Harambee Approach: Towards decolonising East African education through capturing social-cultural ethos

TY - JOUR

T1 - Harambee Approach: Towards decolonising East African education through capturing social-cultural ethos

AU - Corrado, Evelyn

PY - 2022/6/1

Y1 - 2022/6/1

N2 - In Kenya, there is the alienation of students' and teachers' cultural practices and experiences in the education system. The education system remains predominantly authoritarian with an underlying colonial framework. Often, in local and global spaces, there is an exclusion of the vital experiences and knowledge that East African students acquire from collaborative daily lives in their homes and communities. These crucial skills should be integrated into their classroom learning to decolonise education and liberate engagement of East African students. This model of learning, which is based on the Harambee approach, is a proposal based on my ethnographic Ph.D study conducted in a rural community in Kenya. The study included interviews and a focus group with teachers, and observations of students. The proposed concept captures the need for all key stakeholders to participate actively in policymaking and practice review, to accommodate the needs of all students and their teachers. The Harambee approach includes the social-cultural experiences of children. Additionally, dialogic engagement would be an inclusive strategy to emancipate the autonomy of students.

AB - In Kenya, there is the alienation of students' and teachers' cultural practices and experiences in the education system. The education system remains predominantly authoritarian with an underlying colonial framework. Often, in local and global spaces, there is an exclusion of the vital experiences and knowledge that East African students acquire from collaborative daily lives in their homes and communities. These crucial skills should be integrated into their classroom learning to decolonise education and liberate engagement of East African students. This model of learning, which is based on the Harambee approach, is a proposal based on my ethnographic Ph.D study conducted in a rural community in Kenya. The study included interviews and a focus group with teachers, and observations of students. The proposed concept captures the need for all key stakeholders to participate actively in policymaking and practice review, to accommodate the needs of all students and their teachers. The Harambee approach includes the social-cultural experiences of children. Additionally, dialogic engagement would be an inclusive strategy to emancipate the autonomy of students.

KW - Dialogic pedagogies, Harambee concept, Decolonising Education, East Africa

U2 - doi.org/10.5871/jba/010s2.135

DO - doi.org/10.5871/jba/010s2.135

M3 - Book/Film/Article review

SP - 135

JO - Journal of the British Academy

JF - Journal of the British Academy

IS - Special Issue

M1 - 18

ER -