An Emerging Decolonizing Science Education in Canada

Abstract

The article describes developments in science education since 2006 related to an agenda to decolonize the Pan-Canadian Science Framework by recognizing Indigenous knowledge as being foundational to understanding the physical world. Of particular interest is the Province of Saskatchewan's curriculum renewal that integrates Indigenous knowledge into school science, guided by continuous collaboration with Saskatchewan's Indigenous communities and with a textbook publisher to support a decolonizing, place-based, culturally responsive science instruction.

Résumé

L'article présente les développements en enseignement des sciences depuis 2006, liés à une volonté de décoloniser le Cadre scientifique pancanadien grâce à la reconnaissance des savoirs autochtones comme fondements essentiels pour la compréhension du monde physique. Soulignons en particulier le nouveau curriculum de la Saskatchewan, qui intègre les savoirs autochtones à l'enseignement des sciences à l'école, et bénéficie d'une collaboration continue aussi bien avec les communautés autochtones de cette province qu'avec une maison d'édition pédagogique œuvrant en faveur d'un enseignement des sciences décolonisé, ancré dans le milieu et culturellement responsable.

Notes

1. The term Indigenous encompasses worldwide the original inhabitants who have suffered colonization (McKinley, 2007). The term includes First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples of Canada, collectively referred to in the Canadian constitution as Aboriginal peoples.

2. Indigenous knowledge is also known as Aboriginal knowledge, Indigenous science, traditional knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, Native science, etc.

3. The phrase most students and the figure 90% are clarified by a variety of qualitative and quantitative studies that have produced various ways of estimating the proportion of students who do not likely have a future in science or engineering fields (i.e., who are not potential scientists, because they do not have worldviews that harmonize with a worldview endemic to academic school science) and consequently do not value the meaningful engagement in academic school science expected by their science teachers. Here are a few examples. In her qualitative investigation, Costa (1995) found that 35 of 43 Grade 11 California students (81%) were not potential scientists. This 81% figure was deflated from 84 or 86%, however, by a sample bias: almost all students alienated from school science “refused to be interviewed” (p. 324). Cobern's in-depth work exploring people's worldviews concerning nature (e.g., scientific, aesthetic, religious worldviews) indicated that (a) 94% (15 out of 16) of Grade 9 students in a suburban Arizona study were not potential scientists (Cobern, 2000); and (b) 93% (14 out of 15) of nursing students in an Arizona study were not potential scientists (Cobern, 1993). A confirming finding arises in Reiss's (2004) 6-year longitudinal study in England: “… for the great majority of students, science education played only a small part of their lives” (p. 108, emphasis added). Quantitative data in the United States based on high school students’ enrollment in optional science courses show that “about 90 percent take no more science than is required to meet secondary-school graduation requirements” (Atkin & Helms, 1993, p. 2). But of the 10% who do, some were found to be motivated by university entrance standards rather than their interest in science or engineering (Carlone, 2004; Lyons, 2006); thus the proportion of potential scientists would actually be lower than 10%.Based on these types of research studies, it is reasonable to suggest that the expression most students in the present context refers to about 85 to 94% (approximately 90%) of a typical high school population.

4. A Knowledge Keeper is a respected Indigenous person to whom people go to gain help or understanding related to a specific issue or event (e.g., using plants for healing purposes). They are expected to pass this understanding on to the next generation.

5. Saskatchewan's curriculum is on-line at http://www.curriculum.gov.sk.ca.

6. STSE refers to a science–technology–society–environment approach to science education. It has been a major feature of Saskatchewan's science curriculum since 1989.