African Elders’ Critical Teachings (ElderCrits): In Search of New Educational Futures

This book explores how the cultural knowledge of Indigenous African Elders and educational practitioners can transform education in Canada and beyond. Drawing on research in Ghana, South Africa, and Canada, it examines how Elders’ wisdom rooted in Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies offers vital insights for creating inclusive, just, and decolonized educational systems. Elders are moral educators, knowledge keepers, and community leaders whose teachings challenge colonial assumptions in schooling and redefine ideas of discipline, learning, and responsibility. Their lessons call for repairing education to nurture wholeness, respect, and relational accountability. The book invites readers to reconsider what counts as knowledge and who is authorized to teach.