Pedagogy as activist practice: A reflection on the Cultural Policy and Management degree in South Africa

Abstract

This paper discusses the pedagogical responses of the Wits University Cultural Policy and Management Department to the needs of our students in the postcolonial context of South Africa. It reviews the challenges experienced by our postgraduate students and the resultant innovations in both curriculum design and learning and teaching practice. While in many respects the drivers for this programme are similar to those in the Global North, the key challenges posed by our location on the African continent and indeed made prominent more recently in the #FeesMustFall movement are that the concepts, theories and case studies we draw from are specific to and rooted in the African context and reality. Preparing students for work as managers in cultural organisations has increasingly given way to engaging as activists and strategists with the policy environment for the cultural economy and to thinking strategically about the intersection between culture, creativity and the economy.