Scaffolding teachers' professional development for the infusion of indigenous knowledge transfer in the Technology classroom

Abstract

In his 2017 publication, Mishack Gumbo, a leading authority on the pedagogical integration and use of Indigenous Knowledge for Technology Education in Sub-Sahara Africa, called for researchers to explore the integration and use of indigenous technologies for the professional development of Technology teachers in South Africa, and furthermore to investigate the attitudes of Technology teachers towards indigenous technologies. My research is a direct response to Gumbo’s call for researchers to explore the integration and use of indigenous technologies for the professional development of Technology teachers in South Africa, and furthermore to investigate the attitudes of Technology teachers towards indigenous technologies. Currently, there are not design principles that would serve as a guide for Technology teachers to infuse Indigenous Knowledge in their classroom. In my literature study, Socio-Cultural Constructivism is discussed as the higher order theoretical construct of my case study. Furthermore, a distinction is made between various lower order constructs, which together, constitute the conceptual framework of my research. These include: Cultural Responsive Theory, the continuous professional development of Technology teachers, the reformation and decolonisation of the school curriculum, the origins, core content areas and objectives of Technology Education in South Africa, self-directed learning, and problem-based learning. Next, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Indigenous Technologies were explored, followed by a discussion on the andragogical and pedagogical infusion of Indigenous Knowledge into Senior Phase Technology Education. Indigenous Knowledge various barriers and challenges were identified that still restrict the effective infusion of Indigenous Knowledge into Technology Education, and accordingly, possible solutions were explored from the literature, aimed to overcome these barriers and challenges. I followed a qualitative case study research design, and made use of a design-based research approach, consisting of three intervention cycles. Participants in all three the intervention cycles were Technology teachers. The first intervention cycle consisted of five (5) participants, the 2nd intervention cycle consisted of eight (8) participants while the 3rd intervention cycle consisted of five (5) participants. I progressively delivered a three-day long short-learning programme to three groups of senior phase Technology teachers, that assisted the participants to integrate and tap into their culturally accumulated Indigenous Knowledge and skills, and use this knowledge and skills together with their design process skills in Technology Education, in order to collaboratively solve community-based problems by designing and constructing indigenous technological artefacts for given scenarios, while simultaneously promoting both transfer of

knowledge and skills in the classroom, and encouraging self-directed learning. Central to this study was to distil design principles that would inform future teacher professional development programmes on the infusion of Indigenous Knowledge in technology classrooms in the manner that will promote both transfer of knowledge in the classroom, and self-directed learning. Also, after each of the interventions, changes were made to the short learning programme, in true design-based research fashion. During the progressive intervention cycles, I used various qualitative data collection methods to generate an integrated dataset, comprising of teachers’ self-reflection sheets, their constructed indigenous technological artefacts, mind-maps drawn by participants, as well as data collected by means of a focus group interview, participants’ portfolios, as well as participants’ responses to a qualitative questionnaire that was administered to them at the end of their participation in the short-learning programme. I furthermore made use of third generation Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a research lens to explore the challenges experienced by senior phase Technology teachers when applying Indigenous Knowledge and skills in their classrooms. Meticulous qualitative data analysis revealed Technology teachers benefited from the Short Learning Programme (SLP), and also indicated the need for continuous in-service teacher professional development, coupled with structured support. I applied the findings obtained from my literature review, together with the findings derived from my qualitative data analysis of the data collected during the three intervention cycles, to distil design principles for the development of future short learning programmes on the infusion of Indigenous Knowledge into Technology Education, that will promote both transfer of knowledge in the classroom, and self-directed learning.