Teachers' stances and practical arguments regarding a science-indigenous knowledge curriculum: Part 2

In response to the needs of a newly democratic South Africa, a new education policy required science teachers to integrate Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) with school science: Curriculum 2005 (C2005) was developed. The first phase of that curriculum was implemented in 1997 with the hope that by 2005 it would have been implemented in the entire school system (i.e., R - 12 grades). Since then science educators have been making a concerted effort to develop science teacher education programmes compatible with the postulates of the new curriculum policy. As part of that effort, this study used a Practical Argumentation Course to equip a group of science teachers with knowledge and instructional skills needed to implement an integrated Science-IKS curriculum in their classrooms. The findings showed that, as a result of the course, the teachers' understanding of, and awareness about, the Nature of Science and IKS improved considerably. Similarly, the teachers made noticeable perceptual shifts from construing science and IKS as polar opposites to considering the two thought systems as compatible and complementary. The implications of the findings for instructional practices are highlighted in the paper.