This article is set against the backdrop of calls for the decolonisation of the curriculum in higher education institutions in South Africa. It is an attempt to contribute towards the debate on decolonising the curriculum, with a focus on the tasks of academics and academic developers. The first half of the article outlines several key aspects of current theorising about academic development or teaching and learning in higher education, informed by more general debates about education. These aspects limit the potential to imagine a more inclusive or socially just, decolonised curriculum. The second half of the article proposes cognitive justice as a useful concept to lead thinking about how to change the curriculum. It discusses what cognitive justice is and how this intersects with writing on decolonisation. It outlines some of the gaps in this conceptualisation, which would need more attention if this concept were to be useful to take the process of transforming teaching and learning forward.

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Cognitive justice and the higher education curriculum

Knowledge for justice : Critical perspectives from southern African-Nordic research partnerships

Knowledge for Justice: Critical Perspectives from Southern African-Nordic Research Partnerships

This study was an evaluation of the Neganega adult literacy programme in Mazabuka district of the Southern Province of Zambia. The study assessed whether or not the aims and objectives of the Neganega literacy programme were being fulfilled as the gap or new knowledge which the study sought to establish. The study employed the CIPP Model of evaluation according to Stufflebeam (1971) with particular emphasis on context, input, process and product evaluations. This Model looked at the processes and strategies used in fulfilling the aims and goals of the programme such as the methods used for teaching and learning, nature of teaching materials, type of learners involved including the suitability of Facilitators. It also looked at variables to do with what has been achieved at the end of the programme and what literacy skills the learners acquired, displayed and how they applied them in their daily lives to uplift themselves. The research design used was qualitative as data was collected through face to face interviews, focus group discussion and observation method. The study subjects involved programme participants such as administrators, facilitators, graduates, students and some members of the community. The sample size of fifty one subjects was drawn from the population. Ten of these were graduates of the Neganega literacy programme, ten were students still on the programme, eight were facilitators, nine were administrators and fourteen were community members for triangulation data collection purposes. The justification for having a sample size of fifty one is that firstly, during interviews with the study subjects, a good number of respondents were giving the same answers to a number of research questions. Secondly, the target population or the nature of the programme under study does not have a lot of people deeply involved in the programme and lastly, the time data was being collected was a critical period as the subjects of the study were busy with their daily routine works like farming and looking for different basic needs making themselves very hard to access.
The findings of the study revealed that the Neganega literacy programme, though facing a number of challenges was meeting its aims, goals and objectives. The programme was teaching different literacy and life skills such as income-generation and critical thinking skills with a spirit of self-sustainability.The programme also conscientize learners and the community on various issues affecting their lives and suggest means of addressing those issues. The findings also revealed that the programme was performing well because of a number of factors; firstly, the aims and objectives of the programme were relevant to peoples’ lives as they were addressing the needs and aspirations of the community. Secondly, the benefits of the programme were immediately visible within the community and lastly, the inception, development and implementation of the programme involved all the stakeholders in the community. The study recommended that such programmes needed to be…

An evaluation of the Neganega literacy programme in Mazabuka District of Southern Province of Zambia

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A strategy for a mini–education system to support transformational development in a developing community

The article is a product of a research conducted to establish the educational value associated with mother tongue based instruction that is familiar to learners verses other languages such asEnglish and local languages that are not familiar to learners as medium of instruction in the teaching of reading and writing literacy skills to grade one at primary level. This was a case study under qualitative research design of post-positivism knowledge generation paradigm. Data was collected from 67 respondents from two primary schools where at one school they used Cinyanja as medium of instruction while at another school they used English language. The specific methods used to collect data were donethrough interviews, focus group discussions and observation of lessons. Some documents were also reviewed on the study related to the topic at hand. The study revealed that both Zambian languages (Cinyanja) and English language played a significant role in literacy education as they both facilitated learning to some pupils and they were also a hindrance to some pupils. However, it was noted that learners couldnot actively participate in the lessons offered in English language and they were more active in a Cinyanja lesson. Furthermore, learners could actively participate in answering teacher’s questions by using ZAMBIA JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE STUDIES VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, 2017

Familiar Language Based Instruction Versus Unfamiliar Language for the Teaching of Reading and Writing Literacy Skills: A Focus on Zambian Languages and English at Two Primary School in Lusaka

This book discusses how the mainstreaming of the African Indigenous Knowledge systems (AIKS) into the formal and non-formal educational curricula could enhance the achievement of Education for All (EFA). Many countries, have not achieved the EFA goals. Quality, access, finance, negative traditional practices, use of curricula of assimilation from former colonial powers and credibility of the education offered have been cited as some of the reasons. In this book, particular reference is made to the forms of AIKS practised by the Chewa people of Zambia. The book shows that the Chewa people had an organised system of education, with family, a reflection of the community, as a starting point. This was life long education where everybody was learning and teaching, with learners moving from one phase of learning to another all the time. This book shows that both the school and AIKS are criticalcomponents in the quest for the provision of quality education for all. Theories, models and frameworks of a possible hybridization of AIKS and WKS have been suggested in this book.

Dennis Banda

Papers

Education for All and African Indigenous Knowledge Systems