The African Knowledge Production Incubators
our story of doing research the African way
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/ajhece.v2i1.2552Keywords:
African Knowledge Production, incubation, decolonisation, social work education, Participatory Action Learning Action Research, storytellingAbstract
This paper addresses the enduring challenge of Eurocentric curricula in higher education, specifically detailing an initiative by African social work scholars to decolonise the social work curriculum. The African Knowledge Production Incubators (AKPI) project, stemming from Nelson Mandela University, University of KwaZulu Natal, Wits University, and Stellenbosch University, adopted a Participatory Action Learning Action Research (PALAR) methodology, inherently democratic and decolonial. Leveraging Zavala’s (2016) decolonial framework, the project established ‘incubation’ spaces where we came together to share and cocreate our African lived experiences through storytelling, collective sense-making, and reclaiming our narratives. This process fostered critical consciousness, personal cognitive liberation, and a clear embrace of Afrocentric perspectives, involving postgraduate students in similar processes in their own research. The project foregrounds the decolonisation of self, curriculum and research, demonstrating how storytelling, aligned with PALAR, can achieve decolonial outcomes within social work education. It aims to catalyse thoughtful conversations on integrating African selves within community, curriculum, and scientific inquiry.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Nevashnee Perumal, Priscalia Khosa, Motlalepule Nathane, Veonna Goliath, Mbongeni Sithole, Nkqubela Aphiwe Ntloko, Dzunisani Euginea Baloyi, Crucial Mutambu, Tintswalo Novela, Brian Muvhali, Nokwanda Myende
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