A pedagogy of authenticity: Inclusivity, belonging and care in decolonial undergraduate education

Transformation in Higher Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title A pedagogy of authenticity: Inclusivity, belonging and care in decolonial undergraduate education
 
Creator Titi, Neziswa
 
Subject Humanities; Psychology; African Feminist Studies; Social Sciences pedagogy of authenticity; belonging; Afrocentricity; decoloniality; feminist ethic of care; translanguaging; identity; subjectivities; music integration; collaborative reflection
Description This article introduces the pedagogy of authenticity, a transformative teaching and learning methodology designed to enhance student belonging, academic success and global cultural competencies in South African undergraduate education. By challenging monolingual norms and integrating Afrocentric philosophies and a feminist ethic of care, it creates inclusive classroom spaces where students express their full identities and subjectivities. Further, students are able to use their home languages, leveraging translanguaging and music as resources to learn. This approach addresses identity struggles in Generation Z, fosters communal connections and humanises students by honouring diverse identities. Key strategies include participatory teaching, collaborative reflection and non-hierarchical dialogue. Employing a qualitative research design rooted in collaborative reflection and feminist enquiry, with rigorous reflexivity and intercoder agreement, this article identifies the core components, namely: embracing multiplicity, addressing epistemic dislocation, understanding the decolonial context, legitimising diverse student experiences, and implementing inclusive teaching. It also outlines an equitable assessment model that prioritises conceptual understanding.Contribution: The pedagogy offers a framework that enables equitable education globally within contexts where there is multilingualism and cultural fluidity. Future research should integrate mixed methods and longitudinal studies to assess long-term impacts and scalability across various contexts.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor NIHSS UCT Multlingual Education Project UCT New Academic Practitioners Programme
Date 2025-12-01
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/the.v10i0.580
 
Source Transformation in Higher Education; Vol 10 (2025); 11 pages 2519-5638 2415-0991
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/580/1060 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/580/1061 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/580/1062 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/580/1063
 
Coverage — — Undergraduate First-year class; Post-graduate students
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Neziswa Titi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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