African Research Methodologies
This practice-focused course equips faculty, postgraduate students, researchers, and research supervisors in African higher education to design and conduct research whose paradigms, methods, ethics, and outputs are grounded in African epistemologies and Indigenous Knowledge Systems — rather than treating Western research paradigms as the silent default. Participants move through paradigm, methodology, ethics, method, and dissemination, learning to conduct research WITH and WITHIN African communities (not merely on them), to challenge extractive and parachute-research practices, and to supervise African-centred inquiry with integrity. It complements the RSC101 Responsible Conduct of Research course by supplying the distinctly African methodological and epistemic vantage point beneath those conduct standards.
AFK404 is the fourth in the caakit AFK series. Building on AFK401 (epistemologies), AFK402 (coloniality of knowledge), and AFK403 (curriculum transformation), it moves from critique into the practice of research itself. It equips faculty, postgraduate students, researchers, and research supervisors to design and conduct research whose paradigms, methods, ethics, and outputs are grounded in African epistemologies and Indigenous Knowledge Systems, rather than treating Western research paradigms as the silent default. Participants move through the full research arc — paradigm, methodology, ethics, method, and dissemination — learning to conduct research WITH and WITHIN African communities (not merely on them), to challenge extractive and parachute-research practices, and to supervise African-centred inquiry with integrity. It complements the RSC101 Responsible Conduct of Research course by supplying the distinctly African methodological and epistemic vantage point beneath those conduct standards.
Instruction & Evaluation
Online / Asynchronous (Self-Paced with Faculty Mentorship)
Self-paced modular instruction with continuous continental access via the CAA Member Portal, supplemented by faculty moderation.
Continuous Assessment & Practical Portfolio
Assessment is practice-focused and portfolio-based, aligned to the full research arc. Participants complete a paradigm and positionality statement (20%), a decolonial methodological design brief (25%), an Ubuntu-informed ethics and supervision plan with an IKS-protection component (25%), and a consolidated capstone African-centred research proposal demonstrating paradigm, methodology, ethics, method, and knowing-return (30%). Assessment is authentic, competency-based, and Ubuntu-informed, prioritising demonstrated capacity to design and supervise African-centred inquiry.
What You Will Master
- Critically define a research paradigm (ontology, epistemology, axiology, methodology) and contrast Western-default and African-centred paradigms
- Analyse extractive, parachute, helicopter, and safari research practices and articulate citation and authorship equity in African-centred research
- Translate decolonial principles (epistemic location, standpoint, pluriversity, methodological refusal) into coherent study design
- Design participatory action research and community-based participatory research across plan-act-observe-reflect cycles with power-sharing and positionality
- Apply indigenous research methods — storying, narrative, relational and oral knowledge — with multilingual data collection and community validation
- Enact Ubuntu-informed research ethics of relationality, care, communal consent, reciprocity, and protection of Indigenous Knowledge Systems
- Supervise African-centred research with integrity and build institutional capacity for non-Western methodologies
- Plan culturally appropriate dissemination, knowing return to communities, and articulate these in a consolidated capstone research proposal
3 Modules
Positioning and African Research Paradigms
This module positions AFK404 as the move from critique to research practice, building on AFK401/402/403. Participants learn to define a research paradigm (ontology, epistemology, axiology, methodology) and to contrast Western-default paradigms with African-centred ones grounded in Afrocentricity (Asante), endogeneity (Hountondji), Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Ubuntu-informed axiology — and to critique extractive, parachute, helicopter, and safari research practice.
3 Lessons
Decolonial and Participatory Methodologies
This module translates decolonial principles into concrete study design. Participants learn decolonial methodologies and frameworks (epistemic location, standpoint, pluriversity, methodological refusal), participatory action research and community-based participatory research (plan-act-observe-reflect cycles, power-sharing, positionality, insider-outsider dynamics, gatekeepers), and indigenous research methods (storying, narrative, relational and oral knowledge, multilingual data collection and translation politics, community validation).
3 Lessons
Ubuntu Ethics, Supervision, and the Return of Knowledge
This module addresses the ethics and institutional dimensions of African-centred research. Participants enact Ubuntu-informed research ethics (relationality, solidarity, care, communal accountability, communal vs individual consent, gatekeeping, reciprocity and benefit-sharing, data ownership and IKS protection, and how Ubuntu ethics complements RSC101); learn to supervise African-centred research and build institutional capacity (defending non-Western paradigms against reviewer bias, mentorship, supervisory communities of practice, funder and journal expectations); and plan culturally appropriate dissemination and knowing return to communities, consolidated in the capstone African-centred research proposal.
3 Lessons
Weekly Topics
Ready to enrol in AFK404?
Access this course, study modular pedagogical frameworks, and earn verified CPD credits through the CAA member portal.
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