Abstract
Article Info Abstract Article History This qualitative study collected data from 24 Rwandan classes using a focus group interview to 24 teachers, an interview to 24 students and an observation checklist based on both a template of seven epistemological ways of knowing suggested by Van de Lagemaat Richard and Kohlberg stages of moral autonomy. The aim consisted of analyzing the effectiveness of the implementation of Competence Based Curriculum specifically in its component of developing in learners the epistemological and moral autonomy. Although the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) used in Rwandan secondary schools aims at epistemological and moral autonomy of learners, findings of this study revealed that CBC purpose of developing cognitive and moral autonomy is rooted in the Kantian rationalistic and individualistic philosophy while being implemented on students and tutors who live and believe in a different context experience a cultural paradigm of developing moral and intellectual autonomy. This challenge implies a strong predominance of the community agenda over the individual initiatives, where a cultural filter contributes to a great extent for both tutors' and learners' cognitive processing and moral decisions. In this context, heteronomy tends to prevail where the individual reasoning and decision making are dependent to a certain extent on the social, cultural, religious and political orientations.