Creating decolonial sustainable learning environments for the fourth industrial revolution in the rural and urban higher education contexts : a study of inclusive management strategies.

Abstract

This paper explores some decolonial management strategies in four Higher Education Institutions in South Africa that seem suitable for the creation of Sustainable Learning Environments (SuLE), in anticipation of, and in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). These strategies are considered to be decolonial in that they are inclusive and valorise other forms of managing beyond those that are conventional and western in orientation. Furthermore, they validate the local experience and the particularity of the individuals and institutions under scrutiny. There are currently demands for high levels of technological acumen within the higher education sector, hence the labour markets. However, there are those workers and students in the Higher Education sector who are at the middle to lower end of the performance levels and who may be rendered superfluous and at risk of failure and dropping out, if they are unable to access these high-level skills and expertise. These tend to be left out as their institutions and societies advance technologically, resulting in increased inequality, unemployment rates, poverty levels and a subsequent deepening of the colonial arrangement of society. In order to address these challenges, there is a need for institutions to adopt management strategies that can create those sustainable learning environments in which all can succeed, regardless of their differences, thereby allowing for the transformation of society towards the desired decolonial state. This paper reports on how such management strategies are implemented in two urban, and two rural higher education contexts, respectively. In both categories of institutions; the physical, the physiological, the psychological and cultural modes of being human are used as bases for inclusive and decolonial management strategies which ensure success of all in the 4IR. These seem to give even more workers and students epistemic access to knowledge forms demanded in the 4IR era, irrespective of the geographical or socioeconomic location of the institution, thereby ensuring cognitive justice for an even greater number of individuals. These strategies both advance and are anchored in complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management, coordination with others, emotional intelligence, judgement and decision making, service orientation, negotiation and cognitive flexibility – all of which constitute the context for a decolonial condition.