The Role of Indigenous Languages in Decolonising Teaching and Learning

Views of Master's Students at an Open Distance Institution in South Africa

Abstract

The 2015-2016 populist student protests in South Africa sparked interest, among others, in the discourse of universities in the country. Students raised concerns about university tuition fees, ongoing outsourcing, unequal access and the need to decolonise the curricula. This compelled higher education to reimagine the shift from colonising neoliberal regimes to an education system which embraces social justice. Currently, academics and researchers are trying to design frameworks to guide the decolonial agenda in higher education in curriculum development. This study is a qualitative intrinsic case study which explored decolonisation of university curriculum at an Open Distance eLearning (ODeL) institution in South Africa from the perspectives of twelve postgraduate students, who were purposively selected from the ODeL institution’s various colleges. Interest convergence principle and critical race theory framed the study. Data were collected from participants using individual semi- structured telephonic interviews and analysed thematically. Findings revealed that to decolonise its curriculum, the institution should decentre Eurocentricism, dismantle the master-servant dichotomy between supervisors and students, promote the indigenous languages as media of teaching and learning and transform the institution’s funding system. The university should strive to disrupt the digital divide which excludes students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds and hinder them from accessing learning as easily as those who come from privileged backgrounds. It is therefore concluded that the institution should constantly monitor its decolonisation project to ensure that its curricula are fully decolonised. Furthermore, indigenous languages should be used as media of instruction at programme level instead of using them only to scaffold learning.