UP Law leads the way to a transformed curriculum

Posted on July 20, 2021

On Thursday, 17 June 2021, Professor Charles Maimela, Deputy Dean: Faculty of Law and Coordinator for the relaunch of UP’s Curriculum Transformation Drive, in collaboration with the Office of Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Norman Duncan, hosted the first instalment of the UP Curriculum Transformation Lecture Series. The theme of the relaunch is: Curriculum Transformation is not a future event but a present activity. From the theme of the relaunch it affirms the urgency and commitment for all the faculties to be able to take this drive very seriously, said Prof Maimela as he got the lecture series underway.

In 2016, a UP work stream developed a policy document on Curriculum Transformation (CT) that was accepted by UP Senate. The policy document is meant to serve as a guideline for faculties to work towards the decolonisation and transformation of UP’s curriculum initiative.

Through the virtually hosted lecture, the Faculty of Law lead the way by sharing with the University community their failures, planned initiatives, goals and objectives in terms of curriculum transformation, five years after the Curriculum Transformation Policy Document was adopted by Senate. The five academic departments of the faculty and centres outlined their curriculum transformation efforts five years later after the policy document on Curriculum Transformation was developed.

Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, Deputy Director: Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, joined the Faculty of Law in this drive and shared his views pertaining to curriculum transformation with a talk titled “how black consciousness could help us transform the curriculum” whereby he gave a synopsis of his academic journey and personal encounter with issues related to transformation. “If we want to appreciate the impact of black consciousness and to think about the dimensions necessary for transformation it is important to have a broad understanding of curriculum beyond what is normally referred to as the syllabus” said Prof Maluleke. He went on to highlight that the challenge with defining transformation in South Africa is the broad scope of the term as well as its wide-ranging expectations that people have of it as it touches both the tangible and intangible, the explicit and implicit, the hidden and the formal, the covered and the discovered, or the yet to be discovered the excluded as well as the included.  “The aim of education packaged in a transformed curriculum should be as much to free the mind and to make sure that no man-made chains can continue to bind the mind,” said Prof Maluleke.

“Acknowledging and drawing on our history and social context, the Faculty of Law strives to respond and be relevant to the uniquely diverse community we serve in order to achieve the realisation of social justice in one of the most unequal societies in the world.” Said Prof Elsabe Schoeman; Dean Faculty of Law as she highlighted the faculty’s deep commitment to the relaunched curriculum transformation drive, “which requires active and dedicated participation of every student and staff member working collaboratively as a team towards the greater good of all and a better UP.” Said Prof Schoeman when she gave a synopsis of how far the Faculty has come and what it has achieved within the last five years. This was done through a pre-recorded video message and the position of the faculty was captured eloquently on this topic.

Speaking on the title “Implementation of the curriculum transformation drivers, Law of property journey” Dr Clireesh Joshua, Lecturer: Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law said that she was inspired by the potential for decolonisation that lies in the teaching of critical analysis and application skills “because although we might not be able to remove the colonial norms and principles that permeates the common law or not remove all of them, we can teach our students to think critically about them and to question the validity and the relevance of these norms in light of the constitution.” Said Dr Joshua

Dr Sanele Sibanda, Senior Lecturer: Department of Jurisprudence, Faculty of Law gave a thought provoking presentation titled “Some thoughts and reflections on how we engage the curriculum transformation debate” narrating that in many of these debates and discussions time is spent on thinking about what needs to be done moving forward, because there is an urgency to produce answers and demand to propagate views as to what must happen, “Whilst we need to think about where we are and where we are going, we also need to take some time to look back at if there are aims, goals and prioritise that had been defined in our various policies and frameworks what is it that informs those aims and priorities.” Said Dr Sibanda

The aim of the lecture series is to take stock of the University’s position as to what faculties have done and what they are aiming to do to realise the strategic objective of having a transformed curriculum which is inclusive and dynamic in the interest of UP students and the broader society. Faculties will get the opportunity to share their successes and failures as well as various strategies they are aiming to introduce in order to achieve a transformed curriculum in subsequent lectures that will follow. Prof Maimela, encouraged the UP community to continue to participate in the lecture series, because faculties can learn from each other and collaborate in this drive. The next curriculum transformation live stream lecture will take place on Thursday, 22 July 2021, whereby the Faculty of Veterinary Science and Faculty of Health Sciences will be sharing with the University community their initiatives, goals and objectives in terms of curriculum transformation.

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