Some schools do not have local formal work environments enabling learners to interact with members in community of practice. This is noticeable in schools in developing countries, including the north eastern Zambezi Region of Namibia, where the study took place. To close the gap in which trainee science and mathematics teachers who were the participants failed to contextualize teaching and learning (CTL) using formal work situations, this qualitative study investigated use of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) practices as an alternative. A cultural group presented IK practices which trainees observed and participated. Pottery making, an IK practice, reflects Science knowledge which teachers sometimes shun. Audiovisual , lesson plans and interviews were also used to generate data. To intervene Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) was used as a tool. Revelations are trainee teachers in rural schools initially viewed CTL designing as impossible. Further, trainees engaged with CTL through allowing IK to compliment modern science and were equipped with pedagogical tools.

Learners in lower primary and even some in upper primary grades grapple to perform mathematical operations which involve fractions. Failure to solve these mathematical operations creates a gap in the teaching and learning processes of mathematics. We opine that this is attributed to use of traditional mathematical approaches of teaching and learning (TMATL) of operations of fraction. With the hope of engaging the reformed mathematical approach of teaching and learning (RMATL) this study investigated the following: How can trainee teachers use the angle model in RMATL operations of fractions? What are the perceptions of trainee teachers in the use of the angle model which engages RMATL to teach the operations of fractions? With the goal to fill the mentioned gap in which learners struggle to perform operations involving fractions, we observed and analysed worksheets on operation with fractions students wrote. Observations and interviews with trainee teachers of lower primary revealed poor performance in problems related to operations with fractions. Observed patterns supported by cognitivism revealed that invented methods or strategies on which RMATL is anchored are suitable enough to engage learner-centred teaching and learning which can prevent the abstractness of the concept of operations with fractions.

The study reports on the challenges lower primary numeracy teachers in the Zambezi Region face when using Silozi language as a medium of instruction. The use of Silozi language as a medium of instruction is part of the Namibian language policy in schools. In the Zambezi Region, Silozi, a lingua franca is considered predominant. The findings of the study show that teachers were unable to interpret the concepts in the curriculum and learners could not express their ideas using the lingua franca. However, when Numeracy questions were presented to the learners in symbolic form and in their mother tongue, they did not face challenges in understanding the questions. The study uses the socio-cultural theory as theoretical framework.