Disrupting Western Epistemic Hegemony in South African Universities: Curriculum Decolonisation, Social Justice, and Agency in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Angu, Pineteh

doi:10.18848/2327-0128/cgp/v25i01/9-22

Cited by 9 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Indeed, when reflecting on Africa's immense socio-economic crisis, Ayittey (2006:11) argues that some of the core causes for such conditions relate to 'difficulty [in] penetrating […] layers of mythology [and] ignorance […] enshrouding Africa and [her] people'. This sentiment correlates with the principles of scholars in the decolonial domain who argue that Africa's cultures, epistemologies and traditions are marginalised in contemporary curricula (Angu 2018;Kumalo 2018;Nyoka 2013). Angu (2018) describes the constraints of African epistemologies in tertiary curricula as a process of marginalisation.…”

Section: The Essence Of Indigenous African Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…This sentiment correlates with the principles of scholars in the decolonial domain who argue that Africa's cultures, epistemologies and traditions are marginalised in contemporary curricula (Angu 2018;Kumalo 2018;Nyoka 2013). Angu (2018) describes the constraints of African epistemologies in tertiary curricula as a process of marginalisation. Kumalo (2018), applying the concept of abjection, the non-seeing of blackness or African culture, argues that decoloniality must address this concern.…”

Section: The Essence Of Indigenous African Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…

…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Applying Ayittey’s Indigenous African Institutions to generate epistemic plurality in the curriculum

Eybers¹

2019

Transformation in Higher Education

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South Africa has recently experienced turmoil in its tertiary sphere. While much of it derived from students' financial grievances, an equal amount of discontent emerged because of ideological disgruntlement (Angu 2018;Nyamnjoh 2016;Pillay 2016). Increasingly, segments of the student populace rebelled against what they experienced as colonised or Eurocentric paradigms in South African universities. A statue of Cecil Rhodes, based at the University of Cape Town, came to be seen as a symbol of black oppression and pain. This sentiment reflects Mbembe's (2015:2) suggestion that 'Cecil Rhodes belonged to [a] race of men who were convinced that to be black was a liability'. The current study is concerned with conceptualising curricula that reverse students' experiences of alienation or pain by replacing these with belonging. Carolissen and Kiguwa (2018:1-2) acknowledge that experiences of belonging may be shaped by power relations in universities. Such power relations, in turn, emerge from numerous variables that are not 'unidimensional' in nature but entail 'complex intersectionalities' (Carolissen & Kiguwa 2018:3). In these configurations, variables such as race, gender, culture or ideological orientation are efficacious. But as Carolissen and Kiguwa (2018:3) acknowledge, in South Africa, 'black students […] despite [their] legitimate student status […] continue to experience their rights Background: South Africa's institutions of higher learning are currently experiencing a dispensation in which calls for curricula transformation and decolonisation reverberate. While the need for curricula evolution is generally accepted, there appears to be a lack of awareness of methodologies which are applicable to changing curricula. To this end the study proposed the incorporation of Ayittey's text Indigenous African Institutions into mainstream curricula for the following reasons: It is a rich source of indigenous African knowledge and includes history and information which relate to all disciplinary faculties and their areas of teaching. Aim:The following conceptual study aimed to highlight the value of George Ayittey's seminal text, Indigenous African Institutions of 2006, towards implementing curricula in South African universities that are epistemically diverse.Setting: This study is contextualised in higher learning spaces in the African context. Method:The methods of this study involved a textual probing of previous discourses on epistemic diversity in university curricula that value pre-colonial African history. The study also highlighted pre-colonial African modes of organisation as emphasised in Ayittey's texts, which are relevant epistemic sources for dissemination in contemporary, African scholarly. Results:The results of the study indicated that Africa's pre-colonial era contains rich sources of indigenous and epistemic knowledge required for social organisation during that era. Ayittey's text describes how African cultures gave form to relationships between families, communities, nations and the natural environme...

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Section: The Essence Of Indigenous African Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: The Essence Of Indigenous African Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…

…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Applying Ayittey’s Indigenous African Institutions to generate epistemic plurality in the curriculum

Eybers¹

2019

Transformation in Higher Education

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“…Indeed, Angu (2018:9) states: "universities are still shaped by epistemic traditions of the Global North." This marginalisation led to the eruption of violent student protests across many South African universities (which have come to be called the #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall protests), which re-ignited social activism and intellectual debate around the politics of curriculum decolonisation in South African HEIs (Angu, 2018) In addition, Wits, a historically-advantaged institution, still uses English as a medium of instruction, despite the increase in the number of enrolled black students and the calls for decolonisation.…”

Section: Our Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does decolonising education mean to us? Educator reflections

Agherdien

Pillay

Dube

et al. 2022

Sotls

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The #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall student protests accelerated the call for a decolonised higher education space. Much complexity and debate exists around the notion of a decolonised curriculum, how to frame it, describe it and/or enact it. Within this debate, the positionality and identity of individuals who design, implement, and evaluate curricula are important. The purpose of this article is to reflect on how theory-informed pedagogical reflections can assist in our understanding of decolonisation. The four educator reflections include our personal accounts of pedagogical philosophies, methodologies, and practices. A major focus is social work, which aims to enhance the well-being of all persons especially the disadvantaged, the marginalised and the voiceless. Through belonging to a community of practice, we embarked on the process of articulating our voice, positionality, and identity and how this informs our teaching, which is both personal and political within a South African higher education context. We provide our ways of knowing regarding how we (try) to contribute to social justice and equity ideals. We conclude with our consolidated view on an envisioned, decolonised education in the global South context. We recommend an approach that values ongoing, collective reflection, critical questioning, and agitation of how a decolonised curriculum can be envisaged. The contribution that this article makes is in the value of collective reflection, coupled with embracing personal stories/biographies to theorise decolonisation.

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“…While some critics interpret this as Afropessimism, the Western epistemic domination in African universities tells us that the postcolony has yet to disentangle itself as an uncircumcised appendage of the West. It is well known that what we call African universities are in fact European universities in Africa (see Angu 2018;Asante 2007;Grosfoguel 2011;Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2013Nyamnjoh 2012Nyamnjoh , 2016. The foregoing sections are therefore arguing that "the production, positioning and consumption of knowledge is far from a neutral, objective and disinterested process.…”

Section: The Need To Decolonize South African University Curriculamentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the Teaching of Academic Literacy in the Context of Calls for Curriculum Decolonization in South Africa

Angu¹,

Boakye²,

Eybers³

2020

The International Journal of Pedagogy and Curriculum

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This article explores the concept of decolonization and its implications for the teaching of academic literacy in the Unit for Academic Literacy at a South African university. It draws on existing literature on decolonizing knowledge in Africa and different models of curricula as well as on teaching and assessment practices in the Unit for Academic Literacy to provide a conceptual discussion on possibilities to rethink the teaching of academic literacy. The article acknowledges that the Unit for Academic Literacy has attempted to incorporate principles of curriculum transformation in the contents of its courses, teaching, and assessment practices, but these attempts are still not adequate. This article therefore argues that since the demographics of South African universities continue to shift rapidly toward a black majority, the design, teaching, and assessment of academic literacy should be more responsive to the epistemic injustice in South African higher education. To do this, the article proposes that the Unit for Academic Literacy should open up more space for epistemic plurality, which allows for the representation of African ways of being, knowing and doing embodied in its growing population of African students.

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Disrupting Western Epistemic Hegemony in South African Universities: Curriculum Decolonisation, Social Justice, and Agency in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Applying Ayittey’s Indigenous African Institutions to generate epistemic plurality in the curriculum

Applying Ayittey’s Indigenous African Institutions to generate epistemic plurality in the curriculum

What does decolonising education mean to us? Educator reflections

Rethinking the Teaching of Academic Literacy in the Context of Calls for Curriculum Decolonization in South Africa

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