Water, water everywhere.: new perspectives towards theory development for rural education research in (South) Africa

Abstract

The scarcity of rural education research in South Africa parallels the relative absence of theory development emerging from the developing world. Education research is influenced by the paradigms in which it is located and draws from established (and Western) theories of psycho-social, geo-spatial, economic, and political development (Moletsane 2012, 2). The questions posed by such theories (whether post-colonial, critical, gender or geo-spatial) require responses from developing societies measured mostly in contrast to ideals established or validated elsewhere. While Northern hemisphere theorists may be describing the implications (theoretical economic, education, or geographic) of globalisation, the agenda for the developing East, and especially Africa, is influenced by a geo-spatial context which remains rural. If the environment, as noted by Stromquist (2002, 158), remains a major concern globally, it is seldom acknowledged as a factor in higher education research with reference to a focus on education development in Africa. This article contends that suitable theory can be developed to pose questions concerning the efficacy of education in Africa concerning rurality and education research.