A pedagogy for indigenising classroom science drawn from an oral transfer of knowledge in healership

By

Vongai Mpofu

Bindura University of Science Education

Faculty of Science Education

Department of Science and Mathematics Education

2015

Positionality

• Researching about indigenous knowledge, “It matters who you are”

Khupe, Kean, Muza (2015, p.160)

• Kovach (2010a)

• Kovah (2010b)

• Lowan (2012)

Position yourself

Indigenous Morden Western

Who I Am

African Cultural identity

• Totems

• Rural village of Chivi, Masvingo

• Karanga

• Cultural symbolic name

Western associated identity

• Institutionalised systems of

education

• Western science trained educator

• Religion- Christianity

Government position

The state must take measures to preserve, protect, promote

indigenous knowledge including knowledge of m medicinal plants

and other properties of animal and plant life possessed by local

communities and people (Object 33 of the new constitution of

Zimbabwe).

Ministry position

Traditional knowledge systems should provide sources for the

curriculum needs to our societies and such knowledge should be

infused into the main school curriculum” cultural policy (CP 2004)

section 2.1, of the Ministry of Education, Sport, Art and Culture

in Zimbabwe.

Problem

• Policy position lacks accompanying guidelines in terms of what,

where and how

• Teachers to figure this themselves

• Many teacher reported problems

• Documentation

• Capacity in terms of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge

• Attitudinal disposition

• Research indication

Research Question

• What pedagogical approaches are appropriate for teaching indigenous

knowledge in science lessons?

• Literature Response: indigenous pedagogical approaches

• Argument

• Colonialism

• Worldview

• Relevancy

Argument

• Integration of indigenous knowledge into classroom science is

challenging tasks for teachers it demands both worldview (paradigm)

and cognitive shifts.

• Teachers need to be capacitated

• Failure to do so retains the status quo

Conceptual Framework

• Classroom science- ECL3P

• Enterprise,

• Content,

• Language,

• Purpose,

• Place,

• Pedagogy

• Orality as revealed knowledge (dreams, intuition and vision)

Tendera Community

• In Chiweshe District

• Mashonaland Province

• Zimbabwe

• Zezuru community

• Rural

• Language

• ChiZezuru (high and low)

• Modern ChiZezuru ( mixed)

• English

Assistant healer participants

• Two healers: Sekuru Miti and ambuya Soko•Alter state between ordinary and trance (spirit mediums)•Healing as calling and an ancestral gift•Operate trough revealed knowledge•Knowledge of negating for knowledge from the spiritual

realm• Interact with the spirit on a daily basis•Operate on a group setting

Matare Conversations

• Situated within an indigenous methodology

• Generate qualitative data

• Video recorded with human an spiritual consent

• High variety ChiZezuru

• English transliterated

• Theory and data grounded analysed.

Excerpt Spiritual apprentices It all started when I was very young. [I saw images of a very old man in my dreams. This would happen here and there but not so frequent… I was a strong member of the Apostolic Christian Church. … In my late thirties, I started seeing this plant in my dreams] 1. [With time the old man told me where to get the plant from, how to use it and for snake bites] 2 … [one night and others that followed the old man took me up that mountain top. He showed me the plant and told again its use and how to recognise it from others similar to it] 3. He reminded me that he used to visit me when I was very young and told me who he was [tateguru Dube]. These dreams for a long time were happening so frequently ... It was awful; I could not even tell anyone for fear of being labelled evil and wizard... my greatest fear was that of being banned from my church… So I kept these dreams to myself… [One day, in a prayer session, I got into his spiritual trance. It was my great grandfather, tateguru Dube whom I had never seen in real life… This marked the beginning of my healing practice with particular speciality in snake bites, with this mukwezvanyoka plant] 4… It can treat and prevent many other ailments … my knowledge is old, from far back kunyikadzimu’

Enterprise: The involved

• Spirit

• Knower

• Transferor

• Akin to classroom teacher

• Healer

• Knowee

• Receiver

• Akin to learners

• Apprentice by “calling” not by choice

Apprenticing progression

Four stage process spiritual apprentice

• Imaging

• Verbalisation

• Showing

• Practice

• Akin to lesson progression

Final thoughts

• Many pedagogical approaches exist in communities and self and all that

is needed is to appropriately dispose ourselves, access them and transfer

them to classroom situation (Dei, 2002, 2011).

• Provides meaning full and relevant learning experience ( Shizha, 2009,

2012, Makhurane, 2000).

• Need to move from theories to implementation.

• A theorised pedagogical approach calling for implementation.

TatendaTavonga

Thank you