Decolonising the future in the untransformed present in South African higher education

Fomunyam, Kehdinga George

doi:10.18820/2519593x/pie.v35i2.13

Cited by 17 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In a theoretical paper, Fomunyan (2017) writes about decolonising the future in what he refers to as the untransformed present South African higher education. In the paper, one question he seeks to address relates to what should be decolonised to ensure transformation of the present and future.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As I see it, decolonising the university curriculum in its entirety-the manifest, the hidden and the transformational (Fomunyan 2017) as some of the papers advocate (Constandius et al 2018;Zembylas 2018 (2016) refers to as number counting. Decolonisation in higher education is not only a process of gaining institutional and political independence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Re-visiting the decolonising of South African higher education question: A systematic literature review

Chikoko

2021

SAJHE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During and soon after the #feesmustfall and decolonisation student protests in South Africa, the decolonisation topic invaded the academic world in the country. There seems to exist a heterogeneity of viewpoints regarding what decolonising higher education entails. A search for systematic reviews on this topic did not yield any results. Such reviews can reveal what we currently know, what we do not know, and guide the knowledge production process going forward. This article analyses published research articles on decolonising higher education in South Africa through the lenses of soft reform, radical reform and "beyond-reform". Findings show that some papers dwell on decolonising isolated aspects of the university such as a programme or qualification, some on decolonising the entire university curriculum, and others on transforming the entire university. The article concludes that seeking to decolonise isolated aspects of the university constitute sub-soft reform strategies which leave the colonial pillars intact and therefore not contributing significantly to the decolonial project. Works that seek to decolonise the entire university curriculum are moving in the right direction towards radical reform, however, the article argues that to dismantle the colonial character of the present university requires the struggle to stretch beyond that. The South African university has a double-barrelled role to decolonise itself and to inform the societal decolonial project.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-visiting the decolonising of South African higher education question: A systematic literature review

Chikoko

2021

SAJHE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This points to the challenges the South African higher education landscape is facing and how these have persisted for over 20 years after the end of apartheid. Fomunyam [2] concurs with this by arguing that about 40 percent of students who enter higher education institutions in South Africa end up dropping out and only about 15 percent complete their degree in the minimum completion time. Though the reasons for this vary from context to context, Lemmens [3] argues that the major reason can be attributed to the level of student and institutional preparedness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Institutional preparedness, as stated above, must also be considered. Manik [5], Cloete [1] and Fomunyam [2] argue that most South African institutions are still grappling with transformation, making them strategically underprepared for the quality of students being ushered into the higher education system. Most universities in South Africa by and large are still being influenced by the culture inherited from apartheid; they fail to attract and retain the best academics and researchers who find more remunerative work elsewhere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students and Institutional Preparedness for Educational Encounters: Views of the Margin

Fomunyam¹

2020

Education Systems Around the World

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Higher education in South Africa has been plagued by a number of challenges, which different universities have been struggling to handle for the past two decades. Primarily amongst these challenges are student and institutional preparedness for education encounters. The level of preparedness by both the student and the institution determines the kind of educational encounters they have. This chapter explores this phenomenon within a university in South Africa to understand the level of student and institutional preparedness and articulate a pathway for better educational encounters. Designed as a qualitative case study, data was generated using semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires. The data generated was coded and categorised into themes. These themes were social and cultural capital, cognitive skills, educational architecture and institutional culture. These themes revealed that students lack sufficient social and cultural capital needed for knowledge construction in teaching and learning. They also lacked basic cognitive skills required to decipher the knowledge codes within the disciplines which they belong. The findings also reveal that universities lacked a functional institutional culture, which makes for better educational encounters. The educational architecture was also seen as dysfunctional and disenabling as many students found it difficult to navigate their way through it.

show abstract

“…Various scholars (Chaka, Lephalala, and Ngesi 2017;Fomunyan 2017;Methula 2017;Sayed, Motala, and Hoffman 2017) agree that the term has various interpretations, as determined by the contextual use. Many scholars have associated it with transformation, Africanisation, and African intellectuals such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Julius Nyerere, Frantz Fanon, Thabo Mbeki, Catherine Odora Hoppers, and many others (Costandius et al 2018;Fomunyan 2017;Shava and Manyike 2018;Uzomah 2018). For example, former president Julius Nyerere advocated for the idea of "educating for self-reliance, self-confidence, independence, responsibility and democratic involvement" (Uzomah 2018 , 33).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the School Environmental Education Programme (SEEP) to Decolonise the Curriculum: Lessons from Ufasimba Primary School in South Africa

Zimu-Biyela

2019

International Journal of African Renaissance Studies - Multi-,

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The topic of decolonisation has become a contested terrain because of the curriculum challenges facing education systems in Africa, particularly South Africa. To address these challenges, many scholars have underscored the importance of using socio-culturally relevant curricula in Africa. This article is divided into two sections. First, it explores challenges facing education systems in Africa and how decolonisation and socio-culturally relevant curricula, resources, and teacher training can provide answers to those challenges. Then the article explains how Ufasimba Primary School emerged as a school where the School Environmental Education Programme (SEEP) was used to decolonise the curriculum. The challenge, however, was that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa had not made it mandatory for schools to implement the SEEP. This study recommends that the integration of the SEEP into the curriculum should be mandatory at primary education level. A qualitative approach and a grounded theory method, underpinned by the social constructivist paradigm, were used for this study. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews and the observation method. The basic principles of grounded theory and the NVivo software program assisted in the data analysis for this study.

show abstract

Decolonising the future in the untransformed present in South African higher education

Abstract: South Africa as a nation became democratic in 1994 because of the end of apartheid. Since 1994, higher

Cited by 17 publications

References 14 publications

Re-visiting the decolonising of South African higher education question: A systematic literature review

Re-visiting the decolonising of South African higher education question: A systematic literature review

Students and Institutional Preparedness for Educational Encounters: Views of the Margin

Using the School Environmental Education Programme (SEEP) to Decolonise the Curriculum: Lessons from Ufasimba Primary School in South Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About