Moral Selfhood and Ubuntu in Curriculum: Reimagining Adolescent Identity Formation Amid Capitalist Modernity

Abstract

School curricula shape adolescents’ identity and moral selfhood, yet research on indigenising historically colonised curricula remains limited. This paper examines moral identity formation in Zimbabwe’s secondary education under HeritageBased Education using Ubuntu as a normative ethical lens. It argues that dominant psychological models and neoliberal schooling prioritise individual achievementin ways that can fragment relational moral development. Using a qualitative and philosophical approach, the study analyses policy documents, classroom observations and interviews with sixteen participants, including teachers, administrators, students, School Development Committee chairpersons and a Curriculum Development official. Findings show a complex tension between exam-driven schooling and Ubuntu-centred relational ethics across policy, pedagogy and community expectations. Ubuntu foregrounds interconnectedness, mutual care and social responsibility and reorients moral identity toward relational belonging. This study advances scholarship by integrating Ubuntu with curriculum inquiry and demonstrating how moral selfhood is co-constructed through institutional structures, classroom practices and community values.