Indigenous Imagining(s) of Education as a Catalyst for Change? Perspectives of Namibian San Communities’ on the Utopia of Universal Education

• In Event: Education Policy and Reform (I)

Proposal

Background
Universal education has been widely advocated as a great equalizer, having the potential to liberate individuals, tackle inequality and bring people closer together (Oxfam, 2019). Global frameworks such as Education for All (EFA) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have urged countries, including Namibia, the context of this study, to improve access to and quality of education through critical reforms: development of mother-tongue education in early grades, establishing pre-primary education on a pro-poor basis, developing inclusive policies that make provision for educationally marginalized children, reducing economic barriers by abolishing school development funds, and establishing school feeding programmes. These reforms have been internationally recognized as progressive in enforcing education as a right of every child (UNESCO, 2017), but the perspectives of educationally marginalized communities on educational reforms, is not well established.
To bring about just and inclusive educational futures, education needs to be seen as a human right that is connected to political and societal realities. In the context of the education for the San learners over the past two decades, school performance and attendance have remained significantly lower than the national average (MoE, 2018). The accessibility to education in terms of availability of schools and supportive policy frameworks has improved, however, the improvement is not significant (Hays, Ninkova & Dounias, 2022). Regardless of the overall improved accessibility, mainstream education has not succeeded in providing a sustainable and culturally appropriate mechanism to support San learners’ education (Ninkova, 2020). For those who experience educational injustices, it is critical to generate power through collective efforts that can bring about hope and space to imagine another kind of world within which education can be actualized.
How do we know that educational reforms lead to meaningful, responsive, and sustainable changes? How can public education be redesigned in a way that it respects indigenous communities’ histories, realities, and aspirations? These are some of the overarching questions that this study sheds light on and which contribute to the critical reflection of education as a catalyst for change. The findings of this study may help educators, teacher educators, and policy actors in Southern African contexts and beyond to enhance educational equity in indigenous communities and beyond.
Purpose, method
The purpose of this qualitative empirical study is to explore public education from the perspective of Namibian San communities. Although these communities are located across various countries in Southern Africa, this case study is for Namibia. Furthermore, we explore how the San communities perceive and actualize their own collective agency (=protest) in the educational reforms and redesigns. Our theoretical framework is based on the concept of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) which Gay (2002, p.106) defines as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them more effectively”.
Our research questions are: What kind of school experiences, arrangements or interactions influence the perceptions, interest, and participation of San learners in the formal education system? How is the agency and critical contributions of San communities considered in education development? How can these collective efforts bring about hope and space to imagine another kind of world within which education is more meaningful, responsive, and sustainable?
This on-going qualitative study combines both a semi-systematic literature review and a field study conducted in 2023. Using available databases like SCOPUS, personal research contacts, and reference lists, we identified 18 peer-reviewed scientific articles published between 2010-2022. We analyzed the articles using research questions and identified themes that emerged from the reviewed studies. From February 2023 until July 2023, we conducted a semi-ethnographic field study including group discussions, interviews, and observations. The data will be thematically analyzed using qualitative methods.
Findings
The tentative findings based on the literature review highlighted the need for multi-level and multi-stakeholder collaboration to address complex and deep-rooted challenges of formal education. The gap between progressive policies and education practices in San communities is evident. However, this gap is also connected to the complex realities of post-colonial societies and the irrelevant and foreign education systems that have existed for long.
In the review of studies, four critical areas emerged from which preliminary recommendations were drawn: 1) working proactively towards an inclusive society; 2) improving access to a relevant education; 3) developing partnership skills and processes that strengthen educational justice; 4) developing pre-and in-service teachers and principals’ cultural competences. From the reviewed studies we suggest the following recommendations:
In line with SGD4, we suggest that creating strategic connections between indigenous communities, researchers, and teacher education institutions could help create critical dialogues needed for research-based, and culturally responsive education interventions. There is a need to expand and deepen the understanding of partnerships in education development. For instance, participatory research that combines expertise from various fields of anthropology, sociology, and education could help in understanding the complex educational issues in San communities. We recommend the development of culturally responsive teacher education to equip teachers with understanding and skills to take social action to promote freedom, equality, and justice for everyone.
Conclusion
This study takes a critical stand on the assumption that education is a great equalizer. Following the theoretical framework of culturally responsive education (Gay, 2000), we have investigated the perspective of the Namibian San community to gain deeper insight into more meaningful, responsive, and sustainable education development in indigenous contexts. The study provides a contextualized perspective on the implementation and actualization of education as a right and highlights the need to develop culturally responsive teaching that makes school more interesting, stimulating, representative of, and responsive to specific ethnic groups (Gay, 2002, p.107). The praxis of teacher education policy in Namibia has not been thoroughly researched to understand the imperatives of the practical implementation. The conditions of those that experience educational injustices need to be a subject for research that can inform the collective efforts for change. Education can only become a catalyst for change when there is freedom to be critical about the education reforms and ensure that the critical voices of indigenous communities are an integral part of this process.

Author

• Marika Hannele Matengu, University of Oulu