Education

Programme Summary:

The Ubuntu Institute Education programme is focused on the integration of culture, heritage and Indigenous Knowledge systems in the education sector in Southern Africa. Culture shapes how we learn and dissect information. The Ubuntu education programme seeks to investigate culturally appropriate ways of teaching and learning in the education sector that is inclusive of people’s cultural experiences. Indigenous people around the world have indigenous explanations of why things are the way they are in the world. The programme seeks to contribute knowledge about African heritage, culture and history to curriculum development.

Approach

A special focus will be on math and science education in Southern Africa.

Activities

Strategy 4.1: Coordination of traditional, cultural institutions and educators to advocate for the use of indigenous knowledge systems in the education of math’s and science in their schools.  Black learners, in particular, are doing poorly in math’s and science education in Southern Africa and this needs to be reversed. The programme will involve traditional and cultural icons educating on how indigenous knowledge systems can inform math’s and sciences education (contexts of learning) and curriculum design.

Strategy 4.2: Capacity Building of educators on how to incorporate indigenous knowledge systems in math’s and sciences education/instruction will be carried out. Cultural and traditional custodians of culture will be capacitated on how to translate indigenous knowledge into curriculum design. The Ubuntu programme will also encourage creative ways of preserving indigenous wisdom knowledge e.g. from oral history to written history, that can inform curriculum and educational content at schools.

Strategy 4.3: Education and Awareness- Essentially, the programme will incorporate traditional and indigenous systems of education into math’s and sciences instruction at schools. The main targeted beneficiary will be the youth. Students will also be made aware of other past and present notable Black mathematicians. For example, learners should know that the oldest mathematical object, the Lebombo bone, was found in Swaziland ~ 35,000BC, and that the oldest example of arithmetic (Ishango Bone – 6000BC) was found in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Strategy 4.4: Advocacy- on promoting indigenous cultural knowledge into the academic curriculum in Southern Africa. 

Strategy 4.5: Research- In partnership with various academic institutions, the Ubuntu Institute will work to investigate the role of culture, heritage and indigenous knowledge systems in math’s and science education in Southern Africa.