Qualitative Data

The qualitative data from the questionnaires (open-ended questions) and semi-structured interviews are presented, analysed and discussed in this section. The qualitative data answered the following research sub-questions 1 and 2:

1. W hat are Grade11 Physical Science teachers’ perceptions and experiences o f the inclusion o f indigenous knowledge during science lessons?

2. W hat factors influence G rad ell Physical Science teachers’ perceptions and experiences o f the inclusion o f indigenous knowledge?

4.3.1 Qualitative Data from the Questionnaires

The qualitative data from the questionnaires were collated and colour coded to form categories. The common categories that emerged from the data were grouped to form themes. The categories that emerged from the questionnaires in order to answer the above two questions are: awareness o f IK in communities; female responses /gender patterns in terms o f knowledge transfer; experience o f community members; IK is associated with misconceptions; cultural diversity and lack o f resources and classroom size constraints regarding the inclusion o f IK in science classrooms (see Table 17 below for the details).

Table 17: Generating themes from codes

Teachers’ Codes Description of marked text Categories Sub­

question

T1Q1F,T2Q1F, T4Q1F, T14Q1F, T17Q1M

Local knowledge, expertise

possessed; unique to specific culture or society; native/prior existing knowledge; cultural/ traditional norms and values; not scientifically proven, knowledge that is local based in a community; oral methods, not formally taught

Awareness of IK in communities 1 T2Q1F, T7Q1F, T8Q1F, T11Q1F, T14Q1F, T15Q1F, T16Q1F

Knowledge that we gain; IK is driven by local community; knowledge about our traditions; knowledge that we gain from society

Female response/ gender pattern in terms of knowledge transfer

1

T1Q3F, T6Q3M Local people possess more

knowledge; parents use techniques to solve problems

Experience of community members

T4Q3F, T7Q3F, T8Q3F,

T11Q3F,T14Q3F

Mislead learners; not scientifically proven; traditional beliefs,

instruments not giving accurate results; multicultural schools; language barrier

IK is associated with misconceptions

2

T11Q3F, T14Q3F Misconceptions due to language barriers; teachers’ background and that of the learners

Cultural diversity 2

T12Q3F, T13Q3M, T15Q3F, T16Q3F

Lack of resources; availability of local materials; overcrowded classrooms for experiments.

Lack of resources and classroom size

constraints regarding the inclusion of IK in science classrooms.

2

4.3.2 Results from the semi-structured interviews

The transcripts o f the two teachers who were interviewed were analysed in detail. The teachers’ quotes that responded to sub-questions 1 and 2 were marked and colour coded (see Table 7 below). The marked text for T1 and T2 that were related were grouped to form Categories. For triangulation purposes, the Categories from questionnaires and interview transcripts were then combined to form themes in Table 8.

The two teachers were given codes for identification purposes. For example, T1-I stands for Teacher one- Interview while T2-I stands for teacher two- Interview as seen in Table 7 below.

Table 18: Generating Categories from interviews

Teachers’ Codes

Description of marked text- T1-I Description of marked text-T2-I Western Knowledge (WK) Categories Sub­ question

T1-I,T1-2 Is more practical, learning by discovery, learn by doing IK can be used to relieve the

shortage of scientific equipment in schools

- contextualization of science - presence of prior knowledge

-Understand better how to separate mixtures

- learners tend to ask more questions - Learners enjoy/ interesting when content is related to that found at home.

Potential regarding the inclusion of IK

1

- teachers make references to

IK during lessons _{understand better} - learners when IK is used

- IK make lessons interesting - IK unites learners from different cultural backgrounds - helps learners to know the relevance of the topics they are learning - background knowledge makes learners understand easily/ prior knowledge

T1-I, T2-I - teachers’ cultural background - IK not documented - cultural diversification/cultural inclusion - mixed cultures makes it difficult to incorporate IK/ teachers do not know all the cultures - lack of IK resources Challenges associated with IK 2 - lack of resources

- lack of knowledge on how to incorporate IK

- attitudes of learners to IK - misconceptions that IK is old fashioned. - lack of expertise in IK - time factor (inclusion of IK syllabus

-not all topics can incorporate IK

After grouping the common Categories from Tables 17 and 18 above, the following themes emerged.

• Awareness o f IK;

• Potential regarding the inclusion o f IK in science classrooms; • Constraints regarding the inclusion o f IK in science classrooms; and • Cultural influences.

The themes above are presented in relation to sub-questions and the supporting theory/literature as indicated in the table below.

Table 19:

Themes and supporting literature/theory

Themes Research

Sub-questions

Theory/Literature

Awareness of IK in communities 1 Webb (2013)

Potential regarding the inclusion of IK in science classrooms

1 & 2 Ogunniyi (2009)

Cultural influences 1 & 2 Aikenhead and Jegede (1999);

Ogunniyi and Ogawa (2008); Shizha (2007); Klein (2011) Constraints regarding the inclusion of IK in

science classrooms

2 Aikenhead and Jegede (1999),

Ogunniyi and Ogawa (2008)

I now discuss each of these themes below.