Discovering indigenous science: Implications for science education

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䉷 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Discovering Indigenous Science:

Implications for Science

Education

GLORIA SNIVELY

Department of Social and Natural Sciences, University of Victoria

JOHN CORSIGLIA

Consultant on First Nation’s history and culture, British Columbia

Received 27 July 1998; revised 10 November 1999; accepted 10 January 2000

ABSTRACT: Indigenous science relates to both the science knowledge of long-resident,

usually oral culture peoples, as well as the science knowledge of all peoples who as

participants in culture are affected by the worldview and relativist interests of their home

communities. This article explores aspects of multicultural science and pedagogy and

describes a rich and well-documented branch of indigenous science known to biologists

and ecologists as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Although TEK has been gen-

erally inaccessible, educators can now use a burgeoning science-based TEK literature that

documents numerous examples of time-proven, ecologically relevant, and cost effective

indigenous science. Disputes regarding the universality of the standard scientiﬁc account

are of critical importance for science educators because the deﬁnition of science is a de

facto “gatekeeping” device for determining what can be included in a school science

curriculum and what cannot. When Western modern science (WMS) is deﬁned as universal

it does displace revelation-based knowledge (i.e., creation science); however, it also dis-

places pragmatic local indigenous knowledge that does not conform with formal aspects

of the “standard account.” Thus, in most science classrooms around the globe, Western

modern science has been taught at the expense of indigenous knowledge. However, be-

cause WMS has been implicated in many of the world’s ecological disasters, and because

the traditional wisdom component of TEK is particularly rich in time-tested approaches

that foster sustainability and environmental integrity, it is possible that the universalist

“gatekeeper” can be seen as increasingly problematic and even counter productive. This

paper describes many examples from Canada and around the world of indigenous people’s

contributions to science, environmental understanding, and sustainability. The authors ar-

gue the view that Western or modern science is just one of many sciences that need to be

addressed in the science classroom. We conclude by presenting instructional strategies that

can help all science learners negotiate border crossings between Western modern science

and indigenous science.

䉷 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 85:6–34, 2001.

Correspondence to: William W. Cobern; e-mail: [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

One of the intense philosophical debates in education literature focuses on the inclusion

of multicultural science in mainstream science education, as evidenced by the number of

papers submitted to this and other science education journals. For some, multicultural

science is seen as important because it can function as a pedagogical stepping stone—

especially for multicultural students of science (Atwater & Riley, 1993; Hodson, 1993;

Stanley & Brickhouse, 1994). Certain other science educators who champion modern

Western science as the last and greatest of the sciences tend to dismiss multiculturalscience

as faddish or heretical (Good, 1995a, 1995b; Gross & Levitt, 1994; Matthews, 1994;

Slezak, 1994; Wolpert, 1993).

Suspending consideration of the intrinsic importance of multicultural science Ogawa

(1995) stresses that all science students must work through both individual and indigenous

science understandings in the course of constructing their knowledge of modern Western

science. Ogawa proposes that every culture has its own science and refers to the science

in a given culture as its “indigenous science” (Ogawa, 1995, p. 585). Westerners freely

acknowledge the existence of indigenous art, music, literature, drama, and political and

economic systems in indigenous cultures, but somehow fail to apprehend and appreciate

indigenous science. Elkana writes: “Comparative studies of art, religion, ethics,andpolitics

abound; however, there is no discipline called comparative science” (Elkana, 1981, p. 2).

Thus, in many educational settings where Western modern science is taught, it is taught

at the expense of indigenous science, which may precipitate charges of epistemological

hegemony and cultural imperialism.

It would seem that the dispute over how science is to be taught in the classroom turns

on how the concepts “science” and “universality” are to be deﬁned. The debate rages over

the nature of reality and knowledge, deﬁnitions of science, and the so-called universalist

vs. relativist positions. Sometimes the debate appears to be at least as culture-centric as it

is rational. Replying to a Stanley and Brickhouse (1994) suggestion to include examples

of multicultural science in the curriculum, Good (1995a) challenged opponents to be spe-

ciﬁc with their “few well-chosen examples of sciences from other cultures”:

What are these few well-chosen examples that should be included in our school science

curriculum? Additionally, it would be very nice to learn how these examples of neglected

“science” should change our understanding of biology, chemistry, physics, and so on. Just

what contributions will this neglected science make in modern science’s understanding of

nature? (p. 335)

As one example of how far the universalist vs. relativist debate can be pushed, the

authors have learned that Richard Dawkins is fond of saying: “there are no relativists at

30,000 feet.” No doubt that without an airplane of conventional description, a person at

30,000 feet is in serious trouble, but when universalists take off and land on vulcanized

rubber tires they make use of a material and process reportedly discovered and reﬁned by

indigenous Peruvians (Weatherford, 1988, 1991). Without multicultural science contri-

butions enabling airplanes to land and take off, there would be neither airplanes, nor for

that matter, universalists at 30,000 feet.

While science educators have been ﬁghting epistemological battles that could effectively

limit or expand the scope and purview of science education, events on the ground appear

to have overtaken us—working scientists have themselves been involved in wide ranging

exploration and reform. Especially during the last 25 years, biologists, ecologists,botanists,

geologists, climatologists, astronomers, agriculturists, pharmacologists, and related work-

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ing scientists have labored to develop approaches that are improving our ability to under-

stand and mitigate the impact of human activity upon the environment. By extending their

enquiry into the timeless traditional knowledge and wisdom of long-resident, oral peoples,

these scientists have in effect moved the borders of scientiﬁc inquiry and formalized a

branch of biological and ecological science that has become known as the traditional

ecological knowledge (TEK), which can be thought of as either the knowledge itself, or

as documented ethno-science enriched with analysis and explication provided by natural

science specialists. The interested reader can ﬁnd numerous detailed examples of TEK

(Andrews, 1988; Berkes, 1988, 1993; Berkes & Mackenzie, 1978, Inglis, 1993; Warren,

1997; Williams & Baines, 1993). Additionally, the present bibliography provides the

reader with a number of speciﬁc examples of TEK in Canada and worldwide.

Thus, we face four related questions: First, is science an exclusive invention of Euro-

peans, or have scientiﬁc ways of thinking and viable bodies of science knowledge also

emerged in other cultures? Second, if WMS is taken to be universal, what is the status of

the vast quantities of local knowledge that it subsumes, incorporates, and claims to legit-

imize? Third, what is the proper role of science educators as leaders in the process of

reﬁning and clarifying the current deﬁnitions of WMS? And fourth, when viable bodies

of useful scientiﬁc knowledge emerge in other cultures, how can science educators develop

programs that enable all students to cross cultural borders—in this instance, between the

culture of Western modern science and the cultures of long-resident indigenous peoples?

Because TEK is being used by scientists to solve important biological and ecological

problems and because problems of sustainability are pervasive and of very high interest

to students and others, it becomes increasingly important for science educators to introduce

students to the perspectives of both WMS and TEK. The availability and varied nature of

TEK examples will be useful to proponents of multicultural science (Aikenhead, 1995,

1996; Atwater & Riley, 1993; Bowers, 1993a, 1993b; Hodson, 1993; Ogawa, 1989, 1995;

Smith, 1982, 1995; Snively, 1990, 1995; Wright, 1992).

In this article, we argue the view that since Aboriginal cultures have made signiﬁcant

contributions to science, then surely there are different ways of arriving at legitimate

knowledge. Without knowledge, there can be no science. Thus, the deﬁnition of “science”

should be broadened, thereby including TEK as science. The intention is not to demean

WMS, but instead to point out a body of scientiﬁc literature that provides great potential

for enhancing our ability to develop more relevant science education programs.

TERMINOLOGY: WESTERN MODERN SCIENCE, INDIGENOUS

SCIENCE, AND TEK

Since the phrases “Western modern science,” “indigenous science,” and “traditional

ecological knowledge” all have multiple meanings it will be useful to linger brieﬂy with

deﬁnitions. For clarity, we shall distinguish between “Western modern science” which is

the most dominant science in the world and “indigenous science” which interprets how

the world works from a particular cultural perspective. This paper focuses on a subset of

indigenous science referred to as “traditional ecological knowledge,” which is both the

science of long-resident oral peoples and a biological sciences label for the growing lit-

erature which records and explores that knowledge.

What is Science?

As is well known, there are numerous versions of what science is, and of what counts

as being scientiﬁc. The Latin root, scientia, means knowledge in the broadest possible

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sense and survives in such words as omniscience and prescience. Terms such as “modern

science,” “standard science,” “Western science,” “conventional science,” and “ofﬁcial sci-

ence” have been in use only since the beginning of the twentieth century. For some,

scientiﬁc abstractions began with Sumerian astronomy and mathematics; for others, sci-

entiﬁc theorizing began with Greek atomism; and for yet others, it began toward the end

of the nineteenth century when scientists began to grapple with abstract theoretical prop-

ositions—for example, evolution, natural selection, and the kinetic-molecular theory.

What conﬁdence could one have in theoretical statements built from or based on unob-

servable data? Care was taken to develop logically consistent rules outlining how theo-

retical statements can be derived from observational statements. The intent was to create

a single set of rules to guide the practice of theory justiﬁcation (Duschl, 1994). Science

can also refer to conceptual constructs approved by logical empiricism (positivism) which,

in addition, has the capacity to carry science beyond the realms of observation and ex-

periment. Also, we have come to refer to WMS as ofﬁcially sanctioned knowledge which

can be thought of as inquiry and investigation that Western governments and courts are

prepared to support, acknowledge, and use. Some authors have represented “science” with

the acronym WMS, which either means “Western modern science” (Ogawa, 1995) or

“white male science” (Pomeroy, 1994). Striving toward comprehensive deﬁnitions, certain

sociology of science scholars have described WMS as institutionalized in Western Europe

and North America as a predominately white male, middle-class Western system of mean-

ing and symbols (Rose, 1994; Simonelli, 1994).

In sharp contrast to the exclusivist deﬁnitions of science in the previous paragraph,

Ogawa (1995) points science educators toward a broadly inclusive conceptualization of

what science is by deﬁning science rather simply as “a rational perceiving of reality,”

where “perceiving means both the action constructing reality and the construct of reality”

(p. 588). The merit of the use of the word “perceiving” gives science a “dynamic nature”

and acknowledges that “science can experience a gradual change at any time” (p. 588).

Another point put forward by Ogawa is that “rational” should be seen in relativistic terms,

as discussed in the previous section.

The present WMS philosophical climate would require some reconﬁguration if TEK,

which takes a generally pragmatic approach, is to be properly received as science. Ap-

proaches to science seem to have proceeded along two fundamentally different courses—

by the timeless procedure of relying on observation and experiment, and, during this

century, by the theoretical examination of queries and assertions. By examining the meth-

odology and logic of assertions, questions, and concept, logical empiricism (positivism)

has come to function as a vigorous “gatekeeper” that has certainly succeeded in screening

out metaphysical, pseudo-science during this century. In fact, logical empiricism (positiv-

ism) may have become so powerful a gatekeeper that even experimental science itself

appears to have become diminished. Experiment cannot prove the [absolute] correctness

of assertions, it can only help to rank or disconﬁrm theories. Hacking refers to the general

difﬁculty in Boyd, Gaspar, and Trout (1991):

No ﬁeld in the philosophy of science is more systematically neglected than experiment.

Our grade school teachers may have told us that scientiﬁc method is experimental method,

but histories of science have become histories of theory. (p. 247)

Certainly, we may rejoice that logical empiricism (positivism) has been able to screen

out historically destructive pseudo-science by exposing the meaninglessness of its meta-

physics, but there are problems. As poet Robert Frost put it, “Before I built a wall I’d ask

what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offense.” As an

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expression of Western culture (or even as a system of pure, value free, universal truth),

WMS must inevitably swim in a sea of cultural assumptions about progress, self-interest,

winning/losing, aggressiveness, attitude to time (the purview of meaningful history), and

the beneﬁts of immediate advantage as opposed to the importance of long-term conse-

quences.

Until the past two or three decades, the gatekeeper’s performance appears to have been

generally celebrated. More recently, however, sociologists of science have been vigorous

in identifying implicit values and assumptions that can be said to tacitly structure the

gatekeeper’s activities. At the same time, a considerable number of working scientists, no

doubt mindful of both the gatekeeper’s power to exclude and the real possibility of world-

wide environmental collapse, have set up pragmatic TEK science shops. The fact that

working scientists are increasingly acknowledging TEK suggests that there are sound rea-

sons for changing the formal deﬁnitions of “science” so as to include such important forms

of multicultural science as TEK.

Our position on “science” is closely aligned with that of Ogawa (1989), who prefers

Elkana’s (1981) understanding of science, which argues that “every culture has its sci-

ence,”...“something like its own way of thinking and/or its own worldview” and gives

the following deﬁnition: “By science, I mean a rational (i.e., purposeful, good, directed)

explanation of science of the physical world surrounding man” (p. 1437). We agree with

Ogawa (1989) when he asserts that “Western science is only one form of science among

the sciences of the world” (p. 248). Also, the people living in an indigenous culture itself

may not recognize the existence of its own science, hence, it may be transferred from

generation to generation merely by invisible or nonformal settings (Ogawa, 1989).

Indigenous Science

According to Ogawa (1995), we must distinguish between two levels of science: indi-

vidual or personal science and cultural or societal science. He refers to science at the

culture or society level as “indigenous science” (p. 588). He deﬁnes indigenous science

as “a culture-dependent collective rational perceiving of reality,” where “collective means

held in sufﬁciently similar form by many persons to allow effective communication, but

independent of any particular mind or set of minds” (p. 588).

Although we all participate in indigenous science to a greater or lesser degree, long-

resident, oral culture peoples may be thought of as specialists in local indigenous science.

Indigenous science, sometimes referred to as ethnoscience, has been described as “the

study of systems of knowledge developed by a given culture to classify the objects, activ-

ities, and events of its given universe” (Hardesty, 1977). Indigenous science interprets how

the local world works through a particular cultural perspective. Expressions of science

thinking are abundant throughout indigenous agriculture, astronomy, navigation, mathe-

matics, medical practices, engineering, military science, architecture, and ecology. In ad-

dition, processes of science that include rational observation of natural events,

classiﬁcation, and problem solving are woven into all aspects of indigenous cultures. It is

both remembered sensory information that is usually transmitted orally in descriptive

names and in stories where abstract principles are encapsulated in metaphor (Bowers,

1993a, 1993b; Cruikshank, 1981, 1991; Nelson, 1983).

We may note that indigenous science includes the knowledge of both indigenous ex-

pansionist cultures (e.g., the Aztec, Mayan, and Mongolian Empires) as well as the home-

based knowledge of long-term resident oral resident peoples (i.e., the Inuit, the Aboriginal

people of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, Micronesia, and New Zealand).

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Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

Although the term TEK came into widespread use in the 1980s, there is no universally

accepted deﬁnition of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in literature. The term is,

by necessity, ambiguous since the words traditional and ecological knowledge are them-

selves ambiguous. Dictionary etymology shows the Latin roots of “traditional science” to

be “knowledge” scientia of the world that is “handed across” or “traded” (from the Latin

traduare) across generations of long-resident oral traditional peoples. “Traditional”usually

refers to a cultural continuity transmitted in the form of social attitudes, beliefs, principles,

and conventions of behavior and practice derived from historical experience. However, as

Berkes (1993) points out, “societies change through time, constantly adopting new prac-

tices and technologies, and making it difﬁcult to deﬁne just how much and what kind of

change would affect the labeling of a practice as traditional” (p. 3). Because of this, many

scholars avoid using the term “traditional.” As well, some purists ﬁnd the term unaccept-

able or inappropriate when referring to societies such as native northern groups whose

lifestyles have changed considerably over the years. For this reason, some prefer the term

“indigenous knowledge” (IK), which helps avoid the debate about tradition, and explicitly

puts the emphasis on indigenous people (Berkes, 1993). The term “ecological knowledge”

poses deﬁnition problems of its own. If ecology is deﬁned narrowly as a branch of biology

in the domain of Western science, then strictly speaking there can be no TEK; most

traditional peoples are not modern Western scientists. If ecological knowledge is deﬁned

broadly to refer to the “knowledge, however acquired, of relationships of living beings

with one another and with the environment, then the term TEK becomes tenable” (Berkes,

1993, p. 3).

TEK generally represents experience acquired over thousands of years of direct human

contact with the environment. Although the term TEK only recently came into widespread

use, the practice of TEK is ancient (Berkes, 1993). The science of long-resident peoples

differs considerably from group to group depending on locale and is knowledge built up

through generations of living in close contact with the land. Figure 1 show one way of

attempting to describe TEK within an indigenous science framework and of emphasizing

its importance to contemporary environmental issues. Examples of indigenous and TEK

science may be accessed through living elders and specialists of various kinds or found in

the literature of TEK, anthropology, ethnology, ethnobiology, ethnogeography, ethnohis-

tory, and mythology, as well as in the archived records of traders, missionaries, and gov-

ernment functionaries.

TEK information is sometimes cherished as private or belonging to one family only.

Also, in many traditions, oral information may only be shared under particular circum-

stances, for example, when it is clear that no one intends to use the knowledge for gain.

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

A fundamental principle taught by indigenous elders is that subject matter is properly

examined and interpreted contextually. For example, identiﬁcation and structural exami-

nation of a particular plant and its fruits may be no less important than its uses within the

context of a particular family or community and may include stories relating to its use as

a food source, its ceremonial uses, its complex preparation process, the traditional accounts

of its use (as in puriﬁcation rituals), its kin afﬁliations, and so on (Christie, 1991). The

context is in marked contrast with WMS where “environmental” and “social” inﬂuences

are generally considered confounding, and scientists often conﬁne their attentions to the

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Figure 1. Traditional ecological knowledge.

controlled conditions of laboratories or the theoretician’s ofﬁce. Traditional ecological

knowledge tends to be holistic, viewing the world as an interconnected whole. Humans

are not regarded as more important than nature, thus, “traditional science is moral, as

opposed to supposedly value free” (Berkes, 1993).

Metaphor and stories can be used to encapsulate and compress oral wisdom and even

make it entertaining. Such stories can be decoded in relation to speciﬁc circumstances

TEK knowledge corresponds variously to WMS categories. The list suggests a descending order of simi-

larities.

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upon appropriate reﬂection or contemplation. Oral narratives may explore historicalevents,

such as the coming of the ﬁrst outsiders, encroachment on traditional lands, or changes in

animal populations due to overuse. Among the Nisga’a of Northern British Columbia

stories function as deeds to land and resources (McKay, oral communication, 1979). Nar-

ratives provide information about changes in migration routes of caribou as a result of

new land use activities; changes in the population of salmon or crabs; and changes in the

size, vitality, longevity, and even the viscera of animal populations. Oral narratives often

provide biologists with important long-term observations describing changes in plant and

animal populations that can be correlated with over-ﬁshing and pollution (Cruikshank,

1981,1991; Kuhnlein & Turner, 1991).

Because traditional people tend to spend generations learning about life in one place,

traditional science often may not resemble the more mobile and dramatic Western science

that was developed in close association with the rise of Western global expansionism.

Experimentation and innovation may take place at a more measured pace than in WMS.

In her observations of Athapaskan and Tlingit languages in the Yukon and Northwest

Territories, Julie Cruikshank (1991) notes:

Observations are made over a lifetime. Hunting peoples carefully study animal and plant

life cycles, topography, seasonal changes and mineral resources. Elders speaking about

landscape, climate and ecological changes are usually basing their observations on a life-

time of experience. In contrast, because much scientiﬁc research in the north is university-

based, it is organized around short summer ﬁeld seasons. The long-term observations

included in oral accounts provide important perspectives on the questions scientists are

studying. (p. 28)

Among the Nisga’a of Northern British Columbia, for example, one rarely responds to

a request for information or opinion quickly—it is more respectful to consider such re-

quests for a number of days before making a carefully considered response. Mistakes

cannot be tolerated when footsteps take one where swift water rushes beneath river ice.

Where a community is resident and stable, solutions to problems can be carefully pre-

served, reﬁned, and re-applied. Innovation may be employed when necessary, but it is not

generally taken to be a goal itself. Stories also show that when circumstances dramatically

change, communities move, or people are lost or under pressure, the rate of inquiry and

experimentation may be accelerated (Corsiglia & Snively, 1995).

CONTRIBUTIONS OF INDIGENOUS SCIENCE

Numerous traditional peoples’ scientiﬁc and technological contributions have been in-

corporated in modern applied sciences such as medicine, architecture, engineering, phar-

macology, agronomy, animal husbandry, ﬁsh and wildlife management, nautical design,

plant breeding, and military and political science (Weatherford, 1988, 1991). In the Amer-

icas, traditional scientists developed food plants that feed some three-ﬁfths of humanity.

They also developed thousands of varieties of potatoes, grain, oilseed, squashes, and hot

peppers, as well as corn, pumpkins, sunﬂowers, and beans. They ﬁrst discovered the use

of rubber, vulcanizing, and also platinum metallurgy (Weatherford, 1988, 1991). Meso-

American mathematicians and astronomers used base 20 numeracy to calculate calendars

more accurate than those used by Europeans at the time of contact, even after the Gregorian

correction (Kidwell, 1991; Leon-Portilla, 1980). Native Americans developed highly ar-

ticulated and effective approaches to grassland management (Turner, 1991) and salmon

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production (Pinkerton, 1989). Traditional Native American healers discovered and used

quinine, Aspirin威, and ipecac (a drug still used in traumatic medicine to expel stomach

contents), as well as some 500 other important drugs (Weatherford, 1988, 1991). In the

Americas alone, traditional knowledge and wisdom systems sustained populations esti-

mated at approximately 100 million (Wright, 1992), one-ﬁfth of the world’s population at

the times of contact in 1492. Even today, most people do not realize that we are beneﬁting

from the labors of Aboriginal scientists and doctors almost every time we dress, dine,

travel, or visit our physicians. Suggestions that indigenous peoples cannot practice “sci-

ence” turn upon narrow and restrictive deﬁnitions, old justiﬁcations of harsh expansionism,

or insufﬁcient factual data.

The Wisdom Aspect of TEK

Traditional wisdom may be thought of as an aspect of TEK that focuses on balancing

human needs with environmental requirements (Bowers, 1995). In describing traditional

wisdom, Corsiglia and Snively (1995) note:

All life forms must be respected as conscious, intrinsically invaluable, and interdependent.

Respecting an animal’s body means honoring its spirit and using every part of an animal’s

body. In practical terms, traditional wisdom extends the caring relationships associated

with “family” life to communities and even to the environment. We are all relations, it is

wrong to exploit other life forms or take more than one’s share. The deep interest our

children feel in animals, plants, water, and earth should be trusted and encouraged. All

creatures can be our teachers and while humans may readily affect other life forms, we

need not see ourselves as superior. (p. 29)

The oral narratives of the Northwest Coast, for example, describe origins and residency

in terms of Creation and the Great Flood, and they perceive a world in which humans,

nature, and the supernatural are inextricably linked (Nelson, 1983). Today, as in the past,

many indigenous people state that all living things—plant, animal, bird, or creatures of

the sea—are endowed with a conscious spirit and therefore can present themselves in

abundance or not at all (Corsiglia & Snively, 1995). Prayers were said to the spirit of the

great cedar tree before felling it, that it might fall in the right direction and that its spirit

would not be offended. The ﬁsherman used many different prayers and songs to com-

municate with the spirit of the ﬁsh to achieve success in ﬁshing (Emmons, 1991; Nelson,

1983; Stewart, 1977).

In Make Prayer to the Raven, Richard Nelson (1983) describes the Koyukon people’s

traditional spiritual ideology as pervaded by elements of nature. The proper role for hu-

mankind is to serve a dominant nature, in sharp contrast to the Western tradition of hu-

mankind dominating nature. The proper forms of human conduct are set forth in an

elaborate code of rules and deference is shown for everything in the environment, partly

through gestures of etiquette and partly through avoiding waste or excessive use. Human-

ity, nature, and the supernatural are not separated, but are united within a single cosmos.

Hence, TEK can be thought of as the joining of detailed traditional knowledge with the

values and ethics of traditional wisdom.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH ORAL

INFORMATION TRADITIONS

Whether attempting to conduct educational research or develop science for students, it

is important to consider the strengths and limitations of oral tradition as evidence for

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scientiﬁc contributions and past history. Despite growing support for indigenous science,

some scientists operating within Western empiricism are reluctant to accept oral infor-

mation as a source of scientiﬁc knowledge for at least two reasons. First, oral cultures use

information storage and retrieval systems that are substantively different from those em-

ployed in cultures that use permanent recordkeeping (Johnson, 1992); and second, indig-

enous oral cultural information may integrate scientiﬁc information with spiritual,

mythological, and even ﬁctional elements.

Oral tradition has been deﬁned succinctly as “oral testimony transmitted verbally from

one generation to the next or more” (Vansina, 1971). Anthropologist Cruikshank (1981)

describes native oral narrative traditions in the Yukon as a distinct intellectual way of

knowing (epistemology) and lists several strengths as a data source. Among those that are

of interest to science educators and researchers are:

Persistence: Most aspects of indigenous cultures have changed enormously since the

last century; in part, due to resource extraction (the gold rush), highways, industrialization,

government programs, and schools. However, the oral traditions continue to be important

to adults, particularly older people. For example, stories recorded in the Yukon in 1883

were still told by women living in the Yukon in the 1970s. The structural arrangement

persists even when the details of the story vary. “This deep conservatism of Yukon oral

tradition is likely to be one of its chief attractions to scientists and historians”(Cruikshank,

1981, p. 72).

Individual variation and consistency: While individual narrators may all tell different

versions of one story, the women with whom Cruikshank worked were most consistent in

their own versions, using similar words and phrases and insisting on the importance of

“getting it right” even when retelling of stories was separated by several years.

Oral tradition as technology: Traditional narratives may contain highly technical in-

formation. Anthropologist Robin Riddington (n.d.) suggests that oral tradition is a critical

adaptive strategy for hunters and gatherers, particularly in harsh environments. He argues

that the conceptual ability to recreate, through language, a situation for someone who has

not yet experienced it directly is a highly adaptive technology carried in the mind, rather

than in the hand. Detailed descriptions of how to correctly make a caribou snare, how to

make a snowshoe, how to trap speciﬁc animals, or how to ﬁnd the way back home are

variously embedded in stories. Accurate transmission from generation to generation be-

comes critical for group survival, therefore each generation is careful to get the critical

aspects accurate. “This is the kind of detailed observation and technical thinking valued

by scientists” (Cruikshank, 1981, p. 72).

Duration of observation: Oral traditions may provide detailed observations of natural

phenomena made over a lifetime. In contrast, scientists working in laboratories, research

stations, and universities are often limited to reporting on short ﬁeld trips during the sum-

mer.

Absence of documentary sources: In regions where written documents date from the

beginning of this century or back into the preceding century, oral tradition is a signiﬁcant

source of historical and ecological information. With only recently recorded observations,

“scholars may dispute the validity of evidence in oral narratives, but they cannot afford to

ignore it” (p. 72)

There are also limitations. Cruikshank (1991) lists some signiﬁcant limitations of oral

narratives as a source of evidence for those working in a Western science framework.

Among those that may be of interest to science educators, Cruikshank identiﬁes the fol-

lowing:

Cultural context: Traditions passed on orally begin with very different premises from

Western science and cannot readily be interpreted out of context. Usually a scientist in-

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terested in a particular phenomenon will both pose a question and answer it within a

Western frame of reference leading to a misinterpretation of a story.

Literary style and symbolism: Each culture has a special literary style that cannot be

ignored in the analysis of narrative. Like all literature, oral narratives may seek to transform

rather than accurately reﬂect life, and this poses problems for the scientist or historian

seeking to isolate historical or scientiﬁc data. Ideally, the scientist should be skilled in all

aspects of symbolic and formal narrative analysis.

Time and space perspective: A serious limitation for scientists is the extrapolation of

linear time from oral narrative based on cyclical time. Most oral traditions do not contain

even an internal sequence of time and would be undatable and unusable if other supporting

evidence were not available. For example, events occurring over several generations may

be condensed into a single generation. This limits the possibility that scientists can date

scientiﬁc phenomenon on the basis of native traditions.

Quantitative data: Native resident peoples of northwest Canada do not handle quanti-

tative data in the same manner as Western science. People may speak of “hundreds” or

“thousands” of people, years, or moose when they merely mean “many.” This can be most

bewildering to a Western listener and limits the possibility that a scientist can date or

quantify scientiﬁc phenomena on the basis of native traditions.

In summary, Cruikshank concludes that “oral tradition tends to be timeless rather than

chronological, and refer to situations rather than events.” Oral tradition has “a speciﬁcity

of its own which puts limitations on its use.” Hence, “a single tradition cannot be used by

itself, but only in combination with other sources, in comparative ways.”

Although cultural perspectives may make it inconvenient or difﬁcult to incorporate

traditional science examples into a Western scientiﬁc framework, science researchers and

students can nonetheless learn from both the practices and the narrative stories of Native

Americans. Languages, myth, and ritual generally articulate culturally and ecologically

located conceptions of self in relation to others and communicate a sense of the connections

which bind their communities together and to the land. Origin stories and mythologies—

such as their moral stories of ancestral beings—are closely tied to place and, therefore,

are not easily exportable in the same way that Western science could be exported (Bowers,

1993b; Gough & Kessen, 1992).

TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE SCHOLARSHIP

As we have seen, increased appreciation for ethnoscience, ancient and contemporary,

paved the way for the acceptability of the validity of traditional knowledge in a variety of

ﬁelds. Fikret Berkes (Inglis, 1993) provides an overview of TEK theory and scholarship

in his comprehensive article, “Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Perspective.” Besides

discussing the signiﬁcance of TEK and comparing it with Western science, he provides

the following working deﬁnition:

TEK is a cumulative body of knowledge and beliefs, handed down through generations

by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with

one another and with their environment. Further, TEK is an attribute of societies; by and

large, these are non-industrial or less technologically advanced societies, many of them

indigenous or tribal. (p. 3)

Pioneering work by ecologists such as Conklin (1957) and others documented that

traditional peoples such as Philippine horticulturists often possessed exceptionally detailed

knowledge of local plants and animals and their natural history, recognizing in one case

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1,600 plant species. Other kinds of indigenous environmental knowledge were acknowl-

edged by scientiﬁc experts. For example, ecologist Pruitt has been using Inuit terminology

for types of snow for decades, “not in any attempt to be erudite, but to aid in the precision

in our speech and thoughts” because when dealing with ice phenomena and types of snow

“there are no precise English words” (Pruitt, 1978).

The Yupiaq, or Eskimo people of southwest Alaska, have an extensive technology for

surviving the harsh conditions of the tundra. While it is true that much of Yupiaq knowl-

edge has been manifested most clearly in their technology, that technology, according to

Kawagley and Norris-Tull (1995), did not spring out of a void. “Their inventions could

not have been developed without extensive scientiﬁc study of the ﬂow of currents in the

rivers, the ebb and ﬂow of the tides in the bays, and the feeding, sleeping, and migratory

habits of ﬁsh, mammals, and birds” (Kawagley & Norris-Tull, 1995, p. 2):

Yupiaq people have an extensive knowledge of navigation on open seas, rivers, and over

snow-covered tundra. They have their own terminology for constellations and have an

understanding of seasonal positioning of the constellations. They have developed a large

body of knowledge about climatic and seasonal changes—knowledge about temperature

changes, the behavior of ice and snow, the meanings of different cloud formations, the

signiﬁcance of changes in the wind direction and speed, and knowledge of air pressure.

This knowledge has been crucial to survival and was essential for the development of the

technological devices used in the past (and many still used today) for hunting and ﬁshing.

(p. 2)

Thus, various works showed that many indigenous groups in diverse geographical areas

from the Arctic to the Amazon (e.g., Posey, 1985) have had their own systems of managing

resources. Thus, the feasibility of applying TEK to contemporary resource management

problems in various parts of the world was gradually recognized (Berkes, 1993; Inglis,

1993; Johannes, 1989, 1993; Johnson, 1992; Williams & Baines, 1993).

CONTRIBUTION OF TEK AND IK SCHOLARSHIP

TEK and IK scholarship is concerned with the ecological and environmental knowledge

of long-resident, usually oral-culture societies. Some of the contributions of traditional

ecological knowledge are

● Perceptive investigations of traditional environmental knowledge systems can pro-

vide science researchers with important biological and ecological insights (Johannes,

1993; Warren, 1997).

● Provides effective and cost effective shortcuts for researchers investigating the local

resource base. Local knowledge may make it possible to survey and map in a few

days what would otherwise take months, or example, soil types, plants and animal

species, migration pathways, and aggregation sites (Johannes, 1993; Warren, 1991,

1997).

● Locates rare and endangered species for researchers identifying sensitive areas, such

as aesthetic qualities or species diversity (Johannes, 1993).

● Helps deﬁne protected areas and can be used for natural resource management.

Protected areas may be set aside to allow resident communities to continue their

Adapted from the International Union of Circumpolar Nations program on Traditional Knowledge for Con-

servation (IUCN, 1986) and reprinted in Inglis (1992).

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traditional lifestyles, with the beneﬁts of conservation (Gadgil & Berkes, 1991;

Pinkerton, 1989).

● Provides time-tested in-depth knowledge of the local area which results in more

accurate environmental assessment and impact statements. People who depend on

local resources for their livelihood are often able to access the true costs and beneﬁts

of development better than any evaluator from the outside. Involvement of the local

peoples improves the chance of successful development (Johannes, 1993; Warren

et al., 1993, 1997).

TEK and IK are of interest to the indigenous peoples from whom it originates, and is

also being utilized by courts and government ofﬁcials, as well as scientists. The recognition

of TEK and IK globally is explicitly addressed in international agreements, including The

Convention on Biological Diversity, Agenda 21, and Guiding Principles on Forest.

The

World Resource Institute’s Global Diversity Strategy includes as one of its ten principles

for conserving biodiversity the principle that cultural diversity is closely linked to biodiv-

ersity; conversely conserving biodiversity often helps strengthen cultural integrity and

values (Warren, 1997).

Convergence of Oral and Scientiﬁc Traditions in Canada

Ethnobotanists noted that there are about 550 species of plants listed in the literature as

having been used in the diets of indigenous peoples of Canada (Kuhnlein & Turner, 1991).

Most Aboriginal groups understood plant succession and employed ﬁre to encourage the

growth of valuable plants, foster optimum habitat conditions, and control insect pests

(Ford, 1979). In British Columbia, controlled burning was practiced on southern Vancou-

ver Island to optimize the production of edible blue camas, which grows best in an open

Gary Oak meadow habitat. When controlled understory burning was practiced, the bulbs

grew to the size of table potatoes. The Aboriginal management practice was outlawed by

newcomer Europeans who misunderstood the practice and had very different culinary

preferences and land use agendas. A century later the bulbs are the size of a small green

onion and are no longer gathered (Turner, 1991). According to Turner, “the concept of

genetic and ecotypic variability was obviously recognized by indigenous peoples and was

a factor in food gathering” (p. 18). For example, some Paciﬁc Coastal peoples traveled

considerable distances to obtain prime cow-parsnip shoots in the spring, even though cow-

parsnip could be found nearby (Kuhnlein & Turner, 1991). Most recently, yewpreparations

used by the Northwest Coast peoples, such as the Nisga’a, or persistent skin ulcerations

have yielded taxol, which is proving effective against some forms of breast cancer.

Biologists and chemists working in ﬁeld analysis acknowledge that a traditional prac-

titioner can often detect changes in taste, water, tissues, and other substances at levels

below that of contemporary testing equipment. Traditional resource harvesters near the

Rattan copper-zinc mine in Northwest Manitoba have refused to eat water and eat ﬁsh and

beaver from lakes which are related to the licensed discharges from the mill. These changes

in taste developed over the previous 2 years. A recent ﬁeld sampling program designed

by the MKO and the Environmental Protection Laboratories identiﬁed sample sites and

sample types on the basis of interviews with the principal resource harvesters. The ﬁeld

These documents, outputs of UNCED 92, or “Earth Summit” at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 are reviewed

in detail in the Scientiﬁc Panel for Sustainable Forest Practices in the Clayoquot Sound document A Vision and

Its Context: Global Context for Forest Practices in Clayoquot Sound.

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sampling techniques conﬁrmed the signiﬁcance of the 13 sampling sites suggested by an

83-year-old Cree trapper and others using the area. Work is now underway to integrate

information from sources as disparate as traditional ecological monitoring with satellite

imagery, modern sampling techniques, and laboratory analysis programs to manage the

stewardship of the region’s resources (Wavey, 1993).

The Nisga’a people of British Columbia live in the Nass Valley near Alaska. They

continue to use the Nisga’a language and to preserve the culture that connects them with

their river and its valley. That the Nisga’a traditional science practitioner is trained to

observe nature and behave with respect is reﬂected in the following account, as reported

by Corsiglia and Snively (1997). In 1982, a Nisga’a ﬁsherman observed mature edible, or

Dungeness crabs, marching past the dock at the mouth of the Nass River, rather than

staying in the deep water of Alice Arm. Suspecting that the unusual behavior was caused

by the new molybdenum mine at Alice Arm, the man conferred with others and the matter

was reported to Nisga’a Tribal Council Leaders. The leaders engaged lawyers and biolo-

gists to provide ofﬁcial scientiﬁc knowledge and ofﬁcial communication about the matter.

It was quickly established that the ocean ﬂoor was being affected by the heavy metal

tailings with a concentration of 400 grams of suspended solids per litre, 8,000 times greater

than that allowed by the Canadian government. Somehow, the company managed to get

a permit that entitled them to emit an efﬂuent that exceeded the normal toxicity standard.

We may rightly wonder at the Nisga’a ﬁsher’s ability to deduce the cause of the crab’s

unusual behavior. The following description of TEK as practiced among the Nisga’a is

instructive:

Among the Nisga’a, and among other aboriginal peoples, formal observation, recollection,

and consideration of extraordinary natural events is taken seriously. Every spring members

of some Nisga’a families still walk their salmon stream to ensure that spawning channels

are clear of debris and that salmon are not obstructed in their ascent to spawning grounds.

In the course of such inspection trips, Nisga’a observers traditionally use all of their senses

and pay attention to important variables: what plants are in bloom, what birds are active,

when speciﬁc animals are migrating and where, and so forth. In this way, traditional

communities have a highly developed capacity for building up a collective data base. Any

deviations from past patterns are important and noted. (p. 25)

Concerned with the multiple perils faced by their Nass River salmon, the Nisga’a have

themselves implemented a salmon protection project that uses both the ancient technology

and wisdom practices, as well as modern statistical methods of data analysis to provide

more reliable ﬁsh counts than electronic tracking systems. The Nisga’a project, which

earned a Lt. Governor’s prize in British Columbia, is described and illustrated in the

following account by Corsiglia and Snively (1995).

Observing that electronic ﬁsh counters can be inaccurate, the Nisga’a have instituted an

ingenious ﬁsh counting system in the Nass River that combines ancient ﬁsh wheel tech-

nology with modern statistical methods. The ancient ﬁsh wheel was made of cedar wood

and nettle ﬁber mesh, and the elongated axle of the ﬁsh wheel was ﬁtted with three parallel

vanes constructed in the form of large, ﬂattened dip nets. The swift moving downstream

current turned the wheel by exerting force against the submerged vanes, and as the com-

panion vanes rose in turn, they gently caught and uplifted the ﬁsh as they swam upriver.

As each vane rose from the horizontal, the ﬁsh slid toward wooden bafﬂes that guided

them out the side of the ﬁsh wheel and into submerged holding baskets. This technology

provided the Nisga’a with an effortless ﬁshing technique as well as a ready supply of fresh

salmon.

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Modern Nisga’a ﬁshing wheels are made of aircraft aluminum and nylon mesh. Like

their predecessors, these ﬁsh wheels allow ﬁsh to be captured unharmed and held in holding

tanks. This enables the Nisga’a and their consulting research scientist to tag and count the

ﬁsh by means of statistical analysis and projection. Returning salmon are ﬁrst caught using

a ﬁshing wheel at a lower river station, held in holding tanks until tagged, measured, and

released unharmed or kept for food. Fish are also tagged at an upriver ﬁsh station where

the proportion of tagged ﬁsh is used to calculate returns. Reportedly, this technique pro-

vides more accurate and reliable data than that collected by electronic tracking systems

(personal communication, the late Eli Gosnell, Dr. Bertram McKay, and Mr. Harry Nyce).

WORLDWIDE TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND ITS RELEVANCE

TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Growing worldwide acceptance among scientists and international aid agencies of in-

digenous knowledge is reﬂected in a network of 33 national and regional TEK and IK

Resource Centers, so far embracing six continents, as well as the Philippines, Japan, Mi-

cronesia, and New Zealand (Healey, 1993; Warren, 1991), and a dozen more centers are

in the process of becoming established (Warren, 1997).

In some of Africa’s most ecologically fragile and marginalized regions, knowledge of

the local ecosystem simply means survival. Famine caused by drought, deforestation, de-

sertiﬁcation, or topsoil erosion, and declining productivity are some circumstances which

may have encouraged or necessitated the acceptance of innovation. Among the traditional

managenent practices which encompass the individual and community wisdom and skills

of African indigenous peoples, TEK scientists list the following: indigenous soil taxono-

mies; soil fertility; agronomic practices such as terracing, contour banding, fallowing,

organic fertilizer application, crop rotation and multicropping; indigenous soil and water

conservation; and anti-desertiﬁcation practices (Atteh, 1989; Lalonde, 1993).

In northern Australia, it is interesting to note that white people name only two seasons—

“the wet” and “the dry”—whereas Aborigines name six that are precisely deﬁned by

predictable changes in weather, tides, plant blooming and fruiting cycles, insect abundance,

and the breeding cycles and migrations of ﬁshes, mammals, and birds (Davis, 1988).

According to TEK researcher Johannes (1993), the value of such information for impact

assessment is obvious, but it would take years for modern researchers to assemble it using

conventional means.

Although traditional pest control systems were once widely used in tropical countries,

their use has been severely disturbed by the introduction of modern agro-chemicals. De-

pendence on expensive modern pesticides poses a potential threat to the health of tradi-

tional farmers and is often poisonous to the local ecosystem (Heeds, 1991). The earliest

known mention of a poisonous plant having biopesticide properties is Azadirachta indica,

or Indian lilac, recorded in Italian Rig Veda 2000 B.C. (Hoddy, 1991). Throughout India

and Africa, traditional farmers long observed the immunity of its leaves to desert locust

attack. The plant works as a repellent and antifeedant to many chewing and sucking insects

in the larva or adult stages (Emsley, 1991; Heeds, 1991). Recent analysis of the neem

extract determined the plant contains 20 active ingredients which makes it difﬁcult for any

insect pest to develop a resistance to them all (Hoddy, 1991). Currently, TEK researchers

are working with farmers in India and Africa to develop a neem spray made from the seeds

of the fruit, while over a dozen campaigns in industrialized countries are working an

commercial neem products that are stable, selective, and effective as naturally occurring

neem (Emsley, 1991).

Research and understanding of the nutritional vitality in the diversity of food systems

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developed by indigenous societies worldwide provides new knowledge and depth of un-

derstanding to contemporary dietary and medicinal patterns of indigenous cultures, as well

as to our larger multicultural populations. Other areas of usefulness for information on

indigenous plant foods include genetic research and development of agricultural crops.

Germplasm conservation programs and databases of indigenous food are valuable re-

sources for enhancing existing crops or for the development of new ones (Kuhnlein &

Turner, 1991; Warren, 1997).

Clearly, each culture has a science, a system for adapting in an environment. The so-

lutions are different from those of Western science, but they are by no means inferior.

Although still largely untested, indigenous food plants may well have potential for nur-

turing an increasingly hungry and resource-starved world. Even seemingly useless plants

can be rendered digestible by using Aboriginal methods of preparation. Plantidentiﬁcation,

ways of preparation, cautions on potential toxicity, biopesticides, and the nutritional and

medical beneﬁts of speciﬁc plants are highly desired information. Clearly, the application

of TEK and IK to contemporary conservation and resource management problems in var-

ious parts of the world is recognized. Teachers and students participating in wilderness

programs, environmental education programs, and science education programs in general

are potential beneﬁciaries of published knowledge on indigenous science.

TOWARDS ACKNOWLEDGING INDIGENOUS SCIENCE

There are a number of issues that make it difﬁcult to incorporate indigenous science

examples into a Western scientiﬁc framework. Chief among them is the fact that many

scientists and science educators continue to view the contributions of indigenous science

as “useful,” but outside the realm of “real science.”

At ﬁrst glance, observation of the language of science, science texts, and many scientists

suggest systematic racism (Aikenhead, 1993; Horseman, 1975). Analysis of the literature

goes much further and gives us insights into familiar science topics such as “universalism”;

science, technology, and society issues; and what it means to do in science. Of the debates

which inhibit acknowledging TEK and IK as “real science,” two will be articulated here:

1) the differences between a universalist and relativist position towards nature and the

natural sciences; and 2) the problem among many Western scientists of recognizing tra-

ditional knowledge and wisdom as science because of its spiritual base.

UNIVERSALISM VS. CULTURAL RELATIVISM IN THE NATURAL

SCIENCES

To take science seriously, according to many scientists, philosophers, and historians of

science (Good, 1995a, 1995b; Gross & Levitt, 1994; Matthews, 1994; Slezak, 1994), it is

necessary to assume a universal position on nature and the natural sciences. In the book

Science and Relativism, Matthews (1994) uses the words of various scientists, including

Max planck and Albert Einstein, to support the universalist position:

The core universalist idea is that the material world ultimately judges the adequacy of our

accounts of it. Scientists propose, but ultimately, after debate, negotiation and all the rest,

it is the world that disposes. The character of the natural world is unrelated to human

interest, culture, religion or sex. (p. 182)

Proponents of the universalists’ position argue that scientists who contribute to the

AAAS project (1989), Science for All Americans, support their views:

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Science presumes that the things and events in the universe occur in consistent patterns

that are comprehensible through careful, systematic study. Scientists believe that through

the use of the intellect, and with the aid of instruments that extend the senses, people can

discover patterns in all of nature...Science also assumes that the universe is, as its

name implies, a vast single system in which the basic rules are everywhere the same.

(p. 25)

The National Science Education Standards (National Council, November, 1992) under-

line the universalist position of the natural sciences:

Science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing and from other bodies of

knowledge through the use of empirical standards, logical arguments, and skepticism, as

scientists strive for certainty of their proposed explanation. (p. v-166)

The world may be indifferent to Aristotle’s suggestion that there is a single best answer

to every question, which might be called “universally true.” If proponents of universal

science believe that their methodology enables them to understand the universe, they would

be seeming to claim the unveriﬁable. In other words, all honest inquiry may make a

legitimate contribution to universal science. Moreover, most proponents of indigenous and

multicultural science would agree that objects and events occur in consistent patterns, but

how these phenomena are interpreted is inﬂuenced by language, culture, physical condi-

tions, and events.

A sample of statements by persons who promote a relativistic position that similarly

rejects a universalist position as an underlying assumption of natural sciences follows:

There is a need to struggle to assert the equal validity of Maori knowledge and frameworks

and conversely to critically engage ideologies which reify Western knowledge (science)

as being superior, more scientiﬁc, and therefore more legitimate. (Smith, 1992, p. 7)

Traditional African science and Western science both have their positive and negative

aspects. There is overlap between the two and they are not mutually exclusive. The major

difﬁculty lies with the denial by Western science of the validity of Africa’s contributions.

Because every culture’s way of viewing the world is different it seems probable that every

culture may have developed unique strategies for doing science. Some of these may just

possibly ﬁll in the gaps in others. If the scientiﬁc knowledge of all cultures could be pooled

and regarded with equal respect, the world would undoubtedly be an immeasurably richer

place. (Murﬁn, 1994, p. 97)

To love is not directly related to the components of Western science. Rather, it is closely

related to the Japanese traditional (or indigenous) culture (Ogawa, 1986a; Okamoto &

Mori, 1976)...Weshould identify what our own indigenous science is, as well as

understand what Western science involves. In this context, we have investigated in recent

years how we recognize and interpret “nature” in the Japanese cultural context. (Ogawa,

1989, p. 248; Ogawa & Hayashi, 1988)

Thus, discussions about the relative merit of WMS and the sciences of other cultures

seem to have potential for educating students about science. In the words of Stanley and

Brickhouse (1994), “If all students could learn how the purposes of scientiﬁc activity have

varied in different cultures and historical times, and how all cultures have developed

sciences to meet their needs, they can also learn that Western modern science is not

universal, infallible, or unchangeable” (p. 396). This kind of critical thinking is necessary

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to enable students to understand how WMS is a particular way of thinking about the natural

world, rooted in Western culture, and how the purposes of WMS could be changed to

create future sciences that better meet the needs of diverse societies.

RECONCILING THE SPIRITUAL BASE OF TEK

A second problem of integration is that of the refusal of many scientists to recognize

traditional ecological knowledge as science because of its spiritual base, which they regard

as superstitious and fatalistic. What they fail to recognize is that spiritual explanations

often incorporate important ecology, conservation, and sustainable development strategies

(Johnson, 1992). In reference to traditional ecological knowledge, Johnson and Ruttan

(1991) point out:

Spiritual explanations often conceal functional ecological concerns and conservation strat-

egies. Further, the spiritual aspect does not necessarily detract from the aboriginal

harvester’s ability to make appropriate decisions about the wise use of resources. It merely

indicates that the system exists within an entirely different cultural experience and set of

values, one that paints no more and no less valid a picture of reality than the one that

provides its own (western) fame of reference. (Cited in Johnson, 1992, p. 13).

Johnson (1992) further asserts that “the spiritual acquisition and explanation of TEK is

a fundamental component and must be promoted if the knowledge system is to survive.”

Essentially, criticisms of the validity and utility of indigenous science misapprehend the

structure and mechanics of indigenous oral information systems. These systems do not

simply assert that mythic-magical forces cause and control events. Large numbers of in-

digenous peoples observe, interpret, and orally report nature exhaustively. Rather than

writing about their ﬁndings, they may use metaphoric stories to compress and organize

important information so that it can be readily stored and accessed. In the past, when

newcomers were actively marginalizing indigenous peoples, they had no inclination to

access this information. However, as we have seen during recent years, the situation has

changed and a very considerable number of scientists have “decoded,” transcribed, and

interpreted signiﬁcant quantities of precise indigenous science knowledge.

The debate between Western science and advocates of indigenous science is admirably

summarized in the following quote:

Most educated people today—except for those trained in sociocultural anthropology or

related disciplines—believe that traditional cultures are unscientiﬁc because they are based

on magical beliefs and/or because they lack the beneﬁt of the Western scientiﬁc method

of empirical observation and experiment. Ironically, many sociocultural anthropologists

also believe that the traditional cultures are unscientiﬁc. This follows from the anthropo-

logical dictum that every culture has a unique worldview. Thus, modern science, as a

product of Western culture, represents but one cultural perspective, different from but no

better than any other. The ﬁrst group believes that Science (with a capital “S”) is an

invention of recent European culture. The second group professes that there can be no

science (with a capital “S”) because there is no Reality (with a capital “R”), only unique

cultural deﬁnitions of reality. Neither perspective leaves room for TEK and modern science

to join forces to the end of achieving an understanding of reality superior to both. (Hunn,

cited in Williams & Baines, 1993, p. 16).

As we have seen, TEK is often revealed through stories and legends, making it difﬁcult

for non-Aboriginal people to understand. The non-Aboriginal speaker is most often un-

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familiar with all of the subtleties and sophisticated terms of the Aboriginal language.

Consequently, when speaking with an elder, a non-Aboriginal person may not know how

to ask the proper question to obtain specialized knowledge of the ecology, medicines, and

spiritual matters (Colorado, 1988; Johnson & Ruttan, 1991). When it becomes important

to access TEK, local people must become directly involved in the research. This “inside”

perspective is essential if the information is to be interpreted accurately (Johnson, 1992).

If the goal is to integrate TEK and Western science, both First Nations peoples and Western

scientists must assist in interpreting the results (Colorado, 1988; Johnson, 1992).

In the world of TEK and IK, science information may be transmitted in spiritual forms.

Beyond that, for long-resident peoples, the widely held belief that all creatures are con-

scious may be re-stated to mean that other life forms are deserving of respect and, thus,

the spiritual observation becomes a political dictum: we are simply not free to move

mountains and extirpate species because of mere whims or imagined interests. At the same

time, WMS appears to sympathize with certain “innovative” spiritual assumptions regard-

ing the primacy of human interests and the legitimacy of man’s dominion over nature,

which trace to the beginnings of empire building in the Mediterranean Basin.

Acknowledging TEK does not mean opening doors to all and sundry. TEK is valuable

precisely because it is reﬁned over time with careful observation; it cannot arise sponta-

neously in modern imaginations. Thus, no itinerant creationist or messianic breatharian

may arrive in a new neighborhood and spontaneously generate authentic local TEK.

Connections between respect-based wisdom and action seem to have been ubiquitous

in traditional resident cultures. It is possible that traditional methodology is generalizable

and that the respect-based wisdom assumptions, systems, principles, and methodologies

of any one traditional culture are, in fact, very similar to the respect-based wisdom as-

sumptions, systems, principles, and methodologies of others. The interesting possibility of

the existence of such generalizability is beyond the scope of this paper.

TOWARD TAKING A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE TO

SCIENCE EDUCATION

As discussed previously, there is a tendency in Western society to accept the evolving

discoveries of WMS as our best and only possible avenue for understanding how the world

functions. At the same time, Western science functions as a sub-culture of Western culture

(Aikenhead, 1996, 1997; Ogawa, 1995). In this way, non-Western and minority culture

students of Western science may be forced to accept Western values and assumptions

about political, social, economic, and ethical priorities in the course of receiving instruction

on Western science. At the same time, mainstream students can be prevented from ex-

amining important values, assumptions, and information imbedded in other cultural per-

spectives. Thus, students from Aboriginal cultures (as well as many mainstream students)

inadvertently face a dilemma whenever they study Western science. How can science

teachers enable all students to study a Western scientiﬁc way of knowing and at the same

time respect and access the ideas, beliefs, and values of non-Western cultures?

In contemplating the implications of cross-cultural education, science educators have

begun to explore what it means to prepare our students for life in a culturally diverse

world. Should we develop a teaching approach that merely develops an appreciation for

TEK and IK, or one that goes further into the implications of racism, history, and deﬁni-

tions, and attempts to deconstruct old prejudices. This section attempts to take into account

the multidimensional cultural world of the learner and makes speciﬁc recommendations

for helping students move back and forth between the science knowledge of particular

cultures and the culture of WMS.

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Children’s Prior Beliefs and Cognitive Commitments

A growing line of investigation into children’s learning in science emphasizes that

children of different cultural backgrounds frequently interpret science concepts differently

than the standard scientiﬁc view and that teachers need to begin instruction by determining

the prior knowledge that children of Aboriginal cultures, such as the Maori in New Zea-

land, the Afro-Caribbean, Afro-American, Native American, and the Inuit may have about

the concepts of time, life cycle, growth, death, taxonomy, food chain, energy, evolution,

tidal cycle, weather, causation, and resource management (George & Glasgow,1988,1989;

Gough & Kessen, 1992; Jegede & Okebukola, 1990, 1991; Ogawa, 1986b, 1995; Smith,

1982, 1995; Snively, 1986, 1990).

Clearly, students bring a broad range of ideas, beliefs, values, and experiences to the

classroom which form a spectrum of viewpoints. Unfortunately, science educators have

long assumed that only Western modern scientiﬁc knowledge was true knowledge. Smolicz

and Nunan (1975) referred to this as the mythology of school science. In this context,

Cobern (1996) asserts that many students will simply practice “cognitive apartheid” by

walling off whatever scientiﬁc conceptual change that does take place and holding it

through a form of obligation. Thus, science education as it is currently conceptualized

frequently has little or no meaning for many students because “it fails to teach scientiﬁc

understanding within the actual world in which people live their lives” (p. 589). In this

case, Cobern (1996) is mindful of how constructivism has “elbowed aside the mythology

of school science”:

Constructivism suggests that the concepts of knowledge and belief arenot strictly separable

(see Cobern, 1994, 1995a, 1995b), and it is through this idea that one can begin to un-

derstand how worldview directly inﬂuences conceptual development and change. The con-

cept of worldview brings under a single umbrella the philosophical issues of epistemology

and metaphysics which respectively deal with arguments that provide explanations and

understandings, and the presuppositions upon which epistemological arguments are

founded and delimited. (p. 591)

The argument from worldview theory is that for some students it is not that they fail to

comprehend what is taught, it is simply that the concepts are either not credible or relevant.

This would accomplish a break with the tacit scientiﬁc orientation of conceptual change

that privileges science concepts. It would, in contrast, promote a coherence view of knowl-

edge that recognizes the very many metaphysical orientations in which science is em-

bedded.

We now turn our attention to a description of the relationship between culture and the

subculture of science to clarify what we mean before we can examine research which

suggests that a cultural perspective for science education is required for making science

accessible to all students, and then conclude with a discussion of implications for practice

and speciﬁc practical suggestions.

Border Crossing into the Subculture of Science

In his 1996 article, Aikenhead draws on the work of Phalen, Davidson, and Cao (1991)

to provide a cultural perspective for science education that argues the need to recognize

the inherent border crossings between students’ lifeworld subcultures and the subcultures

of science. This perspective recognizes Western science as a subculture science and con-

ventional science teaching as an attempt at transmitting a scientiﬁc subculture to students

(Cobern, 1991; Jegede, 1994, 1995; Ogawa, 1986a, 1986b, 1989; Pomeroy, 1994). Ac-

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cordingly, it is important to understand that a cultural perspective for science education

represents a radical shift in thinking for some educators.

Another aspect of the subculture of school science is equally important to recognize.

Both Kawagley (1990) and Ogawa (1995) conclude that the culture of Western science is

equally foreign to Western and non-Western students, for similar reasons. Non-Western

students have acquired a traditional culture of their community that interferes with learning

Western science. In the same vein, Western students have their commonsense understand-

ing of the physical world; that is, their “traditional” science—their preconceptions—that

make sense within their lifeworld subcultures. For example, Western students live in a

world of sunrises and sunsets where colors are frequently adjectives rather than verbs, and

where causation and gravity may not seem to exist through 6 daily hours of cartoon viewing

and electronic games, such as virtual reality. Just as Western students have difﬁculty

acquiring the culture of Western science, Aikenhead (1996) adds: “so do non-masculine

students; so do humanities-oriented non-Cartesian thinking students; and so do students

who are not clones of university science professors” (p. 15). Thus, within any North

American or European science class, the subculture of science has borders that many

students ﬁnd difﬁcult to negotiate.

An example of research undertaken with this perspective is Snively’s study on children

of both Native Indian background and children of Anglo-European background, and their

conceptions of marine science concepts:

Students have experienced and thought about the world, they enter learning situations with

a complex cluster of ideas, beliefs, values and emotions...anditisthepotential match

between these existing cognitive commitments and the new information which determines

how the student will respond to the instructional inputs. (Snively, 1986, p. 22)

Snively’s study of the effects of science instruction on both native and non-native stu-

dents in a small coastal community in British Columbia (1990) showed that it is possible

to increase a native students’ understanding of marine science concepts without altering

substantially his or her preferred spiritual orientation to the seashore. This is important.

“Educators need to know that it is possible to teach Western scientiﬁc concepts to native

students with a preferred traditional spiritual view of the world, without changing in the

sense of replacing, the students’ preferred orientation. It makes sense to talk about increas-

ing a native students’ knowledge about science concepts so they can be successful in

school” (p. 63). However, the focus of instruction should not be on presenting information

so that children of ethnic minorities will accept the scientiﬁcally accepted notion of the

concept, but on helping students understand science concepts and exploring the differences

and similarities between their own beliefs and Western science concepts. At times “it

makes sense to talk about changing certain alternate beliefs, but we need to be careful

about changing students’ culturally grounded beliefs and values. What are the ethics in-

volved?” (p. 63).

Reforming the Science Curriculum

The fact that students bring to the classroom ideas based on prior experience and that

children of different cultural backgrounds frequently interpret science concepts differently

than the standard scientiﬁc view, suggested that teachers need to begin the exploration of

multicultural science instruction with the prior knowledge that children bring to the class-

room. Thus, teachers need to probe for and incorporate the prior beliefs of indigenous

children talk about the possibility of multiple perspectives and traditions of science in a

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classroom that encourages mutual respect as well as appreciation for differing opinions.

Cross-cultural science teachers will need a curriculum that recognizes a community’s in-

digenous knowledge or worldview in a way that creates a need to know Western science

(Cobern, 1994; Pomeroy, 1994). As such, a unit of study might include IK and TEK content

along with WMS content to explore certain phenomena indepth. For example, First Nations

TEK can be combined with various ﬁelds of WMS (ecology, botany, biology, medicine,

and horticulture, to name a few) to give students an enriched understanding of nature in

line with sustainable communities and environments (Corsiglia & Snively, 1995).

In her 1995 article, Snively outlines a ﬁve-step process for producing a TEK unit in

cross-cultural science teaching. The approach Provides a general framework for exploring

the two perspectives (Western science and indigenous science) while teaching about one

concept or topic of interest. The process includes:

Step 1. Choose a Science Concept or Topic of Interest (e.g., medicine, cultivating

plants, animal migrations, geology, sustainability)

Step 2. Identify Personal Knowledge

● Discuss the importance of respecting the beliefs of others

● Brainstorm what we know about the concept or topic

● Brainstorm questions about the concept or topic

● Identify personal ideas, beliefs, opinions

Step 3. Research the Various Perspectives

● Research the Western modern science perspective

● Research the various indigenous perspectives and, if possible, the local

TEK perspective

● Organize/process the information

● Identity similarities and differences between the two perspectives

● Ensure that authentic explanations from the perspectives are presented

Step 4. Reﬂect

● Consider the consequences of each perspective

● Consider the concept or issues from a synthesis of perspectives

● Consider the consequences of a synthesis

● Consider the concept or issue in view of values, ethics, wisdom

● If appropriate, consider the concept or issue from a historical perspective

● Consider the possibility of allowing for the existence of differing view-

points

● Consider the possibility of a shared vision

● Ensure that students compare their previous perspective with their present

perspective

● Build consensus

Step 5. Evaluate the Process

● Evaluate the decision making process

● Evaluate the effects of personal or group actions

● Evaluate possibilities in terms of future inquiries and considerations

● How did this process make each person feel? (adapted from Snively, pp.

66–67)

Such an approach can begin in one large group with the teacher. Once a topic is iden-

tiﬁed, the class can be divided into small groups to research the two perspectives. At times

this would lead to presenting more than one theory for explaining the phenomenon under

discussion. For example, what do we know about medicinal herbs from indigenous knowl-

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edge? What do we know about medicinal herbs from modern Western science? Speciﬁ-

cally, what do we know about the discovery of Aspirin

䉸

? We know from sciencetextbooks

that the German scientist Charles Gerhardt is credited with “discovering” in 1853 a stable

form of acetylsalicylic acid, the active ingredient in Aspirin

䉸

. If ancient indigenous healers

worldwide knew that white willow bark cures headaches, should science textbooks credit

Hoffman with the “discovery” of Aspirin

䉸

? Who really discovered Aspirin

䉸

anyway? For

the past 147 years, Gerhardt has been credited with the discovery of Aspirin

䉸

, yet only

recently has WMS begun to understand “how” and “why” Aspirin

䉸

works. If Gerhardt’s

work was accepted as scientiﬁc, even though he couldn’t answer “how” and “why” ques-

tions, how can WMS dismiss TEK and IK as “unscientiﬁc” because TEK practitioners do

not address the “how” and “why” questions of WMS? What deﬁnitions do some Western

scientists use to dismiss indigenous science? What reasons might some modern Western

scientists and pharmaceutical companies have for denigrating indigenous knowledge?

What advantages do Western scientists enjoy over indigenous healers?

Students can analyze how the Nisga’a ﬁsherman was able to deduce the cause of the

crab’s unusual behaviors. What observation let the ﬁsherman to infer the crabs were being

threatened by the new molybdenum mine? As a child, how did the ﬁsherman learn to

observe? What knowledge would he have learned traveling to his family’s ﬁshing stations

each year? Why did the Nisga’a Fisheries Board report the matter to lawyers and biologists

to provide “ofﬁcial scientiﬁc knowledge and ofﬁcial communication?” Should the ﬁsher-

man’s knowledge alone have been sufﬁcient to close the mine? Additionally, how might

the 83-year-old Cree trapper have detected changes in taste, water, tissue, and other sub-

stances at levels below that of contemporary WMS testing equipment?

Students can also analyze how both Western modern science and indigenous science

use observation and inquiry to obtain knowledge. For example, what can we learn from

the ancient Nisga’a ﬁsh wheel? What “science principles” underpin ﬁsh wheel technology?

How might the Nisga’a have invented ﬁsh wheel technology? Did they observe, infer,

question, had build models? Why does combining ancient ﬁsh wheel technology with

modern statistical analysis provide more accurate and reliable data than that collected by

electronic tracking systems? What are the advantages of combining the two perspectives?

Do science and technology interact, or did technology simply precede the advent of modern

Western science in the nineteenth century? When did science begin? What is the nature

of science and scientiﬁc thinking? How can Nisga’a use of the wheel be contrasted with

its use by expansionists?

Although the two perspectives may interpret the world differently, students should also

see that the two overlap and can reinforce one another. Discussion should stress similarities

as well as differences, areas where IK helps ﬁll the gap where knowledge in WMS is

lacking, and vice versa. The study of science would be framed by questions that might

include: What are the origins and consequences of our practice of viewing Western science

as superior to other forms of knowing? Where did we get the ideas that Western science

is the only “true” science? What are the consequences? Who were the thinkers and the

historians who inﬂuenced our way of thinking? What might be the beneﬁts of acknowl-

edging the contributions of traditional knowledge and wisdom? The point is not to establish

that one form of science is more relevant than another, but to develop scientiﬁc thinking

and to ground the study of science within the actual world in which students live their

lives.

Science textbooks need to provide examples of the numerous contributions of IK and

TEK to prove the fact that traditional knowledge and wisdom enable indigenous people

to live in environments over long periods of time. Similarly, examples from the history of

WMS can be used to illustrate how the purposes, theories, and methodologies of WMS

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have changed and do continue to change. Current examples like the ﬁsh wheel can be used

to illustrate how a synthesis of both WMS and IK can work together to solve problems

associated with resource management and sustainability issues. Science textbooks and

teaching materials need to provide examples of the strengths and limitations of Western

science (as well as the strengths and limitations of traditional science), and opportunities

for the student to examine the part of the culture under consideration in terms of futuristic

considerations.

These changes in science education programs would be equally important for main-

stream students. According to Snively, 1995:

The introduction of aboriginal examples adds interest and excitement to the science

classroom. All students need to identify and debate the strengths and limitations of different

approaches in order to explore how others experience the world, and broaden their under-

standing of the nature of science. A critical approach to teaching science can be used to

help confront and eliminate racism, ignorance, stereotyping, prejudice, and feelings of

alienation. All students need to be encouraged to examine their own taken-for-granted

assumptions and to distinguish between those that reﬂect perfectly natural and appropriate

cultural preferences and those that are rooted in misinformation or an unwillingness to

allow for the existence of alternative perspectives. (p. 68)

Discussions of differences in the ways in which societies view plants and animals and

develop resources, and the reasons why they do so, establishes a suitable base for discus-

sions of environment, appropriate technology, justice, and sustainable societies. As well,

science education must emphasize the relationships between science and technology and

the culture, values, and decision-making processes of the society within which we operate.

As “outsiders” trying to make sense of a society continually being shaped and reshaped

by science and technology, students and future practitioners need more from science in-

struction than an ever increasing quantity of scientiﬁc facts and concepts. Science educa-

tion must help all students understand how science relates to action.

CONNECTING WITH TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

AND WISDOM

Although some of us may feel unquestioned attachment to our current approaches to

agriculture, industry, trade, transportation, technology, resource management, and ethics,

we cannot know where these relatively new experiments may take us. TEK and IK enable

us to connect with promising time-proven strategies and question cultural beliefs that

appear to be associated with some of our recent problematic activities. We now know that

two to three millennia of removing entire forests, and more recently mining the ocean for

food and stripping away natural sod from grassland, has contributed signiﬁcantly to world-

wide erosion, desertiﬁcation, loss of biodiversity, and famine. It becomes important to

recognize the magnitude of problems caused by our incomplete appreciation of the com-

plexity of the biosphere and the scope of indigenous knowledge. Unwillingness to rec-

ognize indigenous knowledge as “science” skews the historical record; undermines

objectivity in Aboriginal, multicultural, and mainstream education; and seriously restricts

approaches to some of our most vexatious and debilitating environmental, science-tech-

nology, and socio-economic problems.

In our controversies over the philosophy of science and limiting deﬁnitions of science

and universalism, we have failed to take seriously the question: How is science related to

ethics and wisdom? Indeed, the genius of indigenous science is its characteristic appreci-

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ation and respect for nature and all its living creatures. It is conceivable that we may begin

again to value our abilities to understand and manage the problems associated with life,

home places, and the planet. Who knows what circumstances lie ahead or what strategies

may be required for resolving environmental, technological and societal, and resource

management problems? Indigenous science proves that we are not doomed to live on the

ragged edge of uncertainty—we have respectable antecedents and can make promising

connections with long traditions of time-proven knowledge and wisdom—as beﬁts a spe-

cies that calls itself “wisdom man” or homo sapiens.

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