South African students call to decolonize science: Implications for international standards, curriculum development and Public Administration education
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0144739418790779 |
| Author | Lisa C van Jaarsveldt,Hendri J Kroukamp,Michiel S de Vries |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Teaching Public Administration
South African students
2019, Vol. 37(1) 12–30
ª The Author(s) 2018
call to decolonize science:
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DOI: 10.1177/0144739418790779
Implications for
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international standards,
curriculum development
and Public Administration
education
Lisa C van Jaarsveldt
Department of Public Administration and Management, University of South Africa, Gauteng, South
Africa
Michiel S de Vries
Department of Public Administration, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands;
University of Kaunas, Kaunas, Lithuania
Hendri J Kroukamp
University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Abstract
The decolonialisation of the higher education curriculum and free higher education were
two of the burning issues during student protests that erupted across universities in
South Africa at the end of 2015. Although the president announced free higher education
in December 2017, the country can scarcely afford it, with many universities already
feeling financial constraints. The call for decolonialisation of the curriculum by students
(which was viewed negatively by the public) refers specifically to books, theories and
learning content that still predominantly reflect the thoughts of Western colonial
powers. Students required a bigger focus on indigenous (African) knowledge to be
incorporated into the South African curriculum. This, however, is the opposite of cur-
rent international trends, where curricula are developed to meet international or even
Corresponding author:
Lisa C van Jaarsveldt, Department of Public Administration and Management, University of South Africa, PO
Box 392, Pretoria, Gauteng 0003, South Africa.
Email: vjaarlc@unisa.ac.za; Telephone: þ27835505396
van Jaarsveldt et al.
13
global standards that are set by international accreditation agencies in Public Adminis-
tration, such as the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration
and the International Commission on Accreditation of Public Administration Education
and Training Programs. Therefore, this article investigates not only the direction the
discipline of Public Administration is taking with regard to international standards and
the curricula, but also to specifics of governance in developing countries. Are there
reasonable arguments to support the demand for changes to the content of this disci-
pline and is there a need to adjust curricula to concede to the wishes of the protesting
students for the decolonising of science? This article found that international scholarly
requirements, specific national conditions for governance and the demands uttered by
students in the development of curricula at South African universities are at odds,
particularly in the study of Public Administration.
Keywords
Decolonialisation, curriculum, international standards, Public Administration,
accreditation agencies, protests and education
Introduction
Widespread unrest erupted at South African universities in 2015. The unrest, which in
many instances led to the cancellation of examinations and the closure of universities,
involved protests by students and technical workers, who joined forces to accomplish
multiple goals. The workers protested against the outsourcing of their work by the
universities to private companies. This resulted in workers being fired, having to apply
for their jobs again and then being employed at a reduced or minimum wage. The stu-
dents’ goals were the lowering of registration fees as well as the implementation of free
higher education, at a time when the university management wanted to increase fees by
up to 10%. Associated with this #FeesMustFall campaign, which spread across cam-
puses, a movement emerged, demanding the decolonising of science, the removal of
symbols of the colonial era, the establishing of equal opportunities for poor black stu-
dents to obtain a university degree and changing the contents of study programmes,
perceived to be dominated by Western – colonial – knowledge.
The continuing protests resulted in huge demonstrations and blockades of the
entrances to university campuses and administrative buildings, which were sometimes
accompanied by the destruction of university property including historical statues,
buildings and a library. The total cost of damage to property was estimated at 300 million
Rand. The government urged university management to change its plans with regard to
the wages for its technical workers and the planned increase in registration fees. In this
regard, the protests were successful. Politicians and political parties capitalized on these
protests to gain support from students for their own agendas, for example land reform
and radical economic transformation. All these events have been well described in recent
books by Ray (2016), Booysen (2016), Musawenkosi and Ndlovu (2017) and Ramphaele
(2017).
14
Teaching Public Administration 37(1)
Not much is known, however, about the demand of students to change the substantive
content of their studies. This involves the more fundamental demand for a change in the
content of tertiary education in an age of decolonialisation. According to the students, the
books, theories and learning content predominantly reflect the thoughts of the previous
Western colonial powers. Mutyaba (2016) states that due to education provided by
colonial powers over many decades, African scholars provide nothing original, they
simply recite ideas provided by Europeans. Therefore, students ask for more indigenous
(African) knowledge to be incorporated in academic curricula in South Africa. This
might be at odds with current trends in many a curriculum to rather adjust to interna-
tional, even global, standards as these are set within the context of economically
developed countries and by Western academics. In Public Administration, such stan-
dards are provided by international accreditation agencies, such as the National Asso-
ciation of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), the International
Commission on Accreditation of Public Administration Education and Training Pro-
grams (ICAPA) and the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation
(EAPAA). In this article, we therefore aim to investigate the direction the discipline of
Public Administration is taking with regard to international standards and the curricula,
but also the specifics of governance in developing countries. Are there reasonable
arguments to ask for a change in the content of this discipline and is there a need to adjust
curricula to the wishes of the protesting students who call for the decolonising of
science?
The research question this article answers is whether international scholarly
requirements, specific national conditions for governance and the demands uttered by
students in the development of curricula at South African universities are at odds with
international trends, particularly in the study of Public Administration, in which global
standards are imposed on programmes. The sub-questions, asked consecutively to arrive
at an answer on this main question, are as follows.
What are the contributing factors to the South African student protests?
What does the demand to decolonize science entail?
How does this demand compare to the move for universal standards on Public
Administration education?
Are there indications that these universal standards need to be adapted to the
context of developing countries?
What does this imply for our understanding of the standardisation of curricula in
Public Administration?
This article primarily aims to provoke a discussion about the discrepancy between the
perceived need to contextualize Public Administration programmes to national circum-
stances while aiming to meet international standards on what a Public Administration
programme should entail. It is based on a content analysis of documents from the
international accreditation bodies in Public Administration and a review of literature
on the student protests and the decolonialisation debate. During this investigation, we
especially sought for indicators on the specifics with which the public service in
van Jaarsveldt et al.
15
developing countries has to deal, the necessity to understand the background thereof, and
the needed knowledge and skills programmes in Public Administration in those countries
need to incorporate. Through using a qualitative research approach, this article deter-
mines if there is a gap between local needs and international standards when it comes to
the development of Public Administration curricula. This article starts with a review of
scholarly literature, including books that focus on decolonisation student protests, curri-
culum development and international standards for curricula. Journal articles and inter-
net resources were used to determine the significance of the concepts ‘decolonisation’,
‘international standards’ and ‘curriculum development’. This clarifies the importance of
these concepts within an international higher education context. This review includes a
number of concepts related to the decolonisation of science, for example, free higher
education, student protests and financial support.
This article proceeds as follows. First, an account of the attributing factors that led to
the student protests and their aims in initiating this protest action are given. This section
will show that the way one interprets the events is willingly or unwillingly related to
taking a stand in the conflict. It seems...
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