Nurturing Ubuntu, the African Form of Human Flourishing Through Inclusive Home Based Early Childhood Education
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Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Frontiers in Education
Abstract
Human flourishing has recently gained more attention in the world as a prerequisite
safety net for better human resilience in uncertain times. While most Western authors
believe that human flourishing is an individual issue, gained in later life, African
communities that are largely communal may not have the same view. Communalism as
opposed to individualism as a key pillar in African Ubuntu thinking makes it a possibility
that there is a departure in the contextualisation of human flourishing and its pathways.
This explores the African conceptualisation of flourishing in the Ubuntu lens and how
communities are coming together to cultivate it by implementing home based early
childhood learning centres. Desk review was used to learn the contextual meaning of
human flourishing and different pathways to it in African community settings. Home
based early learning centres operated by parents was seen as a core activity to nurture
Ubuntu, as each family and community member becomes useful in provide a service
that helps others to flourish at different stages of life. The paper concludes that the
use of the home-based early childhood model as a flourishing intervention helps to
engage every member of the community for the good of their children, bringing live the
Ubuntu saying “I am a person because of other persons.” This study is significant in
that it proposes home-based early learning as a more viable pathway way to human
flourishing and redirects the focus of flourishing to a younger age group.
Description
Keywords
Ubuntu, Human flourishing, Home-based, Inclusive early learning, Marginalised communities
Citation
Ejuu G and Opiyo RA (2022) Nurturing Ubuntu, the African Form of Human Flourishing Through Inclusive Home Based Early Childhood Education. Front. Educ. 7:838770. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.838770