Citizen-Scholars as Agentic Subjects in the University Curriculum Decolonising Initiative in South Africa

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Decolonisation as imperative for education in the South African context has re-emerged as scholarly endeavour. Since the 2015 and 2016 nation-wide student protests calling for higher education to transform and demonstrate historical and contemporary relevance, there has been a burgeoning body of literature on the topic. Statutory bodies have made pronouncements on decolonisation and universities have responded variously to calls for radical curriculum change along decolonial lines of flight. In this session, four South African citizen-scholars, reflect on individual and collective responsibilities in attempts to decolonise the curriculum; not merely in metaphorical terms (Tuck & Yang, 2012), but as an affirmative politics based on hope that is grounded in responsibility (Braidotti, 2013).

Sub Unit

• Division B - Curriculum Studies / Division B - Section 6: De/Colonization and Transformative Curriculum Studies

Chair

• Petro Du Preez, North-West University

Papers

• The Importance of Individual Responsibility in the Decolonization of Universities - Lesley Lionel Leonard Le Grange, Stellenbosch University

• Taking Responsibility for a Lived Curriculum as Complicated Conversation Mooted in Nomadic Thought - Shan R. Simmonds, North-West University

• Decolonization and Curriculum Transformation: Why Epistemic Delinking Is So Hard for Preservice Teachers of Economics - SURIAMURTHEE MOONSAMY MAISTRY, University of KwaZulu-Natal

• Toward an Embodied Critical Pedagogy of Discomfort as a Decolonizing Teaching Strategy - Sylvan Everton Blignaut, Nelson Mandela University; Oscar Koopman, Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Discussant

• Prevanand (Labby) Ramrathan, University of KwaZulu-Natal