Infusing an African-centred pesperctive into life skills education at primary school level in Kenya: a case study of the Nandi community.

Abstract

The indigenous healing and care practices in Kenya were forced to go underground during colonial times and thereafter during the design and roll-out of Western-type education. Consequently, therapy in Kenyan schools is largely dominated by contemporary psychological theories that have been conceptualized from a Eurocentric framework, and their treatment utility designed for European-Americans. Healing processes that are based on this worldview are in total conflict with African indigenous understandings of the person and reality, and hence the healing processes. With many primary schools reporting an increase in delinquency, there is need to enrich counselling offered in Kenyan primary schools through tapping into the cultural resources. The nature of the indigenous African psychosocial resources, and the exact techniques involved, remain unclear and have not been given much attention. Afrocentricity provided the philosophical basis for this study. It was informed by the mixed methods research approach whereby Nandi elders through interviews and focus group discussion contributed values during the exploratory phase. The second phase involved instrument development based on findings of phase one, and the third entailed administration of the instrument to a sample (260) of school counsellors. The results indicated that Nandi people have psychosocial resources. Moreover, school counsellors have positive views of the role these resources can play. However, most counsellors have minimal or no knowledge of indigenous resources and interventions. Schools are grappling with many psychosocial challenges, which counsellors feel cultural resources can help mitigate. However, the challenge remains that most indigenous resources have not been documented. Results indicate that these challenges can be managed as there is interest among educational stakeholders to use them. Finally, the results showed that actualisation of infusion is possible if values are documented and sensitisation on their viability is made. These findings have the following implications for policy, research, theory and practice: infuse indigenous tenets in management of disruptive behaviours in schools; change policy to have mother tongue taught and tested in all primary schools; indigenous psychosocial resources and interventions be documented and the mechanisms identified to infuse them into life skills curriculum, and teachers be inducted on the tenets and efficacy of indigenous resources.