Abstract
This dissertation explores the decolonisation of psychology knowledge through a decolonial approach. It is situated within decolonisation debates in psychology and higher education in South Africa. Central to this dissertation is the need to change the terms and rules of knowledge construction, validation and dissemination at universities and in psychology. This was brought forward by students during the #mustfall protests. Psychology knowledge has historically been used to oppress and exclude black South African students from higher education and ongoing coloniality remains evident in higher education and psychology. Using decoloniality as a lens, the study sought to understand the decolonisation of psychology knowledge. Decoloniality is a resistance to coloniality of power and aims to de-centre Euro-Western knowledge towards pluriversal knowledges. Pluriversal knowledges are knowledges that are not constructed through hierarchies of superiority and inferiority. Furthermore, decoloniality centres the views and voices of the marginalised by using bottom-up approaches to knowledge construction. For this reason, this dissertation explores the views of postgraduate psychology students at the University of Johannesburg on the decolonisation of psychology knowledge. Semi-structured interviews with five postgraduate psychology students were used in the collection of data. Data were analysed by means of reflective thematic analysis within an interpretive research paradigm and design. The following themes emerged in the analysis: the urgent need for decolonising psychology, the lack of clarity on what decolonisation means, the persistence of coloniality of power, being and knowledge in psychology and decolonial resistance through bottom-up knowledge construction. This dissertation contributed to the knowledge field by 4 clarifying the difference between decolonisation and decoloniality, by using decolonial units of analysis to expose coloniality in psychology and by exploring the link between psychology knowledge and the psychological in coloniality and decoloniality.
M.A. (Research Psychology)