Indigenous pedagogy and life skills development: a case of the baganda of masaka district, Uganda.

Contemporary education practice is widely seen as practices that blend conventional approaches with either new innovations or culturally tested practices. In a situation where being cultural or modern has its own drawback, towing the middle position becomes an inevitable choice. The current trend of reflexive response to Africa’s teacher-pedagogical-skill gap puzzle may erroneously reduce it to use of modern methods and Hi-tech to match the global teaching fraternity. Nonetheless, to redeem Africanness, pedagogy should be situated in the realm of Africa’s knowledge ecology. The paper presents findings from an exploratory study which examined the influence of Baganda indigenous nurturing practices (BICNPs) on developing children’s life skills in Masaka district Uganda. It targeted 44 participants, 20 key informants were interviewed, including parents, elders, cultural, religious and local-council leaders and educationists. 24 other people from the same categories participated in Focus Group Discussion (FDGs). Snow bowling, purposive and stratified random sampling were used in to select participants. The findings portray replicable practices of nurturing based on deep rooted beliefs set on standards that are supported by aspirations in harmony with nature. It was found that methods used by Baganda parents combine theory and practice on daily basis in lessons that happen where knowledge is situated, mainly through apprenticeship, attachment, heart-to-heart and one-to-one encounters. They also embrace global citizenry based on firm principles of what Africans value. The study concludes that indigenous methods still count in branding children with life skills, right characters, attitudes, mental acuity and social orientation. It recommends that teacher training institutions of the 21st century develop programmes blending contemporary with indigenous methods anchored on core African values to prepare relevant teachers.