UKZN rolls out social justice module
The module will be compulsory for all first-time entry students as of 2024.
THE University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is set to commence the 2024 academic year with the roll-out of a groundbreaking initiative – the innovative Critical Social Justice and Citizenship Module.
The module has been created to change prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes and address ongoing societal injustices such as GBV, racism, xenophobia and homophobia.
The module is UKZN’s response meant to spark a transformational journey and serve as a catalyst for change.
Around 9000 first-year students will make up the majority of the first cohort to benefit from the university-wide module which will be compulsory for all first-time entry students as of 2024.
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It encompasses eight online lectures and eight supporting tutorials.
Reflecting the inclusive nature of the module, students have 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 both 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.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at UKZN and task team chair, Professor Thabo Msibi says the University is very pleased with the module.
“Through this module, we hope to produce graduates who are more conscious about their own humanity and that of others, and who have a good sense of dealing with injustice in society.”
The teaching of the module was piloted in the University’s College of Humanities in the second semester of 2023, using 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.
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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 develops, 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.
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