Celebrating cultural treasures: Practical ways of implementing multiculturalism in schools

Abstract

Education and learning are central to sustainable development; the latter ensures a better quality of life for everyone now and for future generations to come. Botswana is a multilingual and multicultural nation, with English and Setswana being the official and national languages respectively. Despite the abundant rhetoric about the importance and relevance of multicultural education to the issue of sustainable development, this is not reflected in the educational curricula and educational outcomes. This article argues that including indigenous ways of knowing in the curriculum would benefit the Botswana nation at large, by encouraging and embracing the cultures of other ethnic groups and thereby acknowledging cultural diversity within the country. The article explores the opportunities and challenges that might arise in the process of implementing such measures, and concludes by making recommendations to the Department of Curriculum and Evaluation about education and sustainable development.

Keywords:

• Botswana
• curriculum
• diversity
• education
• indigenous languages
• multicultural
• multilingual
• sustainable development
• syllabus