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The new 2015-2022 Zimbabwean curriculum in which Social Studies is engrained was driven by the need among others to transform the Zimbabweans' demeanour and etiquette by employing Ubuntu as its philosophical base. Through the Ubuntu lens, this qualitative case study explores how Ubuntu values could be applied to mollify challenges of curriculum reform and implementation. We purposively sampled 12 teachers who participated in semistructured interviews, observations and a focus group discussion (FGD) to generate data for this study. The findings established that employing the top-down approach in the dissemination of the Zimbabwean curriculum, devoid of the teachers' consultations and participation, catalyses the manifestation of acerbic and innumerable challenges that included inadequate resources, lack of consultation, lack of training for teachers and poor public relations, which led to poor implementation of the Social Studies curriculum. The study discovered that the basis of Ubuntu, which the Zimbabwean curriculum claims to hinge on, is merely a paper exercise but practically it is not applied. The study recommends the rekindling of the Ubuntu values that capture the traditional African customs, work ethics and beliefs and applies them to curriculum reform and implementation in order to inform educational policy and practice as uncovered from the fieldwork undertaken for this study. This study is a contribution to the current topical issue about decolonisation globally.

In 1980, Zimbabwe inherited a Eurocentric education system from the British colony, aimed at the perpetuation of the subordination and silencing of the African child. When the government of Zimbabwe noticed the infestation of the colonial wound, demonstrated by the irrelevance and in-applicability of the inherited education system, it called for its reconstruction on a new curriculum, which was rolled out in 2015. However, Zimbabwean Social Studies teachers reported intractable inconsistencies in curriculum design and implementation between what is taught in the classroom and what is expected in the society, which they linked to lack of Ubuntu values and a decolonization perspective. Using the Social Studies curriculum as a case and the Ubuntu lens as a conceptual framework, this qualitative study investigates the strategies which can be used to reform the curriculum so that it speaks to the dictates of the Zimbabwean community in which it serves. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) from 12 purposefully sampled Social Studies teachers located in different school settings of Zimbabwe namely the rural, urban, growth points and farm areas. Findings indicated that the 'usable past' anchored in Ubuntu values as part of the decolonization agenda, though not given serious consideration in Zimbabwe, is fundamental to curriculum reform and implementation. Considering the findings, the study recommends the revisiting and extracting from the African past and its values to drive curriculum change to prepare the learner to lead an African life in the African continent. The study elucidates the need for a collective psyche in educational change in which curriculum planners practise cordial relations and engage the teachers in curriculum construction to perfect curriculum design and implementation. Keywords: Curriculum change; Curriculum implementation; Decolonisation; Social Studies; Ubuntu; 'Usable past'.

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Globally, the need to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 had rendered the traditional face-to-face educational delivery systems of Higher Education (HE) irrelevant. In light of that, institutions of HE had abruptly introduced online teaching platforms as an alternative, though without auditing the lecturers’ capacities and skills. Informed by the Appreciative Inquiry Model (AIM), this interpretive case study used virtual meetings and WhatsApp discussions to explore the professional limitations of Zimbabwe university lecturers on using the online platforms and their reactions to Teachers Education Programmes in the wake of Covid-19 and future emergencies. 12 lecturers drawn from three purposively selected Zimbabwean universities participated in the case study. Data were generated from questions developed in a way that encouraged the appearance of the Appreciative Inquiry Model stages. Findings suggest that some lecturers in Zimbabwe and possibly in other developing countries are inadequately trained to use online platforms. Institutions of Higher Education are therefore suggested to regularly audit their lecturers’ skills and professionally capacitate them for re-tooling and aligning in order for the skills to match the dictates of future emergencies.