Document Type
Article
Abstract
Within the context of North American Indigenous culture, certain Elders are respected gatekeepers to Indigenous science, also known as traditional knowledge. Yet, while North American born minorities such as Black Americans, Amerindians, and Latin Americans may hail from cultures with a similar appreciation of their own Indigenous science Elders, these minority groups are especially underrepresented in Western science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—both in academia and in the workforce. North American underrepresented minorities experience high attrition rates in academia generally, and in STEM specifically. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes a call to action to Indigenize education to benefit all students. Herein lies an opportunity to investigate the impact of Indigenization of a Western science biochemistry course to assess the impact upon university students, both minority (non-White) and non-minority (White) in Anglophone North America (Canada and USA). The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of an Indigenized Western science online course upon student interest in STEM, student perception of the relevance of Elder co-instructors, and student identity as a scientist. A pedagogical quasiexperiment was conducted at North American tribal colleges and mainstream research-intensive universities, regarding an online science course taught either with or without Elder co-educators alongside PhD STEM-trained instructors. Student perceptions of the value of Elder co-educators did not differ across groups and remained unchanged after course delivery. Findings also show that after taking the course co-taught by Indigenous science Elder co-educators, students have significantly greater interest in STEM than those students not exposed to Elders’ teachings. Non-White students reported significantly less self-identification as a scientist than did White students at pre-course, but reported similar identity as a scientist to White students post-course. We attribute these findings to the impact of culturally competent course content to minority students especially. This work establishes the relevance of using online technology to Indigenize a Western science course taught internationally, and suggests the need for more investigative work toward the convergence of Indigenous science and Western science in academia.
Disciplines
Chemistry | Indigenous Education | Indigenous Studies | Science and Mathematics Education | Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education
Recommended Citation
Alkholy, Sarah Omar, Fidji Gendron, Betty McKenna, Tanya Dahms, and Maria Pontes Ferreira. 2017. "Convergence of Indigenous Science and Western Science Impacts Students’ Interest in STEM and Identity as a Scientist." Ubiquitous Learning: An International Journal 10 (1): 1-13. doi: 10.18848/1835-9795/CGP/v10i01/1-13.
Included in
Chemistry Commons, Indigenous Education Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons
Comments
Published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.