"We've been taught to understand that we don't have anything to contribute towards knowledge": Exploring academics' understanding of decolonising curricula in higher education

Abstract

Universities in the Global South continue to grapple with the ethical demands of decolonising and transforming the public university and its episteme orientations. In this paper, we contribute to the emerging body of work in the Global South that attempts to make sense of the transformation and decolonisation discourses by exploring academics' understanding of decolonising curricula in South African higher education. Using purposive sampling, we interviewed eight academics from the school of education who teach in a research-intensive university in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We relied on the field theory of Pierre Bourdieu to think through the notion of a research-intensive university being a contested and structuring field constituted of various actors and agents who are struggling to make sense of, and understand the calls for, decolonising and transforming curricula. The findings suggest that, largely, academics understand the decolonising of curricula as a response to the need to tackle and theorise the Eurocentric thought in curricula and to re-centre African epistemic traditions and as well as navigate what they refer to as the confusion, ambiguity, and discomfort of decolonisation. We end this paper with some empirical and theoretical reflections on how exploring academics' understanding of decolonizing curricula is central to the broader project of achieving social justice in the Global South.

Kill your ancestors

“…As suggested in an alternative genealogy of Indian anthropology (Uberoi et al., 2007), there are substantial areas of disciplinary history that, although recognized by regional specialists, remain largely peripheral to the professional genealogy that many anthropologists acknowledge. If normative genealogies determine the pictures on our walls, then some people find it harder to identify with the anthropological endeavor (Hlatshwayo & Alexander, 2021). Moreover, it is harder to understand the breadth and possibilities of the discipline.…”

“…Lots of scholars are marginalized because their professional genealogy does not allow for close kinship with those particular ancestors (cf. Hlatshwayo & Alexander, 2021). For those who do enjoy this kinship, professional intimacy makes it more likely that a decolonial critique of a tradition will be felt as an attack on one's community and sense of self.…”

The ruptures in our rainbow: Reflections on teaching and learning during #RhodesMustFall

“…The "underbelly" of the #RhodesMustFall movement is in a way, a broader reflection of the underbellies of the South African society, manifesting itself in the higher education (Maxwele, 2015;Naicker, 2016;Valela, 2015). While there is significant consensus in the field that universities need to transform into inclusive and democratic spaces (Heleta, 2018;Hlatshwayo & Alexander, 2021;Mbembe, 2016), little is often provided as to what this "transformed" or "decolonized" university/curriculum/pedagogy could potentially look like. In this section, I provide a (brief) outline into what I term, the "underbelly" of the #RhodesMustFall moment, regarding some of the violences, intimidation, assaults, arson and others that are often overlooked and under-emphasized in higher education.…”

South African Higher Education: Transformation or/and Decolonisation?

“…In addition, transformation and decolonisation have been used diversely in research. For example, both terms have been used similarly (Hlatshwayo & Alexander, 2021). Ngubane and Makua (2021) use transformation linguistically, that is, to mean a vision for a new university, especially one that respects African pedagogies such as Ubuntu, and that is socially just.…”