Decolonising Teaching and Learning Practice: The Review of Curriculum and Pedagogy of Undergraduate General Linguistics Modules

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_12How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Linguistics; Pluriversality; Diversity; Inclusion; Decolonisation; Postcolonial Theory

Abstract

Despite the burgeoning scholarship on the decolonisation over the last few years, this project remains contested by diverse ontologies, epistemologies and ideologies of Western, non-Western, South American origins. Thus, while higher education institutions all claim to be advancing decolonisation in their programme, in teaching and learning, the practice suggest divergent interpretations of what this process is. This paper is underpinned by an interpretive paradigm using document analysis to collect qualitative type data to examine the extent to which decolonisation is realised in the curriculum of the four undergraduate General Linguistics modules offered at the University of Zululand. It uses the postcolonial theory to frame the discussions arguing that the monolingual notion of “one nation, one language” is false in these multilingual societies where foreign languages are common and has become untenable as the strategy to further decolonisation in higher education. On the other hand, the article argues in favour of code switching, translanguaging, multilingualism in the classroom, and incorporating texts and perspectives from South Africa, that support materials written by African authors with Eurocentric materials as strategies to promote diversity and pluriversality of knowledge systems making the university content less foreign and more accommodating in their context. The article concludes that the current curriculum of the selected modules in Linguistics should be decolonised in ways that accommodates the lived experiences of students, African world views, epistemologies, recognition of diversities, indigenous knowledge and diverse linguistic practices.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Rivalani Xenon Masonto
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/12/31
TI  - Decolonising Teaching and Learning Practice: The Review of Curriculum and Pedagogy of Undergraduate General Linguistics Modules
BT  - Proceedings of the Focus Conference (TFC 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 216
EP  - 233
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_12
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_12
ID  - Masonto2024
ER  -