Unisa Press

Autism

Perspectives from Africa Volume 1

Author: Mary Clasquin-Johnson, Dikeledi Mahlo & Michel Clasquin-Johnson
Published: 2020-12-14 00:00:00.0
ISBN: 978-1-77615-069-4
Number of pages: 258
This book is not available in electronic format

About the book

This book was written at a time when there is a paradigm shift in the African continent where dependence on western epistemologies and ontologies are giving way to African indigenous knowledge systems. Africa has been an importer of knowledge from the west since time immemorial and this book contributes to the body of knowledge on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the African perspective. As a result, decoloniality and Inclusive Education have gained traction within the academic discourse, with University of South Africa (Unisa) hosting decoloniality annual conference and a summer school to stimulate academic discussions and debates with a focus on African indigenous knowledge systems and theoretical lenses as opposed to the western epistemologies. The book also demysti_es some of the misconceptions that children with ASD are a curse and punishment from God or gods. Among others, Ubuntu seems to be  the dominant theoretical framework underpinning some of the research studies reported in this book.