Original Research

Rage, loss and other footpaths: Subjectification, decolonisation and transformation in higher education

Anne Becker
Transformation in Higher Education | Vol 2 | a23 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v2i0.23 | © 2017 Anne Becker | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 10 May 2017 | Published: 22 August 2017

About the author(s)

Anne Becker, Department of Curriculum Studies, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Abstract

The need to transform higher education in South Africa is indisputable. This article explores how the recent #mustfall protests, as an Event, could inform transformation. An Event follows three phases: reframing (shattering the frame through which we understand reality), the fall (the loss of a primordial unity which is a retroactive illusion) and enlightenment (subjectivity itself as an eventuality). In conclusion, I pose that a shift towards who comes into presence in higher education and not (a pre-determined) what comes into presence, could provide possible footpaths to decolonialisation and transformation. Through processes of subjectification, the subject(s) of higher education could reframe historic ontological othering and actively take part in the process(es) of becoming and being human in higher education in (post)colonial South Africa.

Keywords

decolonisation; higher education; #mustfall protests; ontological othering; subjectification; transformation

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