Supporting native science and ways of knowing in science education

In this study, the authors describe a conceptual framework addressing culturally based ways of knowing, and provide a brief description of their efforts to design a community-based summer science program with a Native American tribe using this framework. To address the call to attract culturally diverse students to STEM fields, the authors advocate supporting students in their navigation of multiple and perhaps conflicting epistemologies, and using the student community as resources to be built upon, rather than pushing them toward replacing their personal epistemologies with canonical scientific ones. The authors, in addition to giving an example of the development of a summer camp curriculum, provide examples of how they drew on Native students’ knowledge and community practices to impact student learning.

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