Indigenization of Career Choice Trajectory in Uganda: Drawing from the Curriculum Dilemmas at Education Transitional Levels

Abstract

This paper showcases the need for indigenizing modern education to reflect on the local context so that the graduates fit within their environments. The paper argues that indigenous knowledge production stands to offer practical values, attitudes and direction for our learning institutions’ career training agenda. The study employed a qualitative approach using an exploratory survey design, and it was conducted in central Uganda, drawing from 106 students’ experiences at different education transitional levels. Using purposive sampling, final year students were selected from various levels of education: 30 from lower secondary level, another 30 from higher/advanced level, and 46 from university final years. The findings reveal that the elitist education curriculum continues to present serious problems and challenges to students and subsequent graduates. The findings further indicate a general myth that everything indigenous is presumed inferior. For this reason, most students aspire for university degrees regardless of whether that would be finally fulfilling. It is stressed that students who drop out along the career pathways are usually considered to be academic misfits. However, more findings showed that the majority of students only read to pass the exams. Owing to this, the study calls for the integration of sociocultural knowledge and context-specific approaches in the education curriculum to be responsive to the demands of the fast-changing world. This will enable students to graduate with environmentally relevant expertise to meet personal and national development goals. The findings offer a basis and an insight for education reformers in the new direction of contextualizing education.