Decolonising Legal Education: Faculty approaches in Kenya
Kipkoech, Rachael (2025)
2025
Master's Programme in Research and Innovation in Higher Education
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-09-17
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202508228384
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202508228384
Tiivistelmä
Epistemicide has haunted legal education for more than six decades. This study is just an attempt to amplify the voices of those who have attempted to remedy this situation. For this reason this study documents attempts by law faculty in Kenya to decolonise legal education, addressing two gaps in existing literature: limited understanding of the challenges lecturers face and insufficient documentation of their initiatives. Guided by Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth and scholarship on higher education decolonisation, the study examined two questions: (1) What approaches do law faculty adopt to decolonise legal education? and (2) What enables or constrains these efforts?
A qualitative design was employed, using semi-structured interviews with seven participants from four universities in Kenya, the data was analysed through Atlas.ti. Findings showed that while definitions of decolonisation varied, participants understood it as challenging colonial ideologies, contextualising teaching, and integrating indigenous systems. They framed it as a moral imperative aimed at restoring dignity and making legal education more relevant to local realities.
In practice, approaches included revising curricula to incorporate African voices and histories, adopting critical pedagogies that encourage dialogue and student agency, and bridging classroom teaching with traditional justice systems. Systemic and structural barriers, such as institutional culture, political sensitivities, resource disparities, and entrenched pedagogies, curtailed progress. This study is important for legal education stakeholders when it comes to conversations surrounding decolonisation.
A qualitative design was employed, using semi-structured interviews with seven participants from four universities in Kenya, the data was analysed through Atlas.ti. Findings showed that while definitions of decolonisation varied, participants understood it as challenging colonial ideologies, contextualising teaching, and integrating indigenous systems. They framed it as a moral imperative aimed at restoring dignity and making legal education more relevant to local realities.
In practice, approaches included revising curricula to incorporate African voices and histories, adopting critical pedagogies that encourage dialogue and student agency, and bridging classroom teaching with traditional justice systems. Systemic and structural barriers, such as institutional culture, political sensitivities, resource disparities, and entrenched pedagogies, curtailed progress. This study is important for legal education stakeholders when it comes to conversations surrounding decolonisation.