MCQ FOR EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

USE OF LOCAL/COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE

(And Learners’ Own Experiences In The Teaching Learning Process (Constructivist Perspective))

What is Local Knowledge/Community Knowledge?

You may wonder that if schools prescribe textbook in social sciences, what is the purpose of using local/community knowledge in the transaction of learning experiences. Is there any scope for incorporating local knowledge in our teaching-learning strategies? As you know that the aim of education is to relate the knowledge imparted in the school to the children’s own world. Our children will learn better if the content is related to them. This connection is possible through contextual learning or situating learning in the context of the children’s world. There is a need to have close association between school and children’s local environment. If there is porous boundary between school and their environment then they recognize themselves as proactive participants in the learning process. Then they express their viewpoints in relation to concepts taught in the class. Therefore, it is desired that relevant local contents need to be integrated in the teaching-learning process. Ideally content must be transacted through activities drawing on local resources.

The constructivist approach gives primacy to the child centred-pedagogy and the way construction of knowledge takes place. The approach advocates that the child interacts with her environment and constructs knowledge and derives meaning out of it. The community of the child and her local environment formulates the primary context in which learning takes place. This approach got incorporated and implemented while conceptualizing new textbooks. Now as a teacher you have to bring this approach into pedagogical practices.

In social science classes we need to hear the vivid experiences of the children acquired by them through interaction with local environment. We need to provide them scope for classroom talks in our transactional strategies. We need to teach social sciences by utilising local knowledge as social sciences present slice of social reality and children have familiarity with their immediate local environment. The local environment is a natural learning resource; teacher needs to be very selective and judicious in selecting local contents as local contents selected irrationally may not serve the purpose of teaching-learning.

Why Local Knowledge is to be Used in Social Science Class?

In order to have meaningful learning in the classroom, it is expected that the social science contents must be relevant, interesting and meaningful to the students. It will be interesting if it is familiar to students so that they can relate it with their daily life and comment upon and address the issues pertaining to the content. In other words, in order to have the relevant, interesting and meaningful learning it is desired to have sufficient scope for using local/community knowledge in the teaching-learning activities. Teachers need to engage with ‘local knowledge’/indigenous practices in their local area, and relate these to school knowledge wherever possible.

• Relevance
• Interest
• Meaningful

How to Use Local Knowledge in Social Science Class?

Before starting a chapter on ‘resources’, you may take your students out on a walk near the school and on returning they may be asked to write down names of several resources they came across. Students living in different geographical locations will be writing names of different resources found in their surroundings. Later on, you can ask them to classify these resources according to some categories. As our country is agrarian country, and still three-forth of the children reside in rural areas, these children have sufficient knowledge of agricultural crops and agricultural practices. While dealing with a chapter on ‘agriculture’ you may use their local knowledge on agriculture to build on your classroom discussions.

Teachers while planning for pedagogical practices must provide space where students can compare their life with life around them in their local environment. If there is a discussion on rice cultivation in Brahmaputra valley, students in western Uttar Pradesh may be taught to compare it with wheat cultivation in their region. As we know that local communities have rich cultural resources, local stories, folk tales, folk songs, riddles, etc. All these can be utilised as cultural resources in classroom teaching. Every community has an oral history. This too can be utilized in classroom teaching.

Textbooks and other learning materials can incorporate local knowledge and traditional skills, and trigger teaching-learning environment that responds to the students’ home and community environment.