**Abstract**

The study focuses on strengthening higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa through John Dewey's *My Pedagogic Creed*. Many educationists widely admire Dewey's philosophy of education, yet his enduring message—the inseparable connection between education and society—is often misunderstood. His deep understanding of the connection between the school and the larger social context is relevant to recent efforts by Sub-Saharan African governments to enhance authentic higher education. From the standpoint of Dewey's fivefold themes—education, school, subject-matter, method, social progress—the study discusses the integration of educational resources for achieving the task of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Though modern theorists may recast Dewey's pragmatic theory of education, this social critical study proposes that Dewey's placement of learners at the center of the interaction between the school and society points to a more satisfactory result that could reform higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa.

**Keywords:** curriculum, heutagogy, higher education, John Dewey, pragmatism
