Interactive teaching methods in national and strategic studies in teacher training colleges: deafeting the myopic of patriotic history and political expediency

Abstract

This paper dispels the notion that National and Strategic Studies (NASS), as taught in teacher training colleges, is a tool in the service of the sectarian interests of politicians. It shows that NASS is a relevant subject whose objectives serve national interests. It helps students develop such pertinent life skills as research, critical thinking and exposes them to important issues pertaining to their political, social and economic welfare. This is achieved through use ofparticipatory or interactive teaching methods that place the learner at the centre of the learning process. Students learn through discovery and this enables them to formulate their own independent ideas, critically interpret issues and independently formulate ideas based on their own research and findings. The paper argues that the use of these interactive methods make NASS transcend the myopia of patriotic history, a narrowly focused type of history that advances the partisan interests of a particular sector of society at the exclusion of other interpretations of Zimbabwean history which they deem subversive and unpatriotic. Instead, it is argued that NASS fits into the category of' academic historiography', the antithesis of patriotic history, making it a relevant subject in the quest for national development.