From the publisher:

“Shortly after the giant bronze statue of Cecil John Rhodes came down at the University of Cape Town, student protestors called for the decolonisation of universities. It was a word hardly heard in South Africa’s struggle lexicon and many asked: What exactly is decolonisation? 

This book brings together some of the most innovative thinking on curriculum theory to address this important question. In the process, several critical questions are raised: Is decolonisation simply a slogan for addressing other pressing concerns on campuses and in society? What is the colonial legacy with respect to curricula and can it be undone? How is the project of curricula decolonisation similar to or different from the quest for post-colonial knowledge, indigenous knowledge or a critical theory of knowledge? What does decolonisation mean in a digital age where relationships between knowledge and power are shifting? Strong conceptual analyses are combined with case studies of attempts to ‘do decolonisation’ in settings as diverse as South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Mauritius. This comparative perspective enables reasonable judgements to be made about the prospects for institutional take-up within the curricula of century-old universities. Decolonisation in Universities is essential reading for undergraduate teaching, postgraduate research, and advanced scholarship in the field of curriculum studies.”

Edited by Jonathan D. Jansen, Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Stellenbosch and current President of the South African Academy of Science, this comprehensive study offers texts by academics and practitioners from leading universities.

24.3 x 17 cm | 280 pages | softcover

Professor Jonathan D. Jansen (b.1956, Montagu) received his PhD from Stanford University in 1991. His continued research is broadly concerned with the politics of knowledge, as eloquently articulated in his award-winning book, Knowledge in the Blood (2009). In 2013, Jansen was awarded the Lifetime Achiever Award for Africa at the Education Africa Global Awards in New York, and the University of California's Spendlove Award for his contribution to tolerance, democracy, and human rights. He currently serves as the president of both the South African Institute of Race Relations and the South African Academy of Science, and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Vermont, and Cleveland State University. Jansen leads a major project on behalf of the Minister of Higher Education that prepares promising young academics from the 26 public universities for the professoriate.