Trends, Prospects and Challenges of Incorporating Gadaa System into Ethiopian Higher Education Curriculum

Abstract

For a long time, exogenous western educational paradigms dominated Ethiopian education systems. Albeit Menelik-II introduced a modern educational system in Ethiopia, it did not give room for indigenous knowledge like the Gadaa system. The research aimed to explore the Gadaa system trends, prospects, and challenges of including in the Ethiopian higher education curriculum. A qualitative method was employed to examine the research. The researcher used semistructured interviews and focus group discussions to produce the data. Abbaa Gadaas, elders, instructors, students, and administrators of Bule Hora University participated. And the researcher reviewed historical documentation to triangulate with primary data. The finding reveals that teaching the Gadaa course is begun by Bule Hora University in 2019. Incorporating the Gadaa system into higher institutions curriculum enables the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in the conventional educational system, enhances indigenous knowledge and thought shape generation, and reverses the hitherto views of northern cultural domination and civilization clash. However, the lack of well-organized teaching materials related to the Gadaa, the lack of qualified instructors to deliver the course, and the domination of the northern cultures in Ethiopia are challenges of incorporating the Gadaa system into the curriculum. It concluded that including the Gadaa system into universities’ curriculum enables students to learn the experience, values, norms, and principles of the Gadaa system. It recommends that short-term training needs to set for instructors who deliver the course to solve the shortage of teaching staff.