In this dissertation I examine Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Western science, critically analyzing the underlying values of each, and exploring ways in which both systems can be utilized side by side. In general, Western science has arguably become the worldview utilized in dealing with the many complex multi-level issues of today.…

Sceptics of an Africanisation of education have often lambasted its proponents for re-inventing something that has very little, if any, role to play in contemporary African society. The contributors to this issue hold a different view and, through the papers included in this issue, arguments are proffered in defence of an Africanisation of…

In this article, we conceptualize curricula through an EcoJustice Education (EJE) framework to educate teachers about Indigenous and environmental education. The primary tasks of EJE are to engage learners in a cultural analysis of the ecological crisis and in the identification of diverse cultural methods that can bring about eco-democratic…

The pursuit of literacy is a central theme in the history of African Americans in the United States. In the Western tradition, as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and others have observed, people of African descent have been written out of "culture" because they have been identified with oral traditions. In that setting, literacy signifies both…

Every aspect of a community's life and values in indigenous Africa provide the theoretical framework for education. The holistic worldview of the traditional system places a strong emphasis on the centrality of the human element and orature in the symmetrical relationship between life and learning. This article focuses on proverbs and the words…

This study examined incidental recall of a folktale told to 91 Tohono O'odham American Indian children (average age 9 years) who either were directly addressed or had the opportunity to overhear the telling of the folktale. Learning from surrounding incidental events contrasts with learning through direct instruction common in Western schooling,…

This paper describes an attempt to improve the reading comprehension and writing skills of students coming from an oral culture. The proposed approach involves using voice and dialogue--understood literally and metaphorically--as a tool in teaching students how to engage texts and write with a reader in mind. The author discusses a pilot study…

The author has been teaching at the Navajo Nation's Dine College for 22 years--five at one of two main campuses and 17 at a remote branch campus in Crownpoint, New Mexico, where he went following his retirement after 30 years as an English professor at Allegheny College. Throughout his academic career, he has made a point of teaching beginning…

This study is aimed at analyzing how contemporary urban Aymara youth hip hoppers and bloggers are creating their identities and are producing discourses in texts and lyrics to contest racist and colonial discourses. The research is situated in Bolivia, which is currently engaged in a cultural and political revolution supported by Indigenous…

The importance of educating students to think critically and creatively was recognized over 2,000 years ago by Socrates, reworked in the 1950s by Benjamin Bloom, and reinforced by many modern-day educators. With changes in lifestyle brought on by innovations in digital technology, teachers, administrators, and parents alike are questioning the…

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…

The migration of blacks in North America through slavery became united. The population of blacks passed down a tradition of artist through art to native born citizens. The art tradition involved telling stories to each generation in black families. The black culture elevated by tradition created hope to determine their personal freedom to escape…

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…

Hawai'i is a small place on a large planet; Kanaka Maoli, the Indigenous people of the islands, today comprise just 20% of the total population within the state, and less than 1% of the total U.S. population across the nation (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.). Yet Hawai'i, promoted for centuries as an exotic tourist destination, and Hawaiian culture as…

Walter Ong tells us that the noetic--the rhetorical characteristics of feeling, sensation, and intuition applied to a given communicative situation or act--stems from the oral tradition. The noetic contrasts with the print legacy of argument in which "teaching something is the same as 'proving' it'" ("Ramus" 156). Ong's sense…