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.
Highlights
One of the main problems in science education—is the perception of students that a lot of their secondary science lessons are neither interesting, engaging, nor relevant (Anderhag et al 2016; Ageng Tirtayasa, 42117 Serang, Indonesia 3 Department of Science-Mathematics-Society, Malmö University, 205 06 Malmö, Sweden 4 Department of Biology and Chemistry, Institute for Science Education (IDN) - Chemistry Education, University of Bremen, Leobener Str
Indigenous knowledge is formed by indigenous science which adheres to the culture and perspective of indigenous society, while Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is part of the indigenous knowledge which is guided by indigenous science methods that are in parallel with Western modern science (WMS) in terms of presenting solutions to ecological problems
It is interesting that—more or less—similar ideas to the local wisdom of indigenous science exist in Eastern spiritual thinking and alternative Western thinking
Summary
One of the main problems in science education—is the perception of students that a lot of their secondary science lessons are neither interesting, engaging, nor relevant The aim is to empower the individual for acting responsibly in terms of sustainability, which was identified by Stuckey et al (2013) as an essential justification in their model of relevant science education Another related and critically oriented alternative to mainstream ESD is called ecojustice education (Mueller 2009). Indigenous knowledge offers rich contexts which have the potential to contribute understanding the relationship of environmental, sociocultural, and spiritual understandings of life and nature This approach could be appropriate to accommodate sociocultural demand in science education curricula as well as to raise students’ perception of the relevance of science learning. A theoretical framework, which contributes multiple reference disciplines of science education (Duit 2007), is proposed for adopting indigenous knowledge in science learning This approach encompasses the interdisciplinary nature of relevant science education to carry out science education research and development. It could provide guidance for research-based curriculum development to construct an indigenous knowledge framework for raising the relevance of science education and students’ perception thereof
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