Natural Science Education, Indigenous Knowledge, and Sustainable Development in Rural and Urban Schools in Kenya : a Toward Critical Postcolonial Curriculum Policies and Practices

Through a multi-sited qualitative study of three Kenyan secondary schools in rural Taita Hills and urban Nairobi, the volume explores the ways the dichotomy between “Western” and “indigenous” knowledge operates in Kenyan education. In particular, it examines views on natural sciences expressed by the students, teachers, the state’s curricula documents, and schools’ exam-oriented pedagogical approaches. O’Hern and Nozaki question state and local education policies and practices as they relate to natural science subjects such as agriculture, biology, and geography and their dismissal of indigenous knowledge about environment, nature, and sustainable development. They suggest the need to develop critical postcolonial curriculum policies and practices of science education to overcome knowledge-oriented binaries, emphasize sustainable development, and address the problems of inequality, the center and periphery divide, and social, cultural, and environmental injustices in Kenya and, by implication, elsewhere. “In an era of environmental crisis and devastation, education that supports sustainability and survival of our planet is needed. Within a broader sociopolitical context of post-colonialism and globalization, this volume points out possibilities and challenges to achieve such an education. The authors propose a critical, postcolonial approach that acknowledges the contextual and situational production of all knowledge, and that de-dichotomizes indigenous from ‘Western’ scientific knowledge.” Eric (Rico) Gutstein, Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois at Chicago (USA) Study Sites SelectionsOVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS; NOTES; CHAPTER 2: NATURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION IN NON-WESTERN NATIONS AND CRITICAL AND POSTCOLONIAL PERSPECTIVES: A Literature Review; THE STATE, SCHOOLS, AND NATURAL SCIENCE CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY; NATURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION IN KENYA AND AFRICA: STATE POLICIES AND EVERYDAY PRACTICES; SCIENCE EDUCATION AND MULTICULTURALIST APPROACHES IN THE UNITED STATES: THE ISSUES OF DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE; NATURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES; Critical Practice of Education: Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Counterhegemonic Curriculum Making TABLE OF CONTENTS; FOREWORD TO NATURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION, INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL AND URBAN SCHOOLS IN KENYA; REFERENCES; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: Sustainability, Development, and Natural Science Education; THE PRESENT VOLUME: PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE; Natural Science Education and Epistemological Tensions of School Knowledge; The State, Inequality, and Globalization; ETHNOGRAPHIC, QUALITATIVE STUDY: VIEWS FROM STUDENTS AND TEACHERS; DATA COLLECTION: MULTI-SITED ETHNOGRAPHIC WORK; Multi-sited, multi-case study; Ethnographic approach Possibilities of Critical Educational Studies and Practices in KenyaWESTERN SCIENCE, COLONIAL POWER, AND INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE; Western Scientific Knowledge and Colonial Power; Primitive, Local, and Indigenous Knowledge; Research on Indigenous Knowledge; NOTES; CHAPTER 3: METHODS AND METHODOLOGY: Multi-Sited Ethnographic Study; METHODOLOGIES, RESEARCH PROCESSES, AND DESCRIBING THE METHODS; Participant Observations; Semi-structured, Open-ended Interviews; Short Answer Questionnaires; A Note about Language; Documents; Data Analysis; Writing Up Multi-sited Ethnographic Study; NOTE CHAPTER 4: KENYAN EDUCATION: The State, Schools, and Legacy of ColonialismFORMAL EDUCATION IN KENYA; Education in Pre-Colonial and Colonial Kenya; KENYAN EDUCATION AND DECOLONIZATION; Education in Contemporary Kenya; Globalization and Education: The Kenyan Context(s); THE KENYAN STATE AND SCHOOLS; The Kenya Institute of Education (KIE); Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC); Daily Practice of Teachers in Kenyan Schools; NOTES; CHAPTER 5: FOREST SECONDARY SCHOOL: Schooling, Inequality, and Naural Science Education in Rural Kenya; FOREST SECONDARY SCHOOL Educational Resources and the Natural Science Education at Forest Secondary SchoolCurricula, Testing, and Teaching in the Natural Sciences at Forest Secondary School; Students, Teachers, and Indigenous Natural Science Knowledge at Forest Secondary School; SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION; NOTES; CHAPTER 6: CENTRAL BOYS SECONDARY SCHOOL: National Curriculum and Natural Science Education in Urban Kenya; CENTRAL BOYS SECONDARY SCHOOL; Educational Resources and the Natural Science Education at Central Boys Secondary School Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction....Pages 1-12 Natural Science Education in Non-Western Nations and Critical and Postcolonial Perspectives....Pages 13-32 Methods and Methodology....Pages 33-45 Kenyan Education....Pages 47-62 Forest Secondary School....Pages 63-85 Central Boys Secondary School....Pages 87-107 Uhuru Girls Secondary School....Pages 109-132 Discussion and Concluding Thoughts....Pages 133-148 Back Matter....Pages 149-162