Rethinking teacher education curricula in African universities through indigenous curriculum construction principles

There is a growing concern over the dominant nature of Western models of teacher education in African universities. Investigation reveals that teacher education curriculum models in such universities are either a wholesale importation or partial duplication of some of the dominant models of teacher preparation especially the Teachers College, Columbia and University of Wisconsin, Madison models. Accordingly, teacher education curricula in African universities are ostensibly alien or arguably non-African in contents and learning experiences. Consequently, there is a long-felt need for an African indigenous and local teacher education curriculum model that is capable of producing African-based teachers for schools in Africa and its Diaspora. This paper, which has Indigenous Knowledge as its theoretical basis, is an attempt to formulate conceptual and design principles for an African-based teacher education curriculum model. The paper employs a multiplicity of methods comprising curriculum criticism, the historical method, the analytic method, and creative synthesis. The significance of such a study lies in its potential to contribute to the promotion or projection of the African identity through preparation of ideologically independent teachers who will ultimately implement school curricula in African settings. The tiny contribution of the paper to scholarship includes its formulation of both conceptual and design principles that may be translated to learning experiences and contents for teacher education curricula in African universities.