The University of Pretoria, Faculty of Education is proud to announce the forthcoming release of a critical new scholarly work, "Decolonizing Pedagogy in Post-Apartheid South Africa," scheduled for publication on 17 November 2025. This timely and essential book offers a rigorous philosophical examination of South Africa's educational landscape and presents a powerful framework for its decolonial future.

Prof Muthivhi, of the Early Childhood Education, explores South Africa's education system as it continues to grapple with the enduring legacies of colonial knowledge systems. This new book provides a penetrating analysis of the "quaint epistemologies" and "solipsistic methodologies" that still underpin much of post-apartheid pedagogy. The professor argues that these Western orthodoxies often position both teachers and students as passive participants in an abstract, dispassionate intellectual pursuit, one that is critically detached from context, human subjectivity, and the lived realities of learners.

In his abstract he proposes a look into counteracting the effects with a declonising approach, “prioritising grounding of knowledge.” He explores how students’ enactment of cultural knowledge practices; they will perceive concepts and acquire tools for critical engagement, self-knowledge and identity development.

Key themes explored in the book include:

• A critical deconstruction of the philosophical foundations of contemporary South African pedagogy.
• The limitations of coercive epistemologies that stifle active participation and critical engagement.
• A compelling vision for a pedagogy where students "enact the knowledge they embody."
• The role of culturally situated knowledge practices in transforming abstract concepts into tools for critical thought.
• How education can become a meaningful pursuit of self-knowledge, agency, and identity development for every learner.

Prof Azwihangwisi Muthivhi is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education. He already boasts 19 peer reviewed scholarly journal artices and book chapter publications and 61 citations. He is renowned for his work on children and young people’s learning and development in rapidly changing sociocultural contexts of schooling and society. His research is based on Vygotsky’s cultural-historical activity theory research framework and its contemporary expansions in education, early childhood development, including developmental psychology and critical pedagogy.

For pre-order and more information, visit the Cambridge website: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/education/education-policy-strategy-and-reform/decolonizing-pedagogy-post-apartheid-south-africa?format=PB