Africanising the Curriculum: Exploring the Perspectives of Bachelor of Education Honours Students at an Open Distance Education and Learning Institution

Abstract

Africanisation of the curriculum has been proposed as an urgent and transformative imperative in South African education. Africanisation of the curriculum involves incorporating African perspectives, histories, cultures, and knowledge systems into the educational curriculum. It aims to recognise and value the contributions of African societies and promote a more inclusive and representative education system. In this study, we gave bachelor of education (honours) students some background information on Africanisation and asked them to provide ideas on how they can Africanise the curriculum they teach. They responded to an online voluntary discussion forum posted by the lecturer in one module of the honours degree. A total of 29 written responses were qualitatively analysed using the discovery of knowledge as wisdom framework that incorporates seven pillars of wisdom. The findings indicate that these students had a good understanding of Africanisation of the curriculum. They reported that societal problems can be solved by Africanising the curriculum while many of the current school topics taught from an African perspective could provide more relevant alternatives to studying these topics. Furthermore, many students raised the issue of inclusivity inherent in African perspectives on education topics. We recommend that pre-service and in-service teachers cultivate African perspectives in their own subjects and that research on the impact of such teaching be conducted.