A Multi-Perspective Reflection on How Indigenous Knowledge and Related Ideas Can Improve Science Education for Sustainability

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge provides specific views of the world held by various indigenous peoples. It offers different views on nature and science that generally differ from traditional Western science. Futhermore, it introduces different perspectives on nature and the human in nature. Coming basically from a Western perspective on nature and science, the paper analyzes the literature in science education focusing on research and practices of integrating indigenous knowledge with science education. The paper suggests Didaktik models and frameworks for how to elaborate on and design science education for sustainability that takes indigenous knowledge and related non-Western and alternative Western ideas into consideration. To do so, indigenous knowledge is contextualized with regards to related terms (e.g., ethnoscience), and with Eastern perspectives (e.g., Buddhism), and alternative Western thinking (e.g., post-human Bildung). This critical review provides justification for a stronger reflection about how to include views, aspects, and practices from indigenous communities into science teaching and learning. It also suggests that indigenous knowledge offers rich and authentic contexts for science learning. At the same time, it provides chances to reflect views on nature and science in contemporary (Western) science education for contributing to the development of more balanced and holistic worldviews, intercultural understanding, and sustainability.

Integrating Living Values Education by Bridging Indigenous STEM Knowledge of Traditional Salt Farmers to School Science Learning Materials

“…This knowledge was passed down from previous generations and developed according to the times. This conserved community knowledge can be a source of learning for future generations and can reference scientific knowledge (Sumarni et al, 2016;Zidny et al, 2020). Living values in a series of salt production processes become a community culture that can be inherited and more optimized to improve salt production quality and quantity.…”

“…Indigenous knowledge provides a specific perspective on certain phenomena held by local communities. This knowledge offers a different view from the science developed in the Western world (Zidny, Sjöström, & Eilks, 2020). At the scientific level, indigenous science is often referred to as folk knowledge, traditional knowledge, or traditional ecological knowledge (Battiste, 2005;Duit, 2007).…”

Between Education and Opinion-Making

“…Albeit with mixed emotions due to the severity of the situation, it has opened a new space for cross-pollination and cross-fertilisation between the two. The approach chosen herein is to look for theoretical models from the two fields that may complement, or overlap, and thereby function as guiding didactic models (Zidny et al 2020 ). Such models can help to clarify choices (why?…”

Walleye Ogaawag Spearing in the Portage Waterway, Michigan: Integrating Mixed Methodology for Insight on an Important Tribal Fishery

“…Traditional ecological knowledge encompasses generations of knowledge and worldviews of Indigenous peoples gained by direct interactions with the natural world over millennia. Its practice calls for a broad accounting of and respect for relationships that compose a holistic understanding of the world; in this view, all things are interrelated and interdependent (Kimmerer 2015; Whyte 2017; Zidny et al 2020). For Indigenous communities, health is deeply embedded in relations to place and comprised of community, cultural, and spiritual relationships (Adelson 2000; Geniusz 2009; Gagnon 2016).…”

“…Based on these understandings, governance, research, and resource management are evolving to integrate science and Indigenous knowledge aimed towards improving environmental and human health (Donatuto et al 2011, 2014, 2016). Traditional ecological knowledge can guide, complement, and supplement biological science and management of natural resources (Menzies and Butler 2014; Zidny et al 2020). Integrating knowledge systems has also been shown to enhance cross‐cultural and cross‐scale efforts to better understand social‐ecological systems (Berkes 2004) and to increase the relevance of research (Berkes 2012).…”