The Settled Curriculum: How Institutions Temper the Decolonization of Knowledge

• In Event: Can't Take My Eyes Off of You: Uncovering/Dissecting Narratives of Inequality

Abstract

How does a radical curriculum idea travel through institutions? This paper forms part of a larger five-year study on the uptake of decolonization in 10 South African universities following the historic protests of 2015-16. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 200 academics, sampled on grounds of their leading roles in curriculum change. How did they decolonize their curricula within the constraints of institutional conditions such as regulation and resistance? Interview data was analyzed using Atlas.ti to generate common themes. Universities, we found, responded to the demands for decolonization through strategies including posturing, domestication, bureaucratization, and marginalization. Drawing on neo-institutional theory, our study demonstrates how institutional norms, values, and regulations temper radical curriculum change through institutionally embedded actors, logics, and processes.

Authors

• Jonathan David Jansen, Stellenbosch University

• Cyrill Agnes Walters, Stellenbosch University