The emergence of
the Social Studies Programme in Botswana can be traced to the international
Social Studies conference attended by African, United States and British
representatives which took place in Oxford, Britain in 1967. This conference called
for the need to align curriculum development to the needs and priorities of
Africans (EDC/CREDO, 1968). Preceding this conference was the Massachusetts
Conference held in the United States of American 1961 where problems facing education
systems in emerging nation-states in Africa were discussed (Adeyemi, 2010).
Within this trajectory of events, the African Social Studies Programme (ASSP) was
born (Merryfeild, 1988). This was indeed a good initiative. Social Studies
scholars across the world working in conjunction with governments of the
seventeen countries embraced the ASSP. These countries included Botswana, Ethiopia,
Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Tanzania, Uganda and
Zambia (Merryfield, 1988).
Later on the ASSP came to include
the Environmental Education component hence African Social Studies and
Environmental Program (ASSEP) (Adeyemi, 2008). The Environmental Education (EE)
component was added because of the global pressures on the environment due to
climatic changes and activities like deforestation. Thus EE was critical for
the conservation and preservation of fauna and flora in Africa (Cheruto &
Peter, 2013). In fact, as the United Nations Environmental Education Programme
(UNEP) (1994) states the “introduction critical thinking and problem solving
skills in EE especially at primary schools, is fundamental if students are to
become skillful in the identification and solution of environmental problems as
students…” (p. 4).
The ASSP inherited instructional
pedagogies that were for practical purposes didactic, passive and fused with
disregard for innovation and creativity in the learning of Social Studies
(Educational Development Center & Curriculum Renewal & Educational
Development Overseas, 1968; p. 6). For example, Social Studies teaching was
overly based on textbook assignments, oral review of assignments in class,
extensive teacher talk, recitation, and seatwork with some odd field tours and
use of audio-visual materials (Bolinger & Warren, 2007; p. 70). These are
practices that resonate with indoctrination of Social Studies learners and in
the process negating the pursuit for citizenship education (Ajiboye, 2009).
The ASSP advocated and recommended
the use of inquiry to teach Social Studies. The intention was to afford students
the opportunity to ask questions and solve problems independently (Merryfield,
1988). These child-centered pedagogies were later inscribed into the Botswana school
curriculum to improve the quality of education (RNPE, 1994). Unfortunately for
Botswana and other African countries, this pedagogical shift was and is still
hard to achieve due to a number factors such as the culture of teaching and
availability of resources (Mhlauli & Muchado, 2013).
The inclusion of social issues was
necessitated by calls for interdisciplinary studies and global education within
Social Studies in tandem with high level thinking as well as inquiry based
learning approaches (Bolinger & Warren, 2007; p. 69).
Put
simply Social Studies was to be taught through the use of child-centered
pedagogies. However, as Benette and Hinde (2004) rightly observed, this was not
easy and required a lot of planning and sound pedagogical knowledge. The need
for effective instructional strategies was summed up by Adeyemi (2010) when he
observed that:
the resolution of the Mombasa Conference to employ
the learner-centered approach in teaching and learning Social Studies was to
make students active rather than passive in the learning process, a situation
that would enhance democratic practices at classroom level (p.13-14).
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