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Transforming Classroom Discourse And Pedagogy In Rural Zimbabwe Classrooms: The Place Of Local Culture And Mother Tongue Use, Jacob Marriote Ngwaru

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Rural African classrooms are still practicing discourses and pedagogies that contribute towards students' continued underachievement and marginalization. The use of behaviourist-based pedagogical approaches and the exclusion of learners' socio-cultural experiences including their mother tongue (MT) still characterize most classroom practices. The use of classroom discourse that severely constrains opportunities for pupil participation and the development of higher order thinking skills has also been noted. This paper describes an intervention based on the principles of transformative and constructive developmental pedagogy designed to improve approaches to teaching and learning in a primary school in rural Zimbabwe. Examples of prevailing classroom practices organized …