Teaching geography to the peoples of Western Uganda

SYNOPSIS The author has distinguished two major teaching problems, the first to prevent the geographical information given from being deployed to support traditional, unscientific ideas; the second, to make the new knowledge effectively displace old myths. He has attempted to measure the effectiveness of his teaching by first investigating the field of ideas to which pupils are referring the classroom instruction, in particular the beliefs of Banyankole, Batoro and Bakonjo boys regarding the powers of the rain‐man, the causes of rain, thunder and the formation of lakes and mountains; and then ascertaining how far these traditional beliefs are retained and how far rejected after varying periods of geography teaching. Informal conversations and written exercises have provided evidence of the boys’ real beliefs and doubts. The author's general conclusions are that until the middle school about a third of his pupils remain sceptical about the new teaching, and one sixth entertain the old and new explanations of natural phenomena simultaneously. Senior boys about to take the School Certificate examination have been more effectively converted, although this appears to be less from deeper intellectual conviction than from a keener perception of the type of belief fitting to their ideal of the educated man

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