ABSTRACT. This study examines socio-culturally responsive teaching for Indigenous San communities in Southern Africa. Preservice teacher education fails to adequately prepare teachers for these communities’ educational needs. To improve pedagogy and to achieve more equitable learning outcomes, there is a need to include San learners’ schooling experiences to inform the development of teacher education. We used culturally responsive teaching as a theoretical lens to support an understanding of public schooling from the perspective of San learners. We conducted a semi-systematic literature review (Snyder, 2019) of 19 scientific articles on public education in Namibian, Botswanan and South African San communities. In our literature review, we asked what barriers were identified in studies on San education and how teacher education could be more culturally responsive to San communities’ needs, which are synonymously referred to in the studies we reviewed as hunter-gatherer communities, marginalised communities and Indigenous communities. This study presents a less-researched aspect of teacher education as a critical institution that holds the potential to prepare teachers better to meet context-specific educational needs. We recommend fostering critical dialogue among communities, researchers and teacher education programs to co-create research-informed and culturally responsive education that meets local needs. Perspectives of disenfranchised communities, such as San communities, must be placed at the core of teacher education transformation processes that aim to achieve SDG4.

Keywords: disenfranchised communities; culturally responsive teaching; teacher education; San learners; SDG4

How to cite: Oikarinen, M., Jonas, M., Haihambo, C. K., Likando, G., & Sheyapo, M. (2025). Culturally responsive teacher education for all: Review of teachers and teaching in public schools from San communities’ perspectives. Knowledge Cultures, 13(2), 133–156. https://doi.org/10.22381/kc13220257

Received May 19, 2025 • Received in revised form June 25, 2025
Accepted August 1, 2025 • Available online September 1, 2025