Rethinking the Integral Education Approach: Ascertaining Curriculum Gaps in the Early Childhood Development Curriculum with Opportunities for Advancing Indigenous Knowledge Values within the South African Context

The current crisis confronting South Africa is the violence emanating from young people. The increasing evidence of youth violence relating to interpersonal violence and aggression can signal a misguided or ineffectual pedagogical approach. An engagement of literature over the past decade reveals a large proportion of children across the country have experienced some form of violence in school and classroom contexts. The current literature in the field demonstrates that preventive interventions for behaviour and attitude in Early Childhood Development (ECD) can lead to positive selfregulation for greater social responsibility and civic participation. Against this background, this paper highlights the gap(s) in the current ECD curriculum, with specific focus on incorporating the Indigenous Knowledge (IK) values of Ubuntu. In order to achieve the above aim, this paper employed focus group interviews with ECD staff (comprising supervisors and practitioners) and ECD communities (comprising parents of children, community members and elders) to determine, inter alia, their understanding of Integral Education (IE), values that are important for children and their views on the current ECD programme. Thematic analysis is used to engage with the research findings. The assumption is made that an IE approach which incorporates IK with emphasis on Ubuntu, simultaneously develops children’s emotional, moral, physical, cognitive, Rethinking the Integral Education Approach 191 spiritual and cultural capacities and can promote self-regulation and pro-social behaviour. The paper comprises the following: (1) a contextualization of the current curriculum trends and problematising this for the South African context; (2) identifying and discussing the research approach; (3) unpacking the findings emanating from the research approach; (4) critical discussion of the findings, with the proposition of an integral education approach with the IK values of Ubuntu to address the current deficit.