Humanising higher education through a culturally responsive curriculum

During the student protests in South Africa, students indicated that they were still taught irrelevant knowledge after 25 years of independence. The decolonisation of the curriculum was one of the demands of the Fees-Must-Fall protests. The purpose of this chapter is to join the debate by determining the way in which the higher education curriculum can be humanised by making it culturally responsive. This was a qualitative study and the sample included six academics selected from the programme of the London International Conference on Education (LICE‐2018) and World Congress on Special Needs Education held from 10 to 13 December 2018 at Cambridge, UK. Presenters whose papers were related to the contextualisation of the curriculum were targeted. An e-mail requesting a 60-minute interview was sent to ten of them. Only five agreed to participate. The participants cited initiatives by Tanzanians (Ujamaa) and Zimbabweans (unhu) to promote culturally responsive education. This study makes recommendations that include education that encourages self-reliance

Teaching and learning sensitive and controversial topics in history through and with decolonial love

The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) school history curriculum of post-apartheid South Africa is littered with sensitive and controversial topics. Many history teachers and their learners do not know how to confront these topics, especially in multiracial, multicultural, and diverse classrooms. Therefore, this paper explores how the idea of decolonial love (Sandoval, 2000; Maldonado-Torres, 2006) could inform alternative creative pedagogies or contribute to existing pedagogical frameworks that history teachers and their learners employ when engaging sensitive and controversial topics. In this paper I argue that decolonial love has the potential to enable both history teachers and their learners to engage with sensitive and controversial topics in history in ways that promote empathy, cognitive, social and epistemic justice, inclusivity, critical thinking, respect, love, and tolerance for others as envisioned in the CAPS document. This would, in turn, promote the transgression of knowledge boundaries for knowledge co-construction (Keating, 2013) and thus, enable a way of doing history that promotes pluriversal (situated) knowledges (Santos, 2014). Lastly, I argue that decolonial love can provide a useful pedagogical framework for teaching sensitive and controversial topics since it ties together different approaches to teach such topics

Ageism and gatekeeping: My experiences as an early career academic at a historically black university in South Africa

In 2019, senior black academics wrote about their experiences as members of faculty at historically white universities (see Khunou, et al., 2019). These experiences were reflective of the authors’ encounters with the legacies of colonialism, apartheid, and neoliberal capitalism. However, often experiences of academics from historically black universities (HBUs), especially early career academics (ECA), are marginalised and excluded. Using intersectionality and Nat Nakasa’s ‘native of nowhere’ as theoretical lenses and an autoethnographic reflexivity approach as the methodological approach, I narrate my encounters with ageism and gatekeeping at a HBU as a New Generation of Academics Programme academic. I argue that the intersectionality between ageism and gatekeeping made me feel like a native of nowhere. I equally conclude that moving forward there is a need to foster a sense of belonging among ECAs through enacting decolonial love. This requires that senior (black) academics not to perpetuate similar violent experiences they endured. This way, ECAs can become natives of somewhere within the university

The high road traffic accidents rate on the Moloto Road

Research report submitted to Wits School of Governance in 25% fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Public and Development, 2016The research investigated the high rate of road traffic accidents and the high mortality rate on the Moloto road in the western region popularly known as the Nkangala region of Mpumalanga province. The purpose of the research was to explore suggestions from the stakeholders on how to reduce road traffic accidents on the Moloto road. The research also aimed at discussing the relationship between the road traffic accidents and the road congestion. The research attempted to find the interventions suggested by stakeholders on how to reduce road traffic accidents on the Moloto road. The unprecedented number of road accidents on the Moloto road is a serious concern for both government and road users. In 2012 alone, 890 traffic accidents were recorded on the Moloto road. This research found that the majority of these accidents were caused by human behaviour such as reckless driving, over speeding, drinking and driving. The relative invisibility of traffic officials on the Moloto Road partly explains why road users engage in such behaviours. Increased visibility of traffic officials may encourage change in road user behaviour and help reduce the number of road traffic accidents on the Moloto Road. Congestion as one of the major causes of road traffic accidents can be solved by widening the Moloto road. Congestion can also be dealt with through the development of the Moloto rail corridor which is seen as a tool to remove vehicles on the Moloto road. It is also realised that both the government and the road users can play an important role in the reduction of road traffic accidents on the Moloto road. The government must develop infrastructure and the road users must obey the rules of the road. The sampling method for this qualitative case study was purposive sampling. The selection of respondents was done within stakeholders of the Moloto Road. Collection of data was done on the individuals representing their organisations. Data was analysed according to the accepted procedures for qualitative data processing.XL201

Strategies to realise the decoloniality of the Comparative and International Education curriculum in South African higher education

This article sought to investigate the implementation of strategies to realise the decoloniality of the Comparative and International Education (CIE) curriculum in South African higher education. This is a qualitative study in which the participants were selected from CIE senior lecturers and students who are registered for the CIE module. Data was collected from four senior lecturers and nine students who were identified using multi-stage sampling. Data pertaining to the experiences of these academics and students were collected by semi-structured interviews. The study revealed numerous decolonial challenges, including people valuing the Western system more than their own system and a reluctance to move out of their comfort zone. Valuable information was received from the participants suggesting strategies to realise the decoloniality of the CIE curriculum in South African higher education. Based on the suggestions made by participants, this study recommends ways in which to implement strategies of the decoloniality of the CIE curriculum

A Novel Synthesis of Cyclic and Acyclic 3-Alkenoic Acids via Ionization/Elimination of β-Lactones

Exposure of spiro β-lactones and 3-substituted 4,4-dialkyl oxetan-2-ones to magnesium bromide in diethyl ether solvent resulted in the smooth generation of β,γ-unsaturated acid derivatives in high yield and isomeric purity. It is believed that this reaction occurs via the formation of a stable tertiary carbocation at the β-carbon resulting from cleavage of the carbon-oxygen sigma bond due to the complexation of magnesium cation with the ring oxygen atom. Rapid loss of an adjacent proton then furnishes the unsaturated acids. The β-lactone precursors were prepared by the dehydration of β-hydroxy acid derivatives (obtained from the condensation of ketones with acetic acid dianions) employing benzenesulfonyl chloride in pyridine solvent. Since this synthetic method offers ready access to a wide range of β,γ-unsaturated acids which were previously difficult to obtain, a detailed synthetic methodology and suggestions pertaining to the reaction mechanism are of prime interest and are discussed in detail

An investigation into the effects of gender-based violence in primary schools of Warmbaths circuit, Waterberg region

Thesis (Master: Education leadership and Management)--Central University of TechnologySchools should provide a warm, loving and supportive environment where children can learn and become responsible citizens in the future. Instead, incidents of violence and murder caused by school-related gender-based violence have turned some South African schools into scenes of death and destruction. Major educational challenges caused by gender-based violence in schools are now affecting the majority of students in the country, putting their safety at risk. The aim of this study was to examine how gender-based violence affects primary school learners and how it severely limits their rights and participation in the educational environment. The questionnaire and interview were completed by a sample of six primary school learners (3 male learners and 3 female learners) and nine primary school educators (3 male and 6 female educators) in Warmbaths area. According to the study, gender-based violence is an issue in these regions. Findings also involve the magnitude of learner‘s experiences of SRGBV, the effects of SRGBV behaviour on learners, a general understanding of the consequences of SRGBV, male educators as perpetrators of SRGBV and the overall performance of school duties in the school environment. Effective measures for preventing the spread of the scourge have been identified. Suggestions and recommendations of the study involve improved parental involvement and policy evaluation to maintain positive engagement. Results showed that male learners were more likely to engage in violent behaviour than female learners and that female learners were more likely to experience gender-based violence at school. The plague can be stopped from spreading if effective steps are taken. The focus of the study was on how gender-based violence in schools affected student learning and educator effectiveness. To foster open dialogue and learn more about how school-related violence affects relationships between learners, educators, and their environment, data were acquired using semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. When discussing violence issues at their individual schools, participants' identities were protected and made comfortable by the use of pseudonyms. The studies additionally encouraged collaboration among all parties, such as the Ministry of Education, to deal with the difficulty of gender-primarily based totally violence in schools

The Continued Absence of the LGBTIQA Community in School History Textbooks in Post-Apartheid South Africa

School history textbooks in South Africa are essential teaching and learning materials for most history teachers and learners, because they are often the only materials used to engage with the past. These textbooks are also considered to contribute to the construction of an ideal citizenry, as well as fostering national identity, unity, and reconciliation (Bertram and Wassermann 2015; Bam, Ntsebeza and Zinn 2018). However, our concern is that while textbooks appear to be used to construct an ideal citizenry who is supposed to have reconciled and united into one national identity, there also appears to be a concerted effort to exclude, within both the written and visual texts of the textbooks, those South Africans who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer/Questioning, Asexual, and many other identities (LGBTIQA+). Through abyssal and post-abyssal epistemology as our theoretical frameworks, and critical discourse analysis as our tool of analysis we were able to investigate how four history textbooks across four grades within the Senior and Further Education and Training phase that we purposively and conveniently sampled continue to exclude LGBTIQA+ contributions and experiences within the knowledge base of the school history curriculum, despite the pivotal role some played during the struggle against apartheid. We have since concluded that the erasure of the LGBTIQA+ community amounts to another dehumanising act against this group of people that is epistemic, existential, and ontological in nature. We also argue that this act denies all history teachers and learners, irrespective of their sexual orientations, the opportunity to engage with diverse historical contributions and experiences of all South Africans

Attempts to (re)capture the school history curriculum? Reflections on the history ministerial task team’s report

The History Ministerial Task Team Report (HMTT) on the proposed compulsory school history in South Africa was made public in February 2018. Ever since, it has generated many debates and concerns among in- and pre-service history educators, History (of) Education scholars as well as the general public. Many of these concerns are premised on the fear that there is an attempt, at least by the state, through the work of the HMTT to (re)capture school history. This (re)capture, some argue, would deliver a school history that is both nationalist and patriotic in its approach, and glorifies only the African National Congress’s (ANC) role in history, much in the same way as the apartheid curriculum glorified the role of the National Party (NP), Afrikaner nationalism and white supremacy thinking. However, we are convinced that there might as well be a different reading of the HMTT and its Report; thus, a different form of (re)capture. In this paper, we will explore, theorise and reflect on the HMTT’s work and Report, as well as recent scholarly debates regarding the HMTT itself and its Report. This we do by employing the notion of (re)capture as our theoretical framework which is derived from the current ‘state capture’ discourse in South Africa. We then use this theoretical lens to review literature on the contested epistemic nature of school history, as well as to read and make sense of the HMTT and its Report. We conclude that those who argue that there are indeed attempts to (re)capture the school history for narrow nationalistic aspirations which are nativist in nature, provide us with a different reading of the HMTT and its report. We contend that the form of (re)capture advanced by the HMTT, and its Report is for a greater cause related to current calls for decolonisation and Africanisation of school history in post-apartheid South Africa — where the colonised ways of knowing and being can also take centre stage in the historical literature and where cognitive, epistemic, existential, and ontological justice is realised