ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a theoretical approach developed for a curriculum transformation project driven from the Centre for Higher Education and Development at a University of Technology. It explains critical realism as a meta-theoretical framework which guided the development of counterhegemonic curriculum transformation project. The project seeks to respond towards calls for decolonization of South African higher education (HE) following the unprecedented student protests which engulfed South African higher education in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 academic years, respectively. Higher education continues to perpetuate racial education inequalities with student throughput and completion rates remaining racialized. During the apartheid era, curriculum theory was only taught in the former White English Universities together with their associated colleges of education, while White Afrikaans-medium and all other historically Black universities offered the now-defunct didactic tradition. While there is a wide range of literature around graduate attributes in HE globally, there is unfortunately a lack of conceptual or theoretical clarity.
