Leadership and Epistemological Responsibility 169Science and Technology Research Chair in Development Education
hosted by Unisa is now doing.
Some of these include:
a. putting knowledge in the plural,
b. asserting the right to a multiplicity of times;
c. of citizenship as a hypothesis;
d. placing human development rather than employment at the centre
of education,
e. linking epistemology and democracy;
f. bringing in robust theorizations around freedom, innovation,
cosmology, constitution, citizenship, community and syllabi; and
g. Cognitive justice and the right of traditions of knowledge to co-
exist and unfold without duress.
10.2.2 Example 2: The Story of Indigenous Knowledge Systems
in South Africa
Background
Indigenous Knowledge Systems is referred to in different ways in
different parts of the world, under different circumstances. Related
conceptions include “Traditional Knowledge Systems” (TKS),
“Endogenous Knowledge Systems” (EKS) and in some instances
“Classical Knowledge Systems” (CKS). Each of these refers to the same
content, but with particular slants.
South Africa has so far chosen “Indigenous Knowledge Systems” as
a capping concept for that system of knowledge in philosophy, science,
technology, astronomy, education, mathematics, engineering etc. that
are grounded in the total “cultural” (very broadly defined) heritage of a
nation or society, and maintained by communities over centuries. An
interlocking web of ethical, social, religious and philosophical sub-
systems that determine broad cognition patterns, provide the rational
essence and emotional tone that underlies these systems.