Browsing by Author "Maluleka, Paul"

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    The construction, interpretation and presentation of king Shaka: a case study of four in-service history educators in four Gauteng schools
    (2018) Maluleka, Paul
    This study explores and discusses how in-service history educators in four Gauteng schools reinterpret, reconstruct and re-present images of Shaka in light of their individual and collective memories of him, varied academic and popular accounts, CAPS, as well the influence of history textbooks and other teaching and learning materials. It also explores the nature of history, its uses, as well as the development of the history curriculum in South Africa post-1994 in relation to the proposed compulsory history curriculum for the FET phase by the likes of African National Congress (ANC), ANC-led government and South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU). The findings of the study reveal that the participants under study did share and/or have similar collective memory of Shaka which was ‘negative’, even though they came from different backgrounds or are informed by different individual memories. This highlights the embeddedness of traditional, liberal and Afrikaner-Christian nationalist, as well Zulu nationalist reconstructions of images of Shaka in our popular as well as institutional imaginations. Furthermore, the findings revealed that although the participants presented themselves as aware of revisionist thinking around images of Shaka and were willing to incorporate these in their teaching; what transpired during the observations were tensions between this awareness and the implementation of such and the practicalities around it. Moreover, it seems that although all participants seemed consciously or subconsciously aware of memories embedded in their own reconstructions of images of Shaka, and sought means to open Shaka to new imaginings and further debates by their learners, this was not easy in practice. It seems that the embeddedness of individual and collective memories (with all their layers – from home to school days to university days and beyond) could not easily be transcended. This was most evident in the educators’ responses to ‘challenging’ questions or comments by their learners. There seemed to be an element of defensiveness and tendency to want to instil views rather than allow open-endedness in interpreting Shaka’s actions. So, while re-interpretation, reconstruction and re-presentation were seemingly allowed, with the exploration of teaching strategies like debates, the choice of textbooks, selection of sources to engage with, themes and topics to cover, questions to post to the learners etc. still reflected this embeddedness. Therefore, the overall findings highlight that the practice teaching of history is a complex exercise. It requires qualified professional educators with a strong subject matter who are innovative in their pedagogical orientations, as well responded to the demands of the curriculum. These, are some of the things that the ANC, SADTU and other interest groups need to take into account when proposing a ‘new’ history curriculum
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    Towards a Decolonized and Africanized School History Curriculum in post apartheid South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Maluleka, Paul; Ramoupi, Neo Lekgotla; Mathebula, Thokozani
    This study explores and discusses ways in which the School History Curriculum (SHC) in South Africa was designed by colonialists to depict their history favourably and how this continues to be the case after independence. The study also investigates ways in which the SHC could be decolonized and Africanized, especially where knowledge building is a concern. This is done both conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, a critical decolonial conceptual framework strengthened with Bernstein’s Code Theory and Pedagogic Device, Maton’s Epistemic-Pedagogic Device, and Legitimation Code Theory’s Autonomy dimension were employed. Firstly, to highlight how the legacy of colonialism, apartheid, coloniality, and their monolithic epistemic nature, and to some extent, their alienating pedagogic and assessment practices, continue to underpin the SHC in post-apartheid South Africa. Secondly, to explore conceptual ways in which decoloniality could be applied in curriculum knowledge building and its structures in cumulative and principled ways. This was done to counter much of the knowledge blindness that characterize sociology of education including many of the calls for decolonization and Africanization. In turn, this was meant to reposition scholarship on decolonization and Africanization to also be vested in a sociological approach to knowledge and curriculum that is vested in investigating the relations within knowledge and curriculum and their intrinsic structures. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were used as methods of generating empirical data, with descriptive and interpretive elements of data analysis used to engage the data. Empirically, four in-service history educators from Gauteng and Limpopo Provinces were purposefully and conveniently selected. The purpose of interviewing in-service history educators was to gain insights into how they thought of the current SHC. Whether, according to them, calls to decolonize and Africanize the SHC were imperative and justified, and how they could be carried out. Both the conceptual and empirical findings reveal that there is a need to decolonize and Africanize SHC in post-apartheid South Africa given that its knowledge base is still characterized by the legacy of colonialism, apartheid, and coloniality. To achieve this, both the conceptual and empirical findings pointed out the need to reimagine and construct epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies that not only move beyond universal explanations of the world; but embrace trans-modernist and pluriversal explanations of the world. These are informed and shaped by time and the place, perspective, orientation, and situatedness of their authors. Secondly, the findings of the study revealed how historical knowledge is both dialectically and intersectionally produced, recontextualized and reproduced in the three fields of practice. Interrogating critically who are the knowers that are legitimated and de-legitimated in all these processes, can enable us to better understand the colonizing gaze that continues to characterize the SHC. It can also allow us to better understand how these fields of practice can also be seen as spaces where de-legitimated knowledge and knowers are recentred and where decolonization and Africanization can happen. This would see the continued marginalization of indigenous knowledge systems, traditions, and cultural practices in the SHC at the altar of Eurocentric methods being disrupted. Thirdly, the findings also pointed out that presently CAPS SHC does not have a settled African philosophy (of education): it is torn between two worlds, i.e., the universal and the particular. In a strict education for Africanization sense, the SHC in post-apartheid South African schools should be perceived first and foremost as a professional philosophical project that African philosophers in higher education devote their time and energy to. Second, a sage project that oMakhulu’s as part of the broader school communities help in-service history educators and their learners through oral history and research projects to address problems and deal with issues facing locals. Last, but not least, it should be perceived as a hermeneutic project that brings philosophy down from the sky, i.e., helps both in-service educators and their learners to make practical sense of deep philosophical issues in post-apartheid South African schools.