Page 277 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

19 Deconstructing Chinn and Hana’ike: Pedagogy Through an Indigenous Lens 251

Native Hawaiian Children, with some data and literature to back up this claim, but
mostly in the context of the case study of David. The authors suggest that one way
to further understand the failure of the secondary school system for Native Hawaiian
students is to examine standard academic teaching practices and then contrast them
with David’s cultural and place-based curriculum.
Chinn and Hana’ike are missing the next step in their discussion. What is
Indigenous knowledge and learning? There is no one clear answer, as the question
is about comparative knowledge, and legitimate pedagogy does not exist to answer it.
western epistemologies have posed questions regarding what Indigenous peoples
know or how they think and learn (psychologies), but these inquires have been
steeped in biases, racism, and arrogance (Kenny et al. 2004). Presently it is chal-
lenging for Indigenous peoples to deconstruct Indigenous knowledge and learning
because the dominant culture has created mysticism and romance around Indigenous
knowledge and learning, a point missing within Chinn and Hana’ike’s article.
The fact remains that in the literature, debates concerning competing knowledge
claims could continue indefinitely. Examining specific implementations of Indigenous
ways of knowing could offer some insight, as attempted by the presentation of
David’s case study. In Indigenous policy research, for example, the research is
holistic and balanced, and the diverse positions on knowledge claims must all be
considered in the context of ethical research practice (Erasmus and Ensign 1998).
Knowledge claims are scrutinized for how they can best represent an Indigenous
worldview, Indigenous systems of knowledge, and balance a holistic perspective on
policy research. Thus, it becomes critical to be aware that all sources of data derived
from research in Native communities are ethically questionable if their methodol-
ogy does not include appropriate attention to a Native cultural and social approach
to contemporary research (Hudson and Taylor-Henley 2001).
Traditional knowledge has been described as hinging on respect for all life-
forms as literally conscious and intrinsically interdependent and valuable (Corsiglia
and Snively 1997), and David’s case study touches on these ideas, but further elabo-
ration would underscore the importance of this education. Indigenous peoples’ lives
are characterized by a lengthy history of relations between community members,
nonhumans (wild animals, insects, trees, rivers, grass, etc.), and lands (Gadgil et al.
1993). Escobar (1998) writes that “unlike modern constructions, with their strict
separation between biophysical, human and supernatural worlds, local models in
many non-western contexts [like traditional ways of knowing] are often predicated
on links of continuity between the three spheres and embedded in social relations
that cannot be reduced to modern, capitalistic terms” (p. 61).
Each culture throughout the world has a set of paradigms, which are a collective
set of values and knowledge of the way to live and be in the world (Lee 1995).
A distinction that may be made about Indigenous values is that they inform a body
of knowledge about specific environments that span several thousands of years, in
many cases since time immemorial (Escobar 1998). Chief Wavey (1993) notes that
“we spend a great deal of our time, through all seasons of the year, traveling over,
drinking, eating, smelling and living with the ecological system, which surrounds
us” (p. 11). Indigenous peoples are characterized as having, for example, intimate