Decolonising the curriculum pdf – (PDF) Decolonising the curriculum

Let’s set out with the definition of decolonizing education. group action is “the dismantling of colonial systems that were established throughout the amount of your time once a nation maintains dominion over dependent territories.” i do know you’re thinking… wait what? Territories? Dominions? What will that got to do with our education system? Well, the key takeaway is the activity of colonial systems. Our education system wasn’t integrated till the Seventies. however will a system that separated folks of color and White people, that was created and maintained by White people, be associate inclusive system that prioritizes the success of ALL? It cannot.

Decolonizing education means rebuilding a school system that supports all students, staff, and teachers. A system that puts forth the needs of all students and is responsive to the particular needs of each and every child. Currently, students of color and low-income students are at a disadvantage in our education system. This is due to decades of neglect from the highest points of our education system. We need to provide space for more representation in all aspects of the system. Whether that be in government advocating for progressive Equity based policy, to teachers of color in the classroom who look and represent the ever growing diverse populations in our school buildings.

Students and academics of color are assets to our education system and that we need to begin supporting them. for much too long academics and children of color are pushed out of the narrative and seen as outsiders within the classroom and the voice communication, rather than assets to education as a whole! once students of color and low-income students succeed, ALL students succeed. Education becomes stronger once students succeed, and teachers have the support of every different and therefore the overall system behind them. it’s nearly impossible for anyone to learn and grow during a positive method in a very nerve-wracking, analytic surroundings. Education is meant to be for everybody, why build it tougher for a few to receive it over others because of quality.

Building AN equitable system can open up a more robust surroundings to draw in and retain academics of color the work force, therefore, we’ll have a lot of diversity in school rooms that truly represent the scholars they serve. academics of color square measure assets and might bring a novel perspective and knowledge to education. they’ll give the information to talk on the history and current culture inside education. All students not simply students of color profit by having academics of color the room. it’s additionally vital to be educated and familiar in different cultures outside of your own. this permits for everybody to possess a more robust understanding of every other’s backgrounds, views and ways that of life

Decolonising the mind

Speaking on how to go about ensuring that decolonising education in Africa is a successful process that can be sustained, Motsa says the first step is to decolonise the mind. “Cognitive change is the key to all and any other form of change that can be effected,” she says. “You should accept that as an individual you are immersed in a mono-narrative of western knowledge and culture and must admit that there are other equally viable narratives which are currently not part of your experience. This change of one’s psychological position would enable the individual to seek (via discourse and research) and implement the other knowledges and systems in their sphere of trade. The greatest tool is the mind. Its liberated state enables the thinker to fashion methods of implementation within his/her own context and professional domain.”

Phaswana indicates that decolonisation is a process and never a once-off event and that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. “However,” she says, “most approaches share a common understanding that education in its current form is problematic as it is biased and promotes European/western values, ways of knowing and being known at the expense of others.”

Possible solutions

Sharing a few ideas on how Africa can go about decolonising education and the curriculum, Phaswana says there needs to be a centring of all cultures and values systems in African education and a decentring of colonial languages in the curriculum. In addition, schools, colleges and universities should cultivate respect for people and their cultural and knowledge systems and respect the coexistence of cultural diversity in curriculum development. Local knowledges that advance humanity must be made available to students, and spaces for inter-epistemic dialogue in university curricular to solve world and local problems must be created. Finally, the content of education and its knowledge foundations must be deracialised and depatriachised.

Phaswana adds: “Decolonisation of education entails the normalisation of Africanness within the curriculum. This will then translate into staffing reorganisation and demographic engineering, and offering a curriculum that offers the strategic challenges we face currently. When we do all these, we must be aware that decolonisation does not necessarily entail that the black professor is best suited to do it as the majority of us have participated in colonial education whose fulcrum was to produce colonised subjects by masking Eurocentric biases in education as universal. Therefore, both the black and white professor must opt to unlearn and relearn new ways of educating future generations. This will require that we work as allies in transnational platforms of solidarity. It will require that we do continuous reflection and interrogation of the colonial legacy in how we educate our young in the Global South.”

An ever-evolving process

Both professors agreed that processes such as decoloniality do not have a start and end, as they are social evolutional entities. “This is a movement that can be found in South America, the USA, Australia, India and the United Kingdom itself where the ills of colonialism are brought to the fore for due correction as human society is seeking global justice for the sins committed against humanity,” says Motsa.

She adds that as Africa continues on its decolonisation of education path, and that the best examples of uprooting the colonial agenda can be found in Africa herself. “From the ongoing acts of activism, to research and social discourse from esteemed scholars such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Kwesi Prah andAchille Mbembe, among many others, Africa is rich in decolonial resources, activism and history which can ensure a successful decolonisation of education project,” she concludes.