The Sociology of Knowledge in Change Processes: Connecting Mother Tongue Education with Knowledge Development in Cameroon Primary Schools

Abstract

What, exactly, constitutes an appropriate understanding of life issues is the degree to which these issues interrelate with the operational values and systems of a given community. Yet, this understanding is intrinsically linked to the cultural realities of the people covertly or overtly expressed in the language of their contextual reality which is the mother tongue. This study focuses on the interconnectivity of knowledge in this evaluative era of multiculturalism in Cameroon and seeks to establish the challenges of the mother tongue education in some selected primary schools in Donga Mantung Division with the Limbum language as a case study. The paper discusses, from a psychosocial perspective, issues raised by Skinner and Tamanji in their theories of behaviourism and cognitivism respectively in an attempt to contribute to the on-going discourse on the vital need to revitalize Cameroon local languages at the initial levels of education, which is the primary school. In examining the critical role for research and the importance of transformative or quantitative mother tongue education, the paper underpins the challenges inherent in the process and the limitations in carrying out the project with naturalness and authenticity.