
Cognisant of the globalising context in which we find ourselves, as intellectuals we ought to ensure relevance in what we teach. This orientation, which prizes pedagogic relevance, has been raised as an objection to the decolonial call, being – at times – used to resist democratic change in the South African University. The contributions in this volume highlight the implications of the global relevance discourse through revealing the impact of decontextualised curricula.
Similarly, institutional democratisation and decolonisation ought not to be a turn to fundamentalist positions that recreate the essentialisms resisted through calls for decolonisation. As a critical response to such resistance to democratisation, this book showcases how decolonisation protects the constitutionally enshrined ideal of academic freedom and the freedom of scientific research. We argue that this framing of decoloniality should not be used to protect interests that seek to undermine the transformation of higher education. Concurrently, however, it is critical of decolonial positions that are essentialist and narrow in their manifestation and articulation.
Decolonisation as Democratisation suggests what is intended by a curriculum revisionist agenda that prizes decolonisation through bringing together academics working in South Africa and the global academy. This collaborative approach aims to facilitate critical reflexivity in our curriculum reform strategies while developing pragmatic solutions to current calls for decolonisation.
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Acknowledgments
Foreword
Chapter 1: Educational Desire as the South African Epistemic Decolonial Turn
Part I – Concerns of and Approaches to Decolonial Agendas
Chapter 2: How to Decolonise Knowledge without too much Relativism
Chapter 3: Complexities and Challenges of Decolonising Higher Education: Lessons from Canada
Chapter 4: Beyond possession: decolonising the educational relationship
Part II – Philosophical Contextuality, Pedagogies and Decoloniality
Chapter 5: Socratic Social Criticism in Higher Education
Chapter 6: The Anatomy of Epistemicide and the search for Epistemic Justice: Towards a Relevant Education
Chapter 7: Embracing an Ethical Epistemological Approach in African Higher Education
Chapter 8: Decolonisation and Displacement: Mbembe and Decolonising the University
Chapter 9: Funda-mentalities: Pedagogic twists and turns in South African Philosophy (of Education)
Chapter 10: Futurity, Decolonisation and the Academy – Where to from Here?
Afterword
About the authors
Index