Sustainability Education for Ontological Re/Configuration: COVID-19 as a Pointer to the Ailing World Asili

Abstract

This paper argues that the COVID-19 has illuminated epistemological and ontological limitations underpinning the established modernity order, and the associated capitalist system. The pandemic has in particular uncovered economic disparities and institutional failures, race, anti-Black racism and exploitation, conspiracy conceptions, mistrust, and aggressive competition; all of which point to the imperative to subvert the dominant Euro-exclusive claim of modernity. Drawing on global examples, it is contended that there is a need for a much deeper reflection on the asili that drives modernity and the established education systems. The paper further points to some key tenets that should characterize education in order to promote a more sustainable world with potency to develop a new consciousness, underpinned by a re-configured ontology or asili. To achieve this, the paper uses as its framework of analysis the critique of the dominant modernity and Eurocentricism, as well as decoloniality and Afrocentricity theories.