Author Archives: coffeys

What is ‘Traditional Ecological Knowledge’?

Article ‘Traditional Ecological Knowledge’

The author of this article, Deborah McGregor,  Anishinabe, is from the Whitefish River First Nation and is an Assistant Professor in Geography and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Toronto. In this article she discusses the definition of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and the Anishinabe perspective on TEK.  The Anishinabe  Recreation story which emphasizes the respect of all life forms is described. The author suggests that Aboriginal knowledge cannot be separated meaningfully from the people that hold it and perhaps more energy should be spent helping Aboriginal people so their culture is not lost, rather than documenting knowledge before the people disappear.

Forests & Oceans for the Future – Lesson Plans

Forests & Oceans for the Future is a research group based at UBC that collaborates with North Coast BC communities to conduct ecological research. One of their key activities is to design educational materials suitable for use in BC K-12 classrooms and give curricular alignments, they appear to be well suited for high school classes. There are seven detailed and informative unit plans that cover topics of TEK and Western science comparison, traditional plant knowledge, resource use, forestry, regional identity, and climate change. (This is also the research group that produced the ‘Return to Gitzaala’ video)

http://www.ecoknow.ca/curriculum.html

Traditional Ecological Knowledge & Science Education

I am a high school science teacher who was introduced to the concept of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) only last year when I first taught the new BC Science 10 Curriculum which contains one related student achievement indicator for one prescribed learning outcome, students will “give examples of how traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) can affect biodiversity”. This topic is addressed in two pages in the BC Science 10 textbook, however I believe the topic has much greater potential. I need to increase my knowledge on TEK to become more comfortable including TEK in science lesson.

The focus of my weblog research will be to learn more about traditional ecological knowledge and how I can incorporate it into my science lessons. I will investigate the following research questions and narrow my topic from my findings to create my final research project:

  1. What teaching resources are available on the internet for the topic of TEK?
  2. Do intellectual property rights play a role on the availability of teaching materials?
  3. Is the internet an effect medium for educating people about TEK?