Decolonising the university curriculum or decolonial-washing? A multiple case study

Abstract

In this article, we report on four case studies of how higher education institutions have grappled with the demands of decolonisation of their curricula. In some respects, the cases differ in form and content, and the unique responses to decolonisation of each institution are described and analysed. An important similarity among the institutions was the use of extensive public lectures, seminars, and workshops as a common strategy to deal with the calls for the decolonising of curricula. The inquiry is motivated by our concern that some institutions, in an effort to comply, might resort to instrumentalist and quick-fix solutions to decolonise curricula, which result in decolonial-washing rather than substantive change. We discuss the following themes based on the data and literature: decolonial-washing; decolonising of curricula as a national project; political symbolism; and the need for complicated conversations. We also reflect on the methodology used in this study.

Intersection of Ubuntu pedagogy and social justice: Transforming South African higher education

“…In this article, we argue that the discrimination and marginalisation of indigenous knowledge systems such as Ubuntu in higher education and the persistent preference of Western scientific knowledge systems remain a throbbing issue, especially for people from indigenous knowledge systems. We therefore join transformational scholars such as Maistry (2021) and Le Grange et al (2020) in their call for socially just higher education, especially in South Africa.…”

“…If teacher educators do not undertake this important task of focusing critically on social justice, their students will run the risk of perpetuating racism, stereotypes, and existing inequalities and thereby reproduce the old prevailing hegemony and the existing social order characterised by inequity and injustice. (p. 82) It is upon these debates and insights by Blignaut and Koopman (2020) and Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2018) that other South African scholars (Heleta 2016;Le Grange et al 2020;Maistry 2021) call for urgent transformations in South African higher education that will put an end to epistemic injustices that devalue indigenous knowledge systems such as Ubuntu whilst promoting scientific knowledge. In this article, we argue that the discrimination and marginalisation of indigenous knowledge systems such as Ubuntu in higher education and the persistent preference of Western scientific knowledge systems remain a throbbing issue, especially for people from indigenous knowledge systems.…”

Epistemology of surveillance: Revealing unmarked forms of discipline and punishment in Israeli academia

“…The coloniality of knowledge, 1 or the production of Eurocentric‐colonial knowledge as formed by colonial regimes, is one form of surveilling and controlling indigenous and non‐White minorities. It is also a mechanism for facilitating the expansion of the colonial body over the rest of the world (Le Grange et al., 2020; Mignolo, 2007; Quijano & Ennis, 2000).…”

“…One such mechanism is epistemicide, where the colonizer “kills” and displaces preexisting knowledge. Another mechanism is ontologic exclusion, whereby the black or native, in the eyes of the conqueror, has no valuable ontology (Le Grange et al., 2020; Mignolo, 2007; Quijano & Ennis, 2000).…”

Student–staff partnerships for diversifying and decolonising the higher education curriculum

“…9.Which refers to the practice of a university giving the impression that its curricula are decolonised when this is not the case (le Grange et al, 2020). …”