Development of Innovative Pedagogy Strategies and Decolonization of Curriculum in Higher Education Institutions in the COVID-19 Era

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has caught the world population by surprise and it affected nearly each of the country’s population globally, within a short period of time. The education systems have come to a standstill by extended closures of schools and Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). Within the blink of an eye, HEIs around the world had to migrate from face-to-face to a complete online teaching. The lockdown rules created social restrictions which required educators to quickly adapt to working from home and to the “new normal” of teaching. Educators found themselves having to teach in a complete online environment, which came with a lot of pressure as they adjusted to new normal of teaching and learning. However, in a complete online teaching environment, there is lack of social and logistical support whereby educators are able to interact with their peers on a regular basis as in their physical teaching and learning environment. This transition necessitates a need to review and reimagine pedagogical strategies to effect meaningful curriculum change during this intense period, more specifically in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It made it necessary for educators to reflect on their current teaching or pedagogy practices and to become innovative in new academic environment. New methods of combining practices, tools, ideas, and technology allows curriculum to meet new needs. Pedagogy refers to repeated patterns or sets of teaching and learning practices that shape the interaction between teachers and learners (OECD, 2018). In HEIs, new tools and strategies offer a wider range of personalized learning opportunities, for example, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and open educational resources (OER, 2015). Grimus (2020) indicate that self-directed learning as well as curriculum managers are greatly assisted through these new tools. Innovative pedagogies are supporting individual learning strategies for knowledge development and self-directed learning.