Siaka Kroma
Enrolment and retention in science and mathematics courses are still unacceptably low in many
developing countries. This is due in part to a disjunction between the course content encountered in schools
and the local knowledge of students. In this article it is argued that science and mathematics would be more
popular if course content reflected the indigenous knowledge of local communities.
Introduction
The growth of science and mathematics education in many Third World countries is impaired by the
negative attitudes toward these subjects expressed by pupils. This is due largely to inadequacies related to
subject matter, instructional procedures and teaching personnel. For example, familiar subject matter that
could be used to lay the foundations of the discipline, capture pupils' interest and challenge their intellect at
an early age is largely neglected. As a result, mathematics and science are perceived by pupils as 'dry',
uninteresting and irrelevant. This leads to low retention rates in schools in general, and in science courses in
particular.
If science and mathematics are to gain popularity, capture the interest of Third World pupils and challenge their intellect, the content must be made more appealing by linking it to their immediate experiences and making it relevant to their daily activities. One way to achieve this is through the use of local knowledge as a starting point for the exploration of scientific concepts and inquiry procedures.
Jegede (1994) makes a similar point with respect to science education in Africa. In his view, the obstacles to science and technology education include:
Indigenous knowledge
Indigenous knowledge is local knowledge, derived from interactions between people and their environment,
which is characteristic of all cultures. It spans the entire range of human experience, including history,
linguistics, politics, art, economics, administration and psychology. Its technical aspects include agriculture,
medicine, natural resources management, engineering and fishing. It is the basis for decision-making and for
the content of education in traditional societies. In most human communities, especially pre-literate ones,
indigenous knowledge is encoded in proverbs, stories, riddles, music and songs, and other verbal skills,
which together form the repository of knowledge for each group. This knowledge is taught to children
through the various institutions that characterize a particular society (Atte, 1992:6).
The literature on indigenous knowledge, agricultural development and environmental management provides abundant evidence of human activities which utilize complex but implicit scientific principles (Atte, 1992; Warren, 1992; McCorkle, 1994; Lansing and Kremer, 1995). It has also been demonstrated that the exclusion of such knowledge from development activities has had disastrous consequences in every region of the world where outsider knowledge has been imposed without regard to local knowledge (Lansing and Kremer, 1995; Cashman, 1989).
The irrigation system of Bali (Indonesia) is a case in point. For centuries, the people of Bali have grown rice, using a complex web of irrigation canals and tunnels. By tunnelling through solid rock, they were able to direct underground water to the precise spots where it was needed. Both the flow of the water to the various levels and the pattern of cropping were carefully controlled by priests. This indigenous system made it possible to grow several crops of rice each year without the use of fertilizers or pesticides.
During the eighties, when the green revolution swept through Southeast Asia, development agencies and the Government built new dams and canals, changed cropping patterns, introduced new rice varieties, and trained numerous extension workers, in an effort to increase rice yields and boost exports. But before long, the original optimism faded. With new varieties came new pests, and soon there was a noticeable decline in soil fertility. Rice diseases and insect pests multiplied, leading to a widespread need for pesticides hitherto almost unknown. Too little attention had been given to the traditional techniques that had been used successfully for hundreds of years. (Lansing and Kremer, 1995)
It is clear from the case of Bali that there are complex scientific concepts underlying local activities in many Third World situations, concepts that are not recognized in formal education. The principle of classification, which is basic to all science, is also part of indigenous knowledge. While working with farmers in Sierra Leone, Richards (1986) discovered that farmers classify crop varieties according to such criteria as soil and water requirements, cropping season, crop duration and time of sowing. In defining crop categories, they rely on their accumulated field experience and that of past generations. During his work with farmers in Nigeria, Warren (1992) also found that farmers practice soil classification and distinguish crops according to their suitability for each soil type.
Another example of local knowledge which is relevant to science education is the capacity for experimentation in rural communities. Working with farmers in Niger, McCorkle (1994) found that farmers design, implement and evaluate farm trials, using steps which correspond to:
The threat to indigenous knowledge
Despite its proven usefulness, indigenous knowledge is threatened in the Third World by inadequate,
inaccurate and inappropriate conceptions of knowledge, and the propagation of these conceptions in
educational practice. Formal educational practices are based on the view that knowledge consists of a body
of facts transferable through books and formal instruction. Scientific knowledge is regarded by educational
practitioners as objective knowledge of the outside world, knowledge which is exact and derived from
experimentation. On the whole, knowledge is perceived as subject matter which can be divided up into
discrete units corresponding to individual school subjects. To a large extent, these conceptions are a residue
of colonial experience. Unfortunately, the accompanying prejudices and negative attitudes held by educated
elites in those countries have continued to flourish in the former colonies long after independence.
Formal education in the Third World is contributing to the demise of indigenous knowledge by commission as well as omission. In most Third World communities the educational function of traditional institutions has long since been taken over by the school systems of the state. In many regions the 'secret-society bush schools'**1 have lost their original role as places where people learned to live as men and women. Pupils entering school today are entering a new world, both physically and intellectually, a world which lies outside the traditional boundaries of their communities.
In this situation, schooling may be said to undermine indigenous knowledge in three ways. First, it fails to put forward indigenous knowledge as worthwhile subject matter for the learning process. Second, it limits the exposure of children to the local knowledge of their communities. Third, it creates attitudes in children that militate against the acquisition of local knowledge.
The subject matter of many elementary subjects can best be taught by bringing into the school local materials and local experience. At present, the school and the child's world are separated by the inadequacies of educational practice (Peacock, 1995). The result is that the knowledge acquired by pupils is based on subject matter which is only marginally relevant to their world.
The demands of modern schooling in the Third World are such that rural children do not remain in their communities long enough to acquire the knowledge available to them through traditional channels. They are in school for the better part of the day, while in some cases they have to leave their villages and go to live in the towns where the schools are located. As a result, this knowledge is lost to succeeding generations of school-educated young people.
Schooling tends to promote Western-type knowledge and values at the expense of local knowledge and values. Young school-leavers develop negative attitudes towards local knowledge, which makes it difficult for them to acquire this knowledge, even for purposes of local activities. The cumulative effect will be future generations who lack the most elementary and necessary knowledge of their own culture.
Popularizing science in the Third World
The education of children in many Third World communities has been impoverished in significant ways. On
the one hand, as noted above, they are not exposed to the indigenous knowledge of the communities, while
on the other hand, their school knowledge is severely limited. Their prolonged absence from the community
deprives them of local knowledge, while exposing them to formal school subjects. This exposure to school
knowledge is not usually mediated by their local experience.
As a result there is a disjunction between their experience and their school knowledge. In time, an aversion to school subject matter sets in, leading to irregular school attendance and poor participation, especially in science courses. Popularizing science, by means of subject matter based on indigenous knowledge, would help to compensate for the increasing loss of such knowledge in Third World communities.
National policy
As we have seen, many Third World educational practices are based on conceptions of education and
science derived from colonial experience. These conceptions are inadequate, inaccurate and inappropriate. If
education and development in the Third World are to be meaningfully linked, the attitudes that shape them
must be corrected. New conceptions of knowledge that are inclusive of both international and indigenous
knowledge must inform educational practice. As one Third World visionary put it, education must be
conceived of as the transmission from one generation to the next of 'the accumulated wisdom and
knowledge of the society', and the preparation of the young for 'their future membership of society and
their effective participation in its maintenance and development' (Nyerere, 1967). In order to achieve this,
knowledge must be both international and indigenous.
Curriculum development
It is widely recognized that school science remains alien to many Third World pupils. This has been
attributed to inadequate perceptions of science and science learning (Peacock, 1995), and to the disjunction
between school knowledge and local knowledge (Knamiller, 1989). Peacock (1995:151) states that there are
enormous gaps in the perception of science between the various parties: The traditional ideas of skill-
learning amongst adults and children in rural areas, the national aspirations and curricula of ministries and
training institutions, which have largely adopted Anglo-American models, and the classroom practice of
teachers who, through inappropriate higher education, are themselves marooned in older, pre-independence
models for the didactic teaching of factual knowledge. As Knamiller (1989:2) claims, this is 'because we
often fail to take into account the science and technology local people are doing, what knowledge and skills
they have and what problems they feel are important to consider'. A similar view is held by Amara (1987)
who reports that using indigenous technology as a basis for education boosted the retention rate of girls in
science courses in Sierra Leone. This shows that science education can be made more popular through the
inclusion of indigenous knowledge in school science courses.
The inclusion of indigenous knowledge does not refer to the addition of new subject matter as we know it. Rather it calls for the inclusion within existing subjects of content or information that is not usually regarded as part of that particular subject. It cuts across the curriculum calling for a reorientation of subjects, teachers and all school experiences. Units of subject matter already being taught in schools need to be reexamined, indigenous knowledge corresponding to these units needs to be identified, and the subject matter needs to be presented in such a way that the factual elements and their corresponding indigenous knowledge are logically connected, bearing in mind the relevant experience of the child.
Teacher training
The interface between school and traditional knowledge can be seen daily in the classroom. But if teachers
are not trained to recognize and deal with it, they will neglect it, deny it, or even denigrate it when it
appears as part of pupil responses in school learning settings. Therefore, teachers must be trained to deal
with indigenous knowledge in their teaching. An example from the writer's experience will illustrate this.
Munda is a Mende child who is having difficulty with English numerology. He counts up to 'twenty-nine' and then goes on to 'twenty-ten.' The teacher's conclusion is that Munda is stupid, since despite repeated explanations and even punishment, he cannot remember that 'twenty nine' is followed by 'thirty'. The fact of the matter is that Munda's native language counts somewhat differently, going from 'twenty and nine' to twenty and ten'. So there is a logical explanation for Munda's problem which his teacher is not aware of: Munda's learning of English numerology is hampered by a 'conceptual interference' akin to linguistic interference. If the teacher does not realize this, his efforts will simply frustrate Munda and possibly alienate him from mathematics.
There are many Mundas in the Third World, and many more instances where local knowledge and concepts interact with the kinds of knowledge dealt with in school classrooms. If his teacher knew more about the mathematical knowledge that Munda brought with him to school, he would be in a better position to teach him the kind of mathematics that he wants him to learn in school. And if the teacher knew more about the kinds of environments Munda interacts with, he would be in a better position to give him the mathematical knowledge that he needs to further his interaction with those environments. It is this which should form the thrust of science teacher education in the Third World.
Dr Siaka Kroma
Department of Teacher Education
Njala University College
Private Mail Bag
Freetown
Sierra Leone
Dr Kroma is a visiting scholar at CIKARD until the summer of 1996.
CIKARD
318 Curtiss Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011
USA
Tel: +1-515-2940938
Fax: +1-515-2946058
References
Amara J.M. (1987) 'Indigenous technology of Sierra Leone and the science education of girls',
International Journal of Science Education 9(3):317-324.
Atte, D.O. (1992) Indigenous local knowledge as a key to local level development: Possibilities, constraints and planning issues. Studies in Technology and Social Change No. 20. Ames: Iowa State University, Technology and Social Change Program.
Cashman, K. (1989) 'Agricultural research centers and indigenous knowledge systems in a world perspective: Where do we go from here?', in D.M. Warren, L.J. Slikkerveer and S.O. Titilola (eds) Indigenous knowledge systems: Implications for agriculture and international development. Studies in Technology and Social Change No. 11. Ames: Iowa State University, Technology and Social Change Program.
Jegede, O. (1994) 'African cultural perspectives and the teaching of science', pp. 120-130 in J. Solomon and G. Aikenhead (eds) STS education: International perspectives on reform. New York: Teachers College Press.
Knamiller, G. (1989) 'Linking school science and technology with school science in Malawi', Science Education Newsletter 84(1):1-3.
Lansing, S.J. and J.N. Kremer (1995) 'A socioecological analysis of Balinese water temples', pp. 258-269 in D.M. Warren, L.J. Slikkerveer and D. Brokensha (eds) The cultural dimension of development: Indigenous knowledge systems. London: Intermediate Technology Publications.
McCorkle, C. (1994) Farmer innovation in Niger. Studies in Technology and Social Change No. 21. Ames: Iowa State University, Technology and Social Change Program.
Nyerere, J. (1967) Education for self-reliance. Dar Es Salaam: Government Press.
Peacock, A. (1995) 'Access to science learning for children in rural Africa', International journal of science education 17(12):149-166.
Quiroz, C. (forthcoming) 'Farmer experimentation in an Andean region in Venezuela', in Prain, G., S. Fujisaka and D.M. Warren (eds) Biological and cultural diversity: The role of indigenous agricultural experimentation in development. London: IT Publications.
Richards, P. (1986) Coping with hunger: Hazard and experiment in an African rice farming system. London: Allen and Unwin.
Warren, D.M. (1992) A preliminary analysis of indigenous soil classification and management systems in four ecozones of Nigeria. Ibadan: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the African Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge.
Endnote
**1 The term 'bush schools' refers to training that constituted the rites of
passage in indigenous societies in many developing countries. Training which took place during puberty was
done in clearings in the bush away from towns and villages, and ranged in duration from a few months to
two or three years. It was here that children received direct instruction in the knowledge and skills required
for adult life in the community.