Teachers' experiences of incorporating indigenous knowledge in the life sciences classroom

M.Ed. (Science Education)South Africa is one of the global hotspots of both biological and ethnic diversity. Southern Africa is rich in angiosperm species, and the angiosperm species count is considered to be 21,817. The traditional medicinal systems of different cultural groups and their herbal, animal and mineral materia medica have ancient origins which may date back to Palaeolithic times. Indigenous knowledge (lK) and cultural practices in many areas of the country provide learners with a good "entry" into the scientific world. A true constructivist teacher will realise the importance of building new knowledge on learners' existing knowledge. This will show the learners how relevant science is to our daily lives. It might also open future career opportunities, and develop learners' entrepreneurial skills. This fact is acknowledged by the new curriculum (the National Curriculum Statement), and Life Sciences teachers are expected to infuse their teaching with indigenous knowledge. When these new policies were created, policy makers focused on the what of desired educational change, and unfortunately neglected the how (Rogan & Aldous, 2009). Teachers often have limited understanding of the curriculum changes. The textbooks used in class give little or even no proper information about indigenous knowledge. Whereas some textbooks still provide information on IK in the form of examples, hardly any attention is given to teaching strategies and practical work that can be done in the classroom. My study highlights the problem that many teachers simply ignore IK, due to their lack of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in this regard, and the lack of guidance and support from the Department of Education. As many teachers were trained in the "old method" of teaching and not in the pedagogy prescribed by the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), many of them do not have specific knowledge about the indigenous knowledge that they need to impart to learners. Those who are fortunate enough to have sufficient knowledge of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), often lack the pedagogy. Once again, we need to go back in history to understand why teachers find it so difficult to teach IK. In the apartheid era it was a taboo to mention traditional medicine in the classroom. Our traditional medicine was often replaced by Western medicine. Black South Africans were robbed of their identity. Under the Suppression of Witchcraft Act, indigenous belief systems were undermined and in most cases referred to as pagan (heathen) belief systems. As a result, indigenous belief systems were viewed as something that derails society. This study focuses on a number of issues related to the incorporation of indigenous knowledge in the classroom. One of the main concerns is teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Two additional factors also make the introduction of indigenous knowledge difficult in the classroom: (a) the multicultural South African society (whose IK should be entertained?), and (b) the nature of science, and many teachers' perception that the introduction of IK would constitute pseudo-science. The question arises whether it is possible to introduce indigenous knowledge in a scientific way in the Life Sciences classroom. Is an IK focus compliant with the syntactical nature of Life Sciences, namely an emphasis on inquiry-based approaches? A second question arises: Are South African teachers able to teach IK in such a context? As mentioned above, many Life Sciences teachers find it difficult to follow heuristic approaches where learners engage with discovery learning making observations, formulating hypotheses, developing experimental designs, collecting and interpreting data, and making conclusions. Now, in addition to this challenge, teachers need to follow such a pedagogy to investigate indigenous knowledge claims. It is just so much easier for teachers to rely on "chalk and talk" approaches, as a study of Petersen (2010) reveals..