Accommodating Perceptions, Searching for Authenticity and Decolonising Methodology: The Case of the Australia / Papua New Guinea Secondary School Student's project

This paper discusses the development process of a research methodology for accommodating the exploration of recipients’ perceptions of a foreign educational project. The search for authenticity in methodology remains an issue for qualitative inquiry which has its origins in a constructive epistemology. Theoretically positioned within a postcolonial framework, the search for authenticity in methodology presented a challenge for the researcher. Specifically, this paper will focus on the research problem, issues relating to evaluation of aid programs, decolonising methodology and the search for authenticity. The paper concludes with some findings of the research project, demonstrating that decolonising methodologies create new possibilities in educational research with specific reference to educational assistance and postcolonial societies. It reveals the complexities of cultural politics and its influences on foreign financial assistance. These findings include the concepts of cultural identity, ethnicity, hegemony and ambivalence which characterises the nature of Papua New Guinea education and society

Avatars of Eurocentrism in the critique of the liberal peace

Recent scholarly critiques of the so-called liberal peace raise important political and ethical challenges to practices of postwar intervention in the global South. However, their conceptual and analytic approaches have tended to reproduce rather than challenge the intellectual Eurocentrism underpinning the liberal peace. Eurocentric features of the critiques include the methodological bypassing of target subjects in research, the analytic bypassing of subjects through frameworks of governmentality, the assumed ontological split between the ‘liberal’ and the ‘local’, and a nostalgia for the liberal subject and the liberal social contract as alternative bases for politics. These collectively produce a ‘paradox of liberalism’ that sees the liberal peace as oppressive but also the only true source of emancipation. However, the article suggests that a repoliticization of colonial difference offers an alternative ‘decolonizing’ approach to critical analysis through repositioning the analytic gaze. Three alternative research strategies for critical analysis are briefly developed

Mapping Indigenous Futures: Decolonising Techno-Colonising Designs

This paper provides a critical interrogation of the consequences of modernity and coloniality, particularly in an Aboriginal Australian context, with focus on the accelerating speed of socio-communicative technological change. I argue from a perspective of being Australian with both Aboriginal and European heritage, with a designing politics for human ‘sustainment’ (Fry, 2009). Five provocations are provided that illustrate ways in which the seductive and repressive nature of modernity/coloniality enables socio-communicative technologies to increasingly eliminate groups’ capacities to imagine decolonising being-human. I summarise ways in which I apply learnings surrounding decolonising design modes of listening and comprehending that can contribute to help groups think, talk and map their situatedness among this phenomenon and mobilise decolonising options for their own worlds.Keywords: decolonising design, ontological design, respectful design, Indigenous design futures, Indigenous knowledge, sustainment, techno-colonialism

Decolonizing the law curricula at Universities of Technology: The student’s perspective on content

Universities of technologies (UoT’s) unlike most traditional universities in South Africa do not have law faculties and therefore only certain law modules such as commercial law, corporate law and other business law courses are offered to students. This article seeks to examine the extent to which Africanist epistemologies and perspectives should be included in the content of the business law curricula in UoT’s. The article applies the mixed methods research approach. Questionnaires with both closed and open-ended questions are administered to second year business law students of the Durban University of Technology (DUT). A semi-structured interview is conducted with third year business law students to ascertain their perceptions of the first year business law curricula and the content they would like to see included in the curricula. The results indicates that African students desire the inclusion of their lived experiences and epistemologies in the business law curricula. Students desire the inclusion of the indigenous jurisprudence of Ubuntu, traditional dispute settlement mechanisms, and other indigenous traditional contractual practices in the business law curricula. The findings will assist higher education managers and university curricula developers in developing an inclusive curricula that will meet the demands of African students

Authority and Esteem Effects of Enhancing Remote Indigenous Teacher-Assistants' Mathematics-Education Knowledge and Skills

The interaction between Australia's Eurocentric education and the complex culture of remote Indigenous communities often results in Indigenous disempowerment and educational underperformance. This paper reports on a mathematics-education research project in a remote community to support Indigenous teacher assistants (ITAs) in mathematics and mathematics tutoring in an attempt to reverse Indigenous mathematics underperformance. It discusses teachers' and ITAs' power and authority within school and community, describes the project's design, and summarises the project's results in terms of affects and knowledge. It draws implications on the relation between ITA professional development (PD), affect, esteem, knowledge, authority, teacher-ITA partnerships, and enhanced Indigenous mathematics outcomes

Decolonising the curriculum to reinvigorate equity in higher education: A linguistic transformation

This article outlines the severity of historical injustices in the South African Higher Education system and introduces the key concepts that underpin the argument. Reporting on a series of interviews will be provided to demonstrate how these injustices continue to be perpetuated. “The subject of dissension” regarding “decolonisation” insinuates that the universities implicated in the study are colonial; “they are an integral part” of an empire that has a role in preserving fixed values for the wellbeing of an elite. This elite has the racial connotation of being white. Whiteness is an avenue for preserving their opulence and echelon within an ideological, theocratic capitalist modus operandi. This wrangle is disingenuous and ahistorical. Despite the revised language policy that seeks to promote multilingualism and facilitate inclusivity, social cohesion and meaningful participation by all students through focusing on previously marginalised languages, the associated institutions’ curricula, reproduce the community’s wider inequalities. &nbsp

Decolonising continuing teacher professional development in the teaching of physical science through improvisation in rural areas

Calls for the decolonisation of higher education in the world and South Africa in particular, has gained momentum since the student protests in 2015 and 2016. This takes place after some efforts have been made to transform and democratise the higher education landscape. Efforts made include: National Commission on Higher Education, White Paper 3 1997, The Higher Education Act of 1997 and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Act of 1995 which led to the creation of National Qualification Framework (NQF). The policies had promises on issues of access, equity, equality, inclusivity and social justice. After 20 years of democracy, students started to question the progress or lack thereof in the transformation of higher education in South Africa. They started to make demands for access, free education, decolonisation of the curriculum, changes in the pedagogy and epistemic practices. They also demanded the removal of certain statues on some of the campuses. The protests jolted some academics to start debating and writing about the decolonisation of higher education in South Africa. This was done by picking up different aspects that were made points of focus in terms of decolonisation. Consequently, some academics focused on the decolonisation of the curriculum, some on the higher education system whilst others focussed on teacher education. In this article, we intend to contribute to the debate by focusing on Continuing Teacher Professional Development (CTPD) that is an aspect within teacher education. The focus on CTPD was prompted by the fact that not much has been done on the decolonisation of CTPD in South Africa. Furthermore, this is a critical area, because unless teachers are empowered and reskilled to drive the decolonisation process, they may resist and ultimately render the whole process unworkable. It is based on the study that was conducted, focusing on CTPD in the teaching of physical sciences in some of the rural schools in Limpopo Province. The choice of physical sciences was because physical sciences is a gateway subject and most physics sciences teachers in Limpopo Province are based in rural areas. Generally, these schools do not have the appropriate facilities and equipment to teach physical science. Physical sciences teachers also face many challenges such as negative perception about the subject, lack of resources, limited room for professional development, poor teacher training, and inadequate support from within the school and the Provincial Department of Education.This study focussed on creativity and teacher empowerment by enabling physical sciences teachers to reflect on their implementation of science inquiry. Physical sciences teachers were empowered to be creative in handling scientific inquiry especially in the absence of the necessary scientific equipment. The study was conduct at a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Limpopo Province where teachers, from rural schools, are specifically invited to the university for the National Science Week, which included a component of ongoing Continuing Teacher Profession Development (CPTD). During the National Science Week physical sciences teachers attend an in-service workshop on Improvisation in Science. Ninety (90) physical sciences teachers participated in this study. Data were generated by using a questionnaire and unstructured interviews. The findings of the study revealed that the success of CTPD is not so much in spending more funds in CTPD programmes, but it is in the approach that is used to prepare teachers to respond appropriately to the needs and the demands of the classroom environment. The article argues that the decolonisation process should prioritise the CTPD programmes at universities. This is due to the fact that teachers as agents of change need to be empowered and reskilled, so that they can be in the forefront of the decolonisation process. This can be achieved by adopting a transformative approach that encourages improvisation in science teaching. This approach to CPTD demands that teachers’ professional development should shift from the traditional approach to an approach that empowers teachers to be able to make a meaningful contribution to the classes that they teach

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

Decolonising the mind: Mathematics teachers exploring possibilities for indigenising the school curriculum

More than twenty years after the ushering in of a democratic order, South African universities remain complicit in driving colonial ideals through curricula (de Beer & Petersen, 2016; Fataar, 2018). These curricula position Western people as superior individuals who seek to help disadvantaged non-Westerners, the latter who are weak, helpless and dependent, and cannot survive without aid from Western philanthropists. In this paper, the call to re-orientate curricula away from knowledge systems which have been used to devalue indigenous African people by making them the “Other” in the country of their birth, is heeded. This is done by creating an opportunity for practicing teachers (who were part of a postgraduate module and included teachers of different races) to reconceptualise the current school curriculum, by placing African learners and their contexts at the centre of teaching. In this qualitative study, 20 practicing teachers were purposively selected to draw on their own visions and talents and those of their multi-racial learners within their contexts, to develop possibilities for indigenising the teaching and learning of mathematics. This was aimed at decolonising the mind by transforming teachers’ understanding of themselves and encouraging them to tap into their critical thinking and analytical skills when examining the current school curricula. To accomplish this, teachers studied the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) in mathematics, and developed units of work aimed at valuing indigenous knowledge. Data was drawn from teachers’ portfolios of evidence, which included photo-narratives and reflections on the unit of work. Thematic analysis was used and the findings revealed that teachers and their learners tapped into resources within and outside the school, and engaged in work that was responsive to their own needs. However, the exercise demonstrated that these teachers found it difficult to emerge from the comfort of the factual mathematics they taught to include indigenous links from contexts around them. They attempted to produce contrived associations with the knowledge from the Curriculum Assessments Policy Statements

Lecturer conceptions of and approaches to decolonisation of curricula

This report forms part of a larger project that investigated lecturer and student conceptions of decolonisation and decolonisation of curricula at subject level in a South African higher education institution. The study adopted an interpretive paradigm and an on-line questionnaire was administered to all the lecturers in a Faculty of Education in the Western Cape. A de-colonial perspective was used as a lens to interpret the data. In general, participants viewed decolonisation as a worthwhile project that can contribute to the development of a socially-just post-colonial and post-apartheid society. Consistent with the fact that knowledge is created differently in different subjects, the findings revealed varied conceptions of and approaches to the decolonisation of curricula among academics. The study concludes that decolonisation is a complex and multi-layered concept. However. if there are shared understandings of what decolonisation of curricula entails in the different disciplines, and consultative, participatory multi-disciplinary/trans-disciplinary approaches to decolonisation are adopted, significant progress will be made in achieving the goal of decolonising university curricula