CRITICAL RACE THEORY-INFUSED CURRICULA TRANSFORMATION IN SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.31.217230Keywords:
Africanisation, Curriculum Transformation, Critical Race Theory, Decolonisation, Indigenisation, UBuntu, Institutions of Higher Learning, South AfricaAbstract
This article seeks to situate curriculum transformation in the South African learning environment on the landscape of critical race theory. The article acknowledges that the need for curriculum transformation in South Africa is a matter beyond any contestation. However, it argues that what has been lacking to date is the absolute resolve on the theory or philosophy that underpins the transformation agenda – which to a certain extent has reduced curriculum transformation to superficial infusion of the principles and values of uBuntu in the curricular; and the drive towards decolonisation of the curricular without much tangible alternative being offered. As part of the execution of the study in this article the author critically examines the literature on critical race theories critical the theory, and examines the applicability of this theory as the bar that underpins curriculum transformation. The researcher contextualises this article with reference to curriculum development agenda at the College of Law of the University of South Africa where he is an academic in the discipline of law.
References
Alderuccio, M.C. (2010). An investigation of global/local dynamics of
curriculum transformation in sub-Saharan Africa with special reference to the Republic of Mozambique. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 727 –739. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2010.523228
Bell, D.A. (1992). Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. New York: Basic Books.
Carolissen, R., Leibowitz, B., Bozalek, V., Swartz, L., Nicholls, L & Rohlede, P. (2010). A critical race theory analysis of South African Human Service profession students’ retrospective engagements with race. Paper presented at the WCCES, Istanbul, Turkey:
Bogazici University Delgado, R &Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York University Press.
CHE. (2016). South African Higher Education reviewed – Two Decades of Democracy. Council on Higher Education Press.
Dastile, P.N. (2013). Beyond Euro-Western dominance: an African-centred decolonial paradigm, Africanus, 43(2), 93 – 104.
Dastile, P.N. (2016), in Ndlovu, S.J & Zondi, G.S (eds). Decolonizing the University, Knowledge Systems and Disciplines in Africa. Carolina Academic Press, LLC: Durham, North Carolina.
Duncan, G.A. (2005) Critical race ethnography in education: narrative, inequality and the problem of epistemology. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8 (1), 93–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341015
Dotson, K (2014). Conceptualising Epistemic Oppression. Social Epistemology: A Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Policy. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2013.782585).
Hernandez, T.K. (2002 – 2003). Comparative Judging of Civil Rights: A Transnational Critical Race Theory Approach, Louisiana Law Review, (63), 875 – 886.
Hurst E. (2016). Navigating language: strategies, transitions, and the „colonial wound‟ in South African education, 30(3), 219 – 234.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education?, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 7-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/095183998236863
Maart, R. (2014). The Absence of the Knowledge of White Consciousness in Contemporary Discourses on Transformation: When Black Consciousness Walks Arm-in-arm with Critical Race Theory to Meet Racism and White Consciousness in the Humanities‟. Alternation, 21(2), 54 – 82.
Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities. New York: Basic Books.
Mbiti, J. S. (1969). African Religions and Philosophy. East African Educational Publishers, Nairobi.
McDonald, R & Van Der Horst, H. (2007). Curriculum alignment, globalization, and quality assurance in South African higher education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 39(1), 1 – 9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270500422715
McLaughlin, J & Whatman, S. ( 2011). The potential of critical race theory in decolonizing university curricula, Asia Pacific Journal of education, 31(4), 265- 277. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2011.621243
MEC for Education: KwaZulu-Natal and Others v Pillay and Others 2006 10 BCLR 1237 N.
Mignolo, W. (2009). Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and De-colonial Freedom. Theory, Culture & Society, 26 (7-8), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409349275
Mokgoro JY, „uBuntu and the Law in South Africa” paper delivered at the first Colloquium Constitution and Law held at Potchefstroom on 31 October 1997, http://www.ajol.info/index.php/pelj/article/viewFile/43567/27090
Murithi, T. (2009). An African Perspective on peace Education: uBuntu Lessons in Reconciliation, International Review of Education, 55(2), 221–233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-009-9129-0
Mutasa, D.E. (2014). Multilingual education in South African universities: A possibility or delusion? South African Journal of African Languages, 34(1), 9 – 20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02572117.2014.949464
Preston, J & Chadderton, C. (2012). Rediscovering „Race Traitor‟: towards a Critical Race Theory informed public pedagogy, Race, Ethnicity and Education, 5(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.638866
Swartz, E. (1992). Emancipatory narratives: Rewriting the master script in the school curriculum. Journal of Negro Education, 61, 341 - 355. https://doi.org/10.2307/2295252
Tsoose, C. (2009). The Emerging Role of the Constitutional Value of UBuntu for Informal Social Security in South Africa, African Journal of Legal Studies, 3(1), 12 - 19. https://doi.org/10.1163/221097312X13397499736822
Vambea, M.T. (2005). Opening and transforming South African education : Case study, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 20(3), 285 – 293.
Yishaka, D & Gumbo, M. (2015). A stand-alone, blended or restructured indigenisation approach to curriculum? A curriculum Perspective. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies - Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinarity , 10(1), 60 -82. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2015.1050215
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Omphemetse S Sibanda
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
