Exploring indiginising the university’s science curriculum through bottom-up decolonisation : Affordances and hindrances
Authors:   , Mutanho Chrispen 
Published: November 2021

The integration of indigenous knowledge (IK) in the science curriculum is a spreading phenomenon driven by the need to bring about relevancy and equality in science education. In South Africa, for instance, the need to integrate IK in science education is part of the global effort to build a democratic state from the debris of apartheid. Henceforth, the integration of IK is backed up by both the National Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) and the South African Department of Basic Education’s (2011) National Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement. However, the success of this policy seems to be hindered in part by the fact that the teachers who are the implementers of the curriculum changes seem to lack the relevant pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to integrate IK in their science teaching repertoires. Such a trend is often blamed on their Eurocentric educational background. Interestingly, very little research has been done to explore ways of supporting teachers to develop the relevant conceptual tools and teaching strategies that will enable them to integrate IK in science teaching. It is against this background that an interventionist case study on how to support the Bachelor of Education Natural Sciences in-service teachers in particular to develop exemplar science lessons that integrate IK as easily accessible resources was conducted. The study is underpinned by three complementary paradigms, namely, the interpretive, the critical, and indigenous research paradigms. While the interpretive paradigm enabled me to understand and interpret descriptive data, the critical paradigm enabled me to take an emancipatory stance and challenge the micro-aggressive elements embedded in conventional research practices; within the indigenous research paradigm, Ubuntu was the relational perspective that informed the researcher-participant relationships in this study. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was used as an overarching theoretical framework, in conjunction with the cultural historical activity theory. Additionally, the topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge provided the methodological and analytical tools. Data were gathered through questionnaires, individual face-to-face interviews, focus group interview, participatory observation, and the teachers’ reflections. This study established that if teachers are given back the agency to collaboratively resolve the contradictions that confront them in their workplaces, they can generate their own ideas on how to integrate IK in science vii teaching. The teachers in this study experienced a shift in their agency from a paralysed state of resisting the integration of IK at the beginning of the intervention to an ‘I can do it’ attitude at the end of the intervention. Thus, it could be argued that this study’s major contribution to new knowledge lies in demonstrating possible ways of supporting teachers to integrate IK as easily accessible resources in their science teaching. Additionally, the study also challenged the Eurocentric approach to ethics and offered Ubuntu as a relational perspective that can be used to complement the shortcomings of Eurocentric research paradigms. The study thus recommends that continuing professional development or professional learning communities should afford teachers the opportunity to collaboratively engage with the challenges that they face in their workplaces in order to resolve the contradictions that confront them.