Out of Place: Indigenous Knowledge in the Science Curriculum

Abstract

This chapter reviews the history of indigenous science education research, which has emerged from wider discourses of multiculturalism and equity for non-Western students in science education. There is a history of fierce debate between oppositional positions taken on the question of including indigenous knowledge (IK) in the science curriculum: while none dispute the importance of indigenous knowledge, only some equate it with indigenous science, understood as a valid form of science incompatible with Western science. Research into the inclusion of Māori knowledge in the science curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand indicates that such efforts often employ emblematic aspects, extracted from authentic cultural contexts, and treated in isolation from the historical socio-political relationship between Māori and Western cultures. In this way, including indigenous knowledge in the science curriculum exposes deeper layers of cultural knowledge to caricature, in the form of distorted representation. Rather, to hold IK in tension with science catalyses insight into the philosophical nature of science, serves as a reminder of occasions when science has been subject to political distortion, and returns the focus to the question of equity in outcomes of science education for indigenous students.