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ABSTRACTStudents, through teaching and learning, must reflect on what they do not know. It is only when they recognise what they know, and what they do not, that they will awaken to their own curiosity. The more they can open themselves to others and their epistemologies, the deeper their own self-reflection in relation to others. In this way, engendering curiosity opens students to the possibilities of other kinds of identities, thoughts, and actions, and hence, the value of all forms of knowledge. This article considers, firstly, the importance of deliberative encounters as opening opportunities for engendering curiosity in others’ traditions; secondly, for co-creating new knowledge in the interests of invoking transformative learning and action towards issues of common concern. And thirdly, by bringing into conversation democratisation and decolonisation, an argument is made for the cultivation of an ubuntujustice, which is not only concerned with recognising the Other, but is intent upon forgiveness and reconciliation.

Abstract:South Africa's transition to democracy signaled many new beginnings to different people and communities. For the Muslim community, democracy beckoned toward an untraversed path of identity and expression—one unshielded by the seclusion unintentionally provided through apartheid. The changes, while not immediately obvious, were nevertheless profound, no more so than within a new realm of desegregated schools. The extensive migratory patterns of learners to previously “off-limits” schools soon revealed another pattern of exit: The more public schools diversified, the greater the increase in the number of faith-based schools. Although small in relation to the total number of independent schools, the percentage of Muslim schools was significantly higher than the proportion of Muslims in the South African population. In “mapping the terrain” of Muslim education in post-apartheid South Africa, the interest of this article lies, firstly, in understanding the underlying motivation for this proliferation of Muslim schools and, secondly, how the prevalence of faith-based schools might enhance South Africa's democracy.