Unlocking the chains of knowledge: Understanding the challenges, remaking pedagogies and curriculum renewal

A recently published book titled Unlocking the chains of knowledge: Understanding the challenges, remaking pedagogies and curriculum renewal has again brought to the fore the need for universities in South Africa and beyond to embrace curriculum renewal and transformative pedagogic and curriculum initiatives. Exactly ten years ago, the #RhodesMustFall movement thrust critical concerns to the fore, including colonial ideologies that still shape university spaces, curricula, and power structures. Similarly, the book interrogates “knowledge and knowers” from a Global South perspective, asking whose knowledge is prioritised in the academy and how this can be reimagined.

Unlocking the chains of knowledge is divided into three sections. The first presents perspectives from the global South. It contains five innovative chapters, which range in topic from knowledge generation and thought creation in South African and Zimbabwean universities to collective autoethnographic reflections on curriculum innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically in the discipline of sociology.

Section two looks at the “decolonial turn”, which unpacks curriculum renewal and best practices. The thematic repertoire of these six chapters ranges from what makes a good university, what is a decolonised university in South Africa and Zimbabwe, to unpacking the University of Limpopo’s dual medium undergraduate degree in Sepedi (Sesotho sa Leboa) and English. The final chapter also looks at the notion of translanguaging for Nguni engineering students.

In the third and final section of the book, the focus shifts to embedding social justice in higher education as part of a transformative agenda. The themes in the five chapters of this section range from transforming research methods in linguistics education to the complexities facing undergraduate students conducting research as part of an interdisciplinary programme.  It sheds light on undergraduate students’ understandings and experiences of gender- and sexuality-related safe spaces on campus. The section also speaks to transformative teaching and how we can think about students’ experiences, emotions, and emotional labour in learning about social justice. Finally, the idea of a multicultural writing space centre is brought to the fore.

Prof Russell H. Kaschula, Prof Monwabisi K. Ralarala, and Prof Zannie Bock and at the book launch. Image: Shelley Christians

Emeritus Professor Crain Soudien, in the foreword to Unlocking the chains, concludes that the book “…is a great contribution to the discussion about decolonisation but more significantly about what the value of our contribution as intellectuals in the university could be.” Professor Christine Winberg, a Research Chair in Work-integrated Learning at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology notes that “[a]t its core, this work presents a tripartite focus: firstly, understanding the deep-seated issues ingrained in the traditional university structure; secondly, remaking pedagogical practices; and lastly, renewing the curriculum.”

Unlocking the chains brings into question the role of a 21st-century university in creating and disseminating knowledge. A university should not be equated to an intellectual factory where the same knowledge is pushed through the system year after year. It needs to respond to societal needs and changes. A university should be a dynamic space, creating new and innovative knowledge on a continual basis.

In a recent public graduation address, it has been pointed out by the new Rector and Vice-Chancellor of UWC, Professor Robert Balfour, that the world is now moving to a more exclusive environment rather than an inclusive environment for all its peoples regardless of race, colour, creed, sexuality or religion. What is the role of the university in such a fast-changing world?

This is a world where inclusivity is being negated in favour of a risky and raw exclusivity brought on by new political debates and positioning in relation to the previous notion of a globalised world. This requires both inward and outward circumspection on the part of intellectuals to continually create knowledge which is both local but also aspires to global inclusivity at a time when the very university itself is arguably under threat due to budget cuts globally and political interference from a pedagogic and curriculum point of view.

Professor Suren Pillay

Unlocking the chains of knowledge, therefore, presents an opportunity to engage with issues pertaining to pedagogic and curriculum renewal. After all, this should be at the core of the work of a contemporary university. The book is well-positioned in this regard.

Although the book emanates from the Arts and Humanities, it should be emulated across faculties at all universities as we grapple with the role of educators in the era of artificial intelligence, political manipulation and an attempt to find a true understanding of what it means to be an African university, where research and teaching speak to intellectual excellence in a changing world.


The book was edited by Professor Monwabisi K. Ralarala, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at the University of the Western Cape (UWC); Professor Suren Pillay, the AC Jordan Research Chair at the University of Cape Town; and Professors Zannie Bock and Russell H. Kaschula, both of whom are professors of Linguistics and African Language Studies at UWC. In addition, Professor Kaschula holds the position of Institutional Chair in Forensic Linguistics and Multilingualism at UWC.