Masihambisane, lessons learnt using participatory indigenous knowledge research approaches in a school-based collaborative project of the Eastern Cape

Abstract

Masihambisane is an Nguni word, loosely meaning “let us walk the path together”. The symbolic act of walking together is conceptually at the heart of a funded 1 research project conducted in rural schools of Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape. The project focuses on promoting the direct participation of teachers in planning, researching, and developing learning and teaching materials (LTSMs), with a view to aligning these materials with indigenous and local knowledge. In this paper we make explicit our learning, and the manner in which we carried out the collaborated research activities, using the Reflect process.

Keywords: Cofimvaba; Eastern Cape; indigenous knowledge; participatory action research; Reflect processes.