TITLE:
Moving from General Knowledge to Specific Knowledge in a Democratic Culture: A Case Study Approach
AUTHORS:
Avhurengwi Samson Mabade, Neziwe Lucia Mapangwana
KEYWORDS:
General Knowledge, Specific Knowledge and Democratic Culture
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.2,
February
25,
2022
ABSTRACT: The focus of this article is on the enhancement or amplification of
specific knowledge to meet and respond to challenges in all myriad spheres of
leadership in a democratic culture more especially principal of schools. Prior
to democratic culture, general knowledge seemed to be predominant in all
spheres of life. Moving from general knowledge to specific knowledge is a
development that improves competence that can presumably strengthen and sustain
a responsibly coherent profession and leadership in a democratic culture. The
majority of people appeared to be on the level of general knowledge and they
should not remain on this level of general knowledge. In a democratic culture, everyone has the right to know hence knowledge is the creation of human mind.
Specific knowledge development is not a simplistic issue. This needs critical
thinkers that quickly identify assumptions and challenge them. Due to general
knowledge, people would try to reinvent a wheel in a time wasting fashion.
General knowledge develops and promotes naïve argument in any environment more
especially in a work environment hence specific knowledge develops and promotes
intellectual argument which enhances improvement of attitude, behaviour and
mindset that ultimately improve performance. Although the literature about
knowledge development is abundant, there appear a few literatures about the
shifting from general knowledge to specific knowledge. The researchers adopted a
case study approach for the description and explanation of the problem. The
researchers identified ten principals of
schools from the same circuit area and conducted interviews to find out how
they respond to certain problems. The purpose was to find out if they use
general knowledge or specific knowledge to respond to their challenges. Their
responses were presented as an inductive research.