Paper short abstract:

This paper critically examines the critical thinking curriculum of a UK transnational HEI in Ghana. It approaches the co-creation of knowledge in a postcolonial society by involving the student voice to reframe a new curriculum that relates to African identities and strengthens learner agency.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the critical thinking curriculum of a British transnational higher education (TNHE) institution in Ghana through a critical theory paradigm. It approaches the co-creation of knowledge in a postcolonial society by involving the student voice to reframe a new curriculum that relates to African identities and strengthens learner agency. While critical thinking has many definitions, it is largely characterised in higher education as originating from European philosophical traditions and embodying a positivist, value-free, transferable, set of abilities (Wasser, 2021) and is the totem around which Western higher education (HE) has assembled (Song and McCarthy, 2018).

This definition is problematic because it ‘implicitly devalues “other ways of knowing”’ (Burbules and Berk, 1999: 49), resulting in a Western monopoly on knowledge being presented as universal, ‘othering’ the non-Western (Raghuram, 2012) and perpetuating distinctions between the centre and the margins of knowledge (Gandhi, 1998). This often leads to reductionist theorising of non-Western students (Ziguras, 2008) – in this context, primarily West African – and affects the student learning experience (Rodrigo, 2021). The tension between the specified, enacted and experienced curricula adds a layer of complexity (McCormick and Murphy, 2008), as learners are unable to experience specified and enacted curricula in a way that resonates with them.

This research approaches the co-creation of knowledge in a postcolonial society by involving the student voice to reframe a new curriculum that relates to African identities and strengthens learner agency. The data gathered through narrative interviews and online forums on Padlet has been interpreted through thematic analysis.