The University of Pretoria’s (UP) Faculty of Law has made great strides since 2016 when, after extensive consultation and engagement with the UP community, UP crafted a policy document on curriculum transformation. This challenged the faculty to rethink, recreate, reimagine and create new curricula in all disciplines at UP based on the examination of current knowledge of race, religion, class, sexuality, nationally, disability, gender, gender expression and non-binary orientation, said Professor Elsabe Schoeman, Dean of the Faculty of Law. Prof Schoeman was speaking during the first instalment in the UP Curriculum Transformation Lecture Series, where the Faculty of Law shared with the University community its initiatives, goals and objectives in terms of curriculum transformation, five years after the Curriculum Transformation Policy Document was adopted by Senate.

“It is a response to create a new identity that begets the emerging South African education discourse and practise, acknowledging our history and social context. The Faculty of Law strives to respond and be relevant to the community we serve, in order to achieve the realisation of social justice in one of the most unequal societies in the world,” said Prof Schoeman about the process of curriculum transformation.

“We are deeply committed to the relaunch of the curriculum transformation drive which requires active and dedicated participation of all students and staff working collaboratively as a team towards the greater good of all and a better UP. The Faculty of Law has over the past five years achieved notable advancement and successes, but there have also been failures and gaps which the faculty acknowledges and looks forward to improving on. The Faculty of Law is determined to use this relaunch of the curriculum transformation drive to review and open frank discussion on curriculum transformation focusing on the creation of an inclusive environment for all to participate freely and meaningfully in this important endeavour.”      

In his presentation, titled: ‘how black consciousness could help us to transform the curriculum’, Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, Deputy Director: Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, compared a curriculum to a travel plan, saying the consensus was that decisions about the departure point, the speed of travel, the number of stops and possible exits as well as the final destination came out of structured and unstructured long conversations between generations of people, interested communities, educational professionals, the state and students. “We must remember to distinguish between the explicit curriculum and the implicit curriculum, and the hidden curriculum and some people add what is called the excluded curriculum. If we want to appreciate the impact of black consciousness and to think about dimensions necessary for transformation, it is important to have a broad idea of the curriculum beyond what is normally referred to merely as the syllabus,” he said.

Prof Maluleke said the challenge with defining transformation in South Africa is the broad scope of the term and the wide range of expectations people have of it.  

Prof Maluleke said curriculum transformation, similar to the decolonisation of knowledge, is not merely a theoretical or intellectual activity, but involves thought, theory, action and application. “Transformation of the curriculum necessarily requires the transformation of all the choices of the building blocks, the materials, the resources, learning environments, the processes, the policies, the structures that make up the journey – the travel plan. For transformation to be effective it must encompass the explicit curriculum, the implicit, the hidden as well as, sometimes, the excluded.”

Dr Sanele Sibanda, Senior Lecturer: Department of Jurisprudence, Faculty of Law, said it is important to take time to interrogate and understand the premise, foundations and assumptions that inform how we understand curriculum transformation.

“What I would like to do is to take a conceptual approach or conceptual reflection on the project of curriculum transformation. Rather than taking or entering the curriculum conversation by looking forward on what needs to be done in future, let us take a few steps back and think about what it would mean to approach the curriculum transformation project from a point of view that prioritises or organises itself around a search for the right questions,”, said Dr Sibanda.

Dr Clireesh Joshua, Lecturer: Department of Law, Faculty of Law also gave a presentation, titled ‘Implementation of the curriculum transformation drivers, the law of property journey’, and touched on the module on property law. She said the history of property law in South Africa is one of colonialism and segregation since these laws made their way to South Africa with Dutch people and English settlers and were also used in apartheid to divide South Africans along racial lines. “Concerning the interior of the module, there are a number of challenges that transpire when thinking about decolonising a subject such as property law. This module requires students to know how to work with the common law of properties since this law is practiced predominately and, as lectures, we have a responsibility to teach this law and principles to ensure that our students compete in the world of work and excel in the world of work. Our faculty is dedicated to a transformative curriculum and accommodating all our students.”

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This lecture took place on 17 June 2021