Chapter 1: Enabling E-Learning through Science Literacy for The Digital 21^St Century As A Right in Education: The Case of Zanzibar

This chapter will address how to incorporate global and local learning and sustain mother tongue instruction through a science literacy program in the digital age in Zanzibar. Further, it will argue that this sustenance of learning in mother tongue education based in local knowledge ought to be defined as a right in education. I will frame my argument with the theories that reflect and reports on commentary and history compiled from the perspectives of both the dominant and nondominant cultures. The author envisions education as a set of processes intended to enhance multicultural dimensions in glo-local learning where e-learning has to be taken into consideration within education in order to enhance citizenship for the digital 21^st century. This is a radical departure from most mainstream educational research and practice, which is designed to enhance global rather than local learning by using a science model in which reading, writing, and language are employed as tools to foster the development of glo-local knowledge and inquiry in science. I first examine key assumptions about knowledge that inform mainstream educational research and practice. I then argue for an emphasis on the contextualized dimension of learning as a right in education. This means accounting for contextualized knowledge and reversing the current trend in the digital age of decontextualization. I introduce a new model of learning involving alternative assumptions about the value of local knowledge and local languages in the teaching and learning of science subjects using the seeds of science and roots of reading model. I insist that this will form a new platform for innovation with a unique mix of local and global knowledge in understanding and reaching technology for learning in a digital age.