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30 October 2018 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Peet van Aardt
iCAN contributes to a decolonised curriculum
Some of the student writers who contributed to the anthology that tells their stories in Sesotho, isiXhosa, isiZulu, English and Afrikaans.

How do you transform the higher education curriculum? You involve the exact people the curriculum is intended for. The book, Initiative for Creative African Narratives (iCAN,) illustrates how decolonisation can be achieved through literature   for students by students.

iCAN is an initiative by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of the Free State (UFS) to mentor students in creative and narrative writing. Under the mentorship of Dr Peet van Aardt, project coordinator, and Ace Moloi, author and UFS alumnus, iCAN Volume 1 was recently launched with 47 short stories written by UFS students. 

“The project is a response from the centre for the ever-increasing need for decolonised curricula, steeped in the local cultural perspective of ubuntu,” said Dr Van Aardt.

“This book is an example for how decolonisation can be implemented,” said Prof Francois Stydrom, Senior Director of CTL. The overall aim of the iCAN project is to have the content that materialised from it to be included in the curriculum of first-year students at UFS in the near future.

Book provides multiple voices

Starting in May 2018, CTL presented a series of creative writing workshops on all three of the UFS campuses. “It’s a medium that allows a diverse range of students to express their views and develop their voices as writers,” said Prof Strydom.  

It is a form of empowerment, to pass the baton to students to improve the UFS curriculum by writing and publishing their own stories, thereby contributing to larger bodies of knowledge through their lived experiences.

“I believe we as a university need to enable students so that they move away from just being users to becoming contributors to the curriculum,” Dr van Aardt concluded. 

News Archive

Prof Lis Lange appointed as Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning at UCT
2017-12-11


 Description: Prof Lis Lange appointed as Deputy Vice-Chancellor UCT Tags: Prof Lis Lange appointed as Deputy Vice-Chancellor UCT 

Prof Lis Lange, Vice-Rector: Academic at the UFS. 
Photo: Stephen Collet 

Prof Lis Lange, Vice-Rector: Academic at the University of the Free State (UFS), has been appointed as Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning at the University of Cape Town (UCT) as from 1 February 2018.

Significant contribution at the UFS 
"Prof Lange has played a significant role in developing and transforming the academic profile of the university. She has done outstanding work, inter alia, in developing a robust framework for academic planning; assisting with developing the Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP) which was recently approved by the UFS Council, as well as the newly approved Strategic Plan of the UFS for 2018-2023; driving the work of some of the Vice-Chancellor’s Task Teams; and various other strategic projects," says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

Portfolio at UCT
"On behalf of the executive management, I wish her all success in the new portfolio. She brings to her new portfolio at UCT a wealth of experience in the higher-education sector. Prof Lange is a well-known specialist in South African higher education and has made an important contribution to the study of systemic and institutional transformation, academic freedom, and curriculum," says Prof Petersen.

Prof Lange's portfolio at UCT will entail developing, implementing, and monitoring programmes and progress towards the teaching and learning goals of UCT's strategic plan; promoting the use of technology in education and the advancement of online learning; oversight of academic planning, quality assurance, and quality promotion through the Department of Institutional Planning, as well as having oversight over the six faculties at UCT.

Prof Hendri Kroukamp, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, will be acting Vice-Rector: Academic as from 1 February 2018 until a suitable appointment is made.

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