African Knowledge and Eurocentric Knowledge Systems Within the South African Curriculum

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 4:20 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Diasporas of Justice: Rethinking Knowledge Systems to Challenge Power (Table 24)

Abstract

The combination of African knowledge and Eurocentric knowledge systems within the South African curriculum could provide a robust curriculum that would provide for the needs of diverse students. The paper critically debates that curriculum needs a localized knowledge-based system plus universalized knowledge – through the lens of social realism and standpoint theory - to give a truer account of our social reality within South African education. The core argument is rooted in the statement that we need both universal knowledge and African thinkers to reproduce and transform our knowledge system. Our contention is to bring in stronger objectivity in the curriculum, which can be realised when universalised knowledge and Africanised knowledge triangulate into objectified knowledge to gain more explanatory power.

Author

• Desiree Pearl Larey, University of the Free State