, Presence Africain, Paris.Thomas, R.M., 1998, Conducting educational research: A comparative view, Bergin & Garvey, London.Venter, E., 2004, ‘The notion of ubuntu and communalism in African educational discourse’, Studies in Philosophy and Education 23, 149−160.Waghid, Y., 2004, ‘African philosophy of education: Implications for teaching and learning’, South African Journal of Higher Education 18(3), 56−64.Wiredu, K., 1980, Philosophy and an African culture, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. | |

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