About 9,000 first-year students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal will have to complete a compulsory module this year that will focus on gender-based violence, racism, xenophobia and homophobia.
The university is set to kick off the 2024 academic year with the rollout of a groundbreaking initiative, the Critical Social Justice and Citizenship Module.
It said the module had been created to change prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes and address societal injustices such as GBV, racism, xenophobia and homophobia. The module is UKZN’s bold response meant to serve as a catalyst for change within and beyond.
Deputy vice-chancellor for teaching and learning at the university and task team chair Prof Thabo Msibi said: “Through this module, we hope to produce graduates who are more conscious about their humanity and that of others, and who have a good sense of dealing with injustice in society.”
He said it encompassed eight online lectures and eight supporting tutorials.
Reflecting the inclusive nature of the module, Msibi said students had a choice to engage with the learning material, lectures and tutorials in either English or isiZulu.
“The module, which is going to be run in the first and second semesters of each year, challenges students to recognise a bit of themselves in everyone else and to respond with kindness, humility and humanity.
“The module creates a space where conversations transcend the ordinary, and where first-time entry students embark on a powerful voyage towards empathy, empowerment and a brighter, more just future,” he said.
Furthermore, the institution said the teaching of the module was piloted in the university’s college of humanities in the second semester of 2023.
It used a blended learning delivery consisting of pre-recorded online lectures and small in-person group tutorials, which encourage full participation and experiential learning through shared experiences.
“The aim is that the module will be dynamic, experiential and emancipatory,” said Msibi.
Over the years, gender-based violence has become increasingly worrying to the university leadership, who sought a multilevel approach to address the problem.
The module was initially developed in response to the high rates of GBV in the country and across university campuses. However, during its conceptualisation, the module task team realised that GBV intersects with other social issues. As such, a much broader subject framework that incorporated and engaged with race, culture, xenophobia, homophobia, disability, class and other forms of difference was adopted, said the university.
“The lecture series and in-person tutorials offer an invitation to students to engage in real conversations, dissecting topics that are often overlooked, considered taboo, or avoided because they are not always comfortable.
“As the module develops, it will include written activities and mini-projects with which students will need to engage and pass. The aim is to understand how negative attitudes towards otherness develop, and how to challenge these to disrupt old ways of thinking and learn new ways to study, live and work together, with people who are different,” said the university.
Dr Antoinette D’amant, module co-ordinator leader and lecturer in social justice education at UKZN, said no matter what qualification students registered for, they would be required to do this module.
D’amant said it was a testament to the university's commitment to taking the project of liberation and empowerment seriously.
“We will be looking at all forms of difference and otherness, and the prejudice, discrimination and oppression that go hand-in-hand with these (gender, race, class, religious differences, ability, size and so on).
“While SA has a wonderfully progressive legislature and policies, these alone don’t change a country’s social landscape. We still desperately need to challenge the old definitions and labels that isolate, devalue, marginalise and exclude certain individuals and groups of people, and build a landscape which values all people and social groups, regardless of their difference,” said D’amant.
She said the module would look critically at the various forms and faces of injustice to help heal the divisions of the past and find a way forward where students can learn to accept, celebrate and respect all people, regardless of differences.
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