Advertisement

Cultural Studies of Science Education

, Volume 12, Issue 1, pp 97–118 | Cite as

The cognitive relevance of Indigenous and rural: Why is it critical to survival?

  • Karim-Aly S. Kassam
  • Leanne M. Avery
  • Morgan L. Ruelle
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

Using two case studies of children’s knowledge, this paper sheds light on the value, diversity, and necessity of Indigenous and place-based knowledge to science and engineering curricula in rural areas. Rural contexts are rich environments for cultivating contextual knowledge, hence framing a critical pedagogy of teaching and learning. Indigenous and rural place-based knowledge are nuanced and pragmatic in character, and offer solutions to both local and global challenges. Two case studies, drawn from the experience of Lakota and Dakota communities and rural New York State, demonstrate the need to conserve, transmit, and contribute to Indigenous and rural knowledge through experiential and place-based education that bridges the gap between children’s knowledge and global STEM. This knowledge is inherently diverse in its complexity and connectivity to habitat, and when viewed in this light, has the capacity to transform our perspectives on educational practices and policies as well as our overall outlook on conserving both ecological as well as cultural diversity worldwide. Because diversity and knowledge are necessary for the survival of life on this planet, an enriched concept of pedagogical pluralism, in terms of multiple ways of knowing, is a necessity.

Keywords

Diversity Indigenous knowledge Children’s rural knowledge Practical wisdom (phronesis) Lakota and Dakota 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Adams, D. (2008). Fundamental considerations: The deep meaning of Native American schooling, 1880–1900. In M. Villegas, S. Neugebauer, & K. Venegas (Eds.), Indigenous knowledge and education (pp. 9–39). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review.Google Scholar
  2. Agrawal, Arun. (1995). Dismantling the divide between Indigenous and scientific Knowledge. Development and Change, 26, 413–439. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1995.tb00560.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Avery, L. (2013). Rural science education: Valuing local knowledge. Theory Into Practice, 52(1), 28–35. doi: 10.1080/07351690.2013.743769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Avery, L., & Kassam, K.-A. (2011). Phronesis: Children’s local rural knowledge of science and engineering. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 26, 1–18.Google Scholar
  5. Balint, P., Stewart, R., Desai, A., & Walters, L. (2011). Wicked environmental problems: Managing uncertainty and conflict. Washington: Island Press. doi: 10.5822/978-1-61091-047-7_10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Brown, D., & Schafft, K. A. (2011). Rural people and communities in the 21st century: Resilience and transformation. Malden, MA: Polity Press.Google Scholar
  7. Carr, P., & Kefalas, M. J. (2009). The rural brain drain. Retrieved November 28, 2013. http://chronicle.com/article/The-Rural-Brain-Drain/48425/
  8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2007). County level estimates of diagnosed diabetes. National Diabetes Surveillance System.Google Scholar
  9. Churchman, C. (1967). Wicked problems. Management Science, 14, B141–B142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Corbett, M. (2007). Learning to leave: The irony of schooling in a coastal community. Fernwood: Black Point, Nova Scotia.Google Scholar
  11. Deloria, V. (1995). Red earth, white lies: Native Americans and the myth of scientific fact. Golden: Fulcrum Publishing.Google Scholar
  12. Different Cloud, L. (1998). Culturally important plants of the Lakota along the Missouri River, pre-Oahe Dam. Fort Yates, ND: Standing Rock Tribal Historic Preservation Office.Google Scholar
  13. Eppley, K. (2011). Reading mastery as pedagogy of erasure. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 26, 1–5.Google Scholar
  14. Erdoes, R., & Ortiz, A. (Eds.). (1984). American Indian myths and legends. Pantheon.Google Scholar
  15. Gibbon, G. (2003). The Sioux: The Dakota and Lakota Nations. Malden, MA: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Glaser, B. G. (1969). The constant comparative method of qualitative analysis. In G. L. McCall & J. L. Simmons (Eds.), Issues in participant observation: A text and reader (pp. 216–227). MA: Addison-Wesley. doi: 10.1525/sp.1965.12.4.03a00070
  17. Greenwood, D. (2014). Culture, environment, and education in the anthropocene. Assessing schools for generation R (responsibility). Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education, 41, 279–292. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-2748-9_20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Gruenewald, D., & Smith, G. A. (2008). Place-based education in the global age. New York: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315769844.Google Scholar
  19. Johnson, J., Showalter, D., & Klein, R. (2014). Why rural matters 2013–2014. Retrieved January 11, 2014. http://www.ruraledu.org/user_uploads/file/2013-14-Why-Rural-Matters.pdf
  20. Kassam, K.-A. (2009). Biocultural diversity and indigenous ways of knowing: Human ecology in the Arctic. Calgary: University of Calgary Press/Arctic Institute of North America.Google Scholar
  21. Kassam, K.-A. (2010a). Practical wisdom and ethical awareness through student experiences of development. Development in Practice, 20(2), 205–218. doi: 10.1080/09614520903564207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Kassam, K.-A. (2010b). Pluralism, resilience, and the ecology of survival: Case studies from the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan. Ecology & Society, 15, 8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Kassam, K.-A., & Avery, L. M. (2013). The Oikos of rural children: A lesson for the adults in experiential education. Journal of Sustainability Education, 5, 1–17.Google Scholar
  24. Kulas, C., Barrett, C., Red Eagle, C., Taken Alive, J., Billingsley, K., Shields, J., & Locke, P. (1995). The history and culture of the Standing Rock Oyate. Bismarck, ND: North Dakota Department of Public Instruction.Google Scholar
  25. LaDuke, W. (1999). All our relations: Native struggles for land and life. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.Google Scholar
  26. Latour, B. ([1987] 2002). Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  27. Lawson, M. (2009). Dammed Indians revisited: The continuing history of the Pick-Sloan plan and the Missouri River Sioux. Pierre, SD: South Dakota State Historical Society Press.Google Scholar
  28. Lowan, G. (2009). Exploring place from an Aboriginal perspective: Considerations for outdoor and environmental education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 42–58.Google Scholar
  29. Meyer, D. Z., & Avery, L. M. (2009). Excel as a qualitative data analysis tool. Field Methods, 21(1), 91–112. doi: 10.1177/1525822X08323985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Miewald, C. (2002). The nutritional impact of European contact on the Omaha: A continuing legacy. In C. Counihan (Ed.), Food in the USA: A reader (pp. 109–122). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  31. Milligan, E. (1976). Dakota twilight: The Standing Rock Sioux, 1874–1890. Hicksville, NY: Exposition Press.Google Scholar
  32. New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE). (2015). edTPA for New York State. Retrieved April 23, 2015. http://www.nystce.nesinc.com/NY_annTPA.asp
  33. Nutrition for the Elderly and Caregiver Support. (2007). Needs assessment of standing rock elders. Fort Yates, ND.Google Scholar
  34. Page, S. (2011). Diversity and complexity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  35. Palmer, J. (2008). The Dakota peoples: A history of the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota through 1863. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company.Google Scholar
  36. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
  37. Piaget, J. (1928). The child’s conception of the world. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
  38. Rios-Anguilar, C., Kiyama, J., Gravitt, M., & Moll, L. (2011). Funds of knowledge for the poor and forms of capital for the rich? A capital approach to examining funds of knowledge. Theory and Research in Education, 9, 163–184. doi: 10.1177/1477878511409776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Rittel, H., & Webber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4, 155–169. doi: 10.1007/BF01405730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Ruelle, M., & Kassam, K. (2011). Diversity of plant knowledge as an adaptive asset: A case study with standing rock elders. Economic Botany, 65(3), 295–307. doi: 10.1007/s12231-011-9168-x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  41. Ruelle, M., & Kassam, K. (2013). Foodways transmission in the standing Rock Nation. Food and Foodways, 21(4), 315–339. doi: 10.1080/07409710.2013.850007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Ruelle, M., Morreale, S., & Kassam, K.-A. (2011). Practicing food sovereignty: Spatial analysis of an emergent food system for the Standing Rock Nation. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2, 163–179. doi: 10.5304/jafscd.2011.021.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  43. Schafft, K., & Jackson, A. (2011). Rural education for the twenty-first century: Identity, place, and community in a globalizing world. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.Google Scholar
  44. Smits, D. (1994). The frontier army and the destruction of the buffalo: 1865–1883. Western Historical Quarterly, 25, 312–338. doi: 10.2307/971110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Strauss, V. (2015). Report: Big education firms spend millions lobbying for pro-testing policies. Washington post. Retrieved April 29, 2015. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/30/report-big-education-firms-spend-millions-lobbying-for-pro-testing-policies/
  46. Theobald, P. (1997). Teaching the commons: Place, pride, and the renewal of community. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
  47. United Nations Development Program. (2013). The 2013 human development report—the rise of the south: Human progress in a diverse world. New York: UNDP. doi: 10.3917/afco.246.0164.Google Scholar
  48. United States Census Bureau. (2009). American community survey demographic and housing estimates: 2005–2009, Sioux County, North Dakota, and Corson County, South Dakota. American fact finder. Retrieved April 5, 2011. http://factfinder.census.gov
  49. VanSlyke-Briggs, K., Bloom, E., & Boudet, D. (2015). Resisting reform. Reclaiming public education through grassroots activism. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
  50. Vazquez, J. (2011). The role of indigenous knowledge and innovation in creating food sovereignty in the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. Iowa University: Department of Sustainable Agriculture.Google Scholar
  51. Wessel, T. (1986). Agent of acculturation: Farming on the northern plains reservations, 1880–1910. Agricultural History, 60, 233–245.Google Scholar
  52. White, R. (1994). The winning of the West: The expansion of the western Sioux in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In A. Hurtado & P. Iverson (Eds.), Major problems in American Indian history (pp. 243–257). Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Company.Google Scholar
  53. Williams, D. (2010). The rural solution: How community schools can reinvigorate rural education. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Karim-Aly S. Kassam
    • 1
  • Leanne M. Avery
    • 2
  • Morgan L. Ruelle
    • 3
  1. 1.Department of Natural Resources and the American Indian & Indigenous Studies ProgramCornell UniversityIthacaUSA
  2. 2.Department of Elementary Education and ReadingSUNY OneontaOneontaUSA
  3. 3.Department of Natural ResourcesCornell UniversityIthacaUSA

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options