Conference Program

In the contemporary global era, grounded in social and epistemic justice, critical teacher education is pivotal towards transforming intersectional discrimination, neoliberalism, and the legacies of colonialism. The continued dominance of the Eurocentric knowledge paradigm of the Global North in the South continues to create tension in education. Educators, in particular, have an essential role to play in cultivating students’ awareness and criticality around how social and cognitive injustice can be disrupted, specifically by developing students’ need to critically scrutinise how knowledge is produced, whose lives, voices, and knowledges are valued, and how current biases can be addressed. This research explores how discourses of (de)coloniality shape Teacher Education in South Africa.

Pre-service teachers’ responses were analysed using Grounded Theory methodology, interpreted through the lens of critical and decolonial theories. Drawing on interviews with student teachers from a South African university, we investigate how these discourses are perceived, internalised, challenged, or reinterpreted by future educators situated within varying historical legacies and institutional frameworks. Our aim is not only to compare how (de)colonial narratives shape student teachers’ understandings of their profession.

This study first critically examines the structures, relations, and conditions of knowledge production, its dissemination and educational practices in the South African education context. We draw specifically on those postcolonial theories that advance knowledge through pragmatic application of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and decolonising pedagogical approaches to develop critical global citizens. We aim not only to add diverse perspectives, but also to re-examine existing curricula and priorities, if and, how these cultivate socially conscious and responsible students.

Second, we present results from interviews conducted with student teachers, the aim of which was to discover what decolonisation means to them and its impact on their pedagogical professionalism. The study aims to identify overlaps and differences in their conceptions and to provide insights into opportunities for further research, teaching and international exchange. One focus is the discussion of the development of a professional identity that encompasses critical analysis of social interaction in an educational context.