Ubuntu<i>currere</i>in the academy: a case study from the South African experience

Hlatshwayo, Mlamuli Nkosingphile; Shawa, Lester Brian; Nxumalo, Sabelo Abednego

doi:10.1080/23802014.2020.1762509

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…When Ubuntu is at the centre such engagements cannot be unduly disconcerting. Ubuntu currere, which is characterised by Hlatshwayo et al (2020) as emblematic of everything in the cosmos have the potential to emancipate educational and social relations of the African working-class students.…”

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reimagining Writing Centres Practices: A South African Perspective

Hotson,

Bell,

Rambiritch

et al. 2023

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In light of the changing face and internationalisation of our student body and their concomitant needs, this book attempts to foreground both the strides made in the field, as well as the important questions and debates confronting writing centre practitioners in the South African higher education arena. The latter demands that we review and reimagine the support we currently provide. Reimaging, however, forces us to wrestle with the challenges that are inherent in work of this nature and to be vocal about the difficult questions that must be asked and answered if we want to provide socially just solutions to our students’ writing challenges. The onset of COVID-19 also imposed on our daily practices and required a hasty re-evaluation of our service provision. The aim of this volume is to further conversations and research on the notion of the internationalisation of writing centres and the necessity to focus on the key issues of multilingualism, discipline-based writing, social justice, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as specialised consultant/tutor training. Writing centres at South African universities have established themselves as fundamental to the support and development of our students. Thus, the time is ripe for us as writing centre practitioners in the South African context to continue writing our own writing centre narrative, grapple with context-specific issues and questions, and provide context-specific answers and solutions that speak to the lived realities of our students. We hope to achieve this through this book.

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Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reimagining Writing Centres Practices: A South African Perspective

Hotson,

Bell,

Rambiritch

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The result of this is that the lived experiences of BAME professors are excluded, which can impact negatively on student engagement due to a lack of connection or relation. Hierarchy is also seen in teaching methods, as the traditional method follows a top-down, didactic approach, in which students are expected to accept the knowledge given by academics as true [21]. This reinforces power differentials between students and academics, posing a challenge for students in contributing, voicing concerns, or influencing change.…”

Section: Modern Manifestations Of Colonised Stem In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A further way to exercise culturally sensitive feedback within PBL is to encourage a reflective and dialogical approach; this is inherently decolonial, as it disrupts the hierarchy between teacher and student and improves student empowerment and agency [21]. PBL feedback can be constructed as a conversation between teacher and student, one in which the student is able to voice their opinions and responses to their feedback, allowing for a deconstruction of the hierarchy in which the teacher normally exercises an absolute judgement over the student's work.…”

Section: Culturally Sensitive Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project-Based Learning as a Potential Decolonised Assessment Method in STEM Higher Education

Lalujan,

Pranjol

2024

Trends in Higher Education

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Decolonising the curriculum (DtC) is an emerging concept that continues to challenge higher education institutions globally, with educators and scholars increasingly recognising how traditional curricular structures, content, and pedagogical practices can reinforce colonial biases and marginalise certain student groups. DtC can be seen as a process rather than a phenomenon, one which is ongoing and multiplexed, consisting of elements that aim to dismantle the hierarchy between staff and students and question the ways in which knowledge is produced, valued, and disseminated. The expected outcome is to provide students with an education which is equitable, inclusive, and relevant to their personal lives and experiences. Efforts in DtC have continued to gain traction, but assessment practices remain overlooked as a crucial component, with most decolonising efforts focussed towards content and pedagogy. As such, this review aims to contribute to the conversation by exploring the roots and impacts of colonisation on higher education, particularly within the context of assessment in STEM subjects. We examine various elements of decolonised assessment methods and ultimately suggest project-based learning (PBL) as a comprehensive approach that brings together the aforementioned decolonial elements, illustrating this concept through the examination of a PBL assessment mode study conducted at the University of Sussex.

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“…On violence in South African higher education: An ideological perspective their confined contexts. In an effort at overcoming this challenge, and building from what Santos (2007) proposes as the "ecologies of knowledge", I draw on Pinar (1994) and Le Grange (2019) to develop the concept of Ubuntu curerre (or ubuntu curriculum), as an ontoepistemic solution to higher education curriculum thinking (Hlatshwayo, Shawa and Nxumalo 2020;. Ubuntu-currere is a philosophical project committed to humanising and Africanising 1 the existential relationship between the teacher and the student.…”

Section: Hlatshwayomentioning

confidence: 99%

On violence in South African higher education: An ideological perspective

2024

Pie

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South Africa is inherently a violent country. From the service delivery protests, rise in murder rates, gender-based violence, and an increasingly violent higher education sector; South Africans are increasingly feeling vulnerable and despondent about the future. In this paper, I attempt to provide a conceptual understanding of violence in higher education. Through Gramsci's idea of the organic crisis, I propose two kinds of violence that need urgent attention if we are to realise higher education transformation and decolonisation. Firstly, I propose a focus on what I see as the deeply embedded and well-entrenched epistemic violence in higher education. This violence operates at the level of curricula and knowledge production, and occasions the need to displace the dominance of Eurocentric thought in curriculum design. Secondly, I propose a focus on social violence, which operates at the discursive level of the institutional culture. This relates to the growing frustrations, anguish, and depression among Black academics and Black students who continue to see, read and experience higher education in South Africa as inherently anti-Black, anti-women, and increasingly anti-poor. I end the paper with some concluding thoughts on the need to adopt a broader conception of violence, and the epistemic/ontological/methodological possibilities this gives us in transforming the higher education sector in South Africa.

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Ubuntucurrerein the academy: a case study from the South African experience

Cited by 18 publications

References 30 publications

Reimagining Writing Centres Practices: A South African Perspective

Reimagining Writing Centres Practices: A South African Perspective

Project-Based Learning as a Potential Decolonised Assessment Method in STEM Higher Education

On violence in South African higher education: An ideological perspective

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