Decolonising Knowledge and Knowers contributes to the current struggles for decolonising education in the global South, focusing on the highly illuminating case of South African higher education. Galvanised by #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall student protests, South Africa has seen particularly intense and broad social engagement with debates over decolonising universities. However, much of this debate has been consumed with definitions and meanings. In contrast, Decolonising Knowledge and Knowers shows how conceptual tools, specifically from Legitimation Code Theory, can be enacted in research and teaching to meaningfully work towards productive decolonisation. Each chapter addresses a key issue in contemporary debates in South African higher education and show how practices concerning knowledge and knowers are playing a role, drawing on quantitative and qualitative research, praxis, and interdisciplinary research.

The lived experiences of students’ educational practices are analysed and explained in terms of the book’s plea for the recognition of the ‘multi-dimentionality’ of students as educational beings with unexplored cultural wealth and hidden capitals. The book presents an argument that student lives are entangled in complex social-spatial relations and processes that extend across family, neighbourhood and peer associations, which are largely misrecognised in educational policy and practice. The book is relevant to understanding the role of policy, curriculum and pedagogy in addressing the educational performance of working-class youth.