An investigation of factors which influence integrating indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants into the learning programme for Grade 9 General Science

Abstract

This study explores knowledge of some medicinal plants amongst the sub-urban community of and around a township in the Eastern Cape province. This qualitative interpretivist case study presents the prior knowledge of medicinal plants possessed by Grade 9 learners, which is used as a springboard toward interviewing traditional healers, herbal practitioners and lecturers at a university in the departments of Botany and Pharmacy. The data obtained from the informants reveals the factors that can influence integration of indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants in the learning programme for grade 9 General Science. These factors include: prior knowledge and enthusiasm of Grade 9 learners and teachers, support of the community which include parents, traditional healers, herbal practitioners and professionals who could introduce indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants into formal education, availability of resource materials and complexity of identifying pharmacologically tested plants from other indigenous medicinal plants. The analysis and discussion of the findings, have led me to conclude that the enthusiasm of learners who have a rich background of indigenous knowledge on medicinal plants is likely to be hampered by the unenthusiastic teachers as well as the reluctance of herbal practitioners in their communities to part with this knowledge. Hence I recommend that teachers be motivated through workshops and in-service training, conducted by goverrment paid herbal practitioners using the prior knowledge of learners as a stepping-stone.