ABSTRACT
Since 1994 calls to decolonise curricula in institutions of higher learning have been consistently made by some South African scholars. Following the 2015 #RhodesMustFall movement at the University of Cape Town, calls to decolonise curricula reverberated throughout South Africa. Using journalism education and training curricula in South Africa as a case study, this chapter questions why, despite the consistent calls to transform journalism curricula, they have remained deeply entrenched in western epistemologies 24 years after democratisation. Drawing from Foucault’s thesis of power and knowledge and Said’s subsequent extension of it, it argues that curricula are a contested terrain where there are various (re) constructions and (re)definitions of knowledge. The chapter interrogates why calls to decolonise journalism curricula have persistently remained at the level of debate and theory. It then argues that an understanding of the context within which decolonisation is expected to take place is critical.
