Transformative and Culturally-Responsive Teaching in African Higher Education
An intermediate, practice-grounded course for teaching faculty, lecturers, and instructors that anchors the "Transformative" half of CAA's Certificate in Inclusive and Transformative Teaching. Drawing on critical, decolonial, and culturally-sustaining pedagogies—reinterpreted for the realities of African universities—this course equips educators to design learning experiences that affirm student identities, centre African epistemologies, and drive genuine transformative change. Participants move from the colonial inheritance of the African university, through critical and transformative pedagogy, culturally-responsive and culturally-sustaining frameworks, and African epistemologies, to the practical work of decolonising curricula and designing identity-affirming learning experiences—while navigating large cohorts, scarce resources, and multilingual classrooms.
This intermediate course equips teaching faculty, lecturers, and instructors in African higher education to design learning experiences that affirm student identities, centre African epistemologies, and drive genuine transformative change. It moves from philosophical foundations and critical/transformative pedagogy, through culturally-responsive and culturally-sustaining teaching, to African epistemologies and the decolonial curriculum project, culminating in concrete design and institutional-change strategies.
Instruction & Evaluation
Online / Asynchronous (Self-Paced with Faculty Mentorship)
Self-paced modular instruction with continuous continental access via the CAA Member Portal, supplemented by faculty moderation.
Continuous Assessment & Practical Portfolio
Weekly reflective journal (20%), Africanization audit (25%), transformative lesson design (30%), capstone implementation & evaluation plan (25%).
What You Will Master
- Critically analyse the theoretical foundations of transformative, critical, and decolonial pedagogy and evaluate their relevance to African higher-education contexts.
- Distinguish between culturally-responsive, culturally-revitalizing, and culturally-sustaining teaching, and apply each framework to design inclusive, identity-affirming learning experiences.
- Articulate the philosophical bases of African epistemologies, indigenous knowledge systems, and Ubuntu, and explain how they can be ethically woven into disciplinary curricula without romanticisation or appropriation.
- Diagnose coloniality and epistemic injustice in curricula, textbooks, teaching methods, and assessment, and apply decolonial and Africanization frameworks to reform them.
- Design concrete learning activities, assessment tasks, and blended-learning environments that affirm diverse student identities within the constraints of large cohorts and limited resources.
- Develop an implementation-and-evaluation plan for a transformative teaching intervention and reflect critically on one's own positionality and pedagogical transformation.
8 Modules
Foundations of Transformation in African Higher Education
Establishes the philosophical and contextual foundations of the course. Examines the historical purpose of the university in Africa, the lingering colonial inheritance of higher-education structures, and the distinction between cosmetic inclusivity and genuine transformation. Participants interrogate their own role as transformative agents and confront the material realities—large classes, scarce resources, multilingual student bodies—that shape what transformation can mean in practice.
2 Lessons
Critical and Transformative Pedagogy
Dives into the intellectual core of transformative teaching through Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Jack Mezirow. Participants learn to distinguish conscientization, dialogue, and problem-posing education from traditional banking models, and explore how transformative learning theory describes deep, perspective-shifting change in adult learners—reinterpreted for the power dynamics of African lecture halls.
2 Lessons
Culturally-Responsive Teaching
Introduces foundational frameworks of culturally-responsive teaching (Gay, Ladson-Billings) and applies them to the multilingual, multi-ethnic realities of African universities. Participants learn to identify the funds of knowledge students bring, and to use culture as a bridge to rigorous academic learning rather than as a deficit.
2 Lessons
Culturally-Sustaining Pedagogy
Introduces culturally-sustaining and revitalizing pedagogy (Paris & Alim), which goes beyond merely recognising or responding to student culture to actively sustaining and pluralising it. Participants explore how moving from responsive to sustaining shifts the goal of teaching.
2 Lessons
African Epistemologies, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Ubuntu
Introduces the philosophical cores of African epistemic traditions—indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), Ubuntu/Umunthu worldviews, and scholars like Oyěwùmí and Ramose—and examines how they can be rigorously and ethically integrated into university teaching. Participants learn to distinguish genuine epistemic inclusion from tokenistic appropriation.
2 Lessons
Africanization and Decolonial Curriculum Transformation
Examines the large-scale project of Africanising and decolonising the university curriculum—the agenda at the heart of CAA's mission. Participants engage with the intellectual architecture of decoloniality (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Mignolo, Quijano, Fanon) and the practical tensions between cosmetic diversification and genuine epistemic transformation.
2 Lessons
Designing Transformative and Culturally-Sustaining Learning Experiences
The methodological heart of the course, where theory becomes practice. Participants learn concrete lesson-design, facilitation, and assessment strategies that affirm identities and drive transformation while coping with large cohorts, scarce resources, and blended delivery.
2 Lessons
Sustaining Transformation—Institutional Change and the Reflective Practitioner
Concluding module that consolidates the course and projects it forward. Participants consider how to sustain and scale transformation beyond a single classroom—navigating institutional politics, quality assurance, and continental reform agendas—and complete their capstone implementation-and-evaluation plan.
2 Lessons
Weekly Topics
Ready to enrol in TEC108?
Access this course, study modular pedagogical frameworks, and earn verified CPD credits through the CAA member portal.
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