Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into the Curriculum: Responses of Science Teacher Educators

Abstract

In many parts of the world, concerns to enact a practical reconciliation between indigenous and coloniser populations are finding their expression through various action plans and formal social initiatives. At base, such initiatives require the acknowledgement of both colonial injustices and the awareness of and respect for the strength, wisdom and holistic integrity of displaced/colonised know- ledge systems. In the Australian context, draft national curricula in five areas—English, Maths, Science, History and Art—all reflect a concern to incorporate local indigenous knowledge and perspectives into each respective syllabus. While there have been attempts to attach aspects of indigenous knowledge to various strands of individual State curricula in the past, the present national concern would require something of a reconceptualisation of what constitutes, for example, Science as currently taught in schools. This paper presents initial findings from a larger research project that aims to identify the concerns and opportunities presented by a rethinking of the nature of Science as a result of the national curriculum process. Here, the reactions to and ideas of arguably central figures in any successful re-orientation of 'official knowledge' in school-based teaching—teacher educators are presented by way of suggesting challenges, possibilities and imperatives for the genuine incorporation of local in- digenous knowledge into the formal school Science curriculum.