Colonial Antecedents Influencing the Current Training and Practice of STEM Educators in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

CONTEXT Since the 1950s, a period known for the mass decolonization of Africa, thousands of policy documents, philosophy papers, and strategic plans have been published to map out a path for independent states' approaches to sustainable national development (Birmingham, 1996; Welz, 2021). The common narrative is that education goals and the training of educators need to be aligned to individual national priorities for sustainable development (Kivunja, 2017). This objective is perhaps best illustrated through the steps taken to capitalize on the affordances of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. GOAL The overarching goal of this paper is to use a postcolonial lens to identify antecedent factors influencing the current form of STEM teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Understanding these factors and the ways that they overtly or covertly influence current forms of teacher education and practice is crucial if sub-Saharan African countries are to succeed in their efforts to achieve their sustainable national goals. Specifically, in this work-in-progress paper, we ask “what are the antecedent factors that influence the current approach to STEM teacher training and practice in sub-Saharan Africa?” METHODOLOGY To answer our research question, we conducted an extensive review of the literature surrounding postcolonial education in sub-Saharan Africa. Over 60 documents were included in our review, spanning several disciplines including history, philosophy, psychology, social sciences, and engineering education. We performed a thematic analysis to identify factors that authors had identified in over 7 decades of postcolonial research. To report our findings, we employed a sociological framework that identified micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors using structural-functionalism, interactionism, and conflict theory. OUTCOMES The review is still a work-in-progress. However, the findings thus far have identified major colonial antecedents that still influence the training, certification, and teaching practices of STEM educators in SSA today. These include (1) using colonial language fluency as a measure of meritocracy, (2) reifying professional expectations that are colonially subservient, (3) normative deidentification of culture, (4) hegemonizing indigenous knowledge and culturally relevant teaching, (5) reclaiming student-centered teaching as a posited alternative to the religious history of teacher-centered pedagogy, and (6) deconstructing the notion that the scientific method is an irrefutable, universal, legitimate way of knowing. CONCLUSIONS We emphasize that a review of the pre-, and post-colonial forms of STEM education as it relates to teacher training and practice unearths exciting findings: cultural values that have a rich history, pedagogical techniques that were learner-centered, pedagogical tools that served as cultural mediators, and an African indigenous knowledge that predates the introduction of western scientific thoughts. This paper seeks to contribute scholarship that will enable stakeholders to rethink their ways of knowing, doing, practicing, and sustaining STEM education in SSA.