IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/k58eh_v1.html

Highdigenous Pedagogy: Aesthetic Engagement as Epistemological Bridge in African Learning Communities

Author

Listed:
  • Kemayou, Yanick

    (Paderborn University)

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa faces a structural youth employment crisis: 10–12 million young people enter the workforce annually while only 3 million formal jobs are created, leaving 77–85% in informal employment. Conventional responses, such as expanding formal Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) or adopting Northern skills frameworks, have produced disappointing results. This paper introduces highdigenous pedagogy, an approach that synthesizes high-technology capabilities with indigenous knowledge systems through aesthetic engagement. Drawing on mixed-methods analysis of 504 learner portfolio entries and task reflections from 122 participants at Kabakoo Academies in Bamako, Mali (2023–2025), we examine how aesthetic scaffolding, i.e. using learners’ existing aesthetic sensibilities as foundations for capability development, operates in practice. Quantitative lexical analysis reveals that aesthetic discourse functions across multiple registers: design vocabulary dominates task artifacts, while portfolio entries emphasize cultural grounding and self-work. Cluster analysis identifies six discourse families, with one embodying the cultural-technological synthesis central to highdigenous pedagogy. Qualitative analysis reveals three mechanisms through which aesthetic scaffolding operates: epistemological legitimation, cultural-technological synthesis, and dignified aspiration formation. These findings extend ethnocomputing scholarship by demonstrating how aesthetic engagement enables synthesis between indigenous knowledge systems and digital capabilities, and provide empirical support for recent reconceptualizations of culturally responsive pedagogy in African contexts as fundamentally concerned with decolonization through heritage restoration. We argue that approaches treating aesthetic sensibility as epistemological foundation, rather than soft skill or enrichment, may offer more promising pathways for youth capability development than conventional competency frameworks.

Suggested Citation

  • Kemayou, Yanick, 2025. "Highdigenous Pedagogy: Aesthetic Engagement as Epistemological Bridge in African Learning Communities," SocArXiv k58eh_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:k58eh_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/k58eh_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/6951b1c4ef728ada18a7d4c3/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/k58eh_v1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2007. "The Economic Lives of the Poor," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 141-168, Winter.
    2. Spindelman, Deborah & Crouch, Luis, 2025. "Purpose of education in former British African colonies: From contestation to bureaucratization," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. Thomas Bossuroy & Markus Goldstein & Bassirou Karimou & Dean Karlan & Harounan Kazianga & William Parienté & Patrick Premand & Catherine C. Thomas & Christopher Udry & Julia Vaillant & Kelsey A. Wrigh, 2022. "Tackling psychosocial and capital constraints to alleviate poverty," Nature, Nature, vol. 605(7909), pages 291-297, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wicker, Till & Dalton, Patricio & van Soest, Daan, 2025. "Mental Accounting and Cash Transfers : Experimental Evidence from a Humanitarian Setting," Other publications TiSEM a92dc757-d6b5-4802-8639-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Tefera, Girum Abebe & Cassidy, Rachel & Weis, Toni Johannes, 2025. "Access to Capital and Women's Entrepreneurship," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11232, The World Bank.
    3. Wicker, Till & Dalton, Patricio & van Soest, Daan, 2025. "Mental Accounting and Cash Transfers : Experimental Evidence from a Humanitarian Setting," Discussion Paper 2025-006, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    4. Jaya Jumrani & P. S. Birthal, 2017. "Does consumption of tobacco and alcohol affect household food security? Evidence from rural India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(2), pages 255-279, April.
    5. Gary S. Fields, 2020. "Informality and work status," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-159, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Picarelli, Nathalie, 2016. "Who really benefits from export processing zones? Evidence from Nicaraguan municipalities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 318-332.
    7. Brian McCaig & Nina Pavcnik, 2015. "Informal Employment in a Growing and Globalizing Low-Income Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 545-550, May.
    8. Kislat, Carmen & Menkhoff, Lukas & Neuberger, Doris, 2013. "The use of collateral in formal and informal lending," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79765, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. B Kelsey Jack, "undated". "Market Inefficiencies and the Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Developing Countries," CID Working Papers 50, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    10. Wonhyung Lee & Nurul Widyaningrum, 2019. "Multidimensional access to financial services: Insights from Indonesia," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 19(1), pages 21-35, January.
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/vbu6kd1s68o6r34k5bcm3iopv is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Baird, Sarah & Özler, Berk & Dell’Aira, Chiara & Parisotto, Luca & Us-Salam, Danish, 2025. "Therapy, mental health, and human capital accumulation among adolescent girls in Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    13. Sushanta K. Mallick, 2014. "Disentangling the Poverty Effects of Sectoral Output, Prices, and Policies in India," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(4), pages 773-801, December.
    14. Yue-Hui Yu & Man-Man Peng, 2022. "Development and Poverty Dynamics in Severe Mental Illness: A Modified Capability Approach in the Chinese Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-13, February.
    15. Diether W. Beuermann & Inder J. Ruprah & Ricardo E. Sierra, 2016. "Do remittances help smooth consumption during health shocks?: Evidence from Jamaica," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 50(3), pages 1-19.
    16. Jinkins, David, 2016. "Conspicuous consumption in the United States and China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 115-132.
    17. Richard Kwabena Nkrumah & Samuel Kobina Annim & Benedict Afful, 2021. "Household Social Expenditure in Ghana: Examining the Ex-Post Effects and Vulnerability to Poverty," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, January.
    18. Carolina Laureti, 2015. "The Debt Puzzle in Dhaka’s Slums: Do Poor People Co-hold for Liquidity Needs?," Working Papers CEB 15-021, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    19. Dinkelman, Taryn & Ranchhod, Vimal, 2012. "Evidence on the impact of minimum wage laws in an informal sector: Domestic workers in South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 27-45.
    20. Yashodha, 2019. "Trust and kinship: experimental evidence from rural India," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 5(2), pages 223-237, December.
    21. Ajayi, Kehinde F. & Dao,Aziz & Koussoube,Mousson Estelle Jamel, 2022. "The Effects of Childcare on Women and Children : Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation inBurkina Faso," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10239, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:k58eh_v1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.