The SDG for Education demands a shift from access and enrolment, to quality. Yet, in much of the Global South, mass public school systems promoted under the MDGs typically expanded upon school models implanted during the... [ view full abstract ]
The SDG for Education demands a shift from access and enrolment, to quality. Yet, in much of the Global South, mass public school systems promoted under the MDGs typically expanded upon school models implanted during the colonial period. Such systems are grounded in Eurocentric constructions of quality, and neglect cultural realities and local or ‘indigenous’ knowledges. Post-colonial theorists have criticised attempts to integrate such knowledges into mass school systems, as selected elements of ‘indigenous’ knowledge tend to be incorporated into the schools’ existing curricula, priorities and power relations. Communities are rarely involved in curriculum design as equal partners, and the worldviews informing their definitions of quality are usually ignored (Breidlid, 2013, Education, Indigenous Knowledges, and Development in the Global South: Contesting Knowledges for a Sustainable Future, London: Routledge). This paper presents one solution to overcoming this challenge: the ‘Culture, Education and Development’ program in Senegal, developed by NGO The Grandmother Project: Change Through Culture (GMP) in 2009. GMP identified that low levels of engagement with schooling in southern Senegal were the result of community perceptions that school content was irrelevant, and even damaging, to cultural knowledge and values – and that existing references to culture within the national curriculum were inadequate. As national-level curriculum reform is slow, costly and usually removes decision-making power from local communities, instead GMP trained teachers and community members in one rural commune to collaborate as equal partners in integrating cultural values into delivery of the primary school syllabus. Project evaluation data were collected through interviews with teachers, school directors and Ministry of Education staff; focus groups with parents and community members; and classroom observations during fieldwork in 2015 and 2016. Results included improved school-community relationships, enrolment, attendance, teaching quality, and pupil performance. The project is being trialled in urban contexts for eventual scale-up.
