Decolonisation of curriculum continues at the 4th annual SoTL conference

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Decolonisation of curriculum continues at the 4th annual SoTL conference

The Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) held its 4th annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) conference under the theme: Transforming teaching and learning through a culture of research in higher education. SoTL encompasses aspects of professional development or faculty development, tackling issues on how teachers can improve knowledge as subject experts and also develop their pedagogical expertise.

In his welcome, address Prof. Samson Mashele, Dean of Health and Environmental Sciences, said that a lot has changed in the higher education system. “The way in which students do things is no longer the same as before. We need to rethink the way we do things, improve our ways of teaching and make sure that there is success in the students we teach.”

He said that decolonisation of the curriculum is something that has been spoken about and there have been debates around what it means. “I think this conference will outline and unpack these issues so that we can understand and move forward because students are calling for us to move away from the Eurocentric curriculum and come up with a curriculum where Africa will be the centre and the knowledge generated in Africa will be taken into consideration.” Prof. Mashele further said that change is needed so that there can be response to the current challenges that students are facing. “We hope that this conference would not just be a talk show but a way forward as to how we can transform teaching and learning through the scholarship and learning in higher education,” he said.

Prof. Catherin Manathunga, Professor of Education Research from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, a historian and a keynote speaker presented on ‘decolonising the curriculum: reflections on transforming teaching and learning through southern higher education research’. She spoke about postcolonial or decolonial theoretical framework and explored a series of key strategies to decolonise the curriculum.

She said that SoTL is a key site where contested post-colonial histories, geographies and epistemologies play out. “The field of SoTL itself is highly contested; it draws upon Boyer’s seminal work on the four scholarships, which suggested that the scholarship of teaching was one of the key scholarships. At its deepest level, SoTL aims to develop an understanding of teaching and is the central part of academic professionalism. It is not synonymous with educational research but instead focuses its attention on improving student learning.”

Prof. Manathunga presented her research on a range of theories from non-dominant perspective to post-colonial indigenous feminist, social and cultural geography theories. She said that these theories must be deployed to decolonise the university curriculum. “It is important to remember that the creation of western knowledge has a troubling intimate connection with colonisation. “We need to draw upon an array of theoretical resources if we have to decolonise the curriculum and create spaces for Southern research to flourish.”

She further said that colonisation involves, not only the physical military and an economic invasion of places around the globe, but is unjustified by attempts to export western knowledge, technologies and cultural believes to the world. “In the process of knowledge production, the north was the location of knowledge and theory whereas the south functioned as a giant laboratory. Southern theories allow us to locate place, time and diverse cultural knowledge at the very heart of teaching and learning. They also suggest ways in which transcultural students can incorporate the rich personal, cultural, geographical, linguistics and epistemological histories and geographies into their creation of knowledge.”

When talking about the seven series of key strategies for decolonising the curriculum, Prof. Manathunga mentioned the need for deep listening and acknowledging pain and anger; the need to engage in a cultural interphase of history, systematic deconstruction of northern knowledge, critical whiteness studies, the need for a systematic reconstruction of southern knowledge, develop the south-south dialogue and the need for conviviality.

Other presenters who formed part of the conference were representatives from Durban University of Technology, the University of the Free State, University of Cape Town, and Motheo TVET College.

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Attendees from universities and colleges around the country formed part of the its 4th annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) conference under the theme: Transforming teaching and learning through a culture of research in higher education.

Uploaded: 31 October 2018
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