Dialogue between Scientific and Traditional Knowledge in the Science Classroom: Development Study of a Teaching Sequence in a School in Taganga (Magdalena, Colombia)

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In this research we approach the particular realities of the schools located at the fisherman and tourist village of Taganga (Santa Marta, Colombia) with the intention of fostering and investigating the inclusion of fishermen's traditional knowledge in the science classrooms through a teaching sequence. Two intercultural science education initiatives: “teaching as a bridge between scientific knowledge at school and traditional ecological knowledge” and “culturally-sensitive science education” were placed in dialogue for this process. In order to inquire into the necessary conditions to consolidate the teaching sequence an intervention prototype was developed for the “seasons of the year” unit in elementary school, in collaboration with local teachers, fishermen and a woman. Then it was implemented at a local school by a teacher in a third grade elementary school science classroom (involving 8-9 years old students). Based on classroom observations during the prototype implementation, discourse analysis of classroom interactions, and semantic interpretations of students’ narratives, our analysis suggests that the intervention prototype may be explicitly designed to assist teachers in getting involved in dialogues with different ways of knowing and, also, in promoting awareness and recognition of different knowledge systems. This may demand particular guidelines in the intervention design for confronting arguments and looking for complementarities between arguments, as well as for enriching the value criteria used during class to approach ideas and concepts.