How Embedding Indigenous Knowledge Systems Will Help the Teaching and Learning of Western Science to Evolve

Abstract

This chapter speaks to the author’s belief that Science education needs to evolve. In an era where human activities have changed planetary ecosystems, Western Science and its associated technologies have played a role in humans becoming the dominant driver of accelerated changes in the Earth’s climate. Science and Science education need to transcend the thinking that has led to this situation. Both need to be more relational in their perspectives. As such, Western Science has much to learn from Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) (This paper will use the term Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) to acknowledge there are as many knowledge bases and systems of developing knowledge as there are Indigenous peoples (IP). This plurality recognizes and values the many ideologies, philosophies, practices, protocols, forms and types of Indigenous knowledges globally. Traditional ecological knowledge is one aspect of IKS). This chapter will present different ways of integrating IKS in classrooms but ultimately suggests that Indigenous ideologies, rather than Indigenous “facts or practices,” should be infused throughout the teaching and learning of a relational Science education agenda. By exploring a case study of how the author’s own preservice students understood what it means to embed IKS into their future teaching practices, the author reflects on her teaching practice to imagine how spaces could be created where Western Science and IKS can be exchanged, discussed, and can co-exist.