The Epistemology of Pedagogy: A Critical Distinction between the ‘Educated’ and the ‘Learned’

Abstract

In a continent where indices concerning literacy continue to plummet and technological advancement continues to be a mirage, it is urgent to examine the distinction between the qualities and state of being educated, on the one hand and the state of being learned on the other hand. This move is important owing to the level of literacy and education that has yielded almost no tangible result in 21st century Africa. On the first showing, the terms seem to be synonyms. Upon a critical reflection however, it soon becomes clear that this cannot be. This conviction is discernable once the method of analysis is applied to each of these terms with Africa in mind. The foremost purpose of this research, therefore, is to argue that these terms are not synonymous, much as they hold so similar implications for Africa and Africans concerning their epistemic leaning toward human and educational development. As a result, the principal motivation of the present disquisition is to employ an epistemic basis to foreground the parallels and departures between these two concepts that have usually been taken for granted as synonymous or interchangeable. The motivation to explore the epistemic alternative is motivated by the urgency to provide an impartial umpire in epistemology to mediate the places of similitude and radical departures between the ‘educated’ and the ‘learned.’ As a consequence, this study infers that much as the two concepts are intertwined there are places of deep divergence which allows the ‘educated’ to be much more sophisticated compared to the ‘learned.’ For its purpose, this study forays into various discourses that seems to underscore the distinction between the ‘learned’ and the ‘educated’ from an epistemic perspective. This is due to the pertinence for justifying the arguments marshaled and in line with the method of philosophical analysis, which is being deployed in this study.