Knowing Science within a Community

A powerful teaching for me from Elder Saa’kokoto (Randy Bottle) says that if you are a gifted a story, then you have an obligation to tell it. Stories are learned from the Elders and when retold are not to be added to or subtracted from. Stories and scientific knowing, too, in this way is passed from elder to learners and, in my opinion is an example of situated knowing, much the way the GLOBE project is and meets Bielaczyc and Collins (1999) definition of a learning community because it has (1) a diversity of expertise. All learners are considered teachers and become elders to those who come after them. There is (2) a shared objective of continually advancing the collective knowledge and skills. It is essential that the ways of knowing science are passed forward and the ones who hold the knowledge are required to pass it forward. In listening to the stories the learner is expected to embody principle (3) an emphasis on learning how to learn because it is not enough to listen but it is an expectation to share what is learned. Principle (4) mechanisms for sharing what is learned may be the piece that is missing out of this experience of the Aboriginal perspective in sciences because the expertise lies in the elder. If the stories are not passed on then the knowledge goes with the elder. The Aboriginal context is knowing through community connections; knowledge without context is not knowing. The struggle, then, lies in creating the context within which scientific knowing can be shared within a larger community and still remain contextual.

GLOBE as a networked community of learners in sciences represents the four characteristics of a culture of learning because it demonstrates a diversity of expertise in that there is space for learners of all levels to contribute their data in a way that is scientifically rigorous. This participation in real-world use of data makes it relevant for students, in that they are not just collecting data for the sake of collecting data. When it is useful in a context students are more likely to see the value in a job well done. It demonstrates principle (2) a shared objective of continually advancing the collective knowledge and skills because there is a “legacy document”, a tool that endures. And principle (3) an emphasis on learning how to learn. The tools serve a purpose in that students are introduced to data collection and learn how to collect data by collecting data. Finally, principle (4) mechanisms for sharing what is learned is embodied because the data on the Website endures and can be consulted by students and working scientists.

In my teaching practice, I am working very hard to reconcile Aboriginal ways of knowing with the way that I was taught science concepts and to reconcile situated learning with digitally augmented experiences that may remove learners from their environment.

Elder Randy Bottle, Circle teaching, March 2018

M.J. Jacobson & R. B. Kozma (Eds.), Innovations in science and mathematics education: Advanced designs for technologies of learning (pp. 287-320). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates