Folklore Studies: Lynchpin for Curriculum Transformation?

Towards the end of 2015, the South African Higher Education landscape experienced a number of interesting and/or frustrating events such as the #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall movements, to mention a few. It is evident that within the status quo there are a multitude of challenges in the Higher Education sector, such as low completion rates within tertiary institutions, high rates of graduate unemployment, and the inability to achieve the overarching mandate—namely, to produce the relevant workforce capable of responding to the needs of the country and the continent. This article argues for the transformation of the curriculum as an instrument to address these challenges. Transformation of the curriculum subsumes Africanisation of the curriculum to make it more responsive and relevant to our situation as an African country. The ethnographic method of research was employed. The study also revealed that valuable research was conducted on folklore over the past two decades—and the analysis thereof suggests that folklore might be the lynchpin that can successfully be used to transform our curriculum and make it more responsive to the needs of our students, the country and the continent. In conclusion, the article argues that the transformed curriculum must include African lores.