Module II Response

I would like to start this post by reiterating what I consider to be a very important point made by one of my blogging peers in this class, Collauna of Alaska Melting Pot, which is that both indigenous and Western ways of knowing must be viewed as equally valid before we can begin to make connections between them. This is something that I believe to be very important, thus I have chosen to begin my post with this point in mind.

Essential Question: How is everything connected from the perspectives of indigenous peoples and Western scientists?

Science is a system of knowledge gained through study. Indigenous people have a holistic view of nature and the environment, perhaps because they have been “studying” their environments for thousands and thousands of years. Thus from the perspective of indigenous peoples, everything in nature and science are connected. From the food they eat to the land they live on, all parts of life are connected. Indigenous peoples must have a strong understanding of their local environment in order to survive and co-exist with it, and through this process practical knowledge about the natural world has been learned and passed down orally for generations.

Western scientists approach the connectedness of the world in a manner much different than that of indigenous peoples. A scientist is generally referred to as somebody who uses the scientific method, which generally consists of data collection through observation and experimentation, as well as the creation and testing of hypotheses. These steps must be repeatable, and scientists are usually expected to document and share their results so they are available to other scientists. The clearly visible difference between how the two groups view how everything is connected is that for indigenous peoples, traditional knowledge is intertwined with a trust for inherited wisdom, respect for all things, and is connected to life values and proper behavior; whereas in Western science, there is an important place for skepticism, global verification, and hypothesis falsification. Early scientific theories were not generally accepted until technology advanced and theories were more visibly able to be proved and understood on a deeper level.

Everything is Connected, link to NPR (Poet Lucille Clifton)

Message to Graduates - Everything is Connected (Blue Planet Green Living)

Essential Question: What are the advantages to knowing both ways?

There are bound to be significant advantages to knowing both ways, especially the implications for the new knowledge that both groups could potentially gain from each other. I have been fortunate enough to have had the experience of living in Japan for a portion of time, and was amazed at how seamlessly Japanese culture seems to import ideas as well as other things, blending and reinventing the best ideas from other lands, and turning them into something all their own. Katakana, just one of the three Japanese alphabets, is used mainly for transcribing words from foreign languages into Japanese, is one example.

In terms of teaching (especially in Alaska or other areas where there are large indigenous populations), there is a great deal that knowind and understanding both ways can bring to the classroom to benefit students and their learning in the classroom. This type of inclusion of the knowledge of local environments has a name, and is often referred to as place-based education. Place-based education “differs from conventional text and classroom-based education in that it understands students' local community as one of the primary resources for learning. Thus, place-based education promotes learning that is rooted in what is local—the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place.” This kind of learning that includes and supports what is local is exactly the kind of advantage to knowing both ways that I envision for the students in the near future.