DECOLONISING THE RETAIL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT CURRICULUM IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR

This article critiques the retail business management curriculum as currently offered in the Higher Education (HE) sector. The study used an exploratory qualitative approach, which involved conducting telephone interviews with a purposively selected sample of 25 participants conversant with the phenomenon studied, retail management practitioners, students and curriculum review experts. This was augmented by secondary literature. The study found out that by and large the retail business management (RBM) curriculum that is currently rolled out in the HE sector is largely based on Western epistemologies. The knowledge economy that is consumed by the recipients of the RBM curriculum in the HE sector is mainly from American and European academics and that is at the expense of the local or indigenous knowledge. It was found out, that the majority of the curriculum recipients do not identify with the current curriculum because it is divorced from their lived experiences that include their culture in particular their languages, beliefs and values. The study avers that indigenous knowledge systems were left out in the process of the RBM curriculum development and that partly explains its alienation from the lived realities of the local students and academic staff. The study therefore recommends that the current RBM curriculum needs to be effectively decolonised and the starting point for this decolonisation process is the involvement of all stakeholders in the curriculum development process. Secondly, the use of diverse educators to reflect the country’s racial mix is recommended. The study also recommends the convening of all stakeholder curriculum review engagements, the use of a local knowledge economy and local languages in teaching and learning of the RBM curriculum.


Introduction
Attainment of political independence in Africa was accompanied by a series of efforts to decolonise the Western practices and philosophies that had underlay African life for many years during colonialism. This paper is concerned with the extent of decolonisation that has occurred in the HE sector, following independence or attainment of democracy in many countries. The paper grapples with the decolonisation of the RBM curriculum because efforts at decolonisation of the curricula in general in the HE sector have so far been far from adequate. This is the broader framing of this article. The article is a critique of the RBM curriculum as currently being offered in the HE sector. The study set out to lay bare the philosophical foundations of the current curriculum as it exists now. Whose knowledge economy is consumed in the rolling out of the current curriculum and what are the current teaching practices? Answers to these questions provide a basis for critiquing the current RBM curriculum at the moment. The study made use of a number of secondary and primary sources of data. Primary data was obtained through exploratory qualitative interviews with purposively sampled respondents. They were selected due to their expert knowledge of the RBM curriculum in the HE sector. The study found out that the RBM curriculum in the HE sector is dominated by Western epistemologies with Americans and Europeans as the major theorists that are studied. Available Western literature is not always compatible with local values and realities. There is need to include local values, beliefs and languages in the RBM curriculum to make it more relevant to local contexts. The study therefore avers that there is need for inclusivity and decolonisation in the curriculum development process in order to make it more relevant to local realities. The study recommends the adoption of more indigenous knowledge systems and use of African literature and languages in the teaching and learning process. It also recommends fostering of tighter linkages between academics on one hand and policy makers and RBM practitioners on the other.

Business, management and accounting
Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to examine how far the RBM curriculum as presently offered in higher institutions of learning has been decolonised and to suggest ways and means, by which the decolonisation could take place. Thus the paper is an effort to contribute to the ever growing discourse on decolonisation of the curricula in the HE sector. This will foster the relevance of RBM to the local socio-economic environment and therefore make it more meaningful.
Background to the Study South Africa experienced a very brutal apartheid system, which conferred several privileges on white people while discriminating against the other racial groups like blacks, Indians and coloureds. Schools for white children were well endowed while those for the other races suffered discrimination. The colonial education system was meant to produce a partially educated black population to answer to the manpower needs of white monopoly capital. Structural pluralism or separatism was a dominant aspect of the colonial philosophy of education especially with the rise to power of the Nationalist Party in 1948 [1] Race and racial segregation were a cornerstone of colonial or apartheid South Africa. Segregation was entrenched and education was meant to support those dominant groups in privileged positions. Although the Afrikaners were not the majority social grouping, they were in fact the most dominant social and political race in SA, especially after 1948. Christian National values dominated, so did the culture of the white minority in general. Native education during the colonial period was not meant to produce managers, doctors or scientists among others, but to produce fairly educated people capable of working for capitalists who were mostly white people. The kind of education, offered to black people, was so basic and poorly designed because its purpose was to meet the labour needs of the colonial mining, manufacturing and agricultural sectors. It was not education for empowerment, but one for subjugation and dependence. It was this skewed education system that the black government sought to correct since the advent of democracy.
Post-colonial education was meant to bridge the gap between the racial groups and to prepare learners in the school system to respect diversity and tolerate each other [1,2]. The philosophy of education adopted then was that education should deal with the legacy of apartheid, it should foster more tolerance among the population. Learners were supposed to develop skills, knowledge competence and attitudes to function effectively in a racially plural society [1,2]. There was supposed to be a major paradigm shift from the educators, philosophers of education, parents, teacher trainers and the learners themselves, so as to cherish diversity or cultural pluralism. While significant decolonisation of the education system has occurred since the advent of democracy, a lot more still needs to be done. There are still elitist schools or universities that are very expensive and where certain previously minority languages are still predominantly used. The expensive universities are still beyond the reach of many especially the descendants of those previously disadvantaged by colonialism. There have been assertions that what we have at the moment is a "university in Africa" rather than an "African university" [3]. There is not much doubt that the transition from a racialist society to a democratic one that espouses full inclusive values does not occur overnight. The colonial legacy is quite enduring. This is the broader context, in which this study is taking place.
The Rhodes Must Fall Movement 2015 signified an attempt by tertiary students in South Africa to further decolonise the higher education sector in the country. The students had become disillusioned with the corporatization or commercialisation of higher education in the country. Efforts at post-colonial or post-apartheid transformation had been slower than the students' expectations. The students in tertiary institutions found the remnants of colonialism quite alive, for example statues of the former erstwhile oppressors like Cecil John Rhodes. The supposedly multi-ethnic or multi-racial institutions still had nasty remnants from the dark past. The author argues that the students' frustrations with the status quo is understandable given the way higher education is still entrenched along Western philosophies and epistemologies. A case in point is the RBM curriculum in South Africa that is still primarily based on Western knowledge and thinking. Most of the literature, used in the curriculum, is from retail theory and practices that were developed in the United States of America and American theorists remain dominant. The South African higher education Business, management and accounting sector is grappling with efforts to satisfy the demands of the Fees Must Fall Movement and it is in this context that one must locate this paper. Considerable literature exists on decolonisation and decoloniality [4][5][6][7]. This literature emerged after years of entrenchment of colonialism and western education systems. Some of the earliest voices to call for the establishment of indigenous universities in Africa were from the likes of Edward Wilmont Blyden, J.E Casely Hayford of the Gold Coast and James Africanus Beale Horton of Sierra Leone. These calls were clearly a challenge to the authorities and other stakeholders to reflect on the type of knowledge, education and curriculum that was provided in Africa at the time. While they cherished the value of education, the early writers on decoloniality were worried about the patronising influence of European education [3]. They therefore called for "African'' or "indigenous" education. However, the early educated Africans like James Africanus Beale Horton of Sierra Leone agitated for "undiluted Western education" for Africans [3]. Perhaps this derived from the fact that Horton had studied medicine and his view of education was therefore coloured by his previous studies. He wanted Africans to do or study in the same manner Europeans studied.
Blyden and Hayford were quite ideological and political in their agitations for local education. They did not want the Europeanising influence of Western education. Blyden even wanted local education that promoted an "African personality" while Hayford advocated for a curriculum that advanced what he called an "African nationality" [3]. Blyden and Hayford advocated the setting up of local universities that used local languages as the medium of instruction. Existing texts in other languages were supposed to be translated into vernacular languages. This was how far they strongly felt about establishing local higher centres of education that advanced "Africanness".
Despite the agitations for local or African universities, what emerged as a result of the early struggles were 'universities' in Africa rather than African universities. The Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone and the Achimota College in Ghana were examples of local institutions that emerged as a result of efforts to "Africanise" higher education in Africa. However, the limitation with these early colleges was that while they were in Africa they were headquartered in the United Kingdom (UK) from where the curriculum was emanating from. They were thus modelled along the lines of the parent institutions based in the UK. They thus fell short of the expectations of the real Africanists [3].
As nationalism gained prominence on the eve of attainment of what Kwame Nkrumah termed the 'political kingdom' [6], there was more and more references to decolonisation. This period is associated with the writings of Cesaire (1950), Fanon, 1952, Fanon 1968and Nkrumah 1965. It was Fanon who made reference to decolonisation. To him decolonisation entailed a number of processes including taking back what was stolen, creating new forms of life, creating "new concepts" as people turned a new leaf from colonialism to freedom and it also entailed turning the colonised people (subjects) into free people (citizens). To Fanon decolonisation also involved abandoning the European 'game' into a new way of life or possibilities [5]. Despite the conflating of decolonisation with Africanisation, associated with this period, it is evident that calls for the decolonisation of Africa were gaining renewed traction.
The writings of Nkrumah [6] and Walter Rodney [8] were landmark texts in critiquing development theory and explaining underdevelopment in the third world countries (3Wcs). The Marxist and political economy views also greatly influenced what was happening on the education front. There were persistent calls for education reform to make it more relevant to the needs of the post-colonial state. The University of Dar-es-Salam in Julius Nyerere's Tanzania was one of the emerging centres of left-leaning scholars and governments as they criticised imperialism. Marxist scholars pushed for the turning of universities into spaces of activism and national institutions that were supposed to be informed by the socio-cultural and political considerations of the day. There were calls for curriculum review all with the aim of making the university or education relevant to the needs of the post-colonial state. The ongoing critiques of the role of education, knowledge and curriculum in national development at universities in Africa made the 1960s and 1970s to be termed the 'golden age' of African Higher Education [9]. A post-colonial state had to prioritise a university in as much as it prioritised a national anthem. All these efforts culminated in the es- Business, management and accounting tablishment of the Association of African Universities in 1967 where an African developmental university had to be prioritised in each post-colonial state. The Ibadan School headquartered at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria pushed for the decolonisation and Africanisation of history. This school of thought was inspired by nationalism and pushed for the use of indigenous knowledge systems in education, a suitable philosophy of education and an appropriate curriculum. One of the achievements of the Ibadan University was creating a Nationalist School of History that challenged colonial historiography. It succeeded in pushing for the centering of the "African factor" / "African agency" in human history. It also succeeded in pushing for the recognition of oral history in the efforts to recover the pre-colonial African past [9]. This was a watershed achievement in so far as prior to that, the "African factor"/ "African agency" had been relegated to the margins, to the extent of disregarding the prehistoric African past. The likes of Hugh Trevor Roper had even talked about darkness being the major thing in Africa before the coming of white people. One of the successes of the Ibandan School was the Africanisation of the history curriculum. This was a commendable achievement because prior to that history had been excessively Eurocentric.
Suffice to note from the above efforts was the need to review the role of the university, education, knowledge and curriculum in African societies. Various critiques were mounted about Western education and the need to put Africa and its needs at the centre of educational reform. Such calls might have manifested themselves through various labels, such as Africanisation, decorporatisation or academic freedom [10], but distilled to their lowest terms it was all about reforming the education system to make it more responsive to local needs and realities.
In more recent times, the calls for a more African education system or an educational philosophy that is responsive to local needs and realities have become louder and louder [9,[11][12][13]. This was after the university in Africa had come under immense pressure due to corporatisation or running it as a business entity that has to sustain itself. That need for self -sustenance made higher education to be treated as a commodity to be bought and sold, and that placed the university beyond the reach of the poor majority. Yet the historical injustices of colonialism consigned many to the vagaries of poverty.
Commercialisation, internationalisation and entrepreneurship set in the higher education sector with the consequence that the university increasingly became alienated from its founding principles as established by the post-colonial state. It was supposed to a platform for social and intellectual development of all deserving people, particularly the youths, in order to meet the human capital needs of the country. Zeleza and Olukoshi succinctly encapsulated the challenges, confronting the university in Africa as it entered the current millennium in the following terms: " How to balance autonomy and viability, expansion and excellence, equity ad efficiency, access and quality, authority and accountability, representation and responsibility, diversification and differentiation, internationalisation and indigenisation, global presence/visibility and local anchorage, academic freedom and professional ethics, privatisation and public purpose, teaching and research, community service/social responsibility and consultancy, diversity and uniformity, the preservation of local knowledge systems and the adoption of global knowledge systems, knowledge production and knowledge dissemination, the knowledge economy and knowledge society?" [14].
The challenges, facing the university in Africa, have been compounded by the rolling back of the state, which has dwindled financial resources available to the university. Also, the decomposition of the social contract between the university, state and society has exacerbated challenges for the 21 st century university in Africa [14]. Despite the attainment of democracy in South Africa in 1994 and the establishment of post-colonial universities in the country, the resilience of racialism and segregation has been endemic. Nyamnjoh argues that the resilience of the racial motif is even prevalent in the now multi-racial institutions of higher education in South Africa [10]. The Rhodes Must Fall Movement had as some of its motives the decommissioning of some colonial legacies, such as statues, the funding of higher education to make it accessible even to those without money and the use of indigenous languages in research, teaching and learning, and change of the curriculum among others. Booysen also discussed the Fees Must Fall student revolt and how it laid bare the deeper meaning of decolonisation with respect to the very basis of a university, knowledge Business, management and accounting systems, research, methodology, agency, disciplines, epistemology and curriculum [15]. Overall, the demands of the students in this movement were presented as legitimate and requiring urgent attention.
In the final analysis, it is evident that calls for curriculum review and the establishment of "proper indigenous" universities are getting traction by the day. This paper is a modest contribution in this wider call that has been on the agenda for quite some time. What this piece does is to make a contribution to the need for curriculum review that is discipline specific. It lays bare the limitations of the RBM curriculum as currently rolled out in the South African Higher Education sector and proffers ideas for making the curriculum more responsive to local needs and realities.

Research Methodology
This paper is informed by a study that was exploratory in nature and grounded in the interpretivist philosophy that focuses on interpreting a particular phenomenon. A qualitative research approach was adopted for the collection, organisation and analysis of the research data. In a qualitative study there is need to analyse data and as one does that, they need to be able to understand the values and beliefs of the respondents, so that the researcher has a deeper understanding of the phenomenon under study [16]. This study made use of both primary and secondary data. Secondary data was collected from sources, such as journal articles, published textbooks, industry publications and government reports. Primary data was collected through telephone interviews with purposively selected expert interviewees that included academics (specialising in decolonisation, retailing business management, political science, economics and history), retailers, students in higher education, government officials and curriculum development practitioners. Purposive sampling is a sampling technique that is widely used in qualitative research. It involves the identification and selection of information-rich sources that are related to the phenomenon (or phenomena) under study. A total of 25 in-depth interviews were carried out in February 2020.
Data, collected for this study, was analysed using content analysis. This method has been supported by authorities that include Hashemnezhad who avers that qualitative content analysis is one of the best methods of analysing qualitative data. This method entails creation of themes and categories from the data in order to detect trends and patterns in the data [17]. This enables the researcher to interpret and report the findings of the study.

Result and Discussion
An exploration of the 29 higher education institutions that are classified as universities revealed that only the following offer qualification in RBM: Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Durban University of Technology (DUT), Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), Vaal University of Technology (VUT), Walter Sisulu University (WSU), Sol Plaatje University (SPU), Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and Central University of Technology (CUT). There are also a number of technical and vocational and training colleges around the country that have begun to offer RBM as a subject in their marketing or business management qualifications.
A snapshot of the major textbooks that are prescribed in the RBM curriculum shows that the South African learners are overgrazing in the knowledge economy of the Western writers. As at February 2020 were no prescribed textbooks by African authors for the RBM curriculum in SA. The prescribed and recommended texts are written by American or European writers, whose backgrounds are in Western epistemology. While a few of the recommended texts were written by locals, these were largely White South Africans with backgrounds in Western epistemology. The local academics should be proactive and produce the literature that should complement the existing one, otherwise students would just continue to decry the absence of local literature and the continued alienation of their culture, values and beliefs. It is incumbent upon the local educators to produce the required literature and then agitate for its inclusion in the curriculum.
It is pertinent to point out, that none of the textbooks surveyed were written in vernacular languages. The surveyed textbooks were mostly in English and also Afrikaans and this does not sit quite well with the desire to decolonise the curriculum in the RBM sub sector. An overwhelming majority of the students who were included in this study did not consider English and Afrikaans Business, management and accounting as their indigenous languages. The students also avowed that their performance in class would have been enhanced had the medium of instruction at school been in their vernacular language(s). This tallies with findings from other researchers (Mkhize & Ndimande-Hlongwa) who have recommended the use of local languages and other indigenous knowledge systems in institutions of higher learning in SA [18]. In East African countries like Tanzania the dominant indigenous language-Swahili -is the medium of instruction in schools. An overwhelming majority of the academics who were interviewed were of the view that decolonisation should include a process of replacing American and European authors with local theorists or writers. This is meant to ensure that learners do not overgraze in the knowledge economy of the West and also ensures that local universities do not become mere extensions of universities in America or Europe. However, there is more to decolonisation of the curriculum than just change of theorists or authors. There is need to involve a number of stakeholders in curriculum change, so that the curricula encompass the ethos and values of the nation. No curriculum is value-free. A particular curriculum carries the national development aspirations as set out by the curriculum planners that operate at the national level.
Responses to the question on how to go about curriculum change in SA did not yield a single satisfactory answer. There were probably four major pathways to approaching curriculum theory and practice. These are; Curriculum as product -certain skills to master and facts to know; curriculum as process -the interaction of teachers, students and knowledge; curriculum as context -contextually shaped, and curriculum as praxis -practice should not focus exclusively on individuals alone or the group alone. Curriculum theory and practice must therefore explore how both to create understandings and practices [19].
Approaching curriculum as both context and praxis seem to sit well with the need to decolonise the curriculum. A contextual approach allows universities to critique curriculum as they see fit while viewing it as praxis, creating conditions to democratise learning spaces [20]. There would be room for both individual and group identities within the teaching and learning context. There would be shared and negotiated understandings and practices while knowledge is being disseminated. A university that endeavours to engage in curriculum change by decolonising would rather benefit from this understanding of curriculum change in the foregoing ways.

1. Strategies to Decolonise the Curriculum in the RBM Sector
The question of how the RBM curriculum could be decolonised in SA elicited many responses. A one-size fits all approach could not be discerned from the given responses. However, themes that emerged from the given responses were:

Rethinking how RBM is taught in South Africa
The participants highlighted the need to rethink how RBM theories are taught. They said that there was need to thoroughly explain the how the current curriculum has been shaped by colonial and apartheid history. The current curriculum is fashioned and disseminated in a manner that still advances the dominance of the white minority who wielded political power before the advent of democracy. In as much as education was used to advance white colonial interests, it should now be used to restore and advance African values [20]. In other words, it should remain an important site for furtherance of African values. It should be used as a vehicle for transformation that delivers positive change.
Questioning bias or Dominance of the West In the teaching and learning of RBM most of the knowledge or theories used come from Western writers and this is very much as the expense of local knowledge. The dominant ideas of the global north should be questioned. This does not imply disregarding international best practices, but rather approaching RBM from a deconstructed standpoint. Teaching and learning of RBM should also draw from local sources. In this regard the use of local languages and other indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) should be incorporated into the RBM curriculum. This concurs with sentiments form other researchers, such as Mkhize and Ndimande-Hlongwa, who have pointed out that IKS should form an integral part of the transformation of the higher education landscape in SA. Business, management and accounting The contribution to knowledge production of the formerly colonised should be encouraged, so that literature, written from a number of perspectives, is available [18]. Discussing how deep the impact of colonialism has been on the psyche of local people and how seriously decolonisation needs to be taken, Oelofsen had the following to say: "To claim that the colonial project stops having an impact on the newly decolonised country and its citizens, is to misunderstand how deeply the colonial project affected these countries and their citizens. In order to overcome the legacy of colonialism, it is necessary to also decolonise the intellectual landscape of the country in question, and ultimately decolonise the minds of the formerly colonised" [21].
It is with this in mind that the intellectual dominance of the West needs to be understood and remedial action taken in order to correct that and restore African power and dignity. There is no better way of accomplishing that than to ensure that local curricula, such the RBM curriculum, are considerably decolonised.

Importance of Empirically Grounded Knowledge
A number of the participants in the study emphasised the importance of "situated knowledge" in teaching and learning of RBM. Rather than drawing from international practices that could be divorced from the context, in which students would find themselves after schooling, it was felt prudent to draw from local sources and experiences. Therefore, the synergies between university and industry were emphasised by most of the participants. Curriculum design should take into account local conditions, in which the gained knowledge would be put into practice. This finding sits very well with the views of curriculum gurus like Glathorn who posit that the local environment should play a key role in facilitating teaching and learning [22].

Mutual Learning
There should be a two-way learning process between university and the community, from which it draws its learners and faculty. It was felt necessary to enhance interaction between university and the community, in which it operates. Universities should be open to learning from the surrounding poor communities in as much as the poor communities would also nurture learning from the university. Apart from mutual learning the university should also give back to the communities that it serves in as much as the communities feed the university by sending students to it. That community engagement ensures the relevance of the university in the eyes of the community it draws learners from. This ensures mutual understanding and co-existence between these social entities.

Self-Evaluation of Values
A number of the participants emphasised the need for self-evaluation of values in the decolonisation of the curriculum. It was noted, that academics should encourage learners to engage in self -evaluation of their own values while at the same time respecting the values of others. The decolonised curriculum should be an embodiment of the values of the learners. As students self-evaluate their values, there should also be inter-cultural learning that takes place. Conflict should be discouraged and instead inter-cultural learning fostered among the learners and educators. This finding supports what Venter said about the role of education in transformation of society [1,2]. He avowed that learners should be inculcated with values that nurture non-racialism and non-violence. The RBM curriculum should endeavour to inculcate in the learners values of respect for diversity, non-racialism, non-violence and hard work.

A Large and Diverse Pool of Educators
A majority of the participants also highlighted that there should be a diversity of academics at universities, so that the learners have a large pool to gather "different voices" from as far as RBM knowledge and practices are concerned. Students should also be exposed to academics or educators who share the same socio-cultural backgrounds with them. Furthermore, some of the participants pointed out that academics should be from all the racial groups available in SA, so as to reflect the country's diversity. The educators of RBM should not be whites only or blacks only, or Coloureds only, but a good racial mix.

Recommendations
One of the major recommendations to be made from this study is that the RBM curriculum needs decolonisation and for the decolonisation to be effective there is need for constant stakehold- Business, management and accounting ers' engagements. The stakeholders' engagements must be as cosmopolitan as to include the students themselves, academics, curriculum experts, retail industry practitioners, government as well as cultural and community actors. Such diversity enables the capturing of all the most important facets that are necessary for complete decolonisation of the curriculum. It is imperative that these engagements culminate in a decolonisation plan of action that is acceded to by all the stakeholders. The emergent curriculum out of the all-stakeholders' engagements should make use not just of American, European and Asian knowledge systems, but must necessarily also utilise local knowledge systems. There is power in diversity. Indigenous knowledge systems that for long have been on the fringes of the RBM curriculum must be brought to the frontline, as the pendulum is made to swing in all directions and not just the Eurocentric direction. The incorporation of local knowledge systems in the curriculum would ensure that the students are able to identify with the RBM curriculum, since it would encompass some of their culture, values, beliefs and practices.
Directions for Further Studies While this study has grappled with the decolonisation of the RBM curriculum in South Africa, there are other avenues for research that are still available. It is necessary to interrogate the extent, to which there are elaborated synergies between institutions of higher learning that offer RBM studies with retail practitioners on the ground. To what extent do the practitioners contribute to RBM curriculum design and to what extent do higher learning institutions respond to the skilled manpower needs of RBM practitioners? This needs interrogation, so that there is alignment between what educators do in the four walls of the lecture rooms and what practitioners implement on the ground.

Implications for Policy
The study has some policy implications. It lays bare the need for involvement of all stakeholders in curriculum design and development. It is also important to decolonise the RBM curriculum, so that it does not remain a white elephant. The RBM curriculum or any other curriculum for that matter should be responsive to the needs of the societies, which they serve. The curriculum that is offered in the South Africa's educational landscape across the board should be thoroughly decolonised and made suitable to serve local interests. The government, through the Department of Higher Education and Training should thus initiate and drive initiatives to come up with policies that foster and promote the development and implementation of decolonised curricula.

Implications for Practice
The study has clear implications for practice. Since practitioners in RBM would have participated in curriculum design, there is a strong likelihood for the adoption of all-encompassing retail management practices that are grounded on local values. Educators of RBM in the SA's higher education sector should network with retail practitioners, so that there are synergistic relations between these stakeholders. There should not be a disconnection between what educators teach and what practitioners implement on the ground. Alignment between what is taught in the lecture rooms and what is implemented by practitioners is very important. Disjuncture between theory and practice should be avoided at all costs.

Conclusion
There seems to be overwhelming consensus among academics, students and retail practitioners that the RBM curriculum as it currently is needs decolonisation. This is because at the moment the RBM curriculum in South Africa is largely dominated by the knowledge economy of the West and this divorces it from local culture, values, beliefs and languages. The global North continues to dominate ideas of RBM in the global South in general and South Africa in particular, and as such this cannot continue as usual. There is need for constant all-stakeholders engagement, convened by universities and the retail sector in SA in order to design a curriculum that encapsulates local ethos and development aspirations. Such curriculum review platforms should also include representatives of learners, since they are a critical stakeholder in the business of curriculum review and design. It should also include experts in curriculum review and RBM, parents, politicians, retail management practitioners as well as community leaders. Local knowledge economy, values, attitudes and development priorities should be considered in the decolonisation of the RBM Business, management and accounting curriculum in SA. In the final analysis, the RBM curriculum, offered in SA institutions of higher learning, should be relevant to the local context and needs by being decolonised fully.