Indoctrination and social studies teaching: Pedagogical practices of upper primary teachers in selected Botswana schools

ABSTARCT

This study examined the contested issue of indoctrination of learners and teachers’ pedagogical practices within the context of Botswana primary schools in social studies. Debates in social studies paradoxically accuse Social Studies for failing to achieve its cardinal goal of equipping learners with effective citizenship education skills. It investigated indoctrination as a way of contributing towards pedagogical solutions to the subjects’ challenges. This area has not been greatly explored especially in the context of the teaching of Social Studies in Botswana. Research questions sought to find out: stakeholders’ perceptions about indoctrination, experiences regarding the prevalence of indoctrination, pedagogical practices that were more likely to promote indoctrination and the impact on learners’ achievement.

This was a qualitative study and used an in-depth case study aided by critical theory and Paul Freires’ pedagogy of the oppressed to investigate the study problem. Semi-structured interviews, naturalistic non-participant observations and documents analysis were used to solicit data. Participants were purposively selected and data were presented and analyzed descriptively. The key findings indicated that: limited understanding of indoctrination, indoctrination by teachers and members of school management teams is alive in primary school classrooms; teacher-centered pedagogical practices had the potential to promote indoctrination and learners’ who were supposedly indoctrinated struggled to display effective citizenship education skills. These findings implied that Social Studies was failing to achieve what it purported to do as the disadvantages of indoctrination outweighed its merits in education. The study concluded that embracing critical pedagogy, pedagogy of the oppressed and learner-centeredness had the potential to reduce the prevalence of indoctrination.