Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Parenting practices play a significant role in the raising healthy functioning children. Traditionally, Black African families have had their own way of parenting their children, like all other cultural groups. However, few guidelines have been developed and recorded regarding their parenting practices. Most available parenting practices guidelines have been developed from a Western perspective. The purpose of this study was to explore the indigenous parenting practices of Black African families, with the aim of developing indigenous parenting practices guidelines for parents and caregivers, including grandparents in the Makhuduthamaga Municipality of the Sekhukhune district. The theoretical framework underpinning this study is an Afrocentricity, which focuses on reclaiming African practices. A qualitative research method was used, guided by a case study research design. The researcher used purposive sampling to select a sample of 52 participants from six villages in the Makhuduthamaga Municipality of the Sekhukhune Districts, in Limpopo Province. The participants recruited were grandparents, traditional leaders and three age categories of parents. The number of participants were as follows: 18 parents, 29 grandparents, and 5 traditional leaders. Participation in the study was voluntary, while confidentiality and anonymity was maintained. Participants were thoroughly informed about the study, and offered their by signing the relevant consent forms.

Marginalizing indigenous experts was common practice during the colonial period in Uganda, and it has continued to some extent today. This study was an attempt to reclaim the indigenous history unmentioned by many Western scholars who were quick to glean a vast amount of indigenous knowledge, yet failed to recognize or credit the intellectual expertise and contributions of indigenous experts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the marginalization of an indigenous master-musician teacher as seen through the life experiences and career of Evalisto Muyinda (1916-1993). With a musical career that spanned over fifty years, Mr. Muyinda served as a leading teacher and performer of indigenous Ganda music in various institutions. Muyinda's contributions to the field of indigenous (Ganda) music teaching are many, yet his expertise and contributions to music education have not been fully explored. He served as a court musician in Kabaka Muteesa II’s palace from 1939 to 1966; he was chief musician at the Uganda Museum from 1948 to 1984; and he was a lead musician and innovator in Uganda's national cultural troupe (the Heart Beat of Africa) from 1963 to 1981. Mr. Muyinda's legacy continues to exist through the scholarly work of various music educators, ethnomusicologists and indigenous performers of Ganda music, who all credit their learning to this expert musician. World music scholars such as Klaus Wachsmann, Lois Anderson, Gerhard Kubik, and Peter Cooke all studied and researched indigenous Ganda music under Muyinda’s guidance and tutelage. In this study I examined Muyinda’s contributions to music education as a teacher and performer of indigenous (Ganda) music in twentieth century Uganda (1939-1993). Mr. Muyinda was a well-known resource for hundreds of indigenous Ganda folksongs that he used in teaching the akadinda and amadinda (xylophone) traditions to both local and foreign students. As a master musician-teacher, Muyinda also performed and taught indigenous music in several places in and outside Uganda. During Muyinda’s career and travels his music was recorded and archived in British and Viennese archival libraries, making these materials a useful resource for music educators and ethnomusicologists. The methodology employed in gathering data for this study included personal interviews with people who interacted with Evalisto Muyinda during his life time. Archived printed materials were carefully examined and used to construct a sequence of significant events as they unfolded in Muyinda's life experiences and career. Although Muyinda was not an expert musician in the Western formal sense, his expertise in indigenous music enabled him to serve as an accomplished teacher and research associate to the many Western scholars who worked with him. Since the marginalization of an indigenous master-musician teacher is the central focus of this study, Afrocentricity was used as the most suitable theoretical framework to discuss an African subject and the historical discourse involved. The current study would be of interest to music practitioners, researchers and historians with an interest in the indigenous music and music education of Uganda and other countries with a similar history.

No description available.

Introduction. This thesis is set in the field of critical knowledge organization and indigenous knowledge organi- zation. Building on the theory of domain analysis I chose the Saami Library in Sweden as the domain for this thesis. The purpose was to identify the structures of power affecting how the lives and experiences of the Saami people are represented in the library catalogue and in the classification systems used, and to examine the views on knowledge expressed in the classification systems. Theory and method. This thesis builds upon the writings on deconstruction. I seek to deconstruct the cata- logue and the classification system using tools derived from the writings of Jacques Derrida. Analysis. Nine posts from the catalogue, and the classification codes entered there were analysed. Emphasis was put on analysing the DDC classification as this is the primary classification system used. Results. From analysing the classifications and the catalogue posts I found that the representations of the Saami experiences varied depending on which subject class the book belonged to. A majority of the posts analysed were classified as social sciences in DDC whereas the classifications were more varied in the Swedish SAB- system. Conclusion. Two structures have been identified. The first structure places the Saami experiences as some- thing that is other, in relation to which the mainstream is defined. The second structure places the Saami experi- ences as part of a diversity, separate from the unity of the mainstream society. This structure only acknowledges the existence of diversity if this means that the position of the unity is strengthened. Concerning the second purpose of the thesis I find that a western knowledge perspective has got a hegemonic position in the DDC, which means that other knowledge systems such as indigenous knowledge is not seen as such but as something only related to a specific group. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

My thesis describes the praxis of geographical exploration in the mid-nineteenth century through the activities of members of the Royal Geographical Society of London (RGS). I focus on the First East African Expedition (1856-1859), which was led by Richard F. Burton. Geographical exploration was intended to provide data that would allow geographers in Britain to construct an accurate description of East Africa, with emphasis on the rivers and lakes that may contribute to the waters of the Nile and ethnographic research. Earlier geographies of the East African interior had relied upon a variety of sources: ancient, Arab, Portuguese, and local informants. In order to replace these sources with precise observation, the RGS provided some prescriptive instructions to explorers based upon the techniques of celestial navigation and surveying available for field research in the 1850s. The instructions emphasized careful, daily recording of data, using instruments as much as possible. However, in the field explorers experienced a diminished ability to control the consistency of their observations due to insufficient finances, politics, disease, and climate. Where unable to directly observe, they relied upon local informants for descriptions of the regional geography. These informants had a great impact upon the geographies produced by the expedition. In order to complete a full description of the praxis of geographical exploration it therefore becomes necessary to consider the expedition in its wider context--as a remote sensing tool for a scientific society and as a contingent of foreigners visiting a region for which they have little information and entered only with local permission. I propose that five steps, or contexts, must be considered during the analysis of expeditions: contact, acquisition, appropriation, reporting, meta-analysis. These steps make lucid the epistemic transformations that must take place as explorers gather data in the field. At each stage the identity of the individuals involved are contingent upon their relationship with each other and the information they desire. The relationship between explorers and local informants was especially critical to the establishment of credibility. Even when fully trusted by explorers, the British geographers who analyzed expedition data and generated maps of the region debated the veracity of local informants. Explorers (and by extension, local informants) found that other researchers, through the meta-analysis of expedition reports, appropriated any ownership of the information produced by expeditions. / Master of Science

Moving out of theoretical academic constructs, the indigenous movement has attracted the attention of the Malawian education system to explore the value for contextualizing science by way of indigenous technologies. This is a milestone decision but the beginning is not smooth. However, indigenizing the curriculum has a promise of hope to invigorate science educators to pursue the search for the science out of indigenous technologies out of the "taken for granted" and "place-based" traditional knowledge systems. This is only the beginning of the journey in pursuit of local sciences that bear a promise for sustainability in development without relying exclusively on the outcomes of globalization. This study sought to unravel the issues that surrounded implementation of ground braking primary school science and technology curriculum, which has integrated indigenous knowledge in the learning of science. Commencing prior to the implementation of the new curriculum, this was a pilot study strategically conceptualized and timed to inform the curriculum developers and other stakeholders about issues to pay attention to as the curriculum implementation process unfolds. The study revealed that teachers are likely to face multiple challenges stemming from the design of the curriculum, teachers background knowledge in academic science, pedagogical knowledge, and cultural foundations. The outcome of teaching was negatively affected by the design of the curriculum, teachers' knowledge of science, and attitudes toward indigenous knowledge. Recommendations for improving the integration of indigenous knowledge and science in the curriculum include the need to better articulate the scientific principles involved in indigenous technologies and to involve learners in meaningful "practical work" in science lessons, supported by further research. / Ph. D.

The state of the environment in South Africa is deteriorating and the province of KwaZulu-Natal is no exception to the situation. KwaZulu Natal is experiencing soil erosion, has inadequate policies for environmental protection, and current environmental measures lack mass support (Ndimande, 2001 :6). This is so because the beliefs of the past ascribed overpopulation as the main factor for the degradation of the environment and many conservation projects disregarded human needs, rights and dignity. For instance, the establishment of many game reserves meant forced removal and social dislocation of indigenous people (Ngobese and Cock, 1995:17-21). Forced removal and social dislocation in any situation can instigate conflict. Conservation agencies in South Africa, such as Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), can be very effective in their conservation efforts if they create a platform that allows indigenous knowledgeable communities to participate in the management of protected areas. This participation could be in the form of allowing and encouraging communities abutting protected areas to contribute relevant Indigenous Knowledge (lK) for use to authorities of EKZNW. This effectiveness could be enhanced if the result of community participation will be sustainability in the community. According to Shragge (1993), a community has a heart, and its lifeblood is its authentic culture, its shared experiences of the past and its local ways of doing things (1993:39). Utterances such as the one below by Masuku (1999) do not stand conservation agencies in good stead. ' ...the lack of good understanding of people's way of life by my organizations (EKZNW) in areas that are today recognized as protected areas is occasionally pointed as one of the sources of conflict around conservation issues... (1999: 1), The aim of this study was to explore ways in which EKZNW could position itself to be an integral part of saving the decline of indigenous knowledge, and to nurture and stimulates its production as a starting point towards improving the lives of rural poor communities adjacent to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, with specific reference to communities of Mpembeni and Mdletsheni Traditional Authorities. For the purpose of this research, communities' animal and plant indigenous knowledge was chosen as the yardstick for assessment of contribution that communities can make to biological diversity conservation and development. The choice was informed by an understanding that the diversity of plants and animals provide us with a resilient natural system, which in turn provides a crucial life support system such as purification of air and water. On the other hand, poverty drives the rural poor, who also benefit from this life support system, into poaching and unsustainable resource harvesting. These illegalities, although the only option, play a negative role in the viability and sustainability of biological diversity conservation. Research findings revealed that plant and animal indigenous knowledge is present in the communities, and they face a great challenge that there is no systematic documentation of this knowledge, and its oral transmission is inconsistent. It was through the urgent need dictated by the status quo that this research project was conceived. An attempt was made to tap into this knowledge by conducting a study in the two communities and bring it to the forefront of biological diversity conservation, and into development projects funded through community levy fund by EKZNW, in order to uplift the communities' standard of living. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt / line-height:150% / font-family: &quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-bidi-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi / mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">The basic premise of this study was that when a learner is confronted with two contradictory explanations of the same phenomenon, there is cognitive dissonance in the learner as the learner tries to determine which of the two explanations is correct. An argumentation-based instructional intervention programme (ABIIP) was created for and used on and by the Grade 10 learners in order to attempt to ameliorate this cognitive conflict. </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt / line-height:150% / font-family: &quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-bidi-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi">The purpose of this study was to determine the relative impact of that intervention programme on Grade 10 learners&rsquo / conceptions of lightning and thunder. The programme was designed to help learners to develop argumentative skills and use the acquired skills to negotiate and harmonise divergent and conflicting explanations of the nature of lightning and thunder that are propounded by different worldviews (Science and indigenous knowledge).</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt / line-height:150% / font-family: &quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-bidi-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi">The research design was primarily a case study of 16 Grade 10 learners of the Xhosa ethnic group at a high school in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The Xhosa people are a typical example of a people whose cultural values were undermined and whose voice was silenced by the colonisers and whose local knowledge has been repressed and replaced by forms of Western privileged knowledge and understandings but who remain, deeply and resolutely, steeped in their cultural values and practices, making them a classic example of a people who would battle to harmonise the indigenous and the scientific explanations of natural phenomena. The research instruments used were questionnaires which were administered to learners, educators, community leaders, indigenous knowledge holders and experts to solicit information on causes, dangers and prevention of lightning / individual and group activities as learners went through the lessons on both argumentation and on lightning / follow up interviews and discussions with learners individually or in groups to seek further clarification of the ideas the learners would have raised in their earlier responses to questionnaires or group discussions / guided and reflective essays by the learners to determine the learners&rsquo / levels of understanding of the major tenets of the two thought systems and the relationship between the two worldviews and to determine the qualitative gain, if any, that the learners got from the intervention programme / observation schedules used by the researcher during participant observation of group discussions and during the lessons on lightning / an achievement test on lightning / field notes used by the researcher for memoing observations and reflections as the research process proceeded / informal and serendipitous sources of information. <span style="font-size:12.0pt / line-height:150% / font-family: &quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-bidi-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi">The collected data were analysed, mostly, qualitatively. Frequencies, percentages and t-test values were used to express and analyse quantitative data. Aspects of several analytical frameworks that included Toulmin&rsquo / s Argumentation Pattern (TAP) [and its modified versions such as that of Leitao (2000) and that of Osborne et al (2004)] and Contiguity Argumentation Theory (CAT) were used to attach meaning to the collected data and to address the research questions.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12.0pt / line-height:150% / font-family: &quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-bidi-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi / mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">The basic premise of this study was that when a learner is confronted with two contradictory explanations of the same phenomenon, there is cognitive dissonance in the learner as the learner tries to determine which of the two explanations is correct. An argumentation-based instructional intervention programme (ABIIP) was created for and used on and by the Grade 10 learners in order to attempt to ameliorate this cognitive conflict. </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt / line-height:150% / font-family: &quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-bidi-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi">The purpose of this study was to determine the relative impact of that intervention programme on Grade 10 learners&rsquo / conceptions of lightning and thunder. The programme was designed to help learners to develop argumentative skills and use the acquired skills to negotiate and harmonise divergent and conflicting explanations of the nature of lightning and thunder that are propounded by different worldviews (Science and indigenous knowledge).</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt / line-height:150% / font-family: &quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-bidi-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi">The research design was primarily a case study of 16 Grade 10 learners of the Xhosa ethnic group at a high school in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The Xhosa people are a typical example of a people whose cultural values were undermined and whose voice was silenced by the colonisers and whose local knowledge has been repressed and replaced by forms of Western privileged knowledge and understandings but who remain, deeply and resolutely, steeped in their cultural values and practices, making them a classic example of a people who would battle to harmonise the indigenous and the scientific explanations of natural phenomena. The research instruments used were questionnaires which were administered to learners, educators, community leaders, indigenous knowledge holders and experts to solicit information on causes, dangers and prevention of lightning / individual and group activities as learners went through the lessons on both argumentation and on lightning / follow up interviews and discussions with learners individually or in groups to seek further clarification of the ideas the learners would have raised in their earlier responses to questionnaires or group discussions / guided and reflective essays by the learners to determine the learners&rsquo / levels of understanding of the major tenets of the two thought systems and the relationship between the two worldviews and to determine the qualitative gain, if any, that the learners got from the intervention programme / observation schedules used by the researcher during participant observation of group discussions and during the lessons on lightning / an achievement test on lightning / field notes used by the researcher for memoing observations and reflections as the research process proceeded / informal and serendipitous sources of information. <span style="font-size:12.0pt / line-height:150% / font-family: &quot / Times New Roman&quot / ,&quot / serif&quot / mso-bidi-font-family:&quot / Times New Roman&quot / mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi">The collected data were analysed, mostly, qualitatively. Frequencies, percentages and t-test values were used to express and analyse quantitative data. Aspects of several analytical frameworks that included Toulmin&rsquo / s Argumentation Pattern (TAP) [and its modified versions such as that of Leitao (2000) and that of Osborne et al (2004)] and Contiguity Argumentation Theory (CAT) were used to attach meaning to the collected data and to address the research questions.</span></span></p>

The current plight of biodiversity decline has led ecologists, resource managers and policy makers to search for new approaches to reverse the gloomy trend. The aims of the present study were to investigate the potential contribution of indigenous knowledge systems in wildlife management/conservation as a basis in improving community based natural resources management projects in Botswana and to asses the link between indigenous ecological principles and conventional ecological approaches in wildlife conservation. For the purpose of this research, hunting was chosen as a parameter for assessment of the indigenous conservation/management strategies. The choice was based on the knowledge that hunting, as a consumptive form of wildlife utilisation, plays a pivotal role in the long-term viability and sustainability of wildlife populations. The research approach made use of documentary data, traditional gathering, interviews involving key informants and focus groups and participant observation. The nature and purpose of the research called for snowball sampling technique which ensured purposive sampling. The greatest challenge that face indigenous knowledge systems is that they lack systematic documentation as they are only in the minds of local people and they are orally transmitted between generations. The threat towards this knowledge base is that it is often marginalised and lost in the modern times due to fragmentation and homogenisation of cultures and traditional institutions that supported it. It was through the urgent need dictated by this status quo that this research project was conceived in an attempt to document, understand and cautiously interpret the systems and practices for potential contribution to conventional natural resources management strategies. Research findings showed that communities had resource management and conservation strategies based on sound ecological principles though these were marginalised in favour of conventional inadequate conservation attempts that had no relevance to the cultures resident within the ecosystems. It is these resource use strategies together with the traditional institutions and structures which regulated them, that suggestions and recommendations made by this research calls for their revitalisation and policy, legal and institutional reforms and harmonisation to accommodate and give way to the adoption process in conventional conservation endeavours. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.