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Universities in the Global South, such as those in South Africa, are under the obligation to set themselves on a research and teaching path that addresses contextual issues by drawing on knowledge traditions of the Global South (Santos, 2014). This entails the emancipation from problems and solutions, forms of knowledge, practices of knowledge generation and institutional structures originating from the Global North. It also entails the generation of knowledge from and for the own context, and the articulation of a voice that addresses local and global issues. Universities encounter, however, various internal and external obstacles such as corporate institutional cultures, minds and practices caught in the grips of coloniality and the homogenising demands of ‘world-class standards’ and ranking leagues (see Mbembe, 2016). The processes of decoloniality as ‘delinking’ (Mignolo, 2007) and of Africanisation as construction need to filter through in all academic and professional fields.

The task of universities in Africa to professionally develop educators is part of the project of decoloniality. Education plays a central role in the processes of Africanisation and decolonisation since it includes most fields of knowledge and reflects the ideals of what society wants to become. Education is also centrally concerned with subjectivities (minds, bodies, agency) of the youth which have become a central terrain of contest in the quest for decoloniality. It could therefore be expected of educators to be active participants who do not simply transmit dominant forms of knowledge but who enable students to draw on different knowledge traditions in their own professional becoming. The different fields of the professional development of educators respond in their own ways to the challenge.

While these issues have been dealt with in the different fields of education, more needs to be done to rethink educational curricula, pedagogies and governance. The theorising about decoloniality and Africanisation has not adequately engaged with educational practices or with the development of educators. 

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