Abstract

KOOPMAN, Oscar. Towards decolonising teaching strategies: How to 'domesticate' and 'infuse' Western science with indigenous knowledge. Journal of Education [online]. 2018, n.74, pp.102-115. ISSN 2520-9868.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i74a07.

Through recent violent protests, university students across South Africa have demanded a decolonised curriculum that includes incorporating indigenous knowledge into it. In response to that demand I pursue three aims in this article. First, I examine why it is important to infuse both indigenous knowledge and Western science into the school science curriculum. Second, I discuss Jegede's collateral learning theory and Piaget's theories relating to cognitive development in order to explain not only how African learners learn science but, more specifically, the cognitive challenges they might face when the focus is only on Western knowledge. Third, I recommend some teaching approaches on how to domesticate and infuse Western science with indigenous knowledge in the science classroom. Accordingly, I present practical examples of the ways in which teachers can teach both bodies of knowledge to make science more meaningful and appropriate to most African learners. I want to stimulate thinking about the importance of indigenous knowledge in school science today, as well as consider the implications for a shift in teacher pedagogy that a decolonial curriculum requires.

Keywords : decolonisation; Western science; Indigenous knowledge; science; teaching strategies.

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