Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the Curriculum

Impediments to effective enactment of early childhood education curriculum and pedagogy in Tanzania: issues and experiences of teachers in urban and rural pre-schools

“…Through this experience I found both secondary and tertiary students were reasonably capable in cognitive skills, but non-cognitive skills including social-emotional skills, persistence skills, motivational skills, and self-regulation skills were not well developed. This view is supported by Shizha (2014) who found that school systems in many regions of Africa do little to cater for psycho-social, cultural identity, and behavioural adjustment when pupils enter the schools. That means that from the early stages the school systems ignore non-cognitive skills and sociocultural values that pupils bring to schools and thus early educators fail to encourage a supportive home-school learning environment.…”

“…Many writers argue that the recognition of local languages in educational policies is important because it would facilitate the introduction of such local languages/indigenous knowledge in settings to maintain social and cultural identities and create multiple knowledge (Dei, 2014;Owuor, 2007;Shizha, 2014). Figure 1.1 shows the country of Tanzania with the marked two regions where this study was conducted.…”

“…So, curriculum planners need to understand the African culture and knowledge that needs to be incorporated into the curriculum during curriculum development, in relation to the sociocultural context. Therefore, it could be expected that the pre-school education curriculum would engage more with indigenous knowledge and sociocultural contexts (Owuor, 2007;Shizha, 2014). Tanzania has more than 120 tribes with diverse cultures and migrants from other African countries and worldwide such as America, Asia and Europe (United Nations, 2008).…”

“…African people should know their cultural values and practices, and how these could become globalised. Hence, the design of ECEC curricula in Africa needs to focus on local strengths including indigenous knowledge games, traditional dances and emphasize community-based provision (Okeke, 2010;Ornstein & Hunkins, 2009;Shizha, 2014). It should incorporate participation of siblings in ECEC settings, and use local African languages and local funds of knowledge, and accord priority to inclusion of children with special needs.…”

“…Nonetheless, Shizha (2014) argues that in African societies the presence of curriculum frameworks are not culturally appropriate, and many curricula have been triggered by the Western framework that was inherited after getting independence. This view is also supported by Owuor (2007) who asserts that the prevailing African curriculum models do not reflect the realities of local peoples, with all their societal, cultural, economic, political, spiritual, moral, and aspirations.…”