Navigation of diversity in our classroom spaces ..

T
Inclusive pedagogical approach e
Assimilationist approach • Knowledge
Contributionist approach Problematic/limitations • Believes a
Colour-blind approach • Actions/doing c
Multiculturalism
h
Culturally responsive pedagogy
Decolonising education
• Academic excellence e
• Epistemic plurality
• Cultural competence r
• Cognitive justice
• Critical consciousness

African Philosophy of Education *culturally –dependent A

• Activity of inquiry - helps us to understand activity
g
different communities *constituted by the
• Reasonableness notion of Ubuntu e
• Moral maturity • Humaneness
• Deliberation • Interdependence
n
c
…of people on people, of people on other species and other ecosystems for survival
y
Ecojustice and ecojustice education

Before we proceed, let’s briefly consider some of the tools you have been introduced
to in this module. As I refer to these tools, consider and make notes of how they can
help you to inform your thinking about your sense of purpose as a future teacher.
*We started this module by considering various approaches to navigate diversity in
schools and in classroom spaces. The approaches used in SA schools are problematic
and have limitations, which in turn, contribute towards the continuation of the
marginalization (and alienation) of many learners and differential learning outcomes.
The reason for marginalization lies in the answer to the questions: whose knowledge
and cultural code are favoured in schools and what happens to other knowledge
systems that many learners feel comfortable with.
As an alternative for thinking about becoming more inclusive in education, we
proposed an inclusive pedagogical approach. This approach requires certain
knowledge, believes and actions regarding structural issues, cultural and social
barriers to learning, and creative ways to enable an inclusive classroom space.
In order to become inclusive in your classroom, you will have to engage in a culturally
responsive pedagogy. This approach requires the linking of schooling and culture.
This approach has the potential to counteract the problems and limitations
associated with the current approaches used in SA schools to handle diversity. By
developing a closer fit between learners’ home culture and the school, all learners

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can start to enjoy academic success, learners can be culturally grounded and develop
a critical consciousness to critique the cultural norms, values and institutions that
produce and maintain social inequities.
In the South African context, the adoption of an inclusive and culturally responsive
pedagogy calls for decolonising education; thus to unchain the shackles of a
dominant western way of thinking that marginalizes and denigrates other ways of
constructing knowledge (thus other epistemologies). By becoming culturally
responsive, you will incorporate in your classroom a plurality of epistemologies of
knowing. Epistemic plurality will lead to cognitive justice. Social justice is only
possible if there is cognitive justice.
As a future teacher, you are in the process of developing a philosophy of education.
But what is a philosophy of education (PoE), and in particular, how can Waghid’s
understanding of an African philosophy of education (APoE) assist you to become
culturally responsive and inclusive in your future classroom? As an activity of inquiry,
an APoE is culturally dependent in that is it can assist you to get to know about the
different communities your learners come from. To start to understand the lived
experiences of learners in your future education context, you need to consider how
reasonableness, the development of moral maturity and deliberation (thus dialogue)
can assist you and your learners to develop a space in which humanity is
acknowledged, where everybody work co-operatively, while simultaneously
advocating for responsibility and justice.
Couched in ubuntu, an APoE is culturally dependent in that it acknowledges two
important aspects of being human, namely our humanness but also our
interdependence on each other.
Your thinking about education, should however be extended beyond a mere
interdependence of people on people. Rather, it is about an interdependence of
people on people, of people on other species and other ecosystems for survival. To
ignore climate change and its implications for education would be totally
irresponsible. AS a future teachers, you need to think how you can personally and
through your teaching assist your future learners to live in such a way that minimizes
the harm one does to human and non-human others. To assist you in this regard, we
introduced your to ecojustice and ecojustice education, and by implication the shift
from an anthropocentric approach to and ecocentric approach.
Central to all these tools and their possibilities for you to become a responsible and
responsive teacher, stands the notion of teacher agency. In the last instance, it is up
to you to BE the voice for change – to no longer regard teaching as business as usual.
To become a responsible and responsive teacher, you need to seriously consider how
your regard your sense of purpose as a future teacher.