Exploring grade 7 Natural Sciences teachers' views about nature of indigenous knowledge and how their views influence their classroom practice

Abstract

Understanding the Nature of Indigenous Knowledge (NOIK) which embodies Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has the potential to play a pivotal role in the classroom and in our societies. South Africa has made it compulsory to integrate IK in Natural Sciences (NS) classroom practice, as per CAPS document. However, there is a general lack of research on NS teachers‘ views on NOIK. As a consequence, this study explored NS teachers‘ views on NOIK and how these views influence their classroom practice. This study used Standpoint Theory (ST) as a theoretical framework, and employed the multiple case study design where six cases were explored. In addition, the study adopted the qualitative research approach, which depended on the Stake multiple case study design. The six cases represented were six NS teachers from Dimamo Circuit, and each teacher acted as a case. Each teacher filled in the VNOIK open-ended questionnaire, observed twice, and a semi-structured interview was administered. Direct Interpretation together with thematic content analysis were employed to analyse the data. The findings showed that majority of NS teachers hold informed views on NOIK, whilst others hold Partially Informed views. Furthermore, majority of NS teachers did not include all aspects (tenets) of NOIK in their classroom practice. However, they were mostly satisfied with the lessons they had. Although the results from VNOIK questionnaire showed that NS teachers appear to have informed views on NOIK, these findings suggest that the teachers still need to integrate NOIK in their classroom practice. Lack of NS teachers‘ ability to integrate IK in their classrooms made it impossible for the researcher to determine how NS teachers‘ views on NOIK influence their classroom practice.