Abstract:
Using a qualitative ethnographic study of early childhood centres and lower
primary schools operating in rural areas in a nomadic Turkana community of
Kenya, this paper considers the failure of universal education to meet the
culturally relevant educational needs of nomadic children. The study explored
the extent to which the curriculum of schools in nomadic communities integrates
indigenous epistemologies and social cultural lifestyles of the people in science
instruction. Drawing from the literature and theories of indigenous people’s
education in Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America, the paper
discusses the critical role of indigenous epistemologies in science education.
