Operationalization of Indigenous Knowledge in teaching general drawing principles in Engineering Graphics and Design
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The system of indigenous knowledge has been met with various debates and contradictions in so many disciplines and its relevance into the current education discourse. Teacher’s expertise in design plays an important role in communicating drawing messages. The purpose of this study was to explore how is the operationalization of Indigenous Knowledge System in teaching Engineering Graphics and Design (EGD) to teach general drawing principles. This study used a qualitative research approach and phenomenological design to understand participants’ experiences. Purposive sampling was used to select five teachers and a total of seventy-three learners. Indigenous knowledge framework was employed to capture all relevant information. Interviews and classroom observations were used to collect data, and thematic analysis was used to analyze it. This study discovered that in EGD classroom, the operationalization was done using vernacular architecture examples, using ancient glyph writing styles to teach numerical and alphabetical printing, as well as contextualized story telling. The study concludes that, through these strategies, strides were made to operationalize indigenous knowledge in teaching general drawing principles and that there is some level of appreciation on how teachers cognitive and wise legacy about indigenous knowledge playout during instruction. As a recommendation, this study for content knowledge structure in STEM subjects that is centered around language, context and culture dynamism in order to capture each indigenous group’s social realities.
Authors: Princess Blose, Thokozani Mtshali
Institution: Tshwane University of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225448530