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30 October 2018
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Story Rulanzen Martin
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Photo Peet van Aardt
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.
Prof. Gert van Zyl, chairman of COHSASA Board
2010-10-22
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Prof. Gert van Zyl |
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Prof. Gert van Zyl, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), was recently elected as the new Chairman of the Board of the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA).
Prof. Van Zyl has been Head of the School of Medicine at the university since 2001 and acting Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences since August 2009. He is an expert in family medicine, community-health and health-professions education. He is also the Deputy Chairperson of the Universitas Private Hospital doctors’ group in Bloemfontein and a member of the Board of the Kimberley Hospital.
Prof. Van Zyl also serves on the Council of the SA Medical Association’s branch in the Free State. He also lectures undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the UFS School of Medicine.
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