Promoting Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) Pedagogies: A Contribution to Curriculum Decolonization and Expanding Access to Higher Education

After a long history of colonization and dependence on the West, Africa's education systems need decolonization. In recent years, African scholars have been sharing their thoughts about the need to decolonize African education (See for instance Heleta, 2016; Mbembe, 2016; Nyoni, 2019; Moosavi, 2020; Foveti, 2021). They have observed that although African states have been independent for several decades, the ghost of colonialism still lingers on in the curricula of most African education systems.

As African scholars of history (and those of other disciplines) look forward to changing the curriculum to make it more relevant and meaningful for students, the field of instructional design will prove to be very instrumental. According to the University of Arizona (2018), IDT or instructional design technology is “The practice of designing, creating, and delivering digital and physical instructional experiences and products for those who need it.” Lecturers, and professors of history, like other academicians in all disciplines, could benefit from the theory and practice of instructional design technology (IDT) to enhance the teaching of decolonized history.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to the application of instructional design technology (IDT) theory and practice to history pedagogies suitable for (face to face) F2F and non-F2-F teaching/learning interactions, including teaching history by inquiry, cooperative learning, lecture-discussion, and other student-centered methods. The aim is to provide support to for increasing the content related to colonized and marginalized peoples and challenging how history has been conventionally taught (Jackson, 2021). The paper also proposes systemic innovations that must be made to sustain IDT in Africa's institutions of higher learning.