Indigenous knowledge as culturally-centred education in South Africa

Abstract

Despite recognition in various educational and related policies, the knowledge and worldviews of indigenous people of South Africa continue to play a marginal role in the country's education (Breidlid, 2003, 2004). While acknowledging the importance of formal western education in providing the skills needed for negotiating a variety of roles in life, this article questions its alienating effect on the majority of the country's black population. It contends that Curriculum 2005 (C2005), South Africa's dominating western education system, ignores and even negates important aspects of the learning processes of its traditionally-based communities. The article highlights the contradictions between the local and spiritual nature of indigenous knowledges, on the one hand, and the global and material tendencies of modern western knowledge production, on the other, calling for a dual-mode model of schooling for indigenous communities. In doing so it rejects ‘universal’ approaches to education as insufficiently situated in the worldviews and day to day activities of indigenous people and draws from Molefi Asante's ideas of Afrocentricity and Michael Cole's (1996) arguments for a cultural psychology to suggest culture-centred learning as an alternative.