- Title
- Exploring working with Grade 6 Elementary Agricultural Science teachers on how to integrate local knowledge in food preservation
- Creator
- Sabina, Hashondili
- ThesisAdvisor
- Ngcoza, Kenneth Mlungisi
- ThesisAdvisor
- Nhase, Zukiswa
- Subject
- Agriculture -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- Namibia
- Subject
- Food -- Preservation -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- Namibia
- Subject
- Education, Elementary -- Namibia
- Subject
- Ethnoscience -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- Namibia
- Date
- 2020
- Type
- text
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MEd
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148093
- Identifier
- vital:38709
- Description
- Many scholars have reported that science teachers are grappling with linking science to learners’ everyday life experiences and Namibian science teachers are no exception. As a result, learners are finding that scientific concepts often remain decontextualised and abstract. In light of this, the Namibian National Curriculum indicates that teaching and learning should start with the knowledge and experiences of learners from home. It also encourages teachers to integrate local knowledge into their science lessons but does not give proper guidelines on how science teachers should go about enacting this. This tension between curriculum formulation and implementation triggered my interest to carry out an interventionist research study aimed at exploring working with Grade 6 Elementary Agricultural Science teachers on how to integrate local knowledge on food preservation in particular. This study is underpinned by an interpretive paradigm, within which a qualitative case study was employed. It was conducted with three Grade 6 Elementary Agricultural Science teachers from three different schools in the Oshana region of Namibia. I used semi-structured interviews, document analysis, workshop discussions, participatory observation and reflections to gather data. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory together with Shulman’s pedagogical content knowledge theories was used as lenses to analyse my data. The findings of the study revealed that the sample teachers understood what indigenous knowledge is and its benefits but struggled to integrate it in their lessons. The findings of the study further revealed that the presentations by the expert community members enabled these teachers to identify possible science topics that they could teach, using some of the traditional practices such as food preservation. The study thus recommends that teachers need to be supported on how to integrate local knowledge or indigenous knowledge in their classrooms. Teachers should therefore be involved in professional learning communities that will help them share their difficulties they encounter during their teaching practices and to collaboratively come up with strategies to overcome such difficulties. Community members who are custodians of the cultural heritage should be invited to share their indigenous knowledge with science teachers so that they can link it from community members to classroom science.
- Format
- 136 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Sabina, Hashondili
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RU Department of Education
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | SABINA-MED-TR20-327.pdf | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |