'It is the belt!' This is how middle school teachers in a science teaching professional development program rationalized why they believe Orion is the most recognizable of all constellations in the night sky. It was from this foundation that we chose Orion to be the focus of a four-phase ethnoastronomy-based project reported here. Ethnoastronomy,…

Elders gather to teach, discuss, and pass on oral traditional knowledge to the younger people. This discussion takes place over a four-day period according to the request of and procedural direction provided by Elders. The procedures and teachings are provided in order to share indigenous oral teachings; an attempt to share aspects of oral…

This paper reports on an innovative approach to oral language development in one British Columbia elementary school, in the context of a larger-scale research project aimed at building cultural inclusive classrooms through the development of imaginative teaching practices. A number of approximately three-week units were designed to lead students…

As an oral culture, Aboriginal ways of knowing and learning come through practice and practical application first, rather than through theory or text. For Aboriginal students, the Western methodological approach to learning theory first, poses a counterintuitive near insurmountable roadblock, particularly in science. This paper presents the…

A 10-day summer science camp for high school students at an ecological research station in the Canadian tundra combines outdoor education and science education. Experiences with Dene elders led staff to implement their traditional teaching methods using the landscape as teacher. All classes are held outside, and a Dene couple complements the staff…

A Canadian teacher-educator's research into what has meaning for Bush Cree students became a reciprocal learning-teaching relationship. What emerged is a reverence for the ordinary, and the researcher's realization that in Cree society, the medium and the message are one, just as education and culture are one. Contains photographs used in the…