Despite revolutions, ongoing student protests, and long-standing transformational efforts, African higher education remains steeped in a colonial model, with current structures, approaches, and purposes paralleling Western universities. The doctorate, the highest level of formal education one can attain, reflects this commitment to Western…

Institutional transformation and inclusion have slowly become more prominent in the strategies of historically white institutions in South Africa. Despite these efforts, progress towards these goals has been limited. In this article, we reflect on our conversations about transforming our curricula and teaching practices as an interdisciplinary…

This article presents a collection of narrative examples on how a cohort of African graduates, who are beneficiaries of a scholarship from a global foundation, understand and practice giving back. The scholarship programme aims to cultivate and support a network of like-minded young leaders who are committed to giving back by providing training…

The debate on the de-colonization of universities in South African gained momentum after protests by students through the #FeesMustFall (FMF) and #RhodesMustFall (RMF) movements. At the center of these protests were issues like free access to education, accommodation, removal of apartheid and colonial statues, and the Africanization of the…

Research conducted on online learning during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly showed that a sense of community plays an integral part in creating a conducive learning environment. This has consequently influenced current perspectives on teaching practice and learning climate. From an African perspective, this is noteworthy as it…

The most recent incarnation of development goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), call for a more intentional integration of higher education in development. Research can provide an avenue by which this done, developing relevant solutions to social problems. But who benefits from research, and whose knowledge counts in this process?…

Incorporating socially just concepts into classrooms means students' needs are considered and pedagogic activities recognise everyone and make sure that student voices are heard, acknowledged and affirmed. Art has historically provided alternative ways of making sense of our worlds, commenting on them, questioning practices and structures, and…

On 20 September 2019 in Cape Town, as part of the global protests on inaction on climate change, the African Climate Alliance submitted a memorandum of demands to South African government representatives, one of which was 'the creation of a mandatory climate-education curriculum for South Africa'. This raises the question of how this imperative…

This article revisits the thoughts of Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere on decolonizing higher education in Africa. Their critique of colonial higher education centers on the notion that it was designed to promote the economic aspirations of the colonial metropolis, making it socially unjust, culturally irrelevant, and developmentally inapt. For…

Our paper will examine the question of counter-hegemonic knowledge production in the Western academy and the responsibilities of the Racialized scholar coming to know and producing knowing to challenge the particularity of Western science knowledge that masquerades as universal knowledge in academia. We engage the topic from a stance examining the…

Background: The central claim of this article is that African disability justice is possible through analysing, re-examining and reimagining realities that distort and disempower the being of individuals with disabilities. Aim: In this article, I argue for an African disability justice. Methods: I do this by establishing that higher education…

Calls for the decolonisation of higher education in South Africa have been punctuated by comments on black pain. This is not surprising if it is acknowledged that violence inordinately marks so much of South African life. What is rarely discussed though is the idea that pain has also come to be fetishised. Pain, for example, is valued as a…

Soka (value creating) education is a Japanese concept propounded by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and further developed by Josei Toda and Daisaku Ikeda. This educational philosophy aims to foster individuals who can find meaning in their lives and contribute to the well-being of others to better society. Ubuntu, an African philosophy, espouses…

Background: Universities, globally, and in South Africa, continue to be confronted with demands for transformation, humanisation of pedagogical practices and to embrace social justice. Aim: In this article, we bring to the surface possibilities of "Ubuntu" pedagogy within a social justice framework. We intersect Collective Fingers Theory…

The conceptualisation of "community engagement" at Higher Education in South Africa remains a topic for debate in the transformation agenda. South African Indigenous knowledge has been transmitted and perennially refreshed through educational pedagogy that are characterized by a sensitivity to African Philosophy, axiology and the spirit…