Petro Du Preez

North-West University | NWU · School of Education Studies (Potchefstroom Campus)

In this consolidated report, detailed feedback on the processes, outcomes and milestones reached during the entire funding period of the project titled - Designing, training and researching postgraduate Curriculum Studies in Tanzania – are provided. The detailed programmes are also available. This is presented against the theoretical backdrop of Af...

South Africa is essentially a traumatised society in which remembrance of the past evokes many different emotions. This traumatised state is partly the result of the contradicting and confusing remembrances that individuals have of the past and how these translate into the present. This article proposes that remembrance should not be reduced to a s...

In this article we document the becoming of the Curriculum Studies Special Interest Group of the South African Education Research Association. We outline the SIG's activities since inception and theorise the work of the SIG through thinking with the ideas of scholars. For us theory works not as a noun but as a verb, so we prefer to speak of theoris...

Ubuntu-currere, resonates with Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity (inspired by the figuration of the salamander) in the sense that they are both regenerative processes although the former might be viewed as a macro-process and the latter a micro-process. Ubuntu-currere concerns the (ongoing) unfolding/becoming of the human in intra-action wi...

Background: Recent attempts to rekindle the decolonisation of education project in South Africa, is a reaction to perceptions that there are fundamental frailties in the existing curriculum. Childhood education is yet to take up the challenge in any substantive way.Aim: To explore the insights critical posthumanism might offer in attempting to addr...

In the reconceptualisation era of curriculum studies, scholars drew on a range of theories such as existentialism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, feminism, poststructuralism, and especially critical theory. They used critical theory as a lens to examine the influence of social and political forces on curriculum, in particular the role of dominant i...

Sustainable development has been the dominant focus in sustainability discourses over the past three decades. In 2015, the United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a blueprint for peace and prosperity. The agenda is to be driven by the now well-known 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The higher educ...

In this article, we provoke the question as to the potentiality of dissent in a neoliberal higher education assemblage circumscribed within the meta-assemblage of late global capitalism. We offer a counter-intuitive exploration of the much-vaunted post-apartheid South African fetish, social cohesion, to argue that such ideological imperatives, when...

The purpose of higher education curriculum transformation has often been justified amidst calls for decolonisation, the redressing of social injustices, preparing students for the world of work, and so on. Noble as this might sound, these justifications lead to an instrumentalist view of higher education curriculum transformation that reinforces a...

The multifaceted nature of COVID-19 permeates all dimensions of human life. In this article, we argue that the COVID-19 crisis might teach us something about dealing with ruptures of this kind and scope in the future. The pandemic challenges our Being-in-the-world and it has the potential to help us realise the authentic possibilities of our own be...

Several curriculum scholars have argued for an ethical turn in the study of curriculum based on concerns about the debunking of ethics in postmodern society. The notion of ethics in curriculum scholarship, with specific emphasis on curriculum leadership, is explored through a narrative of a school principal and contemporary French philosopher Alain...

In this article, we report on four case studies of how higher education institutions have grappled with the demands of decolonisation of their curricula. In some respects, the cases differ in form and content, and the unique responses to decolonisation of each institution are described and analysed. An important similarity among the institutions wa...

Student-teachers are exposed to different approaches to teaching Religion Education in South Africa. Amongst these have been the phenomenological-reflective-dialogical approach of Cornelia Roux and the empathetic-reflective-dialogical approach of Janet Jarvis. These different approaches made immeasurable contributions as they started to shift how R...

Ecological crises, advances in biogenetic research, imbalances within the economic systems, and an exponential growth of social divisions and exclusions have led to a global capitalist system that is approaching an apocalyptic zero-point. Within this uncertain and unstable context, humans need to rethink their own subjectivity in relation to that o...

At present, there is a dearth of primary data on the experiences of the child survivors of trafficking for sexual exploitation. Qualitative research methodologies are needed to help researchers and practitioners from a variety of disciplines to understand the complex issues associated with child sex trafficking (CST), to gain greater insight into t...

In this article we problematize the hegemony of what we are choosing to call International Knowledge, as opposed to (South) African Knowledge, as it appears in articles and essays by International1 authors in high-impact journals. We eschew the term Global North in the light of rising debates about decolonisation and forms of cognitive colonisation...

In this article I explore the (non)constructive contestations between decolonisation and internationalisation and the extent to which this might inform the construction of undergraduate university curricula. To augment this exploration, I consider Rosi Braidotti's The Posthuman (2013) to ask what we can learn from Braidotti when it comes to the dec...

Protest movements such as the #MustFall currently dominate the South African higher education landscape. This article focuses on such protest movements, paying particular attention to protests against gender-based violations at some universities, commonly referred to as #RapeMustFall, as an exemplar of the gender injustices and inequities that pers...

p>Transformation is often loosely defined. We argue that the reason for this is its inherent complexity. Paradoxically, its lack of definition is an asset, which provides an opportunity to rethink and research transformation in higher education, rather than an urgent problem to be solved. In this article, the possibilities for researching and rethi...

Against the background of global concern about the political and social consequences of human rights, this article uses an ideological lens to explore the (non)existence of the right to education in South Africa. We argue that post-apartheid education actively (re)normalises the in(ex)clusions of the poor in education within neo-liberal capitalist...

Although classified as a developing country, South Africa lags far behind other BRICS member countries. A cause for concern is that the number of PhD studies rather than what they contribute is often used to measure their quality. This article argues that a quality PhD study must engage with the global knowledge society. A critical meta-study was c...

In South Africa four key policy discourses underpin doctoral education: growth, capacity, efficiency, and quality discourses. This article contributes to the discourse on quality by engaging with quality assurance from the perspective of the decision makers and implementers of macro policy (national), meso (institutional), and micro (faculty/depart...

Summary of the current research project: Human Right Literacy

Theoretical ambiguities in curriculum studies result in conceptual mayhem. Accordingly, they hinder the development of the complicated conversation on curriculum as a verb. This article aims to contribute to reconceptualizing curriculum studies as a dynamic social practice that aspires to thinking and acting with intelligences and sensitivity so as...

The curriculum has been proposed as a powerful means with the potential to initiate social transformation. It reflects the dominant social, economical and political discourses and for this reason it seems reasonable to situate reconciliatory discourses in relation to the curriculum. Whilst curriculum scholars mostly agree that we need to seek new d...

Life Orientation (in the Senior and Further Education and Training phases) and Life Skills (in the Intermediate Phase) is a compulsory school subject. In curriculum policy documents the purpose of LO is described as: i) empowering learners to use their talents to achieve their full physical, intellectual, personal, emotional and social potential; i...

Greater diversity and a decline in the understanding of the moral purposes of education has not only had an impact on secular school environments’ conceptualization of values in education, but also influenced faith based school contexts. Amidst greater diversity, the questions pertaining to values in education have become more complex and have ofte...

Understanding religion and especially different aspects of world religions is today, more than ever, an important part of social science. Religion is not only a means whereby many different cultures categorise and define human values, but it also provides a way in which to understand diversity in humankind’s experiences with life as part of our que...

Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery and is often collectively referred to as a human rights violation.However, human trafficking is more complex than this suggests as this article attempts to demonstrate. It begins bydescribing the landscape of international trends in human trafficking, with particular attention to child trafficking....

What do these lyrics tell us about education and society? About the (safe) space we call ‘classroom’? About the right to education? Is this gloomy picture of education, with its aggressive overtones, merely artistic hyperbole? Or does it tell us something about the nature of education? Globalization and the rise of the knowledge economy have had a...

It is imperative to take account of the many faces of justice when exploring the elements of a curriculum for justice. Justice is not only about equity, equality and fairness, but about creating spaces where people can learn to prioritise a significant Other and practise doing so. The curriculum needs to provide a space where the legal, restorative...

Discussions on discipline in education often accentuate corporal punishment or measures to infuse moral fibre. In addition, many authors argue that inculcating a particular value system can promote discipline in schools. This could however be profoundly problematic in the light of the Constitution. We argue that positive discipline in multicultural...

In this chapter the concepts human rights values is introduced as a means of facilitating an understanding of the diversity and of religions, beliefs and values and therewith religious differences in South Africa. Human rights values, rather than focusing on diversity of religions, beliefs and values per se provide the opportunity to explore the th...

The Report of the Ministerial Committee on Teacher Education, A National Framework for Teacher Education in South Africa (2005), underlines the need for more attention to be given to the professional development of in-service teachers in South Africa. Many programme-related initiatives for the professional development of teachers have resulted from...

Prior to 1994, the presence of minority belief systems and values in education were largely ignored in South Africa. It could be expected that after ten years of democracy students' understanding of, for instance, the values of inclusivity and diversity in a multicultural society in general and tertiary education in particular should not be in ques...

In this article I explore the notion of epistemic relativity and its impact on Religion in Education. I argue that epistemic relativism in the study of Religion in Education has the potential to stimulate critical dialogue about religious content and assist interlocutors to balance their commitment to their own truths and beliefs and openness to th...