Crossing boundarised epistemologies in science education : the affordances of indigenous knowledge

Abstract

In this inaugural lecture, my central argument is that, by including indigenous (scientific) knowledge in the school curriculum, and by utilising the processes of science in doing so, we could see worthwhile learning effects in the science classroom. The counter argument of cynics might be that many modern urban young people do not have an indigenous knowledge base - a valid point that illustrates why more attention should be devoted to harnessing this often orally transmitted knowledge, before it is lost forever.