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| Cheryl Hendrick's opening address |
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| Vanessa Merckel spoke about the pedagogical implications |
An issue that was returned to many times in the morning, is that 'local' and 'contextual' applies just as much to engineering and accountancy as it does to the humanities, and some wonderful examples were given for example of how even something like a turnstile is typically designed with a certain prototype (white, male) in mind. The issue of race and color came up, with some saying that we should be prepared to talk hard and robustly with others, and others saying that referring to race makes it personal. We should be able to participate in robust debate and hear comments about the evils of the past and present institutioal practices, without taking them personally. Likewise there was a discussion about the fact that this is not an easy conversation, and one should be prepared for tension and contestation. The group were asked whether they think some kind of guiding document would be useful, and it was interesting that many participants indicated that this would be useful, although what exactly the shape such a document would take, is not clear, since there is a permanent tension between 'decolonizing' and unwittingly returning to colonising behaviour. In an interesting presentation by Bongani Mashaba from academic development, he shared his own previous experiences as a student from Mpumalanga. He was affirming a point made by several students in previous forums at the university, that much of the current unease from students is about a lack of recognition of who they are and what they experience. Further meetings at the University will be to generate a Charter, and views of this workshop were recorded to inform future processes.
Here is a more detailed report on the workshop, by Razia Mayet:
UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
REPORT ON WORKSHOP ON DECOLONISATION OF
THE CURRICULUM
Tuesday 24th May 2016
SESSION 1 : Setting the Scene
Cheryl Hendricks and Brenda Leibowitz opened
the proceedings. They set the scene with the following reminders.
1.
That there
was no set definition of decolonization. That the definitions were wide and
varied and encompassed everything from social justice, black thought,
indigenous knowledge, Africanisation, social justice and many others.
2.
That the
terrain is deeply contested and deeply political; and that even the process has
been likened by some colleagues to a type of colonization.
3.
That we
must all ask ourselves whether we want to be here. It should be a collective
move and is preferably not one where people are doing it out of compliance.
1. That there are no templates on how to
do it.
2. That there was a nationwide drive to
start the conversation but there was also contestation
about who owns these conversations.
3. What is becoming clear is that
decolonization intrudes into the terrain between the
individual academic and what is
being taught. How can we as lecturers influence that private space?
4. At the outset we know that there is no straight road and it is not always
an easy discussion. The debate is vibrant in all South African universities
and faculties.
OVERVIEW OF THE WORK OF THE TASK TEAM
Cheryl gave an
overview of the work of the Ad Hoc senate task teams on the decolonization of
knowledge. (Refer to power point presentation for details)
4 task teams were
formed. They are tasked with the following:
Diversity ; institutional
culture and tradition
Decolonization of
knowledge
Protest and academic
freedom
Promotion of staff and
student access
The task teams have hosted a series of panel discussions that address the meaning of, and
methodology for, decolonizing knowledge, teaching and learning at UJ. 5 panel discussions were planned:
What do we mean by
decolonization of knowledge?
Is knowledge universal?
Best practices for the decolonisation
of knowledge
The relationship between and
social justice and decolonization
The thorny issue of language usage at
universities.
The intention was to have as
wide a debate as possible on these issues at the university (at all the
campuses). But, these have primarily been attended by students and so they
remain the ones who are engaged on the topic, yet it is academics that have to
be at the forefront of changing their curricula. This disjuncture between
student demands and the extent of the staff
response does not bode well for the university. Academic staff are urged to
attend and participate.
In the ensuing discussion by the attendees, the
following points were raised.
· Is the decolonization debate only for academics?
What about non academics and support staff?
· Have the panel discussions been documented? How
does one access them?
· Thinking should go beyond student/
teaching/learning. How do we challenge current thinking?
· No one owns the debate, but the former
colonized have the first word and should be listened to
· Globalization does not equal excellence. This
must be interrogated. Rankings are part of the colonial experience.
· Do we understand what we are decolonizing? As higher
education institutions started moving towards transforming, they lost sight of
certain important things and thus students are protesting.
· Decolonization is a very broad concept and
different people have different understandings of it.
· At UJ, what are we decolonizing to? Is there a
roadmap?
Cheryl responded by
reminding the delegates that the Decolonization Task Team was in the process of
developing a charter. The charter will be the initial roadmap/principle. The
charter will represent the academics, workers, support staff and students. There will be planned workshops for academics on pedagogical and
epistemological concerns linked to the curriculum. We would like to share
experiences, understand challenges and concerns and develop a set of guiding
principles and values to underpin our academic endeavour. We want to raise the
issue of ‘how did we get here’, and ‘ what do we need’ and ‘how to get there’.
All of this will happen on all four campuses.
She responded to the other issues raised by
saying:
The point
is raised that we the children of the decolonised should be leading the debate.
But we should be listening as well. The issues are not new. They are being
raised since the 70s and 80s.
Africa is
part of the global. Why do we see the debate as Africa vs the Global?
Africanization
does not exclude the world.
What are
we decolonizing to? Well we in South Africa have a different type of
decolonization. We relate more to the Latin American thinkers who think in
terms of coloniality. It encompasses all social relations, attitudes,
behaviour, and as Ngugi says, the decolonizing the mind.
SESSION 2 : FACULTY INPUTS ON DECOLONISATION OF
KNOWLEDGE
FEBE
The FEBE rep started
of by saying ‘Gravity is Gravity” and ‘Science is Science”. He said there was
an urgent need for students to feel ownership of the curriculum. The inherent
conflict remained as the “ local vs international”. Engineering SA is a
signatory to National and International Engineering bodies. There was unstructured
debate with faculty members and student representatives. There was also a need
to engage with industry partners and advisory boards. An essay competition was
planned on decolonization so students could engage with the topic and staff
could look for patterns in what students are saying. Febe doesn’t feel the need
for a universal road map, but some snippet and more open engagement was needed.
FEFS
A committee has been
constituted to give feedback on what the rest of the university is doing.
The questions that
need to be asked are Is Economics
universal?
Is there an African
way of looking at this?
The Department of Accounting is revisiting its
strategy and re-looking at their research options.
The Faculty is open
and willing to learn
HUMANITIES
The faculty held a
full day of engagement and are in the process of inviting guests to engage them
further. It is not formal, but meetings are taking place about the way forward.
Staff and students must engage on a broader level. There is a lot of ambiguity
and uncertainty among students.
The way forward that
is envisaged is how to channel the informal meetings and marginal voices into
the larger stream of the debate.
SCIENCE
There was discussion
around the issues but students were not fully aware. The Geography
lecturer offers room for research around
these issues. The Deans Committee meeting in August will take it forward to the
13 departments in Science. With regard to the way forward, Prof Ballim has been
invited to faculty board meeting to raise further issues for discussion.
EDUCATION
Decolonization is
regarded as a very important issue in the Faculty of Education, as a turning
point in history. In 1994 universities restructured. But now in 2015 the
students have expressed their concerns. The faculty has pursued discussion and
participated in Teaching and Learning activities with academics from other
institutions, for example Andre Keet from UFS who presented an insightful
discussion on “knowledge systems as othering”. The SOTL for social justice
group meeting/seminars have been held over two years. A meeting was arranged
with a student group called “Black Thought”. Odora Hoppers engaged some staff
in a discussion on cognitive justice. It is a global challenge. Discussion was
taken to a conference in Europe. Students are engaged in discussions on Human
Rights and Social Justice on excursions. Study Guides are revised and readings
are more authentic. Enquiry based discussion is ongoing.
MANAGEMENT
Under and post graduate
students are invited to share views. Business Management is concerned about
competition and how it could effect South Africa. The discussions are on Pan
African vs International universities; Local Excellence vs International
Excellence. Business case studies are also reflected. The aim is to show that
Africa must not be the ball in the game but the player in the game. Q S Rankings
are counter productive.
HEALTH SCIENCES
The main challenge is
that Health Science is a very regulated sector, prescribed by both national and
international regulatory bodies. Does everything require decolonization? Or is
it a about questioning how we implement things and how we communicate and how
we teach.?
This debate must
represent a way forward. It mustn’t be a ‘flavour of the month’. It must be
finding yourself in the domain and examining our mind sets, a Pan African
footprint in health.
FADA
The FADA rep started
by quoting from the UJ mission statement about being ‘Anchored in Africa’
He spoke of establishing
democratically elected Teaching and Learning committees that are democratically
elected.
A survey at FADA
showed that each department is in a different place. The faculty meeting on 8
June will move the discussion forward. Decolonization and Social Justice cannot
be separated. The Teaching and Learning committee is developing FYE and SSE
with that in mind. Fees must fall and Decolonization are themes in the 2017
conference. There is a student led panel in FADA, so students will lead the
discussion in August. Globalization has to be kept in mind. A question was
asked in a forum about why internationally the top schools are all in the UK. A
delegate answered that the decolonization debate was more advanced in Europe.
This was a serious issue that really needs to be interrogated.
SHARING PRACTICE
Carina van Rooyen
“Anthropology is the
handmaiden of colonialism”
Carina said that she
is very aware of her privileges as a white South African but was also
completely committed to change. She quoted Torres’ definition of Decoloniality and Mbembe’s assertion that there were two sides
to the decolonization coin: thecritique and the alternative. Ngugi called it a
decentering and a recentering.
She quoted Ngugi that
decolonization is not a project of
rejecting but redefining.
Four points of
departure.
· Curriculum is not transformational or
decolonization, it is reformist or liberal if it is chasing rankings.
· Decolonization is not an event
· Decolonisation is about engaging epistemic
disobedience
· Curriculum is a site of contestation
The 3 key aspects were
content, structure and process. Content relates to what we do, not just
knowledge but values and skills. Syllabi that are designed for apartheid are still
in use today. Structure requires us to question
why degrees are structured the way they are and process requires us to
question what we inherited. Does it make sense for us here and now? Content and
context are related. Contexts vary. There is the ADDING ON APPROACH or CONTRA
PUNCTUAL analysis. Knowledge is not a fait accompli but a contested and
contextual arena.
Decoloniality is not
equal to Africanisation (Fanon). We need to take back our knowledges. There is ‘power
to’ and VS’ power over’.
What are the epistemologies
and ontologies that inform our curriculum?
Carina referred us to
the theory of posthumanism and to a book
on Inter-species collaboration and ecologies. She concluded by saying “Stay
with the trouble: the ongoing, the troubling, stay with it”.
Bongani Mashaba
Decolonization is not
a final product. It’s not personal. It’s about recognition.S tudents want
recognition. We give the impression that beyond western knowledge there is
nothing. Yet before 1652 South Africa had a powerful education past and
present.
How do we teach the
knowledges in our context?
Do we recognize our
students’ backgrounds?
How do we bridge our
context with the world?
We don’t have to
change the curriculum, but we can put it in our own contexts. Interrogate your
practice. Does it speak to the students we have?
Vanessa Merkel
Politeness can go into
falseness.
These dialogues are
painful but we must go on. We have to be argumentative.
Epistemic promiscuity:
There is something to be learnt from everyone. Keep looking. Keep asking. It’s
messy.
Decolonization is a
“becoming”. It’s a journey we have embarked on. There is no roadmap.
We problematise the
knowledge of the west but at the same time we should not romanticise Africa.
What about patriarchy and heteronormativity?
WHAT’S LACKING
We have an obsession
with the ‘cognitive’. What about the discursive, our bodies, our relationships,
our hearts? All of these facilitate learning.
Violence and
disruption can change things. Look at the nexus between LOVE and REVOLUTION
Assessment is
profoundly about decolonization. How we assess is a site of the decolonization
debate
Thea De Wet
She was tasked with
her unit by the VC to develop a suite of short courses for students that are non-credit
bearing, on line and free. Examples are:
Cyber Citizenship
Critical brief history
of Southern Africa
African
Socio-Political thought in the past 150 years
The Universe, Near us
and Far Away; An African view
Where do I come from?
Indigenous Poetry
African Choral Music
Mapungubwe
Sophiatown
Nyasha Mboti
The Science and
Economics that we offer perpetuate colonial knowledge systems. We make it seem
that there is no other way of looking at the issues. “Who is ‘Joe Omnibus’?”
aka the reasonable man. Who is he based on? Is he white, male, middle aged? He
gave examples from Engineering for example the design of a turnstile which is
designed with a person of a particular height or shape in mind, the same with the budgeting we teach: how
does this compare with the experiences of students regarding the use of money
or saving?
We work in paradigms
that hide their inherent privilege and racism.
GENERAL DISCUSSION and FEEDBACK FROM ATTENDEES
Group 1
It is important to be
familiar with the students’ contexts. Students must bring their knowledges
especially the previously marginalised. We have to make Africa matter. Showcase
Africa as the place to learn from.
Group 2
We are here in Africa
and in universities. We assume that lecturers are teachers. But they are not.
They are content specialists. There is nothing wrong with the content of the
curriculum. It’s our attitude that must change.
Group 3
Framework for different
streams of thinking:
· Knowledge is never free
· Relevant examples must be included
· Do the lecturers have experience of the
contextualized knowledges of their students if they come from different
backgrounds?
How
do we go beyond the book when we don’t have the experience?
Should
students dictate the content?
Student
engagement – where must their voices be heard?
Science
has limits away from popular epistemologies.
Contextual
knowledge is a low level skill. What about abstract knowledges?
Group 4.
Whatever knowledge one
has is context-based. Theory informs practice informs theory.
Knowledge is not only
specialized. What about anecdotal evidence?
Group 5
Contextualising in the
class is a challenge as the classes are so diverse.
Our engagements are
not reflected in our assessments.
Cultural sensitivity
is important.
Group 6
Represent contexts.
Scientific terms vs
the vernacular language is an issue.
Humanities vs Hard
Science is another issue,
Group 7
We agree about
cultural sensitivity.
Scientific terminology
and hiding behind these principles is cosmetic.
“Othering”
Decolonization seems
revolutionary.
Which sensitivities and sensibilities must be
molly-coddled and which must be broken down violently?
When you take students
on the knowledge journey a transfer takes place. Students experience it and
then make it their own.
Decoloniality is not polite,
it’s uncomfortable. It’s rage. It’s emotions. It’s discomfort.
WRAP-UP
by Cheryl Hendricks
“Whoever is in the room are
the right people to be here”
We are undertaking
this to learn and share and develop
We hope that these
discussions will be a triggerpoint for you to move ahead.
ENGAGE ACT TRANSFORM
Razia Mayet
