Ways Of Knowing Research Articles

Cultural Collaborative Ways of Knowing, Doing, Valuing and Becoming: A ‘Pandheri Guff’ Inquiry of Nepali Women Scholars

In Nepal, women are facing challenges in academia due to gender biases and limited opportunities. This article explores the experiences of Nepali women scholars who are redefining traditional knowledge, which is typically confined to textbooks, notes, and lectures. These critical issues are often ignored in academic settings. However, women academicians can overcome these barriers by collaborating, reflecting on their experiences, and seeking innovative solutions. To this end, the authors introduce Pandheri Guff, a traditional Nepali method for discussing and addressing such issues. Subscribing Pandheri Guff as a method, the authors engaged in a cultural Nepali collaborative inquiry, combining their narratives to create meaning. Their virtual weekly meetings, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, focused on reflections about class participation, assignments, and learning experiences over two months by documenting their insights in Google Docs. The analysis is categorized into four themes: believing, meditative, doubting, and dismantling ways of knowing. This method fosters a judgment-free environment for sharing experiences, enhancing their learning, and empowering them to transform themselves. This article argued that this cultural approach advances understanding of women’s knowledge acquisition and enhances higher education learning by providing a collaborative and reflective space to overcome gender biases and improve learning experiences

Indigenizing research methods: making research outcomes better for all

In the context of Indigenizing academic practices and promoting cultural inclusivity within library and information institutions, this paper explores the significance of incorporating Indigenous approaches to research within LIS research methods courses. It argues that Indigenous research methods can be adapted and applied to other contexts, especially where research is being done in Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) communities, who also have a history of being marginalized in research. This paper advocates for research methods to be transformed by incorporating Indigenous approaches into research methods education and empowering students to become culturally competent researchers. The paper will demonstrate how the use of Indigenous methodologies provides students with an understanding of alternative paradigms informed by indigenous ways of knowing.

After the end of schools: Cultivating abolitionist visions for a world without carceral education

After the end of the world is a speculative concept used to imagine what life could be after the world “ends” envisioning a new world that does not currently exist. Taking up Gumbs’ metaphor, this essay explores what education could be after the end of school, imaging a world beyond education as we know it to be. In order to imagine a world where education is not inherently carceral, I use speculative fiction, as both a world-making method and genre, to cultivate abolitionist visions for education. This essay exams the ways speculative fiction has been used to articulate abolitionist struggles and/or futures, as well embody abolitionist ways of knowing. Just as the goal of abolition is not only to eliminate prisons, but to end the conditions that perpetuate the societal need for prisons, this essay uses abolitionist praxis as science fiction to consider what it would mean to not just eliminating schools but to end the conditions that sustain and support marginalization and criminalization of particularly BIPOC, LGBTQ + 2S, and disabled young youth. By engaging speculative fiction as an abolitionist praxis this essay offers an opportunity to envision education beyond the limits of our current imagination.

Healing with Ayahuasca the Plant Teacher: Psychedelic Metaphoricity and Polyontologies

ABSTRACT Shamans, neo-shamans, atheists, and others describe gaining special knowledge from drinking ayahuasca, supporting the cross-cultural idea of ayahuasca as a plant teacher. While secular enthusiasts interpret this metaphorically, animists and others take it literally. This article examines ontological collisions at a healing retreat in the Peruvian Amazon, considering Shipibo shamans and their international clients. It explores how embodied experiences, such as purging and visions, inform both literal and metaphorical views of healing and illness. By addressing incommensurable ontologies, the article highlights how a polyontological framework approaches ontological collision without necessarily privileging specific ways of knowing.

Violence and the public narratives of history of science

The value of the humanities is severely limited by outmoded chronological frameworks, which continue to dominate public discussion and educational curricula while being rejected in current research. Even in adjacent academic fields, the history of science is often understood as a series of revolutions, particularly the much-criticised ‘Scientific Revolution’ of the 17th century. The view of science as a sequence of dramatic revolutions, famously articulated in the work of Thomas Kuhn, originated around 1900 in attempts to market a Eurocentric view of science-based industrial progress. It is, however, seriously misleading. The key issue is violence. The concept of scientific revolutions locates epistemic violence within specialist communities, obscuring the role of the sciences in colonial conquest and in silencing other ways of knowing. (This article is published in the thematic collection ‘The arts and humanities: rethinking value for today—views from Fellows of the British Academy’, edited by Isobel Armstrong.)

Welcome to Information Science

Inspired by CAIS’ conference theme of “Imagining Information,” the participants of this panel will enact the following scenario: At an orientation event for an information science program, a spokesperson gives incoming students a brief address on the theme, “Welcome to information science.” Six imaginative versions of that talk are offered here. Each disquisition is inspired by a luminary or paradigm, namely: S. R. Ranganathan, Elfreda Chatman, Marcia Bates, Chinese Information Science, Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and Queering Sociotechnical Systems. Everyone in attendance will have six opportunities to imagine information science at its best, that is, a wide-ranging and multi-perspective discipline.

“Walking the Tightrope”: Reflections on Mobilizing Foucauldian Theory Within an Endurance Running Coach Development Intravention

This paper presents our efforts and subsequent reflections in attempting to make Foucauldian theory accessible and relevant to a group of high-performance endurance-running coaches within the context of a coach development intravention and Foucauldian inspired workshop series. Specifically, we reflect upon our efforts to introduce coaches to Foucauldian ideas and concepts such as the knowledge–power–practice triad and upon the tensions we experienced in doing so. These tensions were related to the power of the theory–practice divide to set expectations around what it means to be an effective coach developer and a high-performance coach but also in the main related to our intentions regarding a broader shift in the coaches’ thinking concerning the influence of a number of social forces in the formation of their practices. We contend that coaching scholars invested in mobilizing ways of knowing underpinned by a different logic (e.g., relationally informed ways of knowing) within coaching and coach development settings would benefit from a deeper understanding of the politics of sports coaching knowledge and practice and how relations of power–knowledge impact learning within pedagogical contexts. Such an awareness, we believe, would in turn support more targeted pedagogical frameworks, practices, and strategies specifically aimed at disrupting established relations of power–knowledge and related problematic binary understandings such as the theory–practice divide which stand in the way of more diverse and ethical knowledge production processes in sports coaching and coach development work.

Learning chemistry of metals in the context of forging: An ethnographic case study of blacksmithing in Guji Oromo, Ethiopia

This study explores the art of blacksmithing in Guji Oromo to locate underlying chemistry concepts, knowledge, and ways of knowing. The ethnographic case study design was employed, in which 11 blacksmiths were engaged through observation and semi-structured interviews. The data from the interview and observation were separately analyzed and triangulated against each other thematically. As a result, it was found that the blacksmiths in Guji use three mechanisms to identify the quality and suitability of metals collected for redesigning: textual, mechanical, and sparking tests. Besides, blacksmiths with no or little schooling have a remarkable conception of the fundamentals of metals and metallic bonding, malleability and ductility as a measure of metal qualities, rusting as threats to the existence of metals and how to prevent, metallic crystal and micro crystal rearrangement and thermal conductivity of metals. Moreover, the setting and underlying ways of knowing were found to be so constructivist because novices are allowed to explore and learn their way with minimal involvement from the experienced ones. Concerning the origin of blacksmithing, two themes of hypothesis were found in this study. One is that the origination of the art is among the ancestors of Guji themselves, and the other is that the explorers and metallurgists from other communities in Kenya or southern Ethiopia introduced the art. Thus, the narratives are controversial which call for further study. In conclusion, the findings revealed that the blacksmithing practice in Guji has utilizable chemistry contents and concepts that could enhance learning of chemistry by creating familiar context.

Suffering without Remedy: The Medically Unexplained Symptoms of Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Long COVID

The term “Medically Unexplained Symptoms” (MUS) describes chronic symptoms for which medical investigations fail to reveal a specific pathology or biomarker. Even as MUS are among the most prevalent chronic health problems in the global north, patients who experience them reside in a nebulous space. Such nebulousness is heightened for women patients. Moreover, women report MUS at higher rates than men. In this review essay, we analyze the medicalization and feminization processes vis-à-vis MUS by focusing on two particular syndromes: Fibromyalgia (FMS) and Long COVID (LC). FMS and LC present clear parallels that allow us to trace an unhappy marriage of women and MUS. We demonstrate how the medical constructions of these two syndromes as knowledge categories are representations of medical uncertainty vis-a-vis women patients. We then scrutinize the resulting gendered consequences of these categories for the illness experience. We conclude our review by calling for a cultural reorientation in our thinking about MUS that centers a recognition that the origins and manifestations of a great deal of human suffering reside outside of medicine’s ways of knowing. In so doing, we connect to foundational claims in medical anthropology and sociology; namely, that illness is more than disease, and health cannot be achieved primarily via biomedical means.

Unbalanced or Absent: Assessing Indigenous Representation in Interpretive Materials at Government Administered Heritage Sites in Cascadia and Hawai‘i

ABSTRACT Unbalanced or absent Indigenous representation in interpretive materials at government administered heritage sites in settler-colonial contexts can create contention and perpetuate a misinformed or one-dimensional visitor experience and historical narrative. This research therefore examines representation in interpretive materials accessible in 2019 at heritage sites with Indigenous ancestral connections in settler-colonial contexts. This study uses 10 U.S. case study heritage sites and two supplementary sites in Washington, Idaho, and Hawai‘i. Researchers utilized participant observation and systematic photography during two 2019 research phases to document interpretive materials. Quantification generated 731 analytic units which were subsequently assessed for the presence of inductively and deductively generated codes. The assembled empirical results illustrate three overarching themes: (1) controlled historical narrative; (2) absence of shared authority; and (3) challenges in representing and/or integrating different ways of knowing. This research contributes to heritage studies and practical heritage site management in two ways: (1) offering a timely multi-sited and multicultural sample of settler-colonial heritage site interpretive materials comparable to other sites; and (2) illustrating empirical trends in interpretive materials that privilege settlers over Indigenous peoples. This research suggests that future interpretation could benefit from a more balanced multivocal approach that recognizes ancestral and contemporary Indigenous homelands and the complexity of Indigenous-settler interactions.

An Indigenous-informed scoping review study methodology: advancing the science of scoping reviews

BackgroundHistorically, Indigenous voices have been silent in health research, reflective of colonial academic institutions that privilege Western ways of knowing. However, Indigenous methodologies and methods with an emphasis on the active involvement of Indigenous peoples and centering Indigenous voices are gaining traction in health education and research. In this paper, we map each phase of our scoping review process and weave Indigenous research methodologies into Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework for conducting scoping reviews.MethodsGuided by an advisory circle consisting of Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and allied scholars, we utilized both Indigenous and Western methods to conduct a scoping review. As such, a circle of Knowledge Keepers provided guidance and informed our work, while our methods of searching and scoping the literature remained consistent with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. In keeping with an Indigenous methodology, the scoping review protocol was not registered allowing for an organic development of the research process.ResultsWe built upon Arksey and O’Malley’s 5-stages and added an additional 3 steps for a combined 8-stage model to guide our research: (1) Exploration and Listening, (2) Doing the Groundwork, (3) Identifying and Refining the Research Question, (4) Identifying Relevant Studies, (5) Study Selection, (6) Mapping Data, (7) Collating, Summarizing and Synthesizing the Data, and lastly, (8) Sharing and Making Meaning. Engagement and listening, corresponding to Arksey and O’Malley (2005)’s optional “consultation stage,” was embedded throughout, but with greater intensity in stages 1 and 8.ConclusionAn Indigenous approach to conducting a scoping review includes forming a team with a wide array of experience in both Indigenous and Western methodologies, meaningful Indigenous representation, and inclusion of Indigenous perspectives to shape the analysis and presentation of findings. Engaging Indigenous peoples throughout the entire research process, listening, and including Indigenous voices and perspectives is vital in reconciliation research, producing both credible and useable information for both Indigenous communities and academia. Our Indigenous methodology for conducting a scoping review can serve as a valuable framework for summarizing Indigenous health-related research.

Considering the a in STEAM-building the micro and Macro models

When educators started incorporating the letter A into the STEM acronym to form STEAM some science educators had reservations. Seen from a western, rationalistic way of knowing (Colucci-Gray et al. 2017, 23) the STEM community had detractors regarding the idea of integrating art into science. Hence, scientific language is often thought of as being limited to structured, mathematical forms, while the arts’ languages are intuitive and characterized by esthetic quality (Garoian and Mathews 1996, 194). This article describes a science educator’s changing beliefs regarding the need for art in STEM and how it led to the creation of an art activity that helps bridge the gap between math, science, and engineering. Specifically, students are involved in creating dioramas to NGSS- MS-LS2-2- Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems. Ratios/proportions and using a spreadsheet for accuracy and speed of calculations are additional concepts discussed within the article.

A critical and interpretive synthesis of arts-based methods used by dance therapy researchers: A perspective from the creative arts therapies

The creative arts therapies are a group of modality specific disciplines that include dance, music, drama and art. Creative arts therapists take an arts-based approach to practice which often results in the privileging of alternate ways of knowing, such as non-verbal, artistic, and embodied forms of expression and meaning-making. The rising interest in arts-based research in our field, as well as within psychology, has prompted us – a dance therapist and music therapist - to take a closer look at the research literature to ascertain the function and purpose of existing arts-based research approaches in the creative arts therapies. Using dance therapy as an example, we conducted a rigorous interpretive review of 12 dance therapy arts-based research articles to help answer the question - ‘what is the function and purpose of arts-based research in dance therapy?‘. As part of our review, we used an arts-based process to synthesise data and to strengthen our analytic process in a manner congruent with artistic ‘ways of knowing.’ Our exploration led us to recognise that arts-based processes appear to enable the ‘illustration’ and ‘illumination’ of novel understanding in ways that are often more difficult to arrive at when using other qualitative research methods. Furthermore, arts-based research can be useful for facilitating researcher reflexivity, which may be used in service of deepening the interpretive process in qualitative research. However, our involvement with the dance therapy publications also revealed a clear shortcoming for the field: at present there appears to be a clear lack of focus on direct client engagement in the arts-based research literature. As such, arts-based research in the field of dance therapy seems to be somewhat removed from professional practice and appears to instead fulfil a more scholarly or self-reflective purpose. Based on this discovery, we offer some recommendations for those interested in pursuing arts-based research within both psychology as well as creative arts therapies, and in doing so highlight the importance of client voice and experience in health-focused research.

The violence of curriculum: Dismantling systemic racism, colonisation and indigenous erasure within medical education.

Epistemic violence is enacted in medical curricula in mundane ways all the time, negatively impacting learners, teachers and patients. In this article, we address three forms of such violence: White supremacy, indigenous erasure and heteronormativity. In this article, we examine the knowledge systems of medicine as a global phenomenon, impacted by Western and European ideologies of race and colonisation, both produced by them, helping to reproduce them through authoritative and hegemonic ideologies. We seek not only to problematise but also to propose alternative teaching approaches rooted in the Global South and in Indigenous ways of knowing. Taking inspiration from Paulo Freire, we advocate for the development of critical consciousness through the integration of critical pedagogies of love, emancipation and shared humanity. Drawing on Irihapeti Ramsden, we advocate for cultural safety, which emphasises power relations and historical trauma in the clinical encounter and calls for a rights-based approach in medical education. Deliberately holding space for our own vulnerabilities and that of our students requires what Megan Boler calls a pedagogy of discomfort. Our perspectives converge on the importance of critical consciousness development for culturally safe practice in medical education, acknowledging the need to emphasise a curriculum of shared humanity, introducing the concept of Ubuntu from Southern Africa. Ubuntu can be encapsulated in the phrase 'I am because we are', and it promotes a collective approach to medical education in which there is active solidarity between the profession and the diverse populations which it serves.

Curating Community: Centering Collaboration, Public Engagement, Social Justice, and Empowerment Within the Fashion Museum

North American dress and textile museums have long been rooted in colonial ideals due to the long-standing perpetuation of Eurocentrism as superior to all other ways of knowing. The fashion and textile art exhibition Material Resistance: Social Justice and Empowerment Narratives Told Through Cloth (2022), curated by graduate students, contested these colonial traditions and instead centered the stories, lived experiences, and empowerment of marginalized communities. The exhibition featured social justice-focused textile works of five artists and three community organizations. The curatorial team explored methods to re-envision how curators can center social justice and empowerment within fashion and textile exhibitions through innovative approaches, building upon previous curatorial scholarship that values collaboration and combines tenets of post-critical museology, intersectionality, and self-determination. By prioritizing the voices of the show’s artists and community members, being intentional about the curatorial selection and accessibility, providing opportunities for community engagement, and practicing repatriation, we provide an example of curatorial practice centering the people, not the system that has often disenfranchised them.

One Health, many perspectives: Exploring Indigenous and Western epistemologies

Abstract The One Health approach, which assesses the interconnectedness of animal, human, and environmental health, fails to include and amplify Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous scientists. To effectively center Indigenous knowledge next to and within the One Health approach, which is historically based in Western science, the similarities and differences between Indigenous science, specifically Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and One Health must be explored. The objective of this project is to identify values in Indigenous science that are unsupported or underrepresented in Western science and then collaboratively ideate recommendations that Western allies can take to center and support Indigenous scientists and elevate Indigenous knowledge. From January to March 2023, the study team conducted semi-structured interviews with Indigenous knowledge keepers via Zoom video calls. American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian (Kānaka Maoli), and other Indigenous participants from the global diaspora residing in the continental United States and Hawaiian Islands were recruited through social media and referrals from Indigenous leaders who had participated in formative (phase 1) interviews completed in 2022. In those formative interviews, four themes emerged and called for further exploration of Indigenous perspectives on (1) the natural world, (2) cultural heritage, (3) value expression, and (4) reflection. These ideas were reframed into questions asked in subsequent (phase 2) interviews in 2023. Thematic identification methods were used to highlight key ideas throughout the interviews. Participants noted gaps between their Indigenous worldviews and the One Health model, particularly relating to contrasts with Western culture, holistic expression, power in action, identity and belonging, maintaining community and cultural practices, and sharing information/education. It was also noted that One Health must do more than just uplift Indigenous values to support Indigenous scientists and should instead collaborate with TEK keepers and foster practices that are inclusive and validating of other knowledge systems. Phase 2 interview responses highlighted Indigenous principles that are underrepresented in One Health practice. These principles were transformed into considerations specifically for Western-rooted scientists to improve allyship to Indigenous science and scientists. Adoption of the considerations would strengthen partnership between One Health practitioners and Indigenous scientists and promote collaboration across many ways of knowing. One Health impact statement The One Health theory encourages transdisciplinary collaboration to break down siloing and innovate solutions. Yet, One Health practice, and the Western scientific approach it takes, often excludes involvement with Indigenous ways of knowing and disclaims Indigenous knowledge keepers who have been conducting “One Health” work since time immemorial. Indigenous knowledge keepers who self-identified as cultural bridges between Native communities and Western communities were interviewed and asked to speak to values found in Indigenous science and research. The featured principles highlight some of the similarities and differences between Indigenous and Western scientific approaches. The identified values informed recommendations for Western scientists to be better allies to Indigenous scientists and to amplify Indigenous voices and science. One Health practitioners will benefit from these guidelines by navigating research in a more equitable way and by creating sustainable reciprocal partnerships with Indigenous scientists. This makes One Health more open and accessible to Indigenous and Western ways of knowing.

Decolonising Māori Collections

ABSTRACT Collections of Māori-focused materials are featured in many public and academic libraries in New Zealand. The items in these collections have been created over a period of approximately 200 years by Māori and non-Māori individuals. Due to colonisation and assimilationist practices by successive governments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many of the resources contain inauthentic or inaccurate information and knowledge about mātauranga Māori (Māori ways of knowing). This article considers whether it is possible for libraries to create a mātauranga Māori collection that is decolonised.

Information from sound: exploring sounds and listening in information practices research

Introduction. This conceptual paper discusses the possibilities for expanding research around sounds/listening and sound-related practices in information research to further understandings of embodied/sensory information practices and attend to a greater diversity of information experiences and ways of knowing. Method/Analysis. The growth of research related to broad conceptualisations of sound and listening and the use of information from sound in knowledge production across many fields is discussed. Some challenges faced by that research and gaps in existing sound-related information practices research are noted. Results. Sound research in other fields faces issues around the management, interpretation, and contextualisation of sound-related data, and little is understood about the practices of sound recordists. Some information practices-related research has highlighted the complexity of interactions with sounds and related technologies and explored interactions with oral and music information sources. However, experiences and perceptions around seeking, creating, and using information from sounds lack in-depth study. Conclusion. The value of further information practices research related to sound is suggested: to expand embodied/sensory information research, to engage with the broad range of sonic skills and experiences, to further holistic examinations of information interactions, and to address information-related problems and research gaps in sound-focused research from other fields.

The Sustainability Walk – Combining Nudging and Pragmatism to Facilitate Collective Action and Reflection

Nudging is increasingly used in the design and planning of houses, neighbourhoods and districts with the intention to promote sustainable behaviour. Nudging, when used well, can serve as a tool for changing individuals’ behaviour, but it cannot, nor has it been designed to, facilitate the critical thinking and collective action needed to address urgent sustainability challenges. The purpose of this study is to investigate how pragmatism’s interest in social interactions can complement nudging’s focus on individual behaviour. To test these ideas in practice, we develop an approach for planning that combines the two modes of thinking - The Sustainability Walk - to be used in the planning of places that are to promote sustainable everyday practices. We draw lessons from developing The Sustainability Walk by using the learning history method and participant observation. We find that pragmatism offers possibilities to amend nudging’s focus on individual behaviour by providing tools for forming a community of inquiry consisting of experts as well as citizens. However, we also learn that planning cultures of conflict avoidance, hinder the practical application of the idea of such pragmatist inquiry across different ways of knowing.

Indigenising our Workforce: Recruiting for Cultural Change in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the cultural competencies required for Indigenising New Zealand libraries. Using position descriptions for advertised roles in academic, public, special and research libraries, it reports on the requirements of employers related to knowledge and understanding of four cultural matters related to Te Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi, te reo Māori (Māori language) skills, experience in using tikanga Māori (Māori customary practice) and knowledge of mātauranga Māori (Māori ways of knowing). Using content analysis, the research identifies that despite an increased interest in providing services and resources to Māori over the last 40 years, advertised positions in New Zealand library and information institutions continue to not include cultural competency in the required skills, attributes and expected experience sections of their position descriptions. Therefore, inhibiting the ability of these institutions to transform themselves into Indigenised institutions, which can fulfil the service and resource needs of Māori.