VIRTUAL New Schools of Thought

Abstract

Much progress has been made in higher education pedagogy regarding the importance of a decolonised curriculum – as disciplines begin to reimagine what their respective decolonised fields look like. This paper contributes to wider pedagogical debates surrounding the place and time dimensions of decolonial teaching. By developing an account of the epistemology and normative power of the order and focus of taught subjects and themes, the authors propose that we require a temporal approach to decolonial teaching. By situating decolonial subjects, actors, and concerns first the Eurocentric curriculum sequence is de-hierarchised and students are encouraged to experience and recognise these sensitivities as primary to their learning journey. If the decolonisation of the curriculum is experienced last, no spatio-temporal priority is accommodated to it, resulting in skewed perceptions regarding its importance, and the teacher’s priorities. Engagement with traditional and Eurocentric agendas must follow decolonial teaching, rather than precede it, if we wish to generate spaces of possibility and generativity within critical thinking.