Learning from and across African cities: Emancipatory pedagogies for transformative change

African cities are learning engines, yet, their pedagogic capacity to activate transformative change is still untapped. This session reflects on transformative pedagogic practices that mobilise learning on forward-thinking ideas and impactful action for just urban development across African cities. Aiming to bridge the gap between social movements, grassroots organisations and progressive academic institutions across urban Africa, this session brings together critical actors in urban pedagogy as a 'community of practice' to share their experiences in generating transformative change through intersectional pedagogies. In doing so, participants are invited to reflect collectively on the key pedagogic principles and practices required to support the next generation of urban champions to effect radical change towards urban justice.
Rather than using teaching methods transacted in classrooms as an entry point, this workshop will stimulate thinking through a variety of urban domains, where pedagogies are practiced on the ground through mobilisation, activism and advocacy. We seek to facilitate learning across these domains to overcome the digital divide and to collectively deliberate on the underlying principles and aspirations that enable these pedagogies to be transformative. Building on this collective reflection, the output of this session will be a Decalogue or set of pedagogic principles to guide pluralistic and transdisciplinary learning processes for the next generation of urban champions in Africa.

Hosted by: “Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality” Programme in partnership with Habitat International Coalition (HIC) and Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre, Ardhi University, and Makerere University, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, UK, India