Decolonizing Pedagogy in Post-Apartheid South Africa

This Element examines post-apartheid pedagogy in South Africa to uncover philosophical and epistemological foundations on which it is predicated. The analysis reveals quaint epistemologies and their associated philosophical postulations, espousing solipsistic methodologies that position teachers and their students as passive participants in activities rendered abstract and contemplative – an intellectual odyssey and dispassionate pursuit of knowledge devoid of context and human subjectivity.

To counteract the effects of such coercive epistemologies and Western orthodoxies, a decolonising approach, prioritising ethical grounding of knowledge and pedagogy, is proposed. In this decolonising approach to learning and development, students enact the knowledge they embody, and, through such enactment of their culturally situated knowledge practices, students perceive concepts in their process of transformation and, consequently, acquire knowledge as tools for critical engagement with reality, and tools for meaningful pursuit of self-knowledge, agency, and identity development.

Decolonizing Pedagogy in Post-Apartheid South Africa is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.