ETEC 521 - Indigeneity, Technology and Education
If I had to choose my favourite course of the MET program, hands down, this would be it. There was not a single week that went by where I didn't devour the readings. While they often dealt with challenging topics that caused me to critically examine my own assumptions and prejudices, it was an invaluable process that has reshaped how approach my classroom, both in content and in methods of teaching. In addition to science, I teach an Ecotourism class. Ecotourism can be defined as responsible travel that helps to conserve the environment, empower local people, and educate the traveller. What seemed obvious to me at the outset of ETEC 521 was how well the themes tied into ecotourism so it was no surprise that it had a significant impact on how I approach that course. What was a surprise to me, was how much it would affect my approach to teaching science as is evident in artifacts #1 and #2 below.
Artifact #1 and #2 - Impactful Reading and my ensuing Discussion Post
Before reading Towards a First Nations Cross-Cultural Science and Technology Curriculum (Aikenhead, 1996), I hadn't put much thought into the concept that science and science education are biased. In my science degree I learned that hypotheses were made and tested, data was collected, and after much repetition scientific theories were born. I viewed science as concrete and appreciated that it lacked the subjectiveness of many of the Arts courses that my friends were enrolled in. The first time that I was made aware that science was culturally biased was teaching nutrition in Costa Rica, where views are different than those here in North America. However it was in reading this paper that I understood at a deeper level, that there is a true bias to North American scientific knowledge. The paper had us examine the "culture of science"; the norms, the values etc. Reflecting on my Costa Rican experience within the context of this paper, it suddenly made sense. My newfound understanding was put to the test when a classmate emphatically stated that science is neutral and that aboriginal people need to understand that it is not a "western thing but international". I strongly disagreed with his statements and so I wrote the ensuing discussion post (artifact #2 at right). At nearly 1000 words it was definitely one of my longer postings of this program, but in the process of writing it, I gained a firmer understanding of my own standpoint. I realized that even the scientific method, which I had assumed to be neutral, is biased in that it starts with observations and observations are inherently biased by culture and values. A great connection with one of my earlier courses was a paragraph on Monsanto (who produces ~95% of GMOs) and how their safety testing of their products likely contains a great deal of bias, even if they do follow the scientific method exactly.
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Artifact #3 - Research Weblog
For each of the modules we completed in this course, we were asked to add 5 different resources to a class weblog. Because I was preparing a unit on Aboriginal Tourism in BC I found that a lot of my entries focused on this or other First Nations Ecotourism topics. However I appreciated seeing what my classmates posted as many of them focused on Indigenous topics from outside of BC and Canada. I felt that I learned a lot through this process and I felt that it made me look at current issues, something I haven't had time to do through many of my MET courses. My ecotourism course today reflects many of the things that I learned through this assignment.
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Artifact #4 - Ecotourism and BC First Nations
Like Artifact #3, this one had a significant influence on my material for my Ecotourism class. It afforded me the opportunity to examine pros and cons of Ecotourism for First Nations' in BC and ground those findings in literature. While I found that literature on this subject is still fairly limited, I was able to find some great information that I subsequently used in my lesson plans for that unit. I was also able to generate a list of strategies for avoiding stereotyping when discussing Indigenous topics in my classroom.
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Final Reflections for ETEC 521
By realizing the bias that is inherent in science, I think that I am able to approach science education in a more inclusive and open way. By recognizing and understanding the different backgrounds that students arrive to class with I can start incorporating a wider variety of "ways of knowing" and thereby increase student engagement. The Biology section of Science 10 includes a section on Traditional Knowledge and while I feel I still have a lot of room to improve, that I did a much better job of conveying it to my students.
Another theme that emerged through this course was the holistic approach to learning taken by most Indigenous people. While Western society tends to view learning as compartmentalized, the traditional approach is to view learning as interconnected and tied to location. This had a couple of implications for practice. Western scientists tend to be highly specialized and therefore to solve a problem such as salmon disappearing from a certain area there may be many different people involved each with their own expertise (ex. hydrologist, biologist who studies salmon etc). The holistic way of approaching the problem instead considers how everything is interconnected in order to solve the problem. There are many who believe that this will be an important approach to solving many of our world's ecological problems. It would be therefore by beneficial for me to cultivate this way of thinking in my own science classroom. Secondly, because traditional knowledge is tied to place, we learned that to support the First Nation learner that we should first frame learning within a specific context and when possible go to that location (this is beneficial to non-First Nation learners as well). When it comes to fieldtrips, I had typically viewed them as a summative component to learning. Once we had finished the learning for that unit, we would then go and put it to use in the field. As I plan for my Environmental Biology course next year, I will reconsider how I approach fieldtrips and when possible use them at the beginning of a unit to frame the learning.
By realizing the bias that is inherent in science, I think that I am able to approach science education in a more inclusive and open way. By recognizing and understanding the different backgrounds that students arrive to class with I can start incorporating a wider variety of "ways of knowing" and thereby increase student engagement. The Biology section of Science 10 includes a section on Traditional Knowledge and while I feel I still have a lot of room to improve, that I did a much better job of conveying it to my students.
Another theme that emerged through this course was the holistic approach to learning taken by most Indigenous people. While Western society tends to view learning as compartmentalized, the traditional approach is to view learning as interconnected and tied to location. This had a couple of implications for practice. Western scientists tend to be highly specialized and therefore to solve a problem such as salmon disappearing from a certain area there may be many different people involved each with their own expertise (ex. hydrologist, biologist who studies salmon etc). The holistic way of approaching the problem instead considers how everything is interconnected in order to solve the problem. There are many who believe that this will be an important approach to solving many of our world's ecological problems. It would be therefore by beneficial for me to cultivate this way of thinking in my own science classroom. Secondly, because traditional knowledge is tied to place, we learned that to support the First Nation learner that we should first frame learning within a specific context and when possible go to that location (this is beneficial to non-First Nation learners as well). When it comes to fieldtrips, I had typically viewed them as a summative component to learning. Once we had finished the learning for that unit, we would then go and put it to use in the field. As I plan for my Environmental Biology course next year, I will reconsider how I approach fieldtrips and when possible use them at the beginning of a unit to frame the learning.
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References
Aikenhead, G., (1997). Towards a First Nations Cross-Cultural Science and Technology Curriculum. Science Education. Is. 81. pp. 217-238.
© Long, J., (2010). Pasoti in the Children's Eternal Cloud Forest [photograph].
© Long, J., (2011). Quetzal at La Creativa [photograph].
Long, J., (2014). Discussion Post on the Non-neutrality of Science. (Unpublished graduate work). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Long, J., (2014). Final Project - Ecotourism and BC First Nations. (Unpublished graduate work). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Long, J., (2014). Research Weblog. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec521sept13/author/jenlong/
Aikenhead, G., (1997). Towards a First Nations Cross-Cultural Science and Technology Curriculum. Science Education. Is. 81. pp. 217-238.
© Long, J., (2010). Pasoti in the Children's Eternal Cloud Forest [photograph].
© Long, J., (2011). Quetzal at La Creativa [photograph].
Long, J., (2014). Discussion Post on the Non-neutrality of Science. (Unpublished graduate work). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Long, J., (2014). Final Project - Ecotourism and BC First Nations. (Unpublished graduate work). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Long, J., (2014). Research Weblog. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec521sept13/author/jenlong/