Traditional knowledge

About: Traditional knowledge is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10825 publications have been published within this topic receiving 202790 citations. The topic is also known as: indigenous knowledge & indigenous knowledge system.

Riding the Tide: Indigenous Knowledge, History and Water in a Changing Australia

Abstract: Indigenous people's knowledge of their environments, often called Traditional Environmental Knowledge [TEK], is widely invoked today in many arenas of environmental analysis and natural resource management as a potential source of beneficial approaches to sustainability Indigenous knowledge is most often discussed in this literature and practice as if it were a static archive of data, largely unchanging since the point of colonisation and/or modernisation in the area under study This paper discusses the contested and relational nature of indigeneity and challenges the ahistorical conceptualisation of indigenous knowledge It does so by drawing on the work of historians and anthropologists to argue that indigenous knowledge, about environmental and other matters, should be seen as a process rather than an archive This approach offers a way to understand how indigenous knowledge of environments might continue to be meaningful and relevant in conditions of rapid environmental change A case study of one such situation is the upper Darling River region in Australia, colo nised by the British from the 1840s Water courses, springs and water holes have been critically important both in the conservation of indigenous environmental knowledge and in shaping the way it has developed in interaction with the long and challenging conditions of colonisation Tracing the historical changes in indigenous knowledge offers the possibility not only of identifying continuing viable alternatives to western agricultural or conservation strategies but also of identifying environmental change over the time of colonisation, particularly in relation to areas associated with the passage and use of water

Quantitative, qualitative, and collaborative methods: approaching indigenous ecological knowledge heterogeneity

Abstract: I discuss the use of quantitative, qualitative, and collaborative methods to document and operationalize Indigenous ecological knowledge, using case studies from the Nepalese Himalaya and Great Basin. Both case studies applied results to natural and cultural resource management and interpretation for the public. These approaches attempt to reposition the interview subjects to serve as active contributors to the research and its outcomes. I argue that the study of any body of Indigenous knowledge requires a contextspecific methodology and mutually agreed upon processes and outcomes. In the Nepalese Himalaya, I utilized linked quantitative and qualitative methods to understand how tourism influenced Sherpa place-based spiritual concepts, species, and landscape knowledge inside Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park and Buffer Zone. In this method, Sherpa collaborated in the development of the research questions, the design, and in the review of results. The research in the Great Basin employed collaborative qualitative methods to document Numic (Southern Paiute and Western Shoshone) ecological knowledge of federal lands within their ancestral territory and attempted to piece together fragmented and contested histories of place. In this method, Numic peoples collaborated on the development of research questions and design; however they also conducted most of the interviews. In both cases, I selected particular suites of methods depending on the context and created forums for the translation of this information to applied outcomes. The methods were also improved and innovated through praxis.

Scientific and Cultural Knowledge in Intercultural Science Education: Student Perceptions of Common Ground

Abstract: There is no consensus in the science education research community on the meanings and representations of western science and indigenous knowledge or the relationships between them. How students interpret these relationships and their perceptions of any connections has rarely been studied. This study reports student perceptions of the meaning and relationship between scientific and cultural knowledge. Personal meaning maps adapted for small groups were conducted in seven culturally diverse schools, school years 7–9 (with students aged 12–15 years) (n = 190), with six schools in Western Australia and one school in Malawi, Africa. Of the six Australian school groups, two comprised Australian Aboriginal students in an after-school homework programme and the other four schools had a multicultural mix of students. Students in this study identified connections between scientific and cultural knowledge and constructed connections from particular thematic areas—mainly factual content knowledge as opposed to ideas related to values, attitudes, beliefs and identity. Australian Aboriginal students made fewer connections between the two knowledge domains than Malawian students whose previous science teacher had made explicit connections in her science class. Examples from Aboriginal culture were the most dominant illustrations of cultural knowledge in Australian schools, even in school groups with students from other cultures. In light of our findings, we discuss the construction of common ground between scientific knowledge and cultural knowledge and the role of teachers as cultural brokers and travel agents. We conclude with recommendations on creating learning environments that embrace different cultural knowledges and that promote explicit and enquiring discussions of values, attitudes, beliefs and identity associated with both knowledge domains.