1,720,974 research outputs found
Teachers as Curriculum Leaders: Towards promoting Gender Equity as a Democracy Ideal
No full textCurriculum is a site of political, racial, gendered, and theological dispute. Teachers who acknowledge this and see the implications for democratic living embrace their teaching practice as curriculum leaders and participate in complicated conversations. With the focus on gender equity as a democratic ideal, this article explores the lived experiences of some South African female teachers. From the findings, it became evident that some teachers still experience their school contexts as pervaded with patriarchy and sexism, and often fear confronting these traditional discourses. Engaging with subject matter that is likely to cause conflict or confrontation is avoided by some teachers because they do not feel comfortable in such contexts. However, some teachers do emerge as activists for gender justice and create awareness of injustice. These teachers are curriculum leaders who advocate for social change. This article concludes by putting forward some suggestions for how teachers can promote social change through their teaching practices
Intersections of Gender, Religion and Culture in Adolesent girls' Narratives Curriculum Considerations for Religion Education (RE)
No full textMapping the curriculum-making landscape of religion education from a rights education perspective
No full textWith the advent of democracy in South Africa, religious education became a contested topic in the education sector. Contestation stemmed from the desire to embrace religious plurality rather than Christian National Education (CNE) that dominated the curriculum pre-1994. This contestation initiated the reconceptualisation of religion in curriculum-making. Together with other scholars, Roux, a scholar-activist, has played a seminal role in conceptualising religion in the curriculum as religion in education (RiE) and more recently, religion and education (RaE). In disrupting the boundaries of religion, she has also made human rights the departure point for engagement with RaE. The concomitant blurring of the boundaries between religion education (RE) and human rights education (HRE), has made it necessary to explore the complexities of the foundations of human rights. In response, this article uses Roux's work to extend the argument by exploring the possibilities of human rights literacy (HRLit) in curriculum-making for HRE. To conclude, this conception of HRLit is considered juxtaposed to Roux's most recent scholarship, which interrogates gender as a specific position within HRE. In engaging with this scholarship, this article takes a critical HRLit perspective so as to embrace Roux's work through an alternative theoretical lens
Discourse Shaping Human Rights Education Research in south Africa: Future considerations
No full textHuman rights education is critiqued for being traditionalist and conceptually imprisoned. This view stems from the distrust in its ability to transform deeply rooted injustices and inequalities etched within South Africa's society. There is therefore an outcry to reimagine human rights education. For this article it is important to understand how and why human rights education discourses in South Africa have come to be framed by some scholars in this way and to contemplate where the discourse might be heading in the future. We reviewed doctoral theses in the field of Education which claim to engage with and make contributions to human rights education research. We found that human rights education discourses have been (and are being) shaped in South Africa in terms of three distinct phases: inception, growth, and cynicism. It became evident from the findings that human rights education research is predominantly school-based and fundamentally descriptive and uncritical. To conclude, we reflect on these findings so as to put forward future considerations for human rights education research
Critical Transformation in Higher Education: Ethical Reflections on #Mustfall Movements and Concomitant Gender-Based Violence
No full textProtest movements such as the #MustFall currently dominate the South African higher education landscape. This article focuses on such protest movements, paying particular attention to protests against gender-based violations at some universities, commonly referred to as #RapeMustFall, as an exemplar of the gender injustices and inequities that persist. We argue that debates and policies about gender-based violations at universities cannot and should not be overshadowed by deficient grand narratives informed by patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism. To frame this argument, we critically review the current status quo from a gender mainstreaming policy-making perspective. We then argue the merits of an ethical perspective to transformation in higher education. Critical transformation in higher education requires not only epistemological change and access, but should be a fundamentally ethical pursuit
Understanding how we understand girls' voices on cultural and religious practices: toward a curriculum for justice
Full text linkIt is imperative to take account of the many faces of justice when exploring the elements of a curriculum for justice. Justice is not only about equity, equality and fairness, but about creating spaces where people can learn to prioritise a significant Other and practise doing so. The curriculum needs to provide a space where the legal, restorative face of justice and its ethical face could coincide. Firstly, we argue that a sole focus on justice as reasonableness might reinforce the notion of "separate but equal", and that through a leveling of difference, we might opaquely strengthen difference without an inclination to care deeply for those whose background might differ from ours. Secondly, we argue that the legal and ethical faces of justice are not mono-tonal, but that these faces constitute many complexions based on the body holding it (or the person who attempts to make sense of these faces). In this article we will attempt to understand how we make sense of girls' voices on cultural and religious practices. Weimaginethat understanding how we understand Others might place us in a better position to provide guidelines to develop curriculum spaces for profound justice; i.e. justice that is based on reasonableness and, more importantly, on care
Girls’ and boys’ reasoning on cultural and religious practices: a human rights education perspective
No full textHuman rights play a vital role in citizens' political, religious and cultural life (Wang 2002, 171). Due to the prominence of human rights in the everyday life of citizens, including those of South Africa, human rights education has been included in many school curricula. Human rights education aims to develop responsible citizens who inter alia foster an understanding of gender, ethnical, religious and cultural diversities. This, it is hoped will encourage and maintain peace, as outlined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Departing from a human rights position, a qualitative study commenced in 2009 to explore how girls and boys reason about the cultural and religious practices of girls in their communities and families. Narratives by girls and boys highlighted their views on girls' positioning in their specific communities. From the findings it became evident that the participants were aware of conforming to particular cultural and religious practices. However, some participants also challenged how they perceived these practices and the roles of girls in their communities. The article highlights the necessity of embarking on a gendered perspective towards human rights education.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2012.712096http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09540253.2012.71209
Curriculum-making in South Africa: promoting gender equality and empowering women (?)
No full textAuthor cannot archive publisher's version/PDF.The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (2000−2015) are clearly
embedded in South Africa’s education policy documents. However, they are not
adequately infused into the curriculum. This article focuses specifically on the
third Millennium Development Goal (MDG) − promoting gender equality and
empowering women − and the need to place this curriculum content at the
centre and not on the periphery, to achieve its goal. Qualitative document
research was used to explore the extent to which South Africa’s curriculummaking
has promoted gender equality and the empowerment of women during
the promotion of the 2000–2015 MDGs. The findings of this research show
potential intersections of poverty, age and worldviews with gender; a stronger
focus on human rights values; and concrete strategies to combat unhealthy
sexual behaviour. However, the curriculum continues to be saturated with
negative perspectives and binary perceptions of gender. There is also a lack of
attention to the world of work. The assumption underlying this seems to be that
gender equality and the empowerment of women are unattainable or that they are
unimportant. This article concludes by underlining the need for the curriculum to
be a genuine agent of change, which necessitates a new gender discourse in
curriculum-making.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2014.946474http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cgee20/curren
Education in a ‘neoliberalised’ online teaching and learning space : towards an affirmative ethics
Full text linkThe sudden mass migration of teaching, learning and assessment to the digital terrain
because of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the global proliferation of scholarship. This
scholarship ranges from romantic notions of the opportunity to revivify curriculum and
pedagogy in what was deemed an underutilised educational technology (online) resource space
to scholarship contemptuous of this newfound romance. This has exposed the potential
affordances of online teaching and its adjunctive exclusionary effects. Whilst the authors
recognise the short-term benefits of adapting advanced technology for educational purposes, they
provoke the question as to the obliterative potential of technology for the human (university
academics in this instance) and the non-human/more-than-human. It is, however, without
contention that the neoliberal university, driven by the economic viability and sustainability
imperative, gives precedence to curriculum delivery and student support to secure degree
completion targets even within academic timeframe (year) constraints. As such, it is
likely to neglect the cogent matter of the affective as it relates to both academics, students and the
non-human. In this conceptual article, Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanist perspective is
drawn upon, offering both critical and affirmative propositions for moving forward in engagement
with technologies in emerging educational online spaces. Firstly, critical perspectives are offered
on some challenges of the neoliberal contouring and new regimes of accountability and
surveillance that appear to have become more efficacious in the digital space. Secondly, it is
acknowledged that humans live in a technologically mediated world and need to navigate this
world in productive ways. Braidotti’s philosophy of affirmative ethics helps us to invigorate
affordances of educational technology that are hopeful. This article’s contribution lies in
alternative imaginings of educational technology, so that technology can be used in ways that
advance pedagogical lives and social relations
Academics and the decolonial moment : in pursuit of fostering curriculum transformation
Full text linkMEd (Curriculum Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom CampusThe South African higher education landscape was and is still facing numerous challenges. Even after the new democratic government implemented major policy reforms to address these challenges, epistemologies and knowledge systems at most universities still remain embedded in Western worldviews. Considering South Africa’s higher education history, it seemed a valuable contribution to explore how academics are pursuing curriculum transformation, in an effort to eliminate the power of Western epistemological traditions, by means of decolonising their curriculum.
The scholarly literature explored the influential discourses that are crucial in understanding decolonisation and its role in curriculum transformation. It was, therefore, important to first discuss a few significant events, both pre-1994 and post-1994, that have helped shape the higher education landscape of South Africa by necessitating the urgency to decolonise the curriculum. To better understand the nuances of decolonisation, I explored decoloniality, in response to colonialism and coloniality. Africanisation and indigenisation are unpacked as two important interlinking concepts of decolonisation. Decolonising the curriculum is then addressed through the theories of the lived curriculum and currere. I unlocked some of the complexities of decolonisation by exploring different approaches and possibilities to decolonising the curriculum. The central part of this study is to investigate curriculum transformation as well as how it can be fostered through academics and a decolonised curriculum, which is why I explored Ubuntu-currere and the importance of becoming in the context of this study.
The phenomenological study was situated in an idealist interpretivism paradigm and utilised a qualitative research design. Seidman’s (2006) in-depth, phenomenological interviewing approach was used as the foundation for my semi-structured, one-on-one interviews as the data generation method. The University of Cape Town (UCT) was purposively selected as the research environment, mainly because UCT was at the forefront of the student protest in 2015 (through the #RhodesMustFall movement), which ignited the decolonial movement and placed decolonising the curriculum in the spotlight. UCT academics specialising in curriculum studies or education as their area of scholarship were purposefully chosen to participate in my study. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was the method of analysis.
From the views shared by the participants, eight themes have emerged. The first theme highlights the participants’ personal views on the importance of the 2015 student movement and the decolonial moment. The second theme reveals that decolonisation within the context of the university and its curriculum is a complicated and multi-layered concept. The third theme discloses the impact on teaching and learning as well as on academic freedom as a result of the transformation committee and the Curriculum Change Framework. In the fourth theme, it was revealed how participants have perceived transformation within the university as a result of the 2015 student movements. The fifth theme displays the need for more cultural and curriculum change within the university environment. Participants provide their approaches to a decolonised curriculum and pedagogy in the sixth theme. In theme seven, it was revealed that participants believe English, as a medium of instruction, is obstructing the transformation process in universities. In the last theme, it becomes evident that the participants have enjoyed a valuable journey of transformation and self-discovery through a momentous shift in their ideology.
The concluding chapter captures how academics who have embraced the decolonial moment transform their curriculum through decolonisation. Five reflective statements emerged: 2015 #Fallism student movements revived dormant decolonisation conversations; English as a medium of instruction as counterproductive to the ideals of decolonising the curriculum; challenges of fostering curriculum transformation; absence of cultural and curriculum transformation at the university; engaging with decolonising the curriculum as a becoming, through learning to unlearn.
The dissertation concludes by highlighting possible limitations and suggestions for further research.Master
- …
