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Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-2522-5236

Abstract

The selection of content for university curricula is of the utmost importance, especially at universities where lecturers have choice in content selection. By contrast, in many jurisdictions, state school systems for primary and secondary schools have syllabi that must be followed to the letter. University teachers/lecturers can choose what to teach, and the selection of content can be based on several factors such as convenience (choosing to teach what one is comfortable with), expertise, research interests, ideology, by accident, or even what one was taught previously despite the dynamic change of knowledge. This means that the student can be impacted by content selection if the content is chosen in ways that suit the lecturer more than the student. Content selection reflects decisions about the importance of a range of societal, institutional, and student needs. This paper seeks to answer this research question: how do university teachers arrive at what to teach their students? The research established that lecturers in Peace and Security selected content that helped students to have relevant knowledge about emerging and topical trends in these subjects, including equipping students with relevant and important skills needed in tackling social injustice in communities. By examining the strategies employed at an academic Department at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe, the article highlights both the potential and challenges of aligning academic content with societal needs.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/vvnc-bq70

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