Perceptions of the use of indigenous languages pedagogy to facilitate citizenship education in multicultural countries
Date of Award
11-2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Master of Education (MEd)
First Supervisor/Advisor
Ass. Prof Mary Oluga
Second Supervisor/Advisor
Dr. Lilian Vikiru
Department
Institute for Educational Development, East Africa
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding teachers’ perception and interpretations of the tensions generated by their role as teachers an indigenous language as an independent subject for the facilitation of an embedded citizenship education curriculum. Guided by the socio-cultural language-learning theory, the naturalistic qualitative case study was undertaken to discover how teachers of indigenous languages as subjects that emphasize both the language and culture of their particular ethnic communities in a multicultural Uganda, perceive their citizenship education obligations. The findings revealed that there is either rarely taught, or poorly taught or not taught at all. Teachers view indigenous languages like Luganda as powerful and highly effective tools for inculcation of morals in young learners, for the majority of whom it is a mother tongue. There is little attention paid to teaching about political concepts and structures that sustain Uganda as a nation, participation in electoral politics as voters or candidates or debating issues of national interest through civic or political activism, in spite of Uganda’s alarming levels of civic and political apathy. They felt they had inadequate knowledge about other ethnic languages and cultures, and of pedagogical skills. Their perception of citizenship knowledge was also limited to knowledge that builds pride in one’s language, culture and history, but depicted an over emphasis of a Kiganda world view. Altogether they felt that citizenship education should be taught as a standalone subject, so that it can get the due emphasis it deserves in term of curriculum content, teacher deployment, monitoring and evaluation. The study has significant implications for teachers, curriculum developers, policy makers and teacher educators.
Recommended Citation
Bagegulira Faizal. (2015). Perceptions of the use of indigenous languages pedagogy to facilitate citizenship education in multicultural countries (Unpublished Masters Thesis). Dar es salaam: Aga Khan University