Research Topic: Integrating Local Diversity and Globalization in Indigenous Education

In this research, I will try to investigate the significant role of place based learning in Indigenous education and culture. The purpose is to present how place based learning can be used to facilitate an integration of Indigenous cultural diversity into a rapidly changing globalized world, while preserving their community ties. In recent decades, western culture and its economic globalization has been effective in homogenizing Indigenous cultures in different countries. It seems that in this process western education systems have played an effective role in alienation of Indigenous people from their own cultures.

Place based learning, on the other hand, can be used to integrate indigenous culture into traditional education systems through a culturally adapted curriculum that considers a wide range of social, cultural, and economical aspects of Indigenous communities. Instead of standardized in a public education system, indigenous learners have the opportunity to understand the relationship between Indigenous knowledge and knowledge associated with western cultures and mainstream education. Consequently, schools have a crucial part in interconnecting various aspects of Indigenous life (culture, environment,…) to positive features of our globalized era. In this research I will also address some cases presenting effective and efficient examples of such integrations.