Category Archives: ETEC 521

While searching for resources about Indigenous science, I discovered that earlier this year Environment and Climate Change Canada started an official Indigenous Science Division (ISD). Dr. Myrle Ballard, an Anishinaabe scholar at the University of Manitoba, is leading the division using the framework of Three-eyed Seeing. I am excited to see a federal ministry taking steps towards reconciliation and hopefully decolonizing the science that informs government environmental decisions.

The ISD has a beautiful logo that represents Bridging, Braiding, and Weaving. I was unable to find the information on whether or not I could post it without copyright infringement. I did find a neat option to download a QR code that should take you directly to the image, though!

This paper, which was published online just one month ago today, provides suggestions to biology instructors for including Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into their courses.

From the abstract: “Suggestions include exploring other ways of knowing, teaching holistically, establishing a classroom culture of respect, explicitly including TEK, consulting Indigenous experts, incorporating Indigenous languages, and using other evidence-based teaching practices.” (Greenall & Bailey, 2022).

I was excited to find this resource and plan to share it with my colleagues.

Greenall, R.F., & Bailey, E.G. (2022). An instructor’s guide to including Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the undergraduate biology classroom. CBE-Life Sciences Education 21(4). https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-12-0340

The Living Knowledge Project is an Australian-based research project that was developed to find the most effective way to integrate indigenous knowledge into the secondary science curriculum. The page that I have linked to here is dedicated to the history of ‘both ways’ education, where students are exposed to a mixture of western and indigenous education.

https://livingknowledge.anu.edu.au/html/educators/07_bothways.htm

While following links from my previous post, I found information about a program called Connected North that uses communication technology to reach students in remote Indigenous communities. The idea is to give youth access to First Nations, Inuit, and Metis role models that can help the students understand the applications of what they learn in school and give them opportunities for meaningful connections with professionals in a variety of fields as well as students in other locations. According to the site, a majority of teachers find the program helps engage their students. I am excited to read some more about this program and see if there is the potential to use this type of technology to help my soon-to-be first year undergraduate students prepare for university.

Celebrating Indigeneity in Science

This webpage was created as the result of a virtual discussion hosted by Wilfred Laurier University on International Women’s Day in 2021. The Laurier Centre for Women in Science (WinS) welcomed indigenous women scholars to share their work and personal stories and collected the information in to a number of resources with the intent of “building a vibrant and inclusive scientific community.” I have enjoyed browsing the various resources here and thought you might too. My hope is that at least one of them will be relevant to your teaching practice. I know there are few that I will refer to in future as I teach undergraduate science labs!

I came across this recent paper in the Journal of Chemistry Education that gives an account of York University’s approach to decolonizing the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. It seems that many institutions talk about taking steps towards decolonizing courses, but I have had difficulty finding guidance of how to do this effectively in a post-secondary science department. This paper outlines some of the steps that are being taken to shift the narrative of the courses away from solely a western view of science.

In one example, instructors of a colloidal chemistry course included a discussion of ancient Egyptian codification of knowledge of papyrus. While this is a relatively small step, the instructor is acknowledging that science has been happening by peoples all over the globe for longer than the western view of science has existed.

In the following video, Dr. Leroy Little Bear discusses Indigenous knowledge and western science at a talk in Banff. He is wonderful speaker and connects quantum physics to his Blackfoot knowledge. He uses humour and familiar characters (such as the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland) to explain complex ideas. The most important message I took away from the talk was that Indigenous science and western science are both legitimate sciences and are really just different ways of looking at and describing natural processes.

What I liked about the video is that it is engaging and helps broaden the understanding that different ways of knowing are all valid. There are some differences in how cultures look at the world, but in the end, we are all striving to understand the same thing.

The website linked to the image above has a recording of a discussion with three panelists (Dr. Gregory Cajete, Dr. Lorna Wanosts’a7 Williams, and Skye Augustine) about decolonizing science education and practicing indigenous science. If his name sounds familiar, it may be because Dr. Cajete was cited by some of the authors in our module 1 readings. The dialogue is the 13th in a series that were organized by the Reconciling Ways of Knowing Stewardship Society during 2020 and 2021 to continue the conversation about reconciliation despite the pandemic. Each of the panelists has a unique set of experiences to share and helps to broaden our understanding of how to include Indigenous ways of knowing in science and science education.

While searching for information about Traditional Ecological Knowledge in post-secondary for my final project, I discovered a hands-on science field course that was developed in partnership between the University of Windsor and the Walpole Island First Nation. Part of my excitement about this stems from the recent news that I may be able to participate in my department’s annual biology field course as a botany instructor in the coming years. I would very much like to implement activities for the students that focus on respect and understanding of the local landscape and was inspired by approach that is described in the video below.

The following podcast is a discussion with scientists Ray Pierotti (University of Kansas) and  Tara McAllister (University of Auckland) about Indigenous Knowledge in science and the challenges that Indigenous people face in academia. Both of these topics are relevant to my day-to-day work with undergraduate science students. I have added Pierotti’s book “Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology” to my reading list.