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Indigenous Knowledge and Science Education

An understanding of Indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) must take into account that each system has emerged from a particular set of circumstances and incorporates a dynamic, coherent worldview based on a body of assumptions that may differ radically from those of the current Western scientific paradigm. Further, any consideration of the current forms of science education in relation to Indigenous ways of knowing must acknowledge and engage with the historical and ongoing realities of colonization, imperialism, and the destruction of Native cultures that shape the contexts in which such a discussion takes place. Although both the legacy of colonialism and the ongoing struggles of Indigenous communities are global phenomena, this entry focuses primarily on the Indigenous knowledge systems and experiences of North America.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems

The knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples are deeply embedded in their respective cultures and manifest in a variety of ways from the mundane and implicit to the distinctive and explicit activities of life. Over the past century or longer, Indigenous scholars have been increasingly developing articulations of IKSs for a variety of audiences, each with his or her own purpose. Indigenous knowledge and knowledge systems can be articulated as the dynamic ways in which human beings in particular ecological niches have come to understand themselves and the world in which they live. These knowledge systems are expansive in scope and are not confined to any particular domain. Rather, they reflect the systems of being, knowing, and doing that have been developed in particular communities and reflect the practices, traditions, values/beliefs, ecologies, and histories of particular places. Many Indigenous scholars have argued that IKSs are foundationally about an orientation and a process for knowing and being in the world (i.e., Cajete, 1999). The core ontological assumption within many IKSs is that all things are connected in dynamic, interactive, and mutually reciprocal relationships. It has increasingly become important for Indigenous scholars to maintain that Indigenous knowledge is not something relegated only to the past or confined to the knowledge that has been developed through processes used by Indigenous people over ancestral time—in short, Indigenous knowledge systems are alive and ever evolving.

A problem with defining Indigenous knowledge is that to do so violates its very nature, in part because definitions typically search for singularity. Rather than defining IKSs, scholars are faced with more fundamental questions that center around the very nature(s) of knowledge and knowing—questions central in engaging with and understanding Indigenous knowledge systems. Importantly though, these questions are rooted in all knowledge systems and are not specific to Indigenous knowledge systems. Perhaps the most crucial point to glean about Indigenous knowledge systems is that they typically do not reach for a one-truth epistemological stance and do not assume that because something can be known, it should be known. These epistemological differences in Indigenous knowledge systems are particularly important in considering IKSs with common approaches and conceptions of science and science education.

Science Education and Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Native American geopolitical status in the United States creates unique dynamics around a host of social, economic, and environmental issues that are directly influenced by both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing science. Fully exercising tribal sovereignty given the ever expanding socioscientific issues facing the globe demands that Native people excel in Western science education and practice, so at a minimum Indigenous nations are able to fully analyze issues, policies, and events implicated in or created by Western science. This is not to suggest that an analysis from a traditional knowledge base is somehow lacking or inadequate. Rather, it acknowledges that actions created from a nontraditional base may incorporate intentions, processes, and outcomes that IKSs never intended nor were given the space or time (yet) to develop the problem-solving techniques needed to maintain healthy environments. The historical experience, educational and otherwise, of Native peoples, combined with contemporary sociocultural issues, makes the improvement of science education an especially unique and critical problem. Indigenous nations are faced with this important question: How might Native nations develop a science education that ensures that their own knowledge systems are foundational for their young citizens so that unique ways of being in the world are not only maintained but continue to evolve and thrive? At the same time, how do these nations ensure that their young people are able to strategically excel in the Western scientific enterprise?

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