Is the Decolonization of the South African University Curriculum Possible in a Neoliberal Culture?

Koopman, Oscar

doi:10.29086/2519-5476/2019/sp24.2a3

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…What kind of knowledge will universities promote in the curricula in a university driven by neoliberal core ideals? Koopman (2019) provides a succinct overview of the rise of neoliberalism in South Africa after 1994 and how policy-making in both the basic education and training sector as well as higher education and training were affected. He points out that, after fierce academic debate, the outcome in the official analysis of educational policy processes for South Africa was a shift from the vision of "Education for Liberation", a peoples-driven education system in the 1980s, to the adoption of neoliberal policies in the 1990s.…”

Section: A Brief Description Of Neoliberalism and Its Impact On Educamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…How to overcome epistemic injustice, Le Grange et al (2020) argue, is one of the biggest challenges facing the modern-day South African university (and many other universities across the globe). Since universities are the key actors in both the production and dissemination of knowledge, the South African university landscape has been characterized by unprecedented mayhem and unrest since 2015 which at times turned out to be very violent, as students demanded, amongst many other things a decolonized curriculum as a form of epistemic justice (for full details, see Koopman 2019;Le Grange 2016;Postma 2016). This demand for a decolonized curriculum is explained in more detail later in the article, but Le Grange (2016) notes that it represents a decentring of dominant Western knowledge, perspectives and concepts in the university curriculum and a call for the inclusion of more local or African indigenous knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of the neoliberal technological epoch and Covid-19 on the decolonization of the university curriculum

Koopman

2021

SAJHE

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In this article we will argue that South Africa's capitalist neoliberal agenda for higher education, where the focus is on the shift from a knowledge economy to a digital economy, will choke the life of indigenous knowledge out of the university curriculum. To support this claim the article discusses, firstly, the impact of the core neoliberal ideals on the university curriculum landscape.Secondly, drawing on the scholarly work of Martin Heidegger and his anticipation of the spirit of the time in the technological epoch, the article shows how humans in this era will be viewed as a heap of fungible raw materials, resources, or standing reserve (Bestand) awaiting optimisation. In this technological age knowledge is subject to the demands of the market, where the focus will be exclusively on knowledge that has a utilitarian value in and impact on the technological epoch. A direct consequence of this is that little space will be provided for the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in the curriculum. We conclude by showing how the current Covid-19 pandemic dismissed the voices and disregarded the efforts of indigenous healers in the fight against the pandemic. All these developments illustrate government's power to impose its neoliberal agenda on the university that will ultimately lead to the detriment and neglect of indigenous knowledge.

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Section: A Brief Description Of Neoliberalism and Its Impact On Educamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the neoliberal technological epoch and Covid-19 on the decolonization of the university curriculum

Koopman

2021

SAJHE

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“…Other outcomes proposed by the NDP were to provide blacks from historically impoverished communities greater access to the university, so as to enhance their cognitive abilities vis-à-vis the technical and professional competencies, and to allow greater competitiveness in the labour market. According to Koopman (2019), these roles proposed in the National Development Plan for Higher Education (2001) indicate the main roles of the university as being:…”

Section: A Brief Overview Of the Rise Of The Neoliberal University Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To put this into perspective, in the previous revolution, the focus of the university sector in developing students for the knowledge economy was on the interrelatedness of 'thought content' and 'thought process', an approach which construes the world as 'an object of thought'. In the 4IR 'thought content' and 'thought process' are replaced with code theories and functionality (Koopman 2019). Because 4IR has its roots in the notion of 'German 4.0 industrie', which refers to 'smart cities', 'smart industries', 'smart factories', 'smart manufacturing' and so forth (TIPS 2018).…”

Section: The University As the Primary Driver Of Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-Thinking the Humanities Curriculum in the Time of Covid-19

Koopman¹,

Koopman²

2020

Alternation African Scholarship Book Series

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Alternation research groups have made decisive and far-sighted knowledge production contributions in the interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities arena for more than twenty-five years. From 2020, it adds the Alternation African Scholarship Book Series (AASBS) to its research outputs system. Via its incisive thematically-focused inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary, as well as digitally-informed, research approaches, the AASBS not only advances the frontiers of knowledge in Africa's institutions of Higher Learning in designated focus areas, but also critically generates scholarship of, by and with the people(s) of our continent. Historically the research draws on the rich traditions of interactive African intellectualisations, from its earliest civilisations, through struggles for liberation and freedom, to independence and growth. It opens up future epistemic opportunities through intellectual initiative and resourcefulness, while critically contributing to the international advancement of knowledge on all relevant levels. Contributing to research-led constructive, transformative and substantial discourse development in our programmes and disciplines, it also aims at impacting the wellbeing of our people foundationally and all-inclusively in the present. All forms of scientific and social challenge which Africa's societies and communities face, need to be problematised and researched in the Arts and Humanities, in the interest of cooperative and conscientious responsible knowledge generation and foundational conceptual and methodological research impacts. We serve the hopes and aspirations of the people of Africa. AASBS is committed to the highest levels of inclusive, factually correct and critical, sociallyresponsive and socially-accountable evidence-based research analyses and outputs. Each chapter is reviewed by at least two independent peer reviewers. Through its editing and peerreview system, each volume also builds research leadership, research expertise, and

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“…Though the African higher education university has over the years come under tremendous scholarly scrutiny (Akojee, Nkomo, and Twalo 2012;Mbembe 2016;Koopman 2019;Ndofirepi and Gwaravanda 2018), the Covid-19 pandemic has once intensified the focus.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A crisis like no other: Disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic in the neoliberal African higher education era

Ndofirepi

Hungwe²

2022

SAJHE

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The Covid-19 pandemic has offered an opportune moment to assess the neoliberal tendencies in (South) African higher education. In critiquing neoliberal tendencies in higher education, this article proffers the thesis that university in (South) Africa perpetuates and entrenches neoliberalism as a Eurocentric canon, thereby shadowing the public good agenda of higher institutions of learning. The dawn of democracy in many African countries ushered in new thinking concerning higher education policy and practice. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the fact that African higher education has remained tethered to the former colonial powers’ whims, thereby maintaining the dominator-dominated relationship. We argue that the imposed Western-style education has produced an educated élite with Western values and entrepreneurial attitudes that pilot their states on the path to modernity through the capitalisation of knowledge. Subsequently, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed deep inequalities in relation to access to African higher education. To that end, we conceptualise the predominance of neoliberal philosophy in African higher education as an instrument of keeping the public good idea of the African universities under surveillance. We provide theoretical evidence of how African universities are still suffering from colonisation of the mind decades after the attainment of political independence through complicit or sometimes implicit imbibing and embracing of the Euro-centred neoliberal philosophy under the guise of globalisation. We make a case for (South) African higher education to turn the tide to encompass locally relevant teaching and research with an eye on local needs in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. On the understanding that Covid-19 pandemic affected places differently, we argue that the deep underlying inequalities in African higher education were exposed.

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Is the Decolonization of the South African University Curriculum Possible in a Neoliberal Culture?

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

The impact of the neoliberal technological epoch and Covid-19 on the decolonization of the university curriculum

The impact of the neoliberal technological epoch and Covid-19 on the decolonization of the university curriculum

Re-Thinking the Humanities Curriculum in the Time of Covid-19

A crisis like no other: Disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic in the neoliberal African higher education era

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