Module II

Essential Question: How is everything connected from the perspectives of indigenous peoples and Western scientists? What are the advantages to knowing both ways?

Below is a Venn Diagram adapted from Sidney Stephens' Handbook for Culturally Responsive science curriculum. Click on the picture to enlarge.

I didn't realize how informative this Venn Diagram is about the similarities and differences of Indigenous and Scientific knowledge until I had read through Module II and taken notes on all of the readings and videos. So much of what I jotted down can be found in this diagram in a much more succinct format.


I spent much of my childhood in Sitka, Alaska outdoors. Later on I spent a few years in the Peace Corps living in a remote Malian village living off the land. Due to these experiences the Indigenous way of knowing makes a great deal of sense to me. Native peoples view the world in a holistic way, and through their close relationship with the environment they see the complex system of interconnectedness of every aspect around them. Everything has a spirit, and the goal is to coexist within their surroundings, doing their best as part of a circle of life. Knowledge is qualitative and is passed down through oral histories and traditions in an unstructured way. Traits such as character, patience, stress tolerance, and creativity are valued in these cultures because they enable individuals to survive and gain knowledge and teach it to their people.

I also was brought up in schools teaching the structured reductionist ways of Western Science. I learned the value of using quantitative knowledge dependent on institutions and processes to explain the world around us. Western Science also believes that the everything is connected (through unified string theory), and is able to use amazing technological breakthroughs and global perspective to further understand just how interconnected the universe truly is. By studying the relationships between the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere we can see how those component parts have evolved, function, and will further evolve. The same traits of individuals are valued in Western science that I mentioned above (character, patience, stress tolerance, and creativity) because they enable scientists like Galileo, Newton, and Einstein to modify our knowledge base.

Advantages of both ways of knowing are easily demonstrated through the work of Dustin Madden, an assistant science teacher in the Anchorage School District. A teacher domain video of Madden teaching shows how he is incorporating hands on, holistic, inquiry based methods into his science classroom. Indigenous peoples have had a much longer time to build up their knowledge base, whereas Western science is able to incorporate technology and communication to gather knowledge on a more global, or even universal, scale. These two knowledge bases compliment each other because both can bring something to the table that the other does not have.

If we apply both ways of knowing to education we make knowledge more interesting and accessible to students. Scientific learning should be integrated with other subjects to teach students a more global perspective, and students should learn in a more holistic way so they can see the impact of their lives on the world around them. If we learn from a traditional native education we can see that students are more involved when the learning is student centered and begins with local knowledge that builds to learning about the world and universe. Students also benefit from hands on inquiry based methods such as getting them out into nature to explore, seen in the Dustin Madden video. Resources that we can use to integrate both perspectives are numerous. If we have access to Native elders they can be invited into the classroom to share knowledge, or we can take the students to them to experience the traditional way of life. If this is too difficult, we can show videos showing the Native lifestyle and perspective to our students. Many of these can be found at the Teachers Domain website, and Polar-Palooza website.

There is great value in both ways of knowing. We are able to gain from the rich knowledge base of indigenous people at the same time as we use cutting edge technology to see how the world around us works and changes. We can't truly understand how interconnected everything around us is until we take both ways of knowing into account. We are part of the circle of life, but we shouldn't be limited to coexisting with nature. We want our students to also be able to figure out how things work, why they work, and how they will change.