Using expansive learning to include indigenous knowledge
- 1 January 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in International Journal of Inclusive Education
- Vol. 16 (1), 57-70
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110903560093
Abstract
This article contends that the third generation of cultural–historical activity theory as forwarded in Yrjo Engeström’s version of expansive learning offers the people of South Africa a framework within which to practically realise the objective of a more culturally inclusive and relevant education. By recognising and harnessing the divergent and even opposing principles and values within indigenous and modern western knowledge traditions, the expansive learning framework provides a vehicle for implementing the kind of education which has been conceived of by such policies as the country’s Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Policy and the Science-IKS curriculum. It is argued that this approach has the potential to take the indigenous knowledge initiatives beyond their current impasse in policies and bureaucratic institutions by generating new forms of cultural activity from the very conflicts inherent in the project. The principles of object orientation, multi-voicedness, historicity, contradictions as a driving force and expansive transformation are outlined at the level of interacting western and IKS, but shown to be operationalised through learning and research activity at a local level in classrooms and communities so that they generate new practices and policies from people’s daily activity.Keywords
This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
- Integrating Western and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: The Basis for Effective Science Education in South Africa?International Review of Education, 2007
- Teachers’ Stances and Practical Arguments Regarding a Science‐Indigenous Knowledge Curriculum: Part 1International Journal of Science Education, 2007
- New Directions for the Theoretical Development of Activity TheoryThe International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences: Annual Review, 2007
- New forms of learning in co‐configuration workJournal of Workplace Learning, 2004
- From Policy to Practice: Curriculum reform in South African educationComparative Education, 2002
- Spirituality in African Education: Issues, contentions and contestations from a Ghanaian case studyInternational Journal of Children's Spirituality, 2002
- Expansive Learning at Work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualizationJournal of Education and Work, 2001
- Rethinking the role of Indigenous knowledges in the academyInternational Journal of Inclusive Education, 2000
- Transcending Cultural Borders: implications for science teachingResearch in Science & Technological Education, 1999
- Perspectives on Activity TheoryPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1999