- Nov 20, 2025
- Posted by:
- Category: Abstract of 10th-icetl
Abstract Book of the 10th International Conference on Research in Education, Teaching and Learning
Year: 2025
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Defamiliarization in Advancing a Decolonial Approach to Global Citizenship Education
Zayd Waghid
ABSTRACT:
In South Africa, despite the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements calling over the past 10 years for free, decolonized higher education, the lack of curriculum transformation in schools has remained uncontested. Curriculum renewal in basic education in the country post-1994 has seen several education reforms, whose stated purpose is to address the shortcomings of the former curricula. However, while curriculum transformation has been high on the South African government’s agenda post-1994, no evidence suggests these reforms have begun to yield the desired democratic values espoused in current and past curricula. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether defamiliarization used in schools by some preservice teachers during their teaching practice in South Africa can be considered an appropriate decolonizing pedagogical practice for advancing global citizenship education (GCE). The research used a case study design, with data collected in the form of reflection essays from 11 preservice teachers during their teaching practice period. The findings indicate that the specific defamiliarization practice used by these teachers aided both them and their students, through a reflective and collaborative process, in recognizing and critiquing the hierarchical knowledge paradigm in the current school curriculum and consciously resisting epistemic violence. The defamiliarization practice increased participants’ self-reflexivity and served as a pedagogy of dissensus. This is a novel study in that it accounts for the perceived benefits of defamiliarization in advancing certain aspects of critical GCE from the Global South.
Keywords: Defamiliarization, Decoloniality, Global Citizenship Education, Pedagogy, Teaching and Learning