Pedagogic Principles in Negotiating Cultural Conflict: A Melanesian example

Abstract

This paper draws on the personal experiences of three researchers: an “outsider” (or western‐oriented) science teacher, a science teacher educator who has lived in Melanesian countries for almost a decade, and a national researcher who was born and educated in Melanesia. During a recent interpretative research study of the problematic relationship between the traditional world‐views of Melanesian villagers and the official school science views of young Melanesian people, Bruce became increasingly aware of the importance of conducting culture‐sensitive interpretative research. Bruce and Joe describe three people with different experiences and approaches to education. Mindful of the important role of the outside teacher researchers in providing essential information for the local contextualisation of school science curricula, we propose a number of culture‐sensitive practices when working in Melanesian cross‐cultural contexts.

Karsoon: I like Melanesian ways. I wanted to learn Western ways and so when mission came, I went to school [so that I could] learn their ways. I thought I would learn new ways. I use school ways no more.

Karsoon: The white man didn't want us to learn about his ways but only about his religion. (Waldrip & Taylor, 1999a, p. 297)

I've studied overseas where I came across Papua New Guineans suffering from the “dry coconut syndrome”—brown on the outside, but white on the inside. These are the people who suddenly forget their own ways because they are living in another country. (Pamba, 1999, p. 17)

Keywords:

• Approaches to education
• Culture‐sensitive research
• Melanesia