Kitambaa: A Convivial Future-Oriented Framework for Kinangop’s Learning Hub

Abstract

The aim of this paper, and more generally, our project “Impact from the ground” (a multi-stage ongoing project), is to reimagine education so that it transcends the walls and harsh constraints of a “universal one size fits all” education. To achieve this, we propose a framework that will inform the design of a participatory approach to co-create a learning hub (an informal lifelong learning opportunity) with and within the community. To weave this framework, we explore the current landscape of education, looking at the challenges that youth from rural settings face to complete their studies in urban universities, and the difficulties they experience when looking for jobs after having done so. We briefly explain our research project and contextualize it in Kinangop, a small region in the Nyandarua County in Kenya, where we explored the enablers and constraints people face to engage in social innovation. We proceed to imagine an alternative education that is local and organic, with different principles and theories weaved into a fabric kitambaa (in Swahili) that serves as the ground for an education intervention that is meaningful, binding, and bonding for the community members. In so doing, we aim to center matters of knowledge production as multi-epistemic conversations, situating those at the margins of epistemic divisions at the center of productive and creative debates.

Methodological Insights for Decolonising Research and EdTech

“…Kuhn, Warui, and Kimani [44] describe social research via the extended metaphor of a kitambaa, or woven tapestry of multiple threads, or knowledges (plural). They have approached their research through the lens of critical realism, utilising the human development capability approach and applying critical pedagogy to approach "futures literacy".…”

“…These two figures together embody the essence of our Special Issue. They tie together the strands of multiple papers on EdTech and its uses for research, much as Kuhn, Warui, and Kimani [44] wove together a kitambaa from all the disparate sources in their research. There are clear cautions in these papers about the unthinking replication of colonial thought and practice by automatically selecting those methods and tools known to researchers without very careful thought about the target participants and their needs, contexts, and situations.…”