Decolonising Higher Education: The Academic’s Turn

ABSTRACT

This article explores South African academics’ responses to the call for decolonisation of education through a qualitative case study using social constructivism and narrative inquiry. The data included a mix of qualitative survey responses and semi-structured interviews, analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings were threefold; first, academics should “turn away” from the “lip service model” of decolonisation of education and “turn towards” deep and lasting change. Second, academics should “turn away” from challenges and “turn towards” opportunities offered by decolonisation of education. Third, academics should “turn towards” becoming transformative intellectuals and agents of change if they want to “turn the tide.” Knowledge in the blood may not be “easily changed,” but the disruption of the authority of received knowledge is possible through the transfusion of new knowledge. The findings suggest that universities should develop professional development courses that are focussed on how to effectively decolonise education.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A version of this literature review first appeared in Vandeyar (2020).

2. During the apartheid era, the term “Blacks” referred to Indian, African, and Coloured people of South Africa. The terms “Coloured,” “White,” “Indian,” and “African” derive from apartheid racial classifications of the different peoples of South Africa. The use of these terms, although problematic, has continued through the post-apartheid era in the country.

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Notes on contributors

Saloshna Vandeyar

Saloshna Vandeyar is a Full Professor and the Director of the Centre for Diversity and Social Cohesion at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The focus of her research is on social, cultural, and cognitive justice education with a particular focus on race (in)equalities and the ways in which all other kinds of inequalities are produced and reproduced in educational spaces by educational processes, practices, and discourses. She is an NRF rated scientist and the recipient of numerous international, national, and institutional research awards.