The role of context in decolonising engineering curriculums in proudly South African universities: a cybernetic perspective
- Authors: Baron, Philip
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Conversation theory , Cybernetics , Contextual approach
- Language: English
- Type: Conference proceedings
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/124073 , uj:20870 , Citation: Baron, P. 2016. The role of context in decolonising engineering curriculums in proudly South African universities: a cybernetic perspective.
- Description: Abstract: This paper addresses the epistemological challenges facing South African Public Universities in light of the #FeesMustFall campaign and the associated outcomes. Of particular interest are the academics who are to embrace the changes while they remain in the education system. The decolonisation of knowledge, which is still not clearly understood nor agreed upon, necessitates a rapid review of the status quo in the major universities and how they conduct their business. While transformation and decolonisation are not synonymous, the universities will be undergoing transformation to address the decolonisation needs of the majority of its students, which has already created dilemmas for the academics who have largely followed a Eurocentric approach, and are now to implement the changes addressing decolonisation. The immediate aspects facing the academics are the undefined curriculum changes, as well as the new teaching and learning strategies, which need to reflect the epistemology of the students addressing an Afrocentricity that has not been embraced in the past. A cybernetic perspective relying on Pask’s Conversation Theory may be integral in allowing the academics the skill to contextualise the curriculum, embracing those who are the consumers of this new co-created locally generated knowledge.
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A commentary on the tensions between second-order cybernetics and traditional academic conferences
- Authors: Griffiths, David , Baron, Philip
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: Conference proceedings
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/369977 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/85691 , uj:19379 , Citation: Griffiths, D. & Baron, P. 2015. A commentary on the tensions between second-order cybernetics and traditional academic conferences.
- Description: Abstract: Please refer to full text to view abstract
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