Un/learning Habituation of Body-Mind Binary through the Teaching/Learning Body/Mind

A complex critique of how society constructs women of color in the academy combines with deeply personal interludes and a polyphony of scholarly voices to demonstrate ways that their objectified bodies can not only resist but also improvise as they question what it means to be different

El Colonialismo Pérfido en la Educación Post-apartheid: Interacción de Narrativas de Profesores Negros, la Política Educativa y el Análisis de los Libros de Texto

This article focuses on the larger project of identifying oppressive structures (during apartheid more specifically in this instance) and how educational policy/textbooks (post-apartheid) produce transformative knowledge for decolonization. It presents Black South African teacher perceptions and desires of what/how educational policy, history textbooks can intervene in apartheid indoctrination and what role these have in addressing the nation’s meta-narrative of equity and social justice. I take up these teacher narratives as a way to further critique textbooks currently used and examine the written and visual content against post-apartheid decolonizing intentions. Teacher narratives and textbook analysis indicate that even prescriptive post-apartheid textbooks struggle to reimagine history wrought through with colonialism. Decolonizing analysis of visual images in the textbooks show how curriculum policy/practice in South Africa is a collision of anti-apartheid desires and post-apartheid reality. By examining grassroots linkages I attempt to expand the current dialogue on educational policy and textbook studies and to contextualize the field, both historically and contemporarily.Este artículo se centra en el proyecto de identificar las estructuras opresivas (durante el apartheid) y cómo la política educativa y los libros de texto (post-apartheid) producen un “conocimiento transformador” para la descolonización. Se presentan las percepciones y los deseos de docentes Negros-Sudafricanos sobre como la política educativa y los libros de texto de historia pueden intervenir en el adoctrinamiento del apartheid, además del papel que tienen en el reconocimiento de la meta-narrativa de la nación sobre la equidad y justicia social. Las narrativas de los docentes se toman como una crítica más amplia de los libros actuales y se confiere el contenido escrito y visual en contra las intenciones de descolonización posteriores al apartheid. Las narrativas docentes junto con el análisis de libros de texto indican que incluso los libros de texto post-apartheid luchan para re-imaginar la historia hecha por el colonialismo. El análisis descolonizador de las imágenes visuales en los libros escolares muestran cómo la política y práctica curricular en Sudáfrica choca con los deseos contra el apartheid y la realidad del post-apartheid. Mediante el examen de los vínculos comunitarios “grassroots” se intenta ampliar el diálogo actual sobre la política educativa y los estudios de los libros escolares para contextualizar el campo, tanto histórico como contemporáneo

Insidious Colonialism in Post-Apartheid Education: Interplay of Black Teacher Narratives, Educational Policy and Textbook Analysis

This article focuses on the larger project of identifying oppressive structures (during apartheid more specifically in this instance) and how educational policy/textbooks (post-apartheid) produce transformative knowledge for decolonization. It presents Black South African teacher perceptions and desires of what/how educational policy, history textbooks can intervene in apartheid indoctrination and what role these have in addressing the nation’s meta-narrative of equity and social justice. I take up these teacher narratives as a way to further critique textbooks currently used and examine the written and visual content against post-apartheid decolonizing intentions. Teacher narratives and textbook analysis indicate that even prescriptive post-apartheid textbooks struggle to reimagine history wrought through with colonialism. Decolonizing analysis of visual images in the textbooks show how curriculum policy/practice in South Africa is a collision of anti-apartheid desires and post-apartheid reality. By examining grassroots linkages I attempt to expand the current dialogue on educational policy and textbook studies and to contextualize the field, both historically and contemporarily.Este artículo se centra en el proyecto de identificar las estructuras opresivas (durante el apartheid) y cómo la política educativa y los libros de texto (post-apartheid) producen un “conocimiento transformador” para la descolonización. Se presentan las percepciones y los deseos de docentes Negros-Sudafricanos sobre como la política educativa y los libros de texto de historia pueden intervenir en el adoctrinamiento del apartheid, además del papel que tienen en el reconocimiento de la meta-narrativa de la nación sobre la equidad y justicia social. Las narrativas de los docentes se toman como una crítica más amplia de los libros actuales y se confiere el contenido escrito y visual en contra las intenciones de descolonización posteriores al apartheid. Las narrativas docentes junto con el análisis de libros de texto indican que incluso los libros de texto post-apartheid luchan para re-imaginar la historia hecha por el colonialismo. El análisis descolonizador de las imágenes visuales en los libros escolares muestran cómo la política y práctica curricular en Sudáfrica choca con los deseos contra el apartheid y la realidad del post-apartheid. Mediante el examen de los vínculos comunitarios “grassroots” se intenta ampliar el diálogo actual sobre la política educativa y los estudios de los libros escolares para contextualizar el campo, tanto histórico como contemporáneo

The search for ecologies of knowledge in the encounter with African epistemicide in South African education

CITATION: Fataar, A. & Subreenduth, S. 2015. The search for ecologies of knowledge in the encounter with African epistemicide in South African education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(2):106–121, doi:10.20853/29-2-468.The original publication is available at http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajheThis article discusses the manufactured absence of African epistemologies, that we refer to as ‘epistemicide’, in formal education in Africa. The exemplifying case for our argument is the western hegemonic positioning of university and school-based knowledge in South African education during the past 20 years. This is taken up in the first half of the article where we illustrate how this (westernised) knowledge form is instantiated in the education body politik. The article concludes with a consideration of an ‘ecologies of knowledge’ approach which we argue opens a radicalising space for the inclusion of African-centred epistemologies. The pluralisation of knowledge traditions, via an ‘ecologies of knowledge’ approach, is the fulcrum of such an epistemological orientation. Keywords: post-colonialism, epistemicide, higher education, cognitive in/justice, ecologies of knowledge, knowledge pluralisation, epistemologyhttp://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajhe/article/view/468Publisher's versio

The search for ecologies of knowledge in the encounter with African epistemicide in South African education

This article discusses the manufactured absence of African epistemologies, what we refer to as ‘epistemicide, in formal education in Africa. The exemplifying case for our argument is the western hegemonic positioning of university and school-based knowledge in South African education during the last twenty years. This is taken up in the first half of the article where we illustrate how this (westernised) knowledge form is instantiated in the education body politik. The article concludes with a consideration of an ‘ecologies of knowledge’ approach which we argue opens a radicalising space for the inclusion of African-centred epistemologies. The pluralisation of knowledge traditions, via an ‘ecologies of knowledge’ approach, is the fulcrum of such an epistemological orientation