Browsing by Author "Alemayehu jote"

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    The Contribution of Mother-Tongue Education to Promote Indigenous Knowledge: the Case of Bale Zone in Oromia Region
    (Addis Ababa University, 2012-07) Alemayehu jote ; Berhanu Bogle
    Since few decades, a conceptual shift has been observed regarding the development discourse from increased capital with the goal of modernizing a society to a broader, contextspecific approach that considers cultural values and local technology. For these people's indigenous potentials to have significant intervention on the rural development strategies, they must be promoted some way. It is in this cultural and knowledge promotion scheme that the use of people's indigenous language in education, which is an appropriate setting not only for acquisition of external, scientific knowledge but also for inducing students into local way of life, calls due attention. The core argument in this study framework is that the role of mother tongue based bilingual education should not be limited to pedagogical service. It should contribute to cultural dimension of development by harnessing society'S indigenous potentials in local development scenario. The major concern of this study was to explore the contribution of mother tongue education in promoting indigenous knowledge systems. The objectives of the study were to examine notable indigenous knowledge of agriculture dominantly used in the study area and the ex lent to which the use of Oromo language in education is contributing to the promotion of these practices with the implication of contributing to the rural development. Further investigation was also sought to examine parents' participation in decision making about what students learn at school. To achieve these objectives, interdisciplinary qualitative exploratory approach was employed. The data were collected through qualitatively designed interviews and focus group discussions from primary school teachers and students, regional curriculum designers, rural development experts, education officers, and local farmers. Field observations and students' textbooks review were also carried out. The textual data were analyzed thematically using generic procedures of qualitative content analysis supported by Open Code 3.4 version software.