Decolonising the engineering curriculum in a South African University of Technology

Abstract

The coming to being of the ‘MustFall’ movements in South Africa heightened the call for decolonising the higher education sector. With engineering being at the heart of national development and transformation, there is greater need for engagements in the engineering curriculum to foster the debate on epistemological access and skills development. This paper therefore explores the challenges in the engineering sector in South Africa and highlights decolonising the curriculum as one way of addressing it. As such the research was designed as a qualitative case study and data was generated using open ended questionnaires. The data generated was coded and categorised and themes were developed from the categories which were used for analysis. The findings of the study reveal that four key areas required decolonisation; theory and practice, language, academics and pedagogy. It further revealed that teaching and learning within the institution failed to enhanced decolonisation. The findings further indicated that the decolonisation process can be enhanced by creating contextual relevance and curriculum change. The paper concludes by recommending that decolonising the engineering curriculum is long overdue and the powers that be need to take responsibility and engage the subject if the training of more engineers is the goal. Secondly, the language of instruction, pedagogy, teaching and learning process and or theory and practice requires further interrogation to enhance the training of young engineers for without this the engineering question or challenge will for ever be a mystery.