Debate around change to UCT curriculum still ongoing

Debate around UCT’s curriculum change, initiated to address transformation and the decolonisation of the curriculum, remains ongoing, UCT said. File photo: Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)

Debate around UCT’s curriculum change, initiated to address transformation and the decolonisation of the curriculum, remains ongoing, UCT said. File photo: Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Mar 18, 2019

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Cape Town - Debate around UCT’s curriculum change, initiated to address transformation and the decolonisation of the university curriculum, was ongoing, the institution said.

The conversation was launched in a curriculum change discussion document released by the Curriculum Change Working Group (CCWG).

Movement Progress SA published an open letter addressed to UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng titled “Please don’t introduce a colour bar for teaching at UCT” in response to the work of the CCWG.

The Curriculum Change Framework was recently released and was met with criticism by Progress SA.

The movement's chairperson, Tami Jackson, said the document was “fraught with linguistic indeterminacies and technical jargon”.

Jackson said many of its claims and arguments were so ambiguous or obscure that “bona fide attempts at understanding, let alone critique and rebuttal, are near impossible”.

“The second immediate issue is that the management had to clarify the framework document's purpose. Is it intended as a code of conduct for teaching that would become university policy, or is it merely a platform intended to raise points for discussion?” Jackson asked.

Phakeng addressed Progress SA’s concerns by stating that UCT cannot prescribe a standard framework for all to follow, nor can a colour bar for teaching be introduced or enforced.

She said all responses to the document would be debated by the Teaching and Learning Committee and Senate as the highest bodies for academic matters in university.

“The purpose of setting up the CCWG was indeed exactly that, to initiate institutional dialogue about curriculum matters,” Phakeng said.

“An interrogation of the curriculum is essential ongoing work for UCT. Constructive, open engagement and contestation is necessary, as is a diversity of opinions and views. Intellectual curiosity and vigour should be brought to this interrogation. It presents an ongoing and critical accountability for all scholars and for the institution.”

UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said the institution's executive hoped that the document served as an invitation for academic units at UCT to reflect on their own understanding of curriculum change, as well as on past, current and future practices of curriculum review, innovation and broader change within the academy.

Moholola said opposing or diverse views in discussion are characteristic of a university space.

“A university is about contestation of ideas and debates.”

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Cape Argus

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