Decolonizing the Curriculum? The Institutionalization of Radical Reforms in South African Universities

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Radical Resuscitations in Anticolonial Curriuculum, Consciousness, and Collectives

Abstract

How do universities respond to radical demands for curriculum reform? This study presents the findings of a comprehensive study of curriculum uptake in 10 public universities in South Africa in the wake of unprecedented student uprisings (2015-2016) charging that university knowledge was Eurocentric, alien to black students and silent on the legacies of colonialism and apartheid. The conceptual frame for this study is the institutional curriculum—those rules, regulations and routines that determine what counts as valid knowledge in the disciplinary curriculum. This study draws on extensive interviews with senior administrators, academics, accreditors and students, as well as detailed analyses of curriculum documentation. It was found that a powerful institutional curriculum incrementalized, enclaved and “defanged” radical proposals for curriculum change.

Authors

• Cyrill Agnes Walters, Stellenbosch University

• Jonathan David Jansen, Stellenbosch University