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Papers by JA Becker

Transformation in Higher Education, 2020

Setting: Transformation and decolonising in global and South African higher education. Method: A ... more Setting: Transformation and decolonising in global and South African higher education. Method: A reflective analysis is done through a decolonial lens. The contributions of authors are reflected upon through three themes: place (local and global), epistemology and alienation. Results: Although I find the engagement with decolonising substantive, I argue that there is still a lack of publications on specifically decoloniality and decolonial analysis. Conclusion: I argue that the journal of Transformation in Higher Education provides a platform for difficult and robust discussions on decoloniality, transformation, epistemology, issues of sexuality, gender and race, internationalisation and possible pluriversalisation in higher education for South African and international scholars.

Transformation in Higher Education, 2017

The need to transform higher education in South Africa is indisputable. This article explores how... more The need to transform higher education in South Africa is indisputable. This article explores how the recent #mustfall protests, as an Event, could inform transformation. An Event follows three phases: reframing (shattering the frame through which we understand reality), the fall (the loss of a primordial unity which is a retroactive illusion) and enlightenment (subjectivity itself as an eventuality). In conclusion, I pose that a shift towards who comes into presence in higher education and not (a pre-determined) what comes into presence, could provide possible footpaths to decolonialisation and transformation. Through processes of subjectification, the subject(s) of higher education could reframe historic ontological othering and actively take part in the process(es) of becoming and being human in higher education in (post)colonial South Africa.

South African Journal of Higher Education, Nov 1, 2017

Globally, issues such as xenophobia, rising nationalism and populism, linked to the international... more Globally, issues such as xenophobia, rising nationalism and populism, linked to the international migrant crisis, are stretching the past influence and the present reinterpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) to its limits. Locally, the #MustFall 1 protests at higher education institutions rightly question the existence and validity of human rights, especially as it pertains to the right to education, socioeconomic rights and the moral responsibility of higher education institutions to its students within human rights policy frameworks. The growing critique of human rights is crucial not only to the understanding of the conceptual, legal, moral, historic and contextual complexities of human rights but also the rethinking of the anthropological, ethical, ontological and epistemological premise of human rights. Human rights literacies, we argue, while including knowledge about human rights, question the social and moral consequences of the (non)realisation of human rights as well as the anthropological, ethical, ontological and epistemological premise of human rights. Critique and dissensus are inherent to human rights literacies and impact on how we speak and act to in(ex)clusions, marginalisation, intolerance, disrespect, misrecognition and discrimination.

South African Journal of Education, 2015

The twentieth century has been characterised by the proliferation of human rights in the discursi... more The twentieth century has been characterised by the proliferation of human rights in the discursive practices of the United Nations (Baxi, 1997). In this article, we explore the continual process of rights-based education towards transformative action, and an open and democratic society, as dependent upon the facilitation of human rights literacy in teacher training. Our theoretical framework examines the continual process of moving towards an open and democratic society through the facilitation of human rights literacy, rights-based education and transformative action. We focus specifically on understandings of dignity, equality and freedom, as both rights (legal claims) and values (moral action) across horizontal and vertical applications, considering the internalisation and implementation of dignity, equality and freedom towards transformative action. Our analysis of data stemming from a project funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) entitled 'Human Rights Literacy: A quest for meaning', brought student-teachers' understandings into conversation with the proposed theoretical framework. In terms of understandings related to dignity, equality and freedom, participants seemingly understand human rights either as legal interests, or alternatively, as they pertain to values such as caring, ubuntu, respect, human dignity and equality. Legal understandings primarily focus on the vertical application of the Bill of Rights (RSA, 1996a) and the role of government in this regard, whereas understandings related to the realisation of values tended to focus on the horizontal applications of particularly dignity and equality as the product of the relation between self and other. We conclude the article by linking the analysis and the theoretical framework to education as a humanising practice within human rights as a common language of humanity. In so doing, we argue that human rights literacy and rights-based education transcend knowledge about human rights, moving towards transformative action and caring educational relations premised on freedom, dignity and equality. Finally, recommendations are made regarding human rights and rights-based education as transformative action within the South African context, towards an open and democratic society.

Perspectives in Education, 2016

In light of growing critique of human rights and human rights education, this article explores on... more In light of growing critique of human rights and human rights education, this article explores ontologies of human rights, the possibilities they present for dissensus and how this could influence human rights education in post-conflict education contexts towards reconciliation. We draw on Dembour's (2010) categorisation of the different schools of human rights and Ranciere's (2004) two forms of rights to explore possible constructing points of dissensus. The data obtained in a NRF funded project Human rights literacy: A quest for meaning (Roux, 2012), indicate that student-teachers are disillusioned by human rights and perceive a conflict between what human rights are (contextual) and could (idealistic) be. While we concur with Keet (2015) that there is a need for "Critical Human Rights Education" (Keet, 2015) we focus on human action and the structuring of dissensus within political, social and educational spaces as crucial to the continual formulation, claims, rejection, amendments and recognition of human rights. In conclusion, we pose that human rights education should be a continual dissonant process, enabling moments of dissensus within intersecting spaces of (non)existing rights.

Educational Research for Social Change, 2016

Freire (1993) premised his pedagogical theory on the assumption that humanisation is the fundamen... more Freire (1993) premised his pedagogical theory on the assumption that humanisation is the fundamental objective of education, and he emphasised the role of dialogue as praxis in achieving this. In South Africa, race has played a constitutive and dehumanising role in higher education since its beginnings during colonialism and apartheid (Soudien, 2015, 2016). During 2014 and 2015, higher education in South Africa came under attack from various student organisations for alleged discrimination, racism, and exclusive practices. We propose two conditions for dialogue as humanising praxis in higher education: the acknowledgement of situated selves, and the ontological need for, and right to, voice. We conclude that these conditions are interrelated and point to the possibilities of humanising post-1994 higher education. We use qualitative data from the NRF-funded project, Human rights literacy: a quest for meaning (Roux & du Preez, 2013) to explore student teachers' experiences of implicit and explicit exclusion, racism, and discrimination at institutions of higher education in South Africa.

Human Rights Education Review, 2021

The aim of this paper is to search for possibilities to change the terms and content of conversat... more The aim of this paper is to search for possibilities to change the terms and content of conversations on colonial/decolonial human rights education. The content of conversations consists of what we know about human rights. The terms of conversations are the principles, assumptions, and rules of knowing in human rights education. The terms and content are interrelated and continually sustain each other. Decoloniality resists global coloniality of power, ontologies and epistemologies which are consequences of colonisation. It also questions the Eurocentric assumptions and principles which serve as a premise for human rights and human rights education. There is an urgent need to explore pluriversal knowledges of human rights and to problematise the Human of human rights. This is explored through data from Roux’s research project Human rights literacy: quest for meaning. Some thoughts on decolonising human rights education are provided in the conclusion.

Journal of Education, 2016

Against the background of global concern about the political and social consequences of human rig... more Against the background of global concern about the political and social consequences of human rights, this article uses an ideological lens to explore the (non)existence of the right to education in South Africa. We argue that post-apartheid education actively (re)normalises the in(ex)clusions of the poor in education within neo-liberal capitalist human rights frameworks. Data from the NRF funded project Human Rights Literacy: A quest for meaning (Roux, 2012) indicate that student-teachers are aware of the ideological illusion presented in the Real and contrasting educational realities. We conclude by arguing for the need to assume common responsibility for the in(ex)clusions of the poor in education. The importance of human rights literacies cannot be underestimated in this regard. Human rights literacies open spaces in which student-teachers in common responsibility can engage with issues such as poverty and in(ex)clusions in education.

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2017

This article uses a postmodern lens to question assumptions inherent to three normative claims fo... more This article uses a postmodern lens to question assumptions inherent to three normative claims for the human rights project in the context of post-1994 South Africa. The claims are that human rights are part of humanity's narrative of progress; that they are universal and inclusive; and that their subject is the liberal humanist subject. Kapur (2006) argues that these claims paradoxically point to the 'dark side of human rights'. By plugging data into theory and theory into data (Jackson and Mazzei 2012). I argue that student-teachers engage with human rights in a discursive manner and structure relations between self and the Other in rational human rights spaces. I pose that by choosing responsibility for an Other, 1 South Africans can transcend rational spaces and structure relations between self and an Other in moral spaces. In moral spaces the conflict inherent to the contradictory nature of moral choices and the conflict between self-consciousness and renunciation present possibilities for continually restructuring human rights and a humane world (cf. Fanon1967).

Professor Roux is a pioneer in the field of interreligious, intercultural and human rights educat... more Professor Roux is a pioneer in the field of interreligious, intercultural and human rights education. This article will focus on her contribution to understanding diversity in humankind and to enhancing inclusivity. An overview of her work demonstrates that she envisioned an understanding of diversity through education. She identified human rights values as common denominators within cultural and religious spaces of fear and resistance. She also focused on interreligious and intercultural dialogue in education as a means to enhance empathetic and caring interactions with others. In recent years, Roux has initiated three projects: The first was titled Understanding Human Rights through Different Belief Systems: Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue (2005 - 2008). A follow-up project, Human Rights Education in Diversity: Empowering Girls in Rural and Metropolitan School Environments (2010-2013), focused on gender equity and social justice as priorities to facilitate an understandi...

In light of growing critique of human rights and human rights education, this article explores on... more In light of growing critique of human rights and human rights education, this article explores ontologies of human rights, the possibilities they present for dissensus and how this could influence human rights education in post-conflict education contexts towards reconciliation. We draw on Dembour's (2010) categorisation of the different schools of human rights and Ranciere's (2004) two forms of rights to explore possible constructing points of dissensus. The data obtained in a NRF funded project Human rights literacy: A quest for meaning (Roux, 2012), indicate that student-teachers are disillusioned by human rights and perceive a conflict between what human rights are (contextual) and could (idealistic) be. While we concur with Keet (2015) that there is a need for " Critical Human Rights Education " (Keet, 2015) we focus on human action and the structuring of dissensus within political, social and educational spaces as crucial to the continual formulation, claims, rejection, amendments and recognition of human rights. In conclusion, we pose that human rights education should be a continual dissonant process, enabling moments of dissensus within intersecting spaces of (non)existing rights.

Books by JA Becker

The Bloomsbury handbook of culture and identity, 2021

In this chapter a conceptualization of (de)colonial identity is attempted. Although coloniality a... more In this chapter a conceptualization of (de)colonial identity is attempted. Although coloniality and decoloniality are urgent and global issues, there is some confusion about the meanings of colonialization and coloniality and the link between them. Maldonado-Torres (2007: 243) states: 'Coloniality is different from colonialism.' Colonialism is the colonizing of place-space-time by a colonial power. Coloniality is the result of colonialism. Coloniality refers to patterns of power emerging as a result of colonialism (Maldonado-Torres, 2007). It is contained and maintained through the colonial matrix of power in hegemonic identities, hegemonic knowledge systems, cultural patterns, in the self-image of people and the aspirations of self. We live and breathe coloniality every day, everywhere (Maldonado-Torres, 2007). The concept decoloniality (and its verb: to decolonize) has grown exponentially in usage over recent decades. While post-colonialism and postmodernism alternatively reference the non-Western and the Western/white worlds, decoloniality returns to the violence and power of Euromodernity underscoring coloniality (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2019). Decoloniality is always implied in coloniality: (de)coloniality. To decolonize, or to engage with (de)coloniality, one however has to first ask the who, where, why and how questions (Mignolo, 2018). Working with (de)coloniality is not an individual task. It is a collective and communal one. It is a task for the global 'us'. In answering the who question therefore: we (us) decolonize. In answering the where question: decoloniality is a global quest. Decolonial work started in South America and expanded to different regions around the world. In South Africa the #mustfall 1 protests brought issues of coloniality and the need for decolonial thinking to the fore. de Souza (2016a) explains how post-colonial Australia still suffers from the effects of colonialism. She poses that specifically non-conscious decision-making is still influenced by '300 years of cultural history, stories, images and the superior attitudes of white people towards people of every other colour' (de Souza, 2016a: 129). The why question regards an interrogation of hegemonic epistemologies, ontologies, cultural imperialism and religious marginalization. The link between colonialism and present-day relations between cultural, religious and ethnic majorities and minorities has been repeatedly overlooked, ignored or denied. This historical amnesia often serves the aims of the majority groups to legitimize existing 'post-colonial' social orders (Bobowika, Valentimb and Licatac, 2018).

Transformation in Higher Education, 2020

Transformation in Higher Education, 2017

South African Journal of Higher Education, Nov 1, 2017

South African Journal of Education, 2015

Perspectives in Education, 2016

Educational Research for Social Change, 2016

Human Rights Education Review, 2021

Journal of Education, 2016

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2017

In light of growing critique of human rights and human rights education, this article explores on... more In light of growing critique of human rights and human rights education, this article explores ontologies of human rights, the possibilities they present for dissensus and how this could influence human rights education in post-conflict education contexts towards reconciliation. We draw on Dembour's (2010) categorisation of the different schools of human rights and Ranciere's (2004) two forms of rights to explore possible constructing points of dissensus. The data obtained in a NRF funded project Human rights literacy: A quest for meaning (Roux, 2012), indicate that student-teachers are disillusioned by human rights and perceive a conflict between what human rights are (contextual) and could (idealistic) be. While we concur with Keet (2015) that there is a need for " Critical Human Rights Education " (Keet, 2015) we focus on human action and the structuring of dissensus within political, social and educational spaces as crucial to the continual formulation, claims, rejection, amendments and recognition of human rights. In conclusion, we pose that human rights education should be a continual dissonant process, enabling moments of dissensus within intersecting spaces of (non)existing rights.

The Bloomsbury handbook of culture and identity, 2021