Decolonising, Africanising, indigenising and internationalising Curriculum Studies : Opportunities to (re)imagine the field
Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Abstract
In recent years the terms internationalisation, indigenising, decolonising, and Africanising have circulated in
discourses on curriculum both internationally and in South Africa. Recent student protests in South Africa have
precipitated a particular interest in the decolonising of the university curriculum. As a consequence, we are
witnessing contestations on the topic in scholarly journals and books, and in the popular media. The concept,
decolonisation of the curriculum, has also been bandied around loosely by some students, eliciting criticism on
the lack of clarity about this. The field of curriculum studies in South Africa has been characterised by a focus
on banal matters related to the national curriculum: the merits and demerits of outcomes-based education;
findings of standardised tests; assessment; continuity and progression; classroom pedagogy; and so forth. The
upshot of this is that the field has become hackneyed, unimaginative, and unable to address bigger questions
such as the ones raised in the Call for Papers of this special issue. I argue in this article that the concepts
internationalising, indigenising, decolonising, and Africanising could be the impetus for the renewal of the field
of curriculum studies in South Africa. In the article I clarify what is meant by the internationalising,
indigenising, decolonising, and Africanising of the curriculum. I discuss the ways in which the concepts are
disparate and explore the conceptual connections between and among them. My exploration opens up alternative
ways of thinking curriculum through viewing it as a “complicated conversation” (Pinar, 2004a, p. xiv) that could
have potentially transformative effects on the field of curriculum studies in South Africa. My main aim here is
to register the possibility of such complicated conversations happening in South African curriculum studies.
Description
CITATION: Le Grange, L. 2018. Decolonising, Africanising, indigenising, and
internationalising curriculum studies : opportunities
to (re)imagine the field. Journal of Education, 74:4-18, doi:10.17159/10.17159/2520-9868/i74a01.
The original publication is available at https://journals.ukzn.ac.za/index.php/joe/
The original publication is available at https://journals.ukzn.ac.za/index.php/joe/
Keywords
Decolonization -- South Africa, Education -- Curricula -- South Africa, Education -- Curriculum change -- South Africa, Education -- Africanization -- South Africa
Citation
Le Grange, L. 2018. Decolonising, Africanising, indigenising, and
internationalising curriculum studies : opportunities
to (re)imagine the field. Journal of Education, 74:4-18, doi:10.17159/10.17159/2520-9868/i74a01