ERIC Number: EJ1430245
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1911
EISSN: EISSN-1465-3397
Revisiting the Debates on "Epistemicide": Insights from the South African School Curriculum
Educational Review, v76 n5 p1307-1324 2024
Epistemicide occurs when one knowledge is exalted at the expense of local or indigenous knowledge systems leading to the demise of such knowledge systems. In this article, I focus on how some conceptions and ways of incorporating indigenous knowledge systems seem to be entangled in the same misnomer to which they owe their existence (i.e. a mischaracterisation of indigenous knowledge systems leading to epistemicide in the school curriculum). Subsequently, I interrogate some examples from three curriculum statements of post-apartheid South African schools where there is a conspicuous attempt to include that which is presumed to be indigenous knowledge systems. I argue that such epistemologically unwarranted acts of integrating indigenous knowledge systems in the three post-apartheid curriculum statements unfortunately do not safeguard indigenous knowledge systems from epistemicide. In fact, the manner in which indigenous knowledge systems are integrated creates a false dichotomy and sense of identity. Bluntly put, the evident integration of indigenous knowledge systems as apparent theoretical knowledge fortifies epistemicide as opposed to alleviating it. Universally true knowledge about indigenous people and practices should therefore be included within the school curriculum to provide historical meaning to the content that is taught and instil a true sense of identity within the communities of indigenous people.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Epistemology, Indigenous Knowledge, Misconceptions, Social Bias, Social Justice, Decolonization, Educational Change, National Curriculum, Realism, Educational Policy, Position Papers
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A