Piecemeal Pedagogies: Reflecting on the Nature, Context, and Impact of Journalism Training and Education in Malawi and Zambia

A common entry point for many exogenous actors in the journalism training arena across Africa is a response to the economic and educational gaps found in many countries. This chapter explores whose interest journalism education, training, and pedagogies is designed by and for. Responding to Fackson Banda et al.’s call that “[t]here has been no rigorous academic research conducted into the teaching of journalism in Malawi and Zambia,” this chapter takes a historical and contemporary review of the three main actors that have been at the center of the changing dynamics of journalism education and pedagogies in both countries: the state, (I)NGOs, and the private sector. Each, like the World Bank, which takes a political-economic lens to journalism education, adopts an uncritical appreciation of the imbalance of knowledge production and lifelong learning practices that enrich the media sector and society at large. Employing Brazilian educationalist Paulo Freire’s approach, which is centered on freedom, equality, transformation, and critical consciousness, profit-making forces us to rethink the impact of journalism education and the pedagogies that define it. Thus, in order to explore the importation of journalism theory and practice and the self-interests which continue to support a system of hegemonic domination from both exogenous and endogenous actors, it is of great importance to locate journalism education, training, and pedagogies within their historical and broader context.