Abstract:

The world we live in is facing rapid and constant changes that characterise a liquid state, marked by uncertainty and vagueness. This affects education to the extent that this context imposes the need to rethink the human condition and, consequently, their learning and development conditions and possibilities. In this context, higher education is currently facing various challenges, from organisational, academic and scientific issues, exacerbated by the processes of digital transformation and increasingly multicultural contexts. Higher education in Angola began in 1962 with the opening of the General University Studies. It was later transformed into the University of Angola, under the direction of the former colonial administration. With independence in 1975, the education system in general, and particularly higher education, was reformed. However, there seems to be a prevailing tendency to retain the curriculum without a critical perspective on the knowledge provided by the university and its relevance to the current political, social and economic context.

This communication arises from the following guiding question: How can the Angolan higher education curriculum be decolonised in the context of University 4.0?
The purpose of this study is to identify a theoretical and conceptual framework to support the need to decolonise the higher education curriculum in the Angolan context.
To this end, a literature review is underway in the WoS, SciELO and RCAAP databases, based on the selected inclusion and exclusion criteria.

The evidence from the research so far attests to the fact that the decolonisation of the higher education curriculum is a phenomenon under study in some countries and universities. The approach of universities seems to vary between silencing, denial and involvement, with strong resistance. The context of neoliberal economic globalisation influences higher education towards a utilitarian perspective of teaching and learning, at the service of capitalism, which is limited to solving professional problems and not to the integral development of the student and their preparation for life, where professional issues are an integral part and not the whole of it. The evidence also attests to the need to (re)think about the role of higher education in the Angolan context, since the curriculum has a multifaceted character that results from the fact that it is constructed through negotiation at different levels, in different arenas, encompassing different visions of school, knowledge and students. Thus, the curriculum contains a vision of being, knowledge and power, in that it tries to determine what should be known.

Keywords:

Curriculum, Higher education, Decolonisation of the higher education curriculum, post/decolonial studies.