MF CASR Lunch with Maren Seehawer

“Dialogue between Epistemologies as Quality Education. Exploring the Integration of Indigenous and Western Knowledges in South African Classrooms”

The above photograph is taken out of a grade six classroom in the city of Makhanda, South Africa. It shows the beautiful hill that is home to many of the school’s students. In these homes, indigenous knowledges and practices are alive and form part of students’ lived realities. In school, however, these knowledges are neglected because of a Eurocentric, “Western” curriculum.



Since the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, there is much international focus on “sustainable quality education” (SDG 4). At the same time, indigenous people and their knowledges are marginalised in the SDG’s. My work focuses on quality education in the broad sense. I argue for the constructive integration of different knowledge systems as an important part of sustainable quality education. In this CASR-lunch I will briefly introduce my doctoral project in which five Makhanda teachers explored how they could integrate some of their students’ indigenous knowledges into their regular sciences classes. Then, I will share some first thoughts on how this work could be continued and enhanced in a future project.

 

Please join us in person at the MF Library, or watch on Zoom: https://mf-no.zoom.us/j/64105595003?pwd=S0JpdTIyT1dBcjRwTjg2YzVxdmVRQT09

Zoom Meeting ID: 641 0559 5003

Passcode: MFCASR