Re-Centering Indigenous Approaches: Resolving Contradictions in History Education – Online Webinar

Online Webinar on November 4, 2026.
15:30-16:30 (SAST Time)
16:30-17:30 (CET Time)

How can we transform history education within its current colonial framing?

Organised in collaboration with International Society for History Didactics (ISHD), North-West University (NWU), University of Education (UEW) and University of Helsinki, this webinar aims to explore contemporary teaching practices related to colonisation, with a particular focus on the South African model.

Drawing from a materialist-dialectical perspective, this presentation argues that systemic contradictions, namely the deep structural tensions within an educational system, are actually the primary drivers of innovation and change. In using South Africa as a case study, the discussion for this webinar explores the critical tension between two opposing worldviews:

• The Western Disciplinary Approach, which privileges written sources and specific analytical historical thinking skills.
• The Indigenous Approach, which emphasizes an interconnectedness paradigm where non-humans also shape how the past is interpreted and understood.

Rather than treating this clash as an impasse, this discussion will demonstrate how investigating these opposing forces can catalyse systemic transformation. By adopting the Cycle of Expansive Learning Model, this webinar offers a practical, generative framework to question existing practices, resolve these pedagogical contradictions, and design new educational spaces where both Western and Indigenous ways of dealing with the past can dynamically coexist.

The webinar facilitator will be Bongani Shabangu, History Lecturer (PhD-Candidate) from the Dept. of Commerce and Social Sciences in Education of the North-West University, Potchefstroom, in South Africa.

Find the event poster here and register via the link below!