Culturally relevant education and training for communities: A review - Review

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley

Culturally relevant education and training is essential for development because it incorporates learners’ cultural backgrounds into teaching, learning, and skill generation. The review argues that institutions should collaborate with communities to share cultural values, participate fully in local activities, and co-create solutions to persistent problems. Education and training shape behaviour and influence cultural relations, requiring approaches that reflect community culture rather than impose externally determined knowledge and skills.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Implications of Education on Community Demands

Education and Training for Community Responsibility

Role of Learning Institutions and Community Participation

African Educational Research Journal Vol. 6(2), pp. 88-93, May 2018 DOI: 10. 30918/AERJ.62.18.019 ISSN: 2354-2160 Review Culturally relevant education and training for communities: A review Selina Banda and Daniel L. Mpolomoka* School of Education, Zambian Open University, Zambia. Accepted 9 May, 2018 | ABSTRACT
Inclusion of people’s cultural background in education and training is crucial for development. This article considers involvement of learning institutions in communities as a way of sharing cultural values. There is need for culture in aspects of education and training. This can only be realized by integrating communities’culture in generating knowledge and skills. Education and training change people’s behaviour which has an implication on how people relate to their culture. It is important to provide education and training which are reflective of people’s culture. This is a way of enabling people to embrace it, wholly. This paper points out the need for institutions of learning to collaborate with communities in a bid not only to learn from one another, but also to collectively share and find solutions to prevailing problems. Learning institutions are urged to use approaches that enable communities to fully participate in activities conducted in their areas. Communities should not be used for selfish gain, but to develop them to acceptable levels. Culturally relevant education (CRE) is a terminology espoused by researchers and academics. It makes a synergy between CRE and training for communities. This paper addresses relationship between education and training, effect of education, training for community responsibility and how to involve it in its own education. This is done against the backdrop that people are educated and trained but fails to make meaningful contributions to improving their own lives as well as those of other communities. What is surprising is that there is little being done in some cases to support this and systematically lead to its realisation. Among other thought-provoking questions, the article raises the following: i) Why is the education and training that some receive fail to have a trickle-down effect? ii) Is it because institutions of learning are focusing on education alone, leaving the aspect of training? The article advocates for institutions of learning to consider education and training of people (the community) as crucial aspects of development.
Keywords: Education, training, communities, culture, culturally relevant education. | | --- | | *Corresponding [author. E-mail: mpolomokadaniel@yahoo.com](author. E-mail: mpolomokadaniel@yahoo.com). | INTRODUCTION Some education and training programmes do not embrace cultural aspects of communities. This is because the programmes concentrate on imparting externally determined knowledge and skills which are not related to the culture of community members. Some researchers conduct studies which rarely allow full participation of community members. When community members are minimally engaged in education, training and research, it becomes difficult to tap on inherit cultural knowledge and skills crucial to development. Culturally relevant education (CRE) depicts inclusion of diverse backgrounds of learners in teaching and learning process which concern them . It is not a contemporary phrase in researchers and academics vocabulary (Aronson and Laughter, 2016) . For adult educators like us, there is a direct link between CRE and Training for Communities (TfC) . Community emancipation (Freire, 2006), widely popularised by Paulo Freire among others, is deep rooted in the type and form of CRE designed, offered and implemented. CRE entails learners to critically think about their lives and work towards initiating changes meant to liberate themselves from oppressive situations that limit their growth (Stromquist, 2014) . CRE values learners’ cultural resources as capital to anchor and promote education (learning) . IMPL

FAQs

Why is culturally relevant education important for communities?

It integrates community culture into teaching and learning, enabling knowledge and skills to address local needs. This helps education and training shape behaviour in ways that strengthen cultural relations rather than erode them.

What prevents education and training from having a trickle-down effect?

The review highlights externally determined content and a limited focus on education without adequate training. It notes that minimal community engagement makes it difficult to use and build on inherited cultural knowledge and skills.

How should learning institutions involve communities in education and training?

Institutions should collaborate with communities so they can fully participate in activities conducted in their areas. Communities should be engaged not for selfish gain, but to develop them to acceptable levels through shared learning and solutions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley