Strategies to decolonise education outlined
“COLONISATION involves, not only the military and an economic invasion of places around the globe, but unjustified attempts to export western knowledge, technologies and cultural beliefs to the world.”
This according to Professor Catherine Manathunga from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, who was a keynote speaker at the fourth annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning conference held by the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching to address transforming teaching and learning through a culture of research in higher education.
The education specialist spoke on the post-colonial or de-colonial framework used at educational institutions and explored a series of key strategies to decolonise the curriculum.
“It’s important to remember that the creation of Western knowledge has a troubling intimate connection with colonisation. We need to draw on an array of theoretical resources if we have to decolonise the curriculum and create spaces for Southern research to flourish.
“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,” said Manathunga.
She said it was important to create an environment for Southern research to grow so that transcultural students can incorporate rich personal, cultural, geographical, linguistics and epistemological histories and geographies into their own creation of knowledge.
When talking about the seven series of key strategies for decolonising the curriculum, Manathunga said deep listening and acknowledging pain and anger and the systematic deconstruction of Northern knowledge are some aspects that need to be addressed.
Dean of Health and Environmental Sciences at the Central University of Technology, Free State, Professor Samson Mashele, concurred with Manathunga and said a lot had changed in the higher education system, which was why it needed to be readdressed.
“The way in which students do things is no longer the same as they did before. We need to improve our ways of teaching and make sure that there is success in the students we teach.
“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.”
He added that change was needed so that there could be a response to the current challenges which students were facing.
It’s important to remember Western knowledge has an intimate connection with colonisation Catherine Manathunga Sunshine Coast University professor