On the question of IKS integration

Abstract

The current world civilisation, embedded in the dominant knowledge and gluttonous socio-economic tendencies of the West, has driven Mother Earth to the brink of her sad, premature and eternal extinction. However, despite this poor Western techno-science record, many leaders of postcolonial nations in Africa, some academicians and researchers are still calling for IKS integration into their education systems and socio-economic activities. Considering that the education and economic systems of these postcolonial countries are ingrained within, or at the least inspired by, Western knowledge and economic social order (disorder), of what use would it be to labour to integrate IKS into such systems? This is the question being addressed in this theoretical paper, and I argue that although Africa’s socio-economic development may superficially and in the short-term appear to benefit from such an approach, in the medium to long-term the permanent solution lies in mainstreaming IKS, rather than grafting it to other knowledge-forms.

Keywords: IKSs, cultural identity, integration, school, curriculum