Using vulnerability as a decolonial catalyst to re-cast the teacher as human(e)

ABSTRACT

This study engages with various challenges in contemporary higher education in South Africa. Firmly rooted in contextual challenges, this paper draws on a pedagogy of vulnerability to propose that engaging critically with vulnerability enables a decolonial disposition to epistemology and ontology. The study explores how a community of PGDip students and teacher embraced shifts by being authentic, inclusive, open and honest in their pedagogical interactions, to re-cast themselves as teachers who are human(e). Using a reflective narrative methodology to interpret their experiences, the authors assert that academics are unlikely to meet the challenges before them if they have not experienced some of the vulnerability their students experience. The aim is to also show links with how students perceive us, given their own vulnerabilities. We assert that vulnerability can be used as a productive tool and decolonial catalyst to invigorate teaching and learning engagements in local and global university contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Vulnerability
• decoloniality
• social inclusion
• humanity
• disruption

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof. Chrissie Boughey for her critical reading of the draft paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Research Foundation: [grant number 90943].