Working toward a socially just curriculum in South Africa: a collaborative autobiographical narrative inquiry

In this article we foreground the lived experiences of a group of post-graduate education students at the University of the Free State as they explore issues of social justice in the curriculum. Our contextual and local experiences are situated within a call for decolonisation of the curriculum. Within this context we view curriculum as an autobiographical, lived and storied practice (Pinar 2012). Through our creative collaborative narrative, we focus on teacher identity and experience as this has been shown to have a major impact on the curriculum (Clandinin & Connelly 2000). We believe that, “[s]ocial justice practices at their best should also awaken our senses and the ability to imagine alternatives that can sustain the collective work necessary to challenge entrenched patterns and institutions and build a different world” (Bell & Desai 2011, p.287). Therefore, we use Kumashiro’s (2002) conceptualisation of anti-oppressive education to highlight the messiness and discomfort of our experiences as we re-learn and unlearn and trouble oppressive knowledge in order to imagine alternatives. As such, our article contributes to an existing body of work that use collaborative and narrative methods to research issues of social justice. However, as much of the international literature on social justice education and curriculum is written in contexts far removed from our everyday experiences we wish to make a unique contribution that is rooted in our local context and highlight the unique experiences of South African teachers in relation to issues of social justice in the curriculum

An in-depth investigation into the safety of Nyanga's public spaces from a gender-sensitive perspective.

Historically - and currently - women in the global South have generally been viewed as subordinate to men. This is often centred around social perceptions of the different genders and is especially apparent in modern-day leadership, policymaking and managerial roles, where roles are often set aside for men. In the Cape Town township of Nyanga, three public spaces have been identified as crime hotspots. Women who live in the area do not feel safe in these spaces and are often the victims of crime. Thus, there is a need for an in-depth, gender-sensitive investigation into the safety of Nyanga's public spaces. This study seeks to do this and to explore how and why Nyanga's public spaces are failing to deliver gender-sensitive safety outcomes. Methodologically, the aim and main research question of the study is geared towards answering “how” and “why” questions, which necessitate a qualitative (case study and ethnographic research) approach. The tools that are used to collect such data are interviews, observations and mapping as well as Instagram question polls. The results of this study show that in order to provide safe gendersensitive outcomes, appropriate spatial interventions and safety tools need to be implemented for public spaces in Nyanga. Going forward, knowledge from this research recommends planning interventions and design resolutions that encourage South African planners and other built environment practitioners to incorporate gender-sensitive inventions in their thinking and practices. Above all else, this knowledge is geared towards empowering women by not confining them to the indoor realm of the household, but empowering them to reclaim their rights to public spaces