An exploration into the encounter between Indigenous and Western education at Noonkodin School in Eluwai, Monduli, Tanzania

This study investigated the tensions present in an intercultural education model designed to offer an indigenous knowledge course alongside the national curriculum at Noonkodin School in Eluwai, Monduli, Tanzania. The study employed an ethnographic research design involving mainly in-depth classroom observations, interviews with the head and deputy head of school, informal conversations, and focus groups with 11 teachers and 20 Maasai students. The findings showed that the provision of intercultural education at Noonkodin is beleaguered not only by a hegemonic relationship between Indigenous and Western knowledge, but also a strong cultural mismatch, contradiction, and ambivalence in their strictest sense. For the programme to succeed, the findings suggest the need to overcome both the hegemonic backdrop of Western education structures that shape what happens in the school, alongside the structural limitations of Noonkodin’s location within a modern Tanzanian state replete with capitalist values that run counter to its stated goals. © 2020 British Association for International and Comparative Education.