Indigenously Promoting Acquisition of Basic Reading Skills in Preprimary Grades in Zambezi Region, Namibia

Abstract

Objective. Through the lens of Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of how children develop literacy skills, this paper explores how indigenous knowledge (IK) promotes the acquisition of basic reading skills in preprimary grades in Zambezi Region, Namibia. We consider this to be critical as children’s background knowledge plays a pivotal role in the acquisition of new skills, and children’s basic reading skill is not an exception. Therefore, learning contents and children’s potential learning abilities are based on and are informed by their (children’s) environmental knowledge herein understood as societal and environmental motivating learning factors. Materials and Methods. The data were generated by interviewing three preprimary teachers face-to-face, observing their lessons to see how they incorporated elements of IK in their reading lessons, as well as analyzing the preprimary syllabus for segments of IK as an illustration of its (IK) significance in promoting acquisition of reading among learners in preprimary grades in Zambezi region of Namibia. Results. The key question was: How does indigenous knowledge promote the acquisition of reading in preprimary grades in Zambezi region in Namibia? This key question was explored and answered through the following subquestions: How does IK help to promote the basic reading skills of preprimary learners in Zambezi Region of Namibia? What is the importance of IK inclusion in the preprimary literacy curriculum? Conclusions. The study found that teachers understood the concept of IK and how it promotes the acquisition of preprimary learners’ reading skills though this could not be figured out in their lessons, resulting in a huge inconsistency between interview data, lesson observation data and data from preprimary syllabus analysis.