One of the factors that underpins the social movement for transformation in higher education in South Africa is the growing dissatisfaction with current syllabi and teaching models. This lecture focuses on curriculum content and curriculum transformation, recognising that these topics are highly contested and are currently being hotly debated. The call for the decolonisation, transformation, reformation and democratisation of the curriculum has become a central rallying cry. The key questions underlying any meaningful approach to and consideration of the decolonial turn in the curriculum are therefore what should be taught in South African institutions at the present time, and how such a locally relevant yet globally recognisable curriculum can best be achieved. This lecture serves to motivate discussions about the meanings generated by curriculum transformation in our current material context and offers practical indications of how some research-intensive universities are approaching, rethinking and reforming curricula to redefine pedagogical practices and modes of teaching and learning, shift staff demographics and reconfigure institutional culture.

Before joining the University of Pretoria, Prof Reddy was the Executive Director of the Human and Social Development Research Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council, where he was employed for a period of nine years. He was awarded a BA (Hons) degree and an HED by the University of Natal. This was followed by the completion of a master's degree in Comparative Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand and a PhD in Gender Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he lectured for 13 years and was promoted to Associate Professor of Gender Studies. His research interests and focus of work are in the field of human development and identity marker issues (mainly gender, sexuality, HIV, social justice, diversity and inequality) and the humanities that also address policy dimensions. Prof Reddy has received a B3 rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF). 

 

 

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