In a country like South Africa, the need for curriculum transformation is very broad and includes deliberate efforts to give platforms for views, culture and ideas that are currently underrepresented in the curriculum, said Professor Barend Erasmus, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS) at the University of Pretoria (UP).

Prof Erasmus was speaking at a recent webinar moderated by Professor Charles Maimela, Deputy Dean of UP’s Faculty of Law, where NAS and the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and IT (EBIT) shared their curriculum transformation initiatives, goals and objectives with the University community five years after the Curriculum Transformation Policy Document was adopted by Senate. 

“EBIT has activities where we encourage and have targets for our staff and students demographics to be more transformed. In certain modules students are given extra marks if they were in a transformed group; that is, gender and race,” said Dean of  EBIT Professor Sunil Maharaj.

Prof Maharaj said the Faculty is committed to a broad transformation agenda and also sees transformation beyond race and gender.

“We are proud of the activities of the EBIT curriculum transformation committee, and we believe that committee played a huge role in making a success of transformed online teaching and learning. We constantly consider new technology and tools we can incorporate into our teaching and learning as our students’ success and international competitiveness matter. Our annual teaching and learning workshop engages all our academic and professional staff to share their experiences and practices for a multicultural and diverse staff and student cohort. We are involved in many new projects to support the curriculum transformation agenda,” added Prof Maharaj. 

Supporting his sentiments was Dr Adriana Botha, Head of Education Consultant at EBIT, who said many departments in the Faculty had answered the call for the transformation of the curriculum. She said it was a priority for the Faculty that its efforts are geared towards the implementation of the curriculum transformation drivers so that they are “visible in our learning programmes”.

“We therefore aim to ensure that the curricula are in service of the public good and the actualisation of human potential,” she said.

“As part of the Faculty of EBIT there is quite a wide range of initiatives that run under the guides of transformation. We have been applying concepts of transformation in curricula in classrooms and research has shown that the programmes being integrated directly lead to student’s development in a way that they can be more self-reflective, their positionality can be more self-aware and engage in positions that can be difficult for them,” said Dr Lelanie Smith, Senior Lecturer at EBIT.

“Across different groups the idea of an integrated curriculum is a hot topic. We have three projects that are running in the Faculty at the moment; one which has been running for a long time is the community engagement programme called Joint Community-based Project (JCP). This project has 40 hours [allocated] for professional development where students are grouped and have to go out and provide communities with services linked with their discipline.”

Dr Carin Combrinck, Senior Lecturer at EBIT, said to her curriculum transformation  means “a new country, concept and belief”. It also requires understanding that this democratic project is not an easy one to maintain and govern to ensure that “the dream is not lost”

“However, the most significant transformation happens in the mind of young graduates in the progress of their education,” he noted.

According to Prof Erasmus, later this year each UP faculty will conduct a more formal review of its state of curriculum transformation. “Curriculum transformation is part of good teaching and learning practice. In the South African context, the need for transformation is much broader and includes deliberate efforts to give platforms for views, culture and ideas that are currently underrepresented in the curriculum,” said Prof Erasmus.

“Furthermore, one key [requirement] to do this is to ensure diversity in class groups, several departments, and recruit for diversity. The Faculty of NAS’ employment equity score has the largest year-on-year increase in 2020 and much more will be done. The RETHINK@NAS initiative is a platform that allows university-driven community projects that support transformation in its all forms, and we envisage activities of this initiative to play a big role in future. With NAS, the sustainable development goals remain an important framework in the Faculty’s curriculum transformation efforts,” he added. 

Dr Nerhene Davis, Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology at NAS, said within the concept of curriculum transformation there is also  the explicit recognition of a need to impress and allow for integration of diversity. “We increasingly recognised that the transformation imperatives of the University can no longer be regarded as niche. We find that the societal relevance of the learning that we provide is under scrutiny and our graduates are required to take part in more critical and essential skills and the need to continually transform will remain.”

Dr Carel Oosthuizen, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Zoology and Entomology at NAS, concluded by saying one of the biggest contributions is the shift to continuous assessment in assisting students to take up and develop regulated learning skills where they are motivationally involved in their studies, and cognitively evaluate whether what they are doing works for them.

Click here to watch the full session.

This webinar took place on 30 August 2021.