Repositioning indigenous knowledge in digitally-enhanced global classrooms: A South African perspective on epistemic justice and curriculum innovation

This conceptual paper examines how Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) can be repositioned within digitally-enhanced global classrooms to advance epistemic justice and curriculum relevance in South African higher education. A critical-interpretive conceptual design combines an integrative literature review (2013–2025), with illustrative South African cases in Technology Education and higher-education internationalisation. Sources include peer-reviewed scholarship, national policy, and scholarly books, synthesised through three lenses, epistemic justice, decoloniality, and Ubuntu-informed self-directed learning. Eurocentric defaults in digital pedagogy risk reproducing exclusions; a hybrid framework integrating IKS with 4IR tools (AI, AR, OER) enables multilingual, community-embedded, and ethically grounded curriculum design. Enablers include policy alignment, capacitation of academics, ethical protocols for Indigenous intellectual property, and South–South collaborations. Targeted actions are proposed for DHET/CHE (epistemic-diversity criteria in QA/accreditation), universities (governance, funding, digital inclusion), curriculum committees (IKS-aligned review rubrics), academics (culturally responsive, multilingual digital pedagogies), EdTech partners (co-design with communities), and funders (IKS-centred digital archives/infrastructure). The paper offers a theoretically coherent hybrid knowledge framework and a policy-to-practice roadmap connecting IKS, digital pedagogy, and curriculum internationalisation, thereby advancing scholarship on epistemic justice in global higher education.