Transcript Indigenous Perspectives

ENGAGING WITH INDIGENOUS
KNOWLEDGES IN SCIENCE
CLASSROOMS
Michael Michie
Acknowledging the Larrakia as
traditional owners of this land
Areas of inclusion of indigenous
knowledge
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weather and climate
ecology and land management
bush tucker and bush medicine
astronomy
Nature of science
Indigenous weather
• synthesised in a number of localities from around Australia
• invariably show a more complex local understanding of the
seasons rather than the four evenly-timed seasons
• often presented graphically in circular diagrams which reflect
an Indigenous understanding of the cyclical nature of the
seasons
• other knowledge includes wind directions and rain patterns
associated with the seasons, and seasonal plant and animal
abundances
... but which knowledge?
• The map shows there are many different
Aboriginal languages and knowledges
• The knowledge may be different even in
neighbouring language groups
• In parts of Australia the knowledge may no
longer exist
Handbook for Culturally Responsive
Science Teaching (Stephens, 2000)
There is mounting evidence that curricular and teaching
practices that link schooling to the surrounding cultural
and physical environment produce positive results on all
indicators of student and school performance. This
handbook reflects the most current pedagogical
principles that move educational practice from teaching
about culture as another discrete subject to teaching
through the local culture as a way to bring depth,
breadth and significance to all aspects of the curriculum.
(Barnhardt, Kawagley & Hill, foreword)
• Culturally responsive science curriculum attempts to integrate
Native and Western knowledge systems around science topics with
goals of enhancing the cultural well being and the science skills and
knowledge of students.
• It assumes that students come to school with a whole set of beliefs,
skills and understandings formed from their experiences in the
world, and that the role of school is not to ignore or replace prior
understanding, but to recognize and make connections to that
understanding.
• It assumes that there are multiple ways of viewing, structuring, and
transmitting knowledge about the world—each with its own
insights and limitations.
• It thus values both the rich knowledge of Indigenous cultures and of
Western science and regards them as complementary to one
another in mutually beneficial ways.
What are the characteristics of
culturally responsive science curricula?
• It begins with topics of cultural significance and involves local
experts.
• It links science instruction to locally identified topics and to science
standards.
• It devotes substantial blocks of time and provides ample
opportunity for students to develop a deeper understanding of
culturally significant knowledge linked to science.
• It incorporates teaching practices that are both compatible with the
cultural context, and focus on student understanding and use of
knowledge and skills.
• It engages in ongoing authentic assessment which subtly guides
instruction and taps deeper cultural and scientific understanding,
reasoning and skill development tied to standards.
What are some strengths of culturally
responsive curriculum?
• It recognizes and validates what children currently know and builds
upon that knowledge toward more disciplined and sophisticated
understanding from both indigenous and Western perspectives.
• It taps the often unrecognized expertise of local people and links
their contemporary observations to a vast historical database
gained from living on the land.
• It provides for rich inquiry into different knowledge systems and
fosters collaboration, mutual understanding and respect.
• It creates a strong connection between what student’s experience
in school and their lives out of school.
• It can address content standards from multiple disciplines.
What are some difficulties associated with
culturally responsive curriculum?
• Cultural knowledge may not be readily available to or understood
by teachers.
• Cultural experts may be unfamiliar, uncomfortable or hesitant to
work within the school setting.
• Standard science texts may be of little assistance in generating
locally relevant activities.
• Administrative or community support for design and
implementation may be lacking.
• It takes time and commitment.
Alaskan model
Australian example:
both ways or two way learning
Border crossing and culture brokering
• Teachers need to recognise that there are cultural and
subcultural borders which some students have
difficulty crossing
• Teachers need to realise that there is value in the other
culture, especially in terms of knowledge (eg about the
environment, the seasons, astronomy)
• Teachers may have to undergo their own border
crossing to accepted that the other knowledge is valid
and useful
• Teachers may have to adapt their pedagogy to teach
the other knowledge in a culturally responsive way
Teachers as culture brokers
Aikenhead (2006) points out several facets of how a ‘teacher as culture broker’
should operate, particularly when working with indigenous students, including:
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they acknowledge that a border exists and motivate students to cross it by
developing a relationship with them, by understanding the specific history of the
students’ culture and by holding high expectations for them
they employ the language of both the students’ culture and the culture of western
science
they explicitly keep track of which culture comprises the context of the moment
and they help students resolve cultural conflicts that may arise
they reframe the acquisition of relevant western science as an appropriation of
western culture for utilitarian purposes rather than as the correct way of knowing
about the world
they make the ontology of the western coloniser explicit in their classrooms
thereby providing students more freedom to appropriate parts of western science
without embracing western ways of valuing nature, an appropriation Aikenhead
calls ‘autonomous acculturation’.
Teachers as cultural negotiators
Stairs (1994) indicates that she has moved on from this earlier culture broker
idea to one of teachers as cultural negotiators.
“Understanding culture is dramatically different to knowing culture … move
students beyond the initial multicultural what of culture … to construct a
cultural negotiation model, the how of contextualization and the why of
intention and meaning…” (Stairs, 1994, p. 232, her emphasis)
Indigenous Science Network
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mmichie/network.html