Azanian Souljahs,
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Significance of pre -colonial education (informal) and fundamental contrast with colonial education (formalised)KEYWORDS AND TERMS:
Formal, informal, African traditional education, indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), pedagogy, curriculum renewal
Knowledge development based on culture, collective custom and rituals, otherwise known as education, is a discipline that has been in practise in all civilizations of mankind from time immemorial. Africa is no different in this regard. African education dates back to ancient times in Egypt, to the establishment of Muslim mosques in the centuries following the death of Mohammed, to the University of Timbuktu in the sixteenth century, and to the missionary schools of the nineteenth century . Basic learning patterns came from day to day activities that involved everyone in society, with each a specific role to fulfil in this communal education effort. Long before colonial conquest set in, indigenous knowledge systems on health hygiene, agriculture, maths and physics, philosophy and history, informed people in a proactive learning situation. Learning happened through participation in community life. In terms of skills, girls learnt domestic work and home care from their mothers while boys learnt to hunt. Children were socialised into a way of life, traditions and religion of the community . Many African societies placed emphasis on traditional forms of education well before the arrival of Europeans. Adults in Khoi-Khoi/ San and Bantu speaking societies, for example, had extensive responsibilities for transmitting cultural values and skills within kinship-based groups an sometimes within larger organizations, villages, or districts. Education involved oral histories of a group, tales of heroism and treachery, and practise in the skills necessary for survival in a changing environment. The purpose of creating such knowledge bases is to equip the people with abilities to understand the earth’s environment better for the collective survival of life on earth. It’s interesting to note that tales of heroism and treachery and other folklore kind of teaching and learning methods were also an integral part of Greek mythology that informed philosophical sciences such as the study of Hermeneutics in formal academia. Yet when these folklore philosophical sciences are used in informal/traditional education/ indigenous knowledge systems, all of a sudden they are not credible in institutionalised academia because they were not recorded or in written format.
The coming to the fore of formal schooling in (South Africa in particular) led to these indigenous knowledge systems to be deemed informal and backward. In reality, the ma** schooling of children in Southern Africa introduced by colonial British in the 19th century had a much different purpose to that of the indigenous knowledge systems of pre colonial time, or that of Dutch introduction in the 17th century. The British formal schooling method has its roots in the Industrial Revolution; therefore this means that the learning and teaching methods were intendedS to yield workers with specialised skills that were going to supplement industrial demand of the time. Here in South Africa, the discovery of gold, diamonds and other minerals meant that purpose of knowledge production leaned towards industrial skills production. Formal institutions focused on this. The Dutch on the other hand in earlier times (17th century) were interested in basic skills development (for Europeans) and social control (for Africans), clearly the Dutch were not that much interested in the formal schooling methods.
Because of the different purposes and intensions of the governing body of the day, the strategies used in the development of knowledge (curriculum development to be precise in this time of formal instruction) for a people will differ. It is important then to highlight the different purposes that informed the development of knowledge and practises thereafter within pre colonial informal education and also in the advent of formal education systems that today have institutionalised the communal duty of teaching and learning. Only from here will we be then being able to have a starting point in the attempt to review and renew curriculum development in all levels of teaching and learning.
Pre-colonial (informal) education and its significance in the process of teaching and learning and communal knowledge development
Teaching and learning communities as stressed earlier did exist here in Africa before colonial conquest. It was holistic, life long and utilitarian in nature . These civilisations themselves were present mainly because of the teaching and learning culture that existed amongst the people of this continent .Education had an input from all members of the community and prepares each individual for a particular profession or occupational activity (Adeyinka & Adeyemi, 2002).This Adeyinka & Adeyemi argue, should be the norm inn all africa societies today..A lot has been written about the kind of teaching and learning that took place here in Africa. Recent literature on the issue raises arguments on impacts of certain influences within education and their effects on present day teaching and learning methods.
Precise comprehension of the philosophical aspect of the term education is important when attempting to realise its significance where ever it is practised. The most relevant and basic comprehension in an African and universal context is that: education is a process whereby experienced members of the community/society guide the development of the inexperienced within the culture of society (Adeyinka & Adeyemi, 2002), a method of disseminating cultural values or the acquisition of the art of the utilisation of knowledge (Whitehead, 1962). Now from these perspectives, one now can understand the desired outcome in education practise. Also, we can argue that schooling and education are two different things. To elaborate, schooling is the practise of being instructed in an environment design for teaching and learning. Education then becomes the process of guiding the inexperienced outside of the schooling environment but at the same time complementing what curriculum in the cla**room. This is to ensure that there is correspondence between what is learnt and what in reality happens in day to day life. It is clear then that African traditional education was not only there to be acquired, but it was actually there to be lived. Children acquired education through the maintenance of and participation in socio-political and religious institutions that ensured effective means of communication between different generations (Boetang, 1983).
The actual content of this informal/indigenous knowledge system/traditional education has its roots in the situations (varied) of African societies (Adeyinka & Adeyemi, 2002), from geographical setting, to community environment and also devotional aspects like religion and custom. Out of these curriculum informants, the issue of social impacts seems to carry a lot of weight. Adeyinka and Adeyemi argue that networks of reciprocal relationships that knit the family, clan and tribe together are to a large degree the prime factor in the survival of most traditional African societies.
Many methods of teaching and learning within formal and informal education were and still are employed in Africa. In general in Pre-colonial Africa, teaching and learning methods for various disciplines in societies had various characteristics and also significances. Initiation ceremonies were and are still common. One can argue that it took a formalised character somewhat in that it compramised (its content) of teaching and learning of pre-determined material in a specific physical setting (Adeyinka & Adeyemi, 2002).Similarly, amaXhosa of the Eastern Cape practise the tradition of Ulwaluko, a dissemination of knowledge via an ancient sacred rite of pa**age as initiation of boys into manhood. This practise has its own ways, places, seasons, rules and regulations which when not followed can and does have disastrous consequences. It has its own objectives and purposes, such as moulding boys into men who will become protectors and defenders of the weak and vulnerable, providers of their families and leaders of their communities and nations. It is an endurance “race” whose other purpose is to instil discipline and forbearance, to withstand pain and endure hardship . Here again we see formalised character in traditional dissemination of knowledge.
In contrast to this some illiterate African societies employed an informal education system. In these systems, methods of instruction were much more informal and loosely structured or designed, sometimes if not all the time, the distinction between teacher and learner was less distinguishable. Learning was by initiation and observation (Adeyinka & Adeyemi, 2002). The major purpose, yield or outcome of this indigenous development of knowledge base was young adults who understand their history and tradition and also inculcate a culture of socially engaged human being with critical thinking capabilities. It also developed a nature of self-control, endurance and pride in oneself. This thin reproduced itself in the whole tribe, nation and thus continent, from one generation to the other. The cycle of knowledge dissemination thus gets completed, without disengaging the people from their own development.
Oral Literature is one particular method of transmitting informal education. These have been an integral part of informal education in universal cultures for centuries, an in particular in Africa. Myths, fables, folktales, legends and proverbs served as tools of presenting social situations /values or pedagogic devises. They were sometimes used to teach insistence on justice and a resistance to arbitrariness while maintaining courtesy (Boetang, 1983).
A significant contrast between informal and formal education can be distinguished. A synthesis then of the developmental understanding of the two contrasting methods of teaching and learning can be designed into a system that informs curriculum review and renewal processes. A basic example is the understanding that informal folklore story telling as educative devices taught ideal forms of behaviour and morality, rather than formal instruction such as corporal punishment or disciplinary hearings. Another example is the issue of learning by initiation and observation (Adeyinka & Adeyemi, 2002) which develops self control and endurance with contrasting inclination to teaching and learning that is pre determined in nature, hindering freedom of exploration with ideas. Humanising curriculums thus must seek teaching and learning methods that allow developmental approaches.
CONCLUSION
Leontiev points out that Vygotsky conceptualised development as a transformation of socially shared activities into internalised processes, and in this way cut out the dichotomy of internal and the external. Verily, with relation to the LKA/Grounding Programme at the University of Fort Hare and study of it; the conception of its theoretical inclination that a pedagogy founded on critical social learning theory can a**ist historically disadvantaged students to establish new relationships with learning in higher education , should inspire/inform the basic pedagogy with transformational zeal that grasps learners and engages them in socially shared learning process that is collective and inclusive. Also, socialization comes into play as society is a developmental institute that transforms itself through human /social interaction through time (historical element). Now with the comprehension that some learners are deprived of this socialization element, the notion of educationally disadvantaged learners manifest as they are deprived of the necessary social interaction that allows a mode co-construction of knowledge.
Whilst some African academics argue that the downfall of African traditional education and academia in contrast to western academia, is that Africans lacked the discipline to record and write their work so as to pa** it down from one generation to the next (Adeyinka & Adeyemi, 2002), others reject this view arguing that the process educating of the African youth starts from the time of the unborn child. If this is not the case, then this means that education could not happen without writing (western) civilisations. Therefore take away western civilisation, and you have no education (Adeyinka & Adeyemi, 2002). This without a doubt is an extremely dogmatic outlook. One thing that is pragmatic though is that informal education methods be recorded in writing, as the process of knowledge development, teaching and learning can be enhanced. It is thus crucial to implement a pan –African educational system that will facilitate the economic, political and cultural reconstruction and integration of the African continent. The curriculum of pan -African education will be pan-African centred and will aim at the expansion of African peoples cultural and intellectual repertoire (Marah, 2006). The University of Fort Hare has been in the past a pioneer in influencing a liberating culture in the development of Africa, let us now with the LKA/Grounding Programme pioneer a liberating culture in institutionalised education through humanising pedagogies in all institutions.
