Integrating Indigenous Knowledge in South African Geography Education Curricula for Social Justice and Decolonization

Kudzayi Savious Tarisayi ORCID iD

Issue: Vol.5  No.7 Issue Article 11 pp.1195-1206
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245711 | Published online 9th July, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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This paper analyzes the integration of indigenous knowledge into South African geography education as an intersection of social justice and decolonial imperatives. Historically, colonial education systems have marginalized indigenous epistemologies by privileging Western knowledge as universally superior. Integrating indigenous perspectives into curricula can counter this legacy by promoting cognitive justice and unsettling Eurocentric dominance. However, meaningful integration requires moving beyond superficial additions of indigenous elements within unchanged Western-centric curricula as this risks appropriating indigenous knowledge in disempowering ways. The paper argued that ethical integration necessitates recentring indigenous knowledge systems in their own right alongside Western frameworks to enact pluralistic, horizontal cognitive frameworks. A qualitative literature analysis identified key themes around recognizing indigenous epistemologies, dismantling enduring hierarchies, and developing responsible community-centred integration processes. While systemic constraints pose barriers, integrating indigenous perspectives into geography education holds the transformative potential to advance both social justice inclusion aims and decolonial decentralization agendas. This convergence provides opportunities to develop anti-oppressive curricula that empower marginalized knowledge and ontologies. However, realization requires extensive efforts to sustain reflexivity and enable indigenous self-determination over knowledge. Ultimately, the paper underscored that indigenous knowledge integration must move beyond tokenism towards fundamentally transforming education systems through ethical, empowering processes grounded in partnerships with indigenous communities. This is vital for nurturing students able to navigate the world through plural epistemologies and enacting both social justice and decolonial futures.

Keywords: Indigenous  Knowledge, Decoloniality, Social justice, Geography Education

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Dr. Kudzayi Savious Tarisayi is a Senior Lecturer at Stellenbosch University,South Africa where he is affiliated with the Department of Curriculum Studies. He specializes in teaching Geography Education and has conducted research on a variety of topics, including teacher migration, integration of ICTs and indigenous knowledges in Geography Education, and contemporary issues in education.

Tarisayi, Kudzayi Savious. “Integrating Indigenous Knowledge in South African Geography Education Curricula for Social Justice and Decolonization,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.7 (2024): 1195-1206. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245711

© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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