Original Research

Beyond counting the numbers: Shifting higher education transformation into curriculum spaces

Labby Ramrathan
Transformation in Higher Education | Vol 1, No 1 | a6 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v1i1.6 | © 2016 Labby Ramrathan | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 03 June 2016 | Published: 25 October 2016

About the author(s)

Labby Ramrathan, School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, the path of higher education transformation has been guided by the ‘White Paper 3: A Programme for Higher Education Transformation’. This path has largely been conceptualised within a framework of equity through redress and social justice that sought to change the face of higher education through demographic changes. Hence higher education transformation largely took on a number-counting process. The curriculum changes that have taken place thus far have largely been of an instrumental and responsive modality. In this paper I argue that deep curriculum transformation in higher education will be possible if we shift our gaze from predominantly a number-counting exercise to curriculum intellectualism. The next wave of higher education curriculum transformation would be a fundamental rethink based on emerging curriculum theories.

Keywords

higher education transformation; curriculum transformation; access and participation

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