About

"Ethiopia was an exception in Africa’s colonial history. It retained its independence by defeating Italy in 1896 and, apart from a brief period of occupation from 1936 to 1941, preserved a long history of Ethiopian statehood. However, this historical path did not allow Ethiopia to escape coloniality (Kebede, 2023); it experienced what has often been described as ‘native colonialism,’ where the country self-colonised by importing institutions and philosophies (Woldeyes, 2017). In contemporary Ethiopia, there is ongoing contestation over whether to support children and young people in maintaining their ‘traditional’ knowledge for use in their everyday lives, or to equip them with global knowledge that enables them to compete internationally. This reflects the significance of both traditional and Western knowledge in shaping the lives of children and young people.

This study will examine the possibilities for epistemological fusion between Ethiopian traditional and Western models of education in the Ethiopian education system, thereby imagining decolonial approaches to childhood in the country. The study is driven by the following questions: 1. What are the key distinctions, across a range of dimensions, between traditional and Western models of education as practised in Ethiopia? 2. In what ways do the various actors involved in both education systems value traditional and Western forms of education? 3. What possibilities exist for harnessing elements of traditional education within Ethiopia’s mainstream educational system? and 4. What are the implications of the concept of epistemological fusion for imagining decolonial approaches to childhood in and beyond Ethiopia? 

This study will adopt a decolonial ethnographic approach (see: Kaur & Klinkert, 2021; Fúnez-Flores & Phillion, 2019) incorporating key informant interviews, participatory methods (Kindon et al., 2007), and Ethiopian traditional methods of knowledge production (Ethiopic methods), such as Těrgwame and Hatäta, to explore the educational system within the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwahǝdo Church."