In South Africa there’s a value judgment attached to students who take part in universities’ English for Academic Purposes programmes. This shouldn’t be the case.
A traditional rainmaker in Kenya. How can indigenous knowledge become part of university curricula?
Department For International Development/International Development Research Centre/Thomas Omondi/Flickr
Decolonisation of the curriculum doesn’t have to mean the destruction of Western knowledge, but it’s decentring. Such knowledge should become one way of knowing rather than the only way.
Its critics complain that current Afrodiasporic literature is not in tune with everyday life on the continent. They see its versions of Africa as sanitised and Westernised.
Students cheer as a statue of Cecil John Rhodes is removed from the University of Cape Town in April 2015.
REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
There is a risk that because of fatigue, frustration and silencing the important moment created by South Africa’s student movements will pass by with no proper, long-term structural change.
Transforming the curriculum isn’t as simple as replacing some books with others.
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Calls for the decolonisation of countries, institutions, the mind and of knowledge are not new. In South Africa, these changes are crucial and long overdue. But they must be carefully thought through.
Now Australia has a national curriculum, what does that mean for our kids?
AAP/Dan Peled
Last week the states agreed to the implementation of changes to the national school curriculum brought about by the National Curriculum Review undertaken last year.
Christopher Pyne’s policies in the education portfolio were underpinned by liberal values of the free market, autonomy and education as a private commodity.
Taking the curriculum “back to basics” will disadvantage kids who perhaps don’t have access to cultural and other knowledge at home.
AAP/Tim Dornin
We run a significant risk that the divide between the haves and have-nots will widen even further through the “back to basics” curriculum approach advocated by Education Minister Pyne.
A separate curriculum for students with disability would be discriminatory and go against the research.
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The review of the Australian curriculum raises major concerns about access to a quality curriculum for students with disability. Under the guise of creating greater inclusivity, the review recommends a…
The reviewers say the Australian Curriculum doesn’t have enough emphasis on our Judeo-Christian heritage and Western influence. What do the experts say?
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The much awaited review of the National Curriculum has finally been released with the reviewers calling for more of a focus on Western literature, and recognition of Australia’s “Judeo-Christian” heritage…