Indigenous STEM Education: Perspectives from the Pacific Islands, the Americas and Asia, Volume 2 (Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education, 30) 3031305051, 9783031305054

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Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education 30

Pauline W. U. Chinn Sharon Nelson-Barber   Editors

Indigenous STEM Education Perspectives from the Pacific Islands, the Americas and Asia, Volume 2

Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education Volume 30

Series Editors Catherine Milne, Steinhardt School of Education, New York University, New York, NY, USA Christina Siry, University of Luxembourg, Ossining, NY, USA

The series is unique in focusing on the publication of scholarly works that employ social and cultural perspectives as foundations for research and other scholarly activities in the three fields implied in its title: science education, education, and social studies of science. The aim of the series is to promote transdisciplinary approaches to scholarship in science education that address important topics in the science education including the teaching and learning of science, social studies of science, public understanding of science, science/technology and human values, science and literacy, ecojustice and science, indigenous studies and science and the role of materiality in science and science education. Cultural Studies of Science Education, the book series explicitly aims at establishing such bridges and at building new communities at the interface of currently distinct discourses. In this way, the current almost exclusive focus on science education on school learning would be expanded becoming instead a focus on science education as a cultural, cross-age, cross-class, and cross-­ disciplinary phenomenon. The book series is conceived as a parallel to the journal Cultural Studies of Science Education, opening up avenues for publishing works that do not fit into the limited amount of space and topics that can be covered within the same text. Book proposals for this series may be submitted to the Publishing Editor: Claudia Acuna E-mail: [email protected]

Pauline W. U. Chinn  •  Sharon Nelson-Barber Editors

Indigenous STEM Education Perspectives from the Pacific Islands, the Americas and Asia, Volume 2

Editors Pauline W. U. Chinn Curriculum Studies University of Hawaiʻi – Mānoa Honolulu, HI, USA

Sharon Nelson-Barber WestEd San Francisco, CA, USA

ISSN 2731-0248     ISSN 2731-0256 (electronic) Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education ISBN 978-3-031-30505-4    ISBN 978-3-031-30506-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30506-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Sharon Nelson-Barber and Pauline W.U. Chinn, co-editors, dedicate these two volumes to the wisdom of ancestors and elders, known and unknown who passed down guidelines for living in a sustainable, resilient world. Hawaiian proverbs, ʻōlelo no‘eau, convey the importance of nānā i ke kumu, looking to the source, the wisdom of the past to inform how we, ʻimi ʻike, seek knowledge and interpret current phenomena to make decisions and, mālama i ka ʻāina, care for the lands that sustain us. The ethic of care is bound together with aloha, love, and kuleana, responsibility to maintain sustainable, resilient social ecosystems in which humans are a part of, not apart from the world. Mālama i ka ‘āina, “respect and care for the land,” the third ʻōlelo no‘eau was a Hawaiʻi Department of Education science content standard until it was removed on the advice of external reviewers because it was too cultural (Chinn 2011). Ironically, it and other ʻōlelo no‘eau among the nearly 3000 collected by M. Kawena Pukui (1983) are

now a rich resource for Hawaiʻi’s science educators as recognition grows that all teaching and learning is cultural. We further recognize the wisdom in sayings that relay dynamic processes of complex systems coupled with the values and behaviors needed to maintain sustainable, resilient communities and ecosystems. The next two ʻōlelo no‘eau (ibid) specifically address this relationship. He aliʻi ka ʻāina; he kauwā ke kanaka; The land is chief; man is its servant. Land has no need for man, but man needs the land and works it for a livelihood. Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono, The life of the land is preserved in righteousness. Since its appearance in 1845 on the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Hawaii (1810–1894) to the present, this has been Hawaiʻi’s motto. Given the special circumstances of today’s world, we also reflect on particularly salient messages delivered by two prominent Native knowledge keepers—one contemporary and one from the past—who remind us to

collectively amass strength from the past and to bring it forward to impact the future. Remember that you are all people and that all people are you—Joy Harjo It is memory that provides the heart with impetus, fuels the brain, and propels the corn plant from seed to fruit.—Joy Harjo I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again.—CrazyHorse References Cited: Chinn, P. W. U. (2011). Malama I Ka ‘Aina, Sustainability: Learning from Hawai‘i’s Displaced Place and Culture-Based Science Standard. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 6(1), 223–233. Harjo, J. (2004). How we became human: New and selected poems 1975–2002. WW Norton & Company. Harjo, J. (2008). She had some horses: Poems. WW Norton & Company.

Pukui, M. K., & Varez, D. (1983). ‘Olelo No’eau: Hawaiian proverbs & poetical sayings. Bishop Museum Press.

Foreword: Indigenous Peoples, Culture, and Place-Based Science Curricula

An Indigenous Sense of Place In the face of the rapid transformation of the Earth by science and technology and the challenges of ecological crisis and climate change that have begun to unfold, leading thinkers are exploring alternative cosmologies, paradigms, and philosophies in search of models that sustain Nature rather than destroy it. Many of these thinkers have found that Indigenous epistemologies offer profound insights for cultivating sustainable relationships to one’s place and one’s spiritually integrated perceptions of Nature to address what has now become a global crisis of ecological relationships. Indigenous Peoples’ inherent identification with their Place presents elegant alternative paradigms for practicing the “art” of relationship with the natural world. Indigenous Peoples have consistently attempted to maintain a harmonious association with their lands in the face of tremendous pressures to assimilate. Traditionally, Indigenous Peoples have demonstrated in multiple ways that their lands and the maintenance of ecological integrity are key to their physical and cultural survival. The importance that Indigenous Peoples attribute to “connecting” with their Place is not a romantic notion that is out of step with the times. It is rather the quintessential ecological mandate of our time! Wherefore, certain time-honored philosophies have guided my thinking for some time. Indigenous Peoples express a relationship to the natural world that can only be called “ensoulment.” The ensoulment of nature is one of the most ancient foundations of human psychology. This projection of the human sense of soul and the various archetypes contained within have been termed “participation mystique” (Abt, 1989). For Indigenous Peoples participation mystique represents the deepest level of psychological involvement with one’s land and, in a sense, also reflects a “soul map,” so to speak. The psychology and spiritual quality of Indigenous behavior, with its reflections in symbolism, are thoroughly “informed” by the depth and power of their participation mystique and their perception of the Earth as a living soul. It ix

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is from this orientation that Indian people believe that they have “responsibilities” to the land and all living things and to each other. In the Indian mind, spirit, and matter are not separate, they were one and the same. Indigenous Peoples project the archetypes which they perceive in themselves into the entities, phenomena, and places that are a part of the natural environment which they encounter. Indigenous Peoples traditionally understood the human psyche and the roots of human meaning as grounded in the same order which they perceived in Nature. They experienced Nature as a part of themselves and they as a part of it. They understood themselves literally as born of the Earth of their Place. That children are bestowed to a mother and her community through direct participation of “earth spirits” and that children come from springs, lakes, mountains, or caves embedded in the Earth where they existed as spirits before birth were widespread Indigenous perception. This is the ultimate identification of being “Indigenous” to a place and forms the basis for a fully internalized bonding with that place. It is also a perception that is found in one variation or another among the traditions of Indigenous people throughout the world, including the archaic rural folk traditions of Europe. The archetypes of being born from the earth of a place and the participation of “earth spirits” in human conception are universal among Indigenous people. Indeed, this perception is reflected throughout the myth, ritual, art, and spiritual traditions of Indigenous people because in it is a biological reality that our whole human development is predicated on our interaction with the soil, the air, the climate, the plants, the animals of the “places’ in which we live. It is this perception and projection of inner archetypes into a Place that forms the spiritually based ecological mindset that establishes and maintains a correct and sustainable relationship with place. This orientation is, in turn, reinforced by a kind of physical “mimicry” and a reflection of a kind of “geo-psyche” that often takes place when a group of people live in a particular place for a long period of time. There is an interaction between the inner and outer realities of people that come into play living in a place for this extended period of time. Our physical makeup and the nature of our psyche are formed to some extent by the distinct climate, soil, geography, and living things of a place. Over a few generations of humans adapting to place, certain physical and psychological traits begin to self-select and the development of mountain people as distinct from desert people as distinct from plains people begins to unfold. Though it is not as apparent now as it was in the past, Indigenous Peoples of the world reflect physical and psychological characteristics that directly result from generations of interaction with the geographies and ecologies of their respective regions. But people make a place as much as a place makes them. Indigenous people indeed interacted with the places in which they lived for such a long time that “their landscape became a reflection of their very soul.” So phrases such as “Land of the Hopi,” or Land of the Hawaiians,” or “Land of the Māori,” etc. have a literal dimension of meaning because there was a co-creative relationship between the Indigenous people and their lands. Through long-term experience with the ecology of their lands and the practical knowledge that such experience brings, they interceded in the creation of habitat and the perpetuation of plant and animal life toward optimum

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levels of bio-diversity and biological vitality. Indigenous groups literally managed their territories in ecologically sustainable ways. In the USA, the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and their environments became so deep that separation from their home territories by forced relocation constituted, literally, a loss of soul for the whole generation. Indigenous people were “joined” with their land with such intensity that many who were forced to live on reservations suffered a form of “soul death.” The major consequence was the loss of a sense of home leading to profound “homesickness” with all its accompanying psychological and physical maladies. As one elder put it, “they withered like mountain flowers pulled from their mother soil.” Traditionally, the affinity of Indigenous peoples with their lands symbolized their connection to the spirit of life itself. The loss of this foundation led to a tremendous loss of meaning and identity, which only now is being revitalized by recent generations. The loss of homelands took such a toll because inner kinship with the world is an ancient and natural extension of the human psyche. The disconnection of that kinship can lead to a deep rift between the inner and outer consciousness of each individual as well as the group. It also brings with it a range of social and psychological problems, which ultimately can only be healed by reestablishing the meaningful ties that have been lost. Reconnecting with nature and its inherent meaning is an essential healing and transformational process for Indigenous people. The Indigenous sense of place and the importance of being in harmony are embodied in our cultural traditions. Our collective experience with the land, integrated by our myth and ritual, expressed through our social structures and arts, and combined with a practiced system of environmental ethics and spiritual ecology, gave rise to a deep connection with our Places and a full expression of ecological consciousness. We have an important legacy of traditional environmental education for sustainability, which we must again revitalize for ourselves and for the generations yet to come. We have been entrusted with an important package of memory, feeling, and relationship to the land that forms a kind of “sacred covenant.” Our sacred covenant with the land bids us to strive to educate ourselves about our traditional forms of sustainability- oriented, environmentally based education. Our covenant bids us to reclaim our heritage of living in a harmonious and sustainable relationship with the land, thereby fulfilling a sacred trust to the land that is an ancient part of this covenant. Today, because of immersion in modern education and society, fewer and fewer Indigenous people have the opportunity to engage the land, its plants and animals, in the ways that our ancestors once did. The Peoples’ experience with the land was the cornerstone of traditional Indigenous education. Sustaining a people, a culture, a way of life through generations of living in a Place truly was both the medium and the message of Indigenous education. Place-based environmental education created from the perspective of Indigenous people themselves must once again become one of the collective priorities of modern Indigenous education. Indigenous people must take a leading role in place-based environmental science education, as Western society begins to finally realize that it must forge a new ecologically based cosmology, complete with new stories and new expressions and applications of science and

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technology. Western society and education must once again become Nature-centered if they are to make the kind of life-serving, ecologically sustainable transformations required in the next decades. The ecologically sustainable models historically developed by Indigenous Peoples could form the basis for creation of needed educational models. However, we as Indigenous Peoples must reassert our sacred covenant with the land. As I have stated elsewhere, the places we inhabit are an extension of our collective Indigenous minds. It is this place that holds our collective memory. It is this place with its unique natural spirit that provides us with meaning and defines us as distinct Peoples of Place (Cajete, 1994: 23).

Indigenous Place-Based Science Curricula Research in planned cultural approaches to teaching and learning science has been moving from its formative stages to new and more creative expressions. The real strength of current research lies in the fact that synchronistic lines of thought and similar conclusions are beginning to appear throughout the literature. This has in turn stimulated the formation of networks of researchers and other interested groups at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Place-based education in science reflects an evolution of thought related to self-determination, community education, and a renaissance of Indigenous identity. These volumes, edited by Pauline Chinn and Sharon Nelson Barber, present the research and stories of various scholars, teachers, and community members who are researching or participating in the development of place-based science education in Indigenous communities. The synopses of a cross-section of chapters below offer glimpses into the nature of the material. For example, in “Integrating Place, Indigenous and Western Science: Implications for Teacher Agency, Expertise, and Identity,” Pauline Chinn describes how Hawaiian language newspaper articles can be used for Earth Science curriculum development as a way of integrating Indigenous and Western science while simultaneously enhancing teacher agency and reinforcing Hawaiian identity and sense of place. In this way, Chinn advocates for national and local recognition of Indigenous science, technology, and values that can support resilient social ecosystems and provide support for place-based teacher education, teacher agency, and curriculum that reveals polyvocal perspectives. In the chapter, “Utilizing Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Western Science in Science Education,” Daniel Lipe discusses the need to include Indigenous Knowledge systems as their own science-based worldview. He advocates that as a matter of sustainable necessity Indigenous Peoples have developed their own science-­based understandings over generations and in their places. By relating this history and through the telling of his own story of becoming a teacher-researcher, he shows how connecting home cultures with those found in school settings can help to engage under-represented diverse populations. Linda Furuto examines “Mathematics Education on a Worldwide Voyage: Engaging Values and Placed-Based Curriculum to Support College, Career, and

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Community Readiness.” She describes the ways in which students participating in the voyage of the Hokuleʻa learn mathematics grounded in the experiential place-­ based orientation of Hawaiian voyaging and wayfinding. The voyage provides opportunities to learn as well as hands-on experience from both ancient and modern science, technology, and mathematics in ways that bridge these forms of scientific knowledge and ways of knowing the natural world. In her chapter, “Implementing Place-Based Practices for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use in a Regional School in Thailand,” Thai educator Nantana Tapamat, describes ways in which students in a rural Thai village who engage with place-based education show increased sense of place, scientific and social skills, and a deeper sense of self-efficacy through working with villagers on water quality projects, botanical gardening, and environmental networking. Chuukese educator, Margarita Bernard Cholymay, LJ Rayphand, and James Skouge outline the importance of place- and culture-based education for Chuukese people in “Way finding: Túúttúnnapen Chuuk – Indigenizing Chuukese Education.” They describe how this educational intervention addresses the urgent need for cultural maintenance and also how it functions as a counter to the historical colonial educational model that has failed to serve the immediate and future needs of Chuukese students. Place-based education processes promise to better serve the cultural, social, and scientific needs of the Chuukese people. Megan Bang, Jasmine Alfonso, Lori Faber, Ananda Marin, Michael Marin, Douglas Medin, Sandra Wasman, and Jennifer Woodring report findings of their research regarding “Perspective Taking and Psychological Distance in Children’s Picture Books: Differences Between Native and Non-native Authored Books.” They discuss ways in which the orientations and illustrations of nature conveyed in these books connect with students’ understandings and perceptions of intimacy with the environment. This work shows that the range of devices employed by Native illustrations support actions such as taking multiple perspectives and systems level thinking strategies that are important for scientific reasoning. In their respective chapters, “Researching Māori and Māori-Medium Science Education” and “Forum Kaupapa Māori Science: A Science Fiction?” Georgina Stewart and Elizabeth McKinley explore why the number of Maori students taught through the Kau Papa Maori model has not increased the number of Maori students successfully completing courses of science studies and therefore should be taught science in both Maori and English to enhance their viability for success in Science fields of study. They point out that since teachers of science are never provided with a paradigm of science teaching other than the Western paradigm, they are fated to repeat a similar outcome of student success whether they teach in Māori or English. Should teachers receive firm grounding in both Western and Maori paradigms, they could more likely compare and contrast both ways of knowing and better bridge these knowledge bases for better teaching and student learning of science. In her chapter, “‘Imi I ke ‘Alanui, To Find the Way,” Native Hawaiian science teacher, Napua Barrows, offers an auto-ethnography that recounts her journey to become a science teacher and advocate for place-based science education through processes of community organization. Keys to her success include teaching

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Hawaiian values and knowledge as a Hawaiian resource teacher and leading a community-­ based organization focusing on teaching children through cultural experiences, stories, and real-world applications that utilized tools in both Hawaiian and Western science traditions. The stories and research that comprise these volumes of Indigenous People, Culture and Place-Based Science Curricula make an outstanding contribution to the literature in culturally responsive science education. They weave stories, research, experiences, and curricular initiatives together with notions of sustainability of people, culture, and place, and are infused with Indigenous-inspired thought and reflection. As such, they both challenge and refresh more traditional approaches and thoughts regarding science teaching and curricular design. As we collectively face the environmental, social, and cultural challenges of the twenty-first century, these volumes are a pleasure to read, and exciting to contemplate in terms of the potential of place-based science for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, teachers, and communities. Emeritus, University of New Mexico Rio Rancho, NM, USA

Gregory A. Cajete

References Abt, T. (1989). Progress without loss of soul. Chiron Publications. Cajete, G. (1994). Look to the mountain: An ecology of Indigenous education. Kivaki Press.

Dr. Gregory Cajete  (Tewa, Santa Clara Pueblo) is currently Professor Emeritus in the Division of Language, Literacy and Socio-cultural Studies at the University of New Mexico, College of Education. Previously, he worked at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe for 21 years where he served as Dean of the Center for Research and Cultural Exchange, Chair of Native American Studies, and Professor of Ethnoscience. Dr. Cajete has authored 10 books, numerous chapters, and journal articles and has delivered over 300 national and international conference presentations. Emeritus University of New Mexico, Rio Rancho, NM, USA

Preface

From their first contact with European explorers and settlers, many Indigenous peoples have experienced changes that have impacted their health and well-being, cultural practices, and access to resources supporting sustainable lifestyles. In North America and Hawaiʻi, Indigenous languages and traditions were the targets of colonial education systems that sought to assimilate Indigenous children into the dominant culture. Today, as science educators seek to address the legacy of academic discrimination, a lack of knowledge about Indigenous ways of knowing and doing increases the complexities of designing and implementing externally conceptualized programs for Indigenous students. The need for science educators to deepen their knowledge of Indigenous ways is particularly urgent when climate change is being felt on local through global scales. The sixth IPCC Assessment report (2022) delineates the vulnerabilities and impacts of climate effects on humans and ecosystems. The report includes Mirian Jerez’s (2021) policy brief that conveys both the perils of climate change to Indigenous peoples who make up about 5% of the world’s population and their promising role as “stewards of global biodiversity who effectively manage an estimated 20–25% of … areas that hold 80% of the planet’s biodiversity and about 40% of all terrestrial protected areas and ecologically intact landscapes” (p.  1). This builds upon the International Labour Office’s (2017) statement that Indigenous peoples are “fundamental partners and crucial agents of change for achieving effective climate action, sustainable development and green growth …[due to] their unique knowledge” (p. 23). Current thinking in sociocultural theory and the learning sciences argues for an ecological approach that locates educational accountability in “the real world” of students’ knowledge and experience. This ecological approach finds central importance in aspects of learning that have gone unrecognized, such as relationships, contexts, languages, tools, and practices based on community knowledge (Nelson-­ Barber & Johnson, 2016). Carol Lee (2008) would say that these elements demand innovative approaches and offer great potential for creating more equitable, empowering, and sustainable change for communities and individuals.

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Now that more Indigenous teachers are joining the work force, there will be more cultural role models whose instructional approaches in learning and systems of problem solving are directly linked to their Indigenous students’ cultural experiences. However, generations of colonization, displacement, and language suppression mean even Indigenous teachers need strategies to reconnect to their ancestral knowledge, places, and practices (Chinn, 2012). Research demonstrates that when content areas are taught or learned in defined cultural contexts, students have increased opportunities to relate to them and find them meaningful (Castagno & Brayboy, 2008). This is engaging and empowered education for both teachers and students. Mainstream education offers categories of strategies, but does not offer specifics for how to provide “equitable learning opportunities” for Indigenous and nondominant student groups. It recognizes important points of entry but offers little insight as to how these function in practice: What’s missing: • • • • • • •

Culturally relevant pedagogy Ancestral knowledge Cultural connections to place Language revitalization Community involvement and social activism Multiple representations of knowledge and multimodal experiences School support systems including role models and mentors of similar racial or ethnic backgrounds

Contributors to the volume masterfully illustrate many ways to prepare educators to intentionally shape the experiences of their students as lifelong learners and global participants, who are grounded in and enriched by their places and cultures. San Francisco, CA, USA Honolulu, HI, USA

Sharon Nelson-Barber Pauline Chinn

References Castagno, A.  E., & Brayboy, B.  M. J. (2008). Culturally responsive schooling for Indigenous youth: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 78(4), 941–993. Chinn, P. W. U. (2012). Developing teachers’ place-based and culture-based pedagogical content knowledge and agency. In B. J. Fraser, K. Tobin, & C. J. McRobbie (Eds.), Second international handbook of science education (Vol. 24, pp. 323–334). Springer. IPCC. (2022). Climate change 2022: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E. S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M.  Craig, S.  Langsdorf, S.  Löschke, V.  Möller, A.  Okem, B.  Rama (Eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844

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International Labor Office. (2017). Indigenous Peoples and climate change. International Labor Organization. Retrieved from, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/%2D%2D-­ dgreports/%2D%2D-­gender/documents/publication/wcms_551189.pdf Jerez, M.  M. (2021, April). Policy Brief No. 101 Challenges and opportunities for Indigenous Peoples’ sustainability. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved from, https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-­content/uploads/sites/45/publication/ PB_101.pdf Lee, C. D. (2008). The centrality of culture to the scientific study of learning and development: How an ecological framework in education research facilitates civic responsibility. Educational Researcher, 37(5), 267–279. Nelson-Barber, S., & Johnson, Z. (2016). Acknowledging the perils of “best practices” in an Indigenous community, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Special Issue on Indigenous Issues in Education and Research: Looking forward, 47, 44–50.

Acknowledgments

These two volumes would not be possible without the contributions of 66 authors, the majority Indigenous, who shared their perspectives on Indigenous STEM education and research that respects the places, knowledges, practices, and language of the first peoples of the land. Our deepest gratitude goes to them for trusting us to convey their voices and work. The co-editors, Pauline W. U. Chinn and Sharon Nelson-Barber, would also like to recognize the elders, mentors, and life experiences that led to this collaborative endeavor. The seminal work of our colleagues Dr. Glen Aikenhead, Dr. Ray Barnhardt, Dr. Greg Cajete, Dr. Oscar Kawagley, and Dr. Jerry Lipka has been particularly impactful to the field as well as our trajectories, and we greatly appreciate their contributions to these volumes. Pauline acknowledges Dr. Isabella Kauakea Aiona Abbott for helping her weave together the strands of ōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), STEM, and inquiry from Native Hawaiian perspectives. The first Native Hawaiian to earn a PhD in natural sciences, member of the National Academy of Sciences, born in 1920 in Hana, a sugar plantation town in rural Maui to a Hawaiian-Chinese mother and Chinese immigrant father, Dr. Abbott’s Hawaiian upbringing established deep cultural roots that informed her work at Stanford and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. When asked her thoughts on Hawaiian inquiry for a project with teachers (Chinn et al., 2011), Dr. Abbott replied with an ōlelo noʻeau “Ua lele ka manu, The bird has flown” (Pukui, 1983). She heard her mother saying it when she looked for something that “could right under our noses but overlooked.” Pauline credits her father, Edwin Y.H. Chinn, a science educator as introducing the land as a mentor through fishing, hiking, gardening, and foraging. Sharon also stands on the shoulders of generations past. She extends special recognition to her forebears: Wilbur Bailey Nelson, Harvey Arthur Nelson, Lila Tibbs Nelson, Andrew Thad Harris, Callie Nelson Harris, and Gladys Harris Nelson who modeled their land-based pedagogies and provided the strong, sustaining spiritual and ethical foundation that continues to guide her way.

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Acknowledgments

When constantly and thoughtfully observed, the land is a generous teacher. The guidance from mentors to seek what is overlooked but can be found has nourished both Pauline and Sharon through the considerable time and effort required to compile these insightful contributions into two volumes. Glen Aikenhead

References Chinn, P., Abbott, I. A., Kapana-Baird, M., Ross, M., Lelepai, L., Walk, K., Kauka, S., Barrows, N., Lee, M., & Kanahele-Mossman, H. (2011). Ua lele ka manu (The bird has flown): Research from Hawaiian indigenous/ethnic/local perspectives. In G. Dei (Ed.), International handbook/ reader on indigenous philosophies and critical education (pp. 262–279). Peter Lang. Pukui, M. K., & Varez, D. (1983). ‘Olelo No’eau: Hawaiian proverbs & poetical sayings. Bishop Museum Press.

Glen Aikenhead  is Professor Emeritus, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, where he worked between 1971 and 2006. He earned an Honours BSc (University of Calgary, 1965), Masters of Arts in Teaching (Harvard University, 1966), and a Doctorate in Science Education (Harvard University, 1972). Glen has always embraced a humanistic perspective on science, even as a young research chemist. His educational research studies over the past 25 years in cross-cultural Indigenous science education have emphasized the recognition of Indigenous knowledge in school science for all students. This has led to communitybased collaborative projects in: renewing the provincial curriculum, developing teaching materials, editing textbooks enhanced with Indigenous knowledge, producing teacher professional development programs, leading teacher workshops, and consulting/mentoring/supporting Indigenous scholars and their allies, locally and internationally. His homepage lists publications in various fields of interest: https://education.usask.ca/profiles/ aikenhead.php#top

Contents

Part I Indigenous Innovations and Interventions in Schools and Communities 1

Utilizing Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Western Science in Science Education��������������������������������������������������������������������������������    9 Daniel Lipe

2

Voyaging Toward Equity Through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Mathematics Education ����������������������������������������������������   21 Linda H. L. Furuto

3

Ko kākou Kula, Ko kākou Home, pāhana Inoa Hale Kula: Our School, Our Home, a Place-Based Curriculum Project on School Building Names����������������������������������������������������������������������   37 Shawn Māpuana Kobashigawa

4

 Changes in Students’ Science Concepts and Discourse: A Case Study of Place-­Based Education in Rural Thailand����������������   51 Nantana Taptamat

5

Way Finding: Túúttúnnapen Chuuk, Indigenizing Chuukese Education����������������������������������������������������������   77 Margarita B. Cholymay, L. J. Rayphand, and James Skouge

Part II Introduction Teacher Education and Professional Development 6

The Will of the Ancestors: A Collaborative Elementary Science Curriculum Design Initiative����������������������������������������������������   89 Apalah-James Ayuluk, Naqucin-Flora Ayuluk, and Cikigaq-Irasema Ortega

7

Science and Story ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  111 Jason Alsop Gaagwiis, Carlos G. A. Ormond, Barbara J. Wilson Kii’iljuus, and David B. Zandvliet xxi

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Forum: Place Based Curriculum in Indigenous Settings: Stories Behind Two Signature Projects��������������������������������������������������  131 David B. Zandvliet and Cikigaq-Irasema Ortega

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Learning from Our Places, Learning from Each Other: Lessons on Place-Based Teaching and Learning in Micronesia����������  141 Corrin Barros, Emerson Lopez Odango, Juanita S. R. Lawrence, and Joyminda George

10 A‘o  Hawai‘i: The Role of Culture and Place in Empowering Teacher Leaders as STEMS2 Educators������������������������������������������������  157 Tara O’Neill, Anna Ah Sam, Shari Jumalon, Kimberlee Stuart, and MaryAnna Enriquez 11 Exploring  How Place-Based Education Indigenous Curriculum Influence Students’ Learning Motivation in Science����������������������������  191 Hsuan-Fang Hung, Chiung-Fen Yen, Tsung-Wei Yao, and Su-Fen Lin (Yabi‧Nawu) Final Thoughts��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  217

Editors and Contributors

About the Editors Pauline  W.  U.  Chinn’s great-grandparents arrived in Hawai‘i when it was the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and Hawaiian was the official language.  Following annexation by the United States, Hawaiian language was forbidden as a language of education and government. As a secondary science teacher in Hawaii’s public schools, she used science textbooks from the continental U.S. except for Plants and Animals of Hawai‘i, a class for non-college bound students. Creating place-based curriculum intersected her experiences of fishing, hiking, and gardening with western biology frameworks.  Seeing students in this “terminal” class become engaged as their lives and places entered the curriculum led to doctoral research exploring the roles of culture, gender, language, and power in underrepresentation of kanaka ma‘oli, Native Hawaiians in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).  At the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, her teacher education and professional development projects in Hawai‘i and American Samoa funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation support research and education to develop teacher leaders who develop, place-based, culturally sustaining, inquiryoriented curricula inclusive of diverse and underrepresented students. This work led to developing an Interdisciplinary M.Ed., Sustainability and a Graduate Certificate in Sustainability and Resilience Education.  

Sharon  Nelson-Barber, a sociolinguist and Senior Program Director at WestEd, has lifelong personal and professional experience in Indigenous communities. Her interests in STEM began early on as she accompanied her father and grandfather while subsistence hunting and fishing. Much of her research, funded by the National Science Foundation, centers on understanding ways in which students’ cultural backgrounds influence how they make sense of mathematics and science education. She also conducts studies aimed at developing more equitable assessment and testing methods that account for cultural influences. She closely collaborates with other Indigenous researchers and community partners across the US, the Northern Pacific  

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islands of Micronesia, and parts of Polynesia. She is co-founder of POLARIS (Pivotal Opportunities to Learn, Advance and Research Indigenous Systems), a research and development network that promotes healthier communities by integrating Indigenous perspectives for thriving education futures. An ongoing project convenes Indigenous elders and scientists to document technical solutions to climate change from both Indigenous and western academic perspectives, and heighten international attention to the need to preserve cultures and societies amidst rising waters.

Contributors Anna Ah Sam  Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Jason Alsop [Gaagwiis]  Council of the Haida Nation, Skidegate, BC, Canada Glen S. Aikenhead  Emeritus, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada Apalah-James Ayuluk  Chevak School, Chevak, AK, USA Naqucin-Flora Ayuluk  Chevak School, Chevak, AK, USA Corrin  Barros  Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, Hawaiʻi, Honolulu, HI, USA Margarita  B.  Cholymay  Chuuk Department of Education, Wene, Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia MaryAnna Enriquez  University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Linda  H.  L.  Furuto  Mathematics Education, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Joyminda  George  Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, Kosrae, Honolulu, HI, USA Hsuan-Fang Hung  National Applied Research Laboratories, New Taipei, Taiwan Shari Jumalon  University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Juanita S. R. Lawrence  Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, Pohnpei, Honolulu, HI, USA Su-Fen  Lin  [Yabi‧Nawu]  Department of Ecological Humanities, Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan Daniel Lipe  Environmental Science and Management, Cal Poly Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA

Editors and Contributors

Shawn  Māpuana  Honolulu, HI, USA

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Kobashigawa  University

Tara  O’Neill  Curriculum Honolulu, HI, USA

Studies,

University

of of

Hawaiʻi Hawai‘i

at

Mānoa,

at

Mānoa,

Emerson Lopez Odango  Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, Hawaiʻi, Honolulu, HI, USA Carlos  G.  A.  Ormond  Haida Gwaii Institute, University of British Columbia, Skidegate, BC, Canada Cikigaq-Irasema Ortega  Chadron State College, Chadron, NE, USA L. J. Rayphand  Caroline College and Pastoral Institute, Wene, Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia James Skouge,  Professor Emeritus, College of Education, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Kimberlee Stuart  University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA Nantana Taptamat  University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Barbara  J.  Wilson  Kii’iljuus  Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada Tsung-Wei  Yao  Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan Chiung-Fen  Yen  Center for Ecology and Environment, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan David  B.  Zandvliet  Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Part I

Indigenous Innovations and Interventions in Schools and Communities Glen S. Aikenhead

Introduction This part gives voice to the expertise of Indigenous practitioners who developed Indigenous STEM innovations. Although Daniel Lipe; Linda Furuto; Margarita Cholymay, L.J. Rayphand and James Skouge, Mapuana Kobashigawa; and Nantana Taptamat detail different aspects of Indigenous STEM education, together their stories summarize Indigenous STEM education-in-action  – organizing, learning, teaching, and politicking. They identify various benefits that accrue for students and their communities. This introduction to Section III sketches out some general ideas and issues variously illustrated by these authors. Researchers routinely consider the educational domains of research, policy, and practice to be a linear progression: research influences policy (i.e., formal curricula or informal viewpoints of teachers and other educators), which in turn influences practice. Consider the slogan “Improving science teaching and learning through research.” In contrast, a subtle pervasive theme in Section III’s articles suggests the three domains of research, policy, and practice are almost independent entities that require the energy of politics to drive all three simultaneously, as depicted in Fig. 1. Remove the politics cog, and we remove a key piece of educational reality. Politics are particularly powerful in the form of national and state STEM standards, and in the influence of local school authorities. Linda and Nantana identify these specifically. Moreover, Linda’s framework is steeped in the social-justice politics of D’Ambrosio’s ethnomathematics, which counters (or as opponents would say “undermines”) conventional ideologies that place highest status on traditional mathematics subjects. When asked about mathematics’ ubiquitous presence

G. S. Aikenhead (*) Emeritus, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada e-mail: [email protected]

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Policy

Pracce

Polics

Research

Fig. 1  The role of politics in science education research, policy, and practice

globally, D’Ambrosio replied, “Mathematics is absolutely integrated with Western civilization, which conquered and dominated the entire world” (Greene, 2000, p. A16). Throughout history (oral and recorded), the human invention of mathematics has produced radically different, culture-based, mathematical systems that have symbolically built a relationship between humans and their environment (Bishop, 1988, 2000; François & Van Kerkhove, 2010). Alan Bishop pointed out that every culture must, to some degree, count, measure, locate, design, play and explain, in response to questions and problems arising from their environment. Examples of such mathematical systems include those invented by: pre-contact Indigenous Australians, Mayans, and Japanese people. In fact, Japanese mathematics (“Wasan” in Japanese) effectively served Japan’s highly sophisticated Edo society (1603–1868). With Japan’s sudden forced entry into globalization in 1868 by the American navy, Euro-­ American mathematics (called “Yōsan”) were introduced officially into Japan. Historically, Yōsan had developed within Euro-American cultures through invention, discovery, and much appropriation from other cultures over time. It should be noted that pre-contact Polynesians developed their own mathematical system that helped make ocean navigation possible (Nova, 2015). Moreover, 600 years ago on the island of Mangareva, people were using the binary system to make their Polynesian mathematics simpler (Ball, 2013). This occurred about 300  years prior to Leibniz’s invention in Germany. Given the fact that there is a plurality of mathematical systems stemming from major ethnicities worldwide, the term “ethnomathematics” also refers to these pre-contact mathematical systems, among other meanings in the literature (Nova, 2015).

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D’Ambrosio introduced his ethnomathematics in the 1960s to make Euro-­ American mathematics more inviting and accessible to under-represented minority students. Today his pedagogical strategies are recognized as one version of culturally responsive or place-based education in Euro-American mathematics. Student success most often arises from learning it as content-in-action that highlights human interactions and responsibilities found in the students’ local community (Greer et al., 2009). For many traditionally marginalized students to succeed in school mathematics, Euro-American mathematics must be culturally contextualized to a place, rather than being idealistically decontextualized as nourishment for the brain. The term “place” takes on a significantly broad, special meaning here (Michell et al., 2008). Place includes language spoken, knowledge developed, and wisdom accumulated. Place embraces the emotional, spiritual, intellectual and physical dimensions of the location where students live, including its geophysical/night-sky physical dimensions. Place is a verb – the interacting processes of everything in a place interrelating with each other. It is all about culture-based relationships, as illustrated by Nantana’s rural education project in Sakon Nakhon province of Thailand, by Daniel’s teaching in a Hawaiian charter school, by Mapuana’s use of her campus, by Margarita, L.  J. and James wayfinding in Chuuk, and by the Hawaiian Hōkūle′a voyaging, which was experienced by Linda who then drew upon it as a highly relevant cultural resource. D’Ambrosio’s social justice perspective finds an inviting home in Linda’s article. Even though the political role of screening students according to their success in school mathematics was beyond her control, Euro-American mathematics’ status and privilege was shared with many more traditionally marginalized students whose achievement increased significantly as a result of implementing D’Ambrosion ethnomathematics. This is one very successful path taken in Indigenous STEM education in general, as Section III articles demonstrate. A different path is usually followed in culturally responsive or place-based school science, as exemplified by Daniel. Science education literature considers a term like “ethnoscience” to convey a sense of non-Western ways of dealing with nature. However, what is taught today as school and university sciences, emerged from within an historical Eurocentric (Western) ethnic milieu, through discovery, invention, and appropriation from other cultures (Aikenhead & Ogawa, 2007). Thus, our conventional school science is in fact literally an ethnoscience of Eurocentrism. Consequently, if we do not correctly identify school science as teaching Eurocentric sciences, we will be promoting the hegemony of Euro-American culture and alienating many Indigenous students. This idea, articulated in 1995 by Masakata Ogawa, argues for a superordinate meaning of “science,” which recognizes that every major culture worldwide has, or has had, a science that is (was): “a rational empirically based way of knowing nature that yields in part, descriptions and explanations of nature” (Aikenhead & Ogawa, 2007, p.  544, original emphasis). This abstract superordinate concept of

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science encompasses a plurality of specific culture-based sciences, for example, Japanese science (Japanese ways of knowing Seigyo-Shizen), Islamic science, Indigenous sciences (Indigenous ways of living/being with nature1), and Eurocentric sciences, to name a few. In other words, rather than accepting a hubris notion that Eurocentric sciences should simply be called “science,” cultural equity and social justice leads one to treat Eurocentric sciences and Indigenous ways of living/being with nature as culturally different, co-existing, and potentially complimentary ways of understanding the physical world (Aikenhead & Michell, 2011); an issue that arises in Daniel’s and Nantana’s articles. On the other hand, if an author feels that their audience should be jarred to attention by reading the high status term “science” identified with an Indigenous knowledge system, then writing “Indigenous sciences” (plural because there are many different Indigenous nations) seems to make sense in that specific context. But to call Indigenous ways of living/being with nature “folk wisdom” denigrates their status within formal education. In general, the science education literature would certainly be less hegemonic if it reserved the term “science” for Ogawa’s superordinate meaning, and employed a modifier (Eurocentric, Indigenous, Japanese, Islamic, etc.) to proceed the term “science” in most other cases. Back-translations are usually more appropriate than modifiers; for example, Indigenous ways of living/being with nature. Although the two knowledge systems share some common attributes, and these should be emphasized in school science, Indigenous ways of living/being in nature do not require Eurocentric sciences to validate them because their validity firmly rests on tens of thousands of years of survival under some incredibly severe conditions (Aikenhead & Michell, 2011). On the contrary, Eurocentric sciences are limited by their intellectual understanding of the physical world, which lacks the emotional, physical, and spiritual dimensions of the human condition. The Indigenous wisdom tradition of understanding includes all four dimensions, which is a broader and richer type of understanding. Both traditions of understanding, intellectual and wisdom, have important ideas and processes to offer and share. They are not in competition. To summarize, on the one hand, school mathematics for Indigenous students mostly employs D’Ambrosion mathematics education for which Euro-American mathematics is the content to learn. Indigenous contexts serve primarily as motivation and teaching aids to augment student achievement in Euro-American mathematics. On the other hand, Indigenous cross-cultural school science draws on both  Indigenous languages of Turtle Island (North America) generally do not have a word that means what “science” or “knowledge” means in English. Much gets lost in translation, especially for connotative meanings (Aikenhead & Ogawa, 2007). Using back-translations (for instance, English into Cherokee, and then a literal translation back into English) brings the reader into closer contact with a more authentic Indigenous meaning, even though the expression may seem a little unwieldy. A back-translation of “Indigenous knowledge” in the context of school science comes out something like “Indigenous ways of living/being with nature” from the Canadian Cree language. None of the authors provided back-translations of key expressions. Linda’s use of Hawaiian words, however, is much appreciated. 1

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Eurocentric and Indigenous perspectives with which to view and understand the universe, while giving emphasis to Eurocentric sciences. This augments student achievement in both the Eurocentric sciences and Indigenous ways of living/being in nature. Daniel mentions “bridging” the two cultures and “enhancing” Western scientific processes with Indigenous cultural practices. This bicultural outcome has been called “two-eyed seeing” (Aikenhead & Michell, 2011). All articles in Section III feature the genre of personal storytelling, which conveys both explicit and tacit ideas. Nantana’s stories about her place-based, interdisciplinary, Euro-American STEM teaching in rural Thailand also includes the genre of formal story telling with statistical analyses, required for her Masters of Education thesis. Her Botanical Media Club innovation was an effective way to engage students and avoid the constraints of a standards-based curriculum for that particular project. Daniel, of Cherokee ancestry, recounts his alienation from Euro-American STEM, and then reveals how he began to make connections to it. In his new context of teaching Polynesian students in Hawai′i, he describes how he discovered features of successful culturally responsive teaching – lessons for all to learn. But a reader should add Pauline Chinn’s (2007) teacher in-service research program in Hawai′i; an exemplary professional development model for initiating non-Indigenous teachers into Indigenous STEM education. Linda’s story emphasizes the dramatic increases in academic achievement that accrue when students develop strong cultural self-identities through their engagement in D’Ambrosion mathematics classes. Euro-American STEM instructors would do well to learn the storytelling genre performed by all four Indigenous authors. It works well with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students (Aikenhead et  al., 2014). I am reminded of Muriel Rukeyser’s (1992, p.  135) famous insight, “The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” When the Euro-American ethnicity of STEM is unknown, ignored, or dismissed, Euro-American STEM becomes essentialized. Its culture-laden ontology, epistemology, and axiology will also be invisible. An essentialized STEM will continue to marginalize most Indigenous students by its claim to objective Universalist privilege, which excludes Indigenous perspectives. An essentialized STEM promotes standard-based globalized curricula, which are mostly out of sync with the goals of cultural survival and capacity building of a nation’s youth. All students benefit from a culturally responsive or place-based Indigenous STEM education (Aikenhead & Michell, 2011), by simultaneously developing resiliency and forging their own cultural self-identities. The voluminous content of most standards-based Euro-American STEM curricula prevents most teachers from exercising the flexibility needed to provide a culturally responsive or place-based program. This explains the lingering tension between the constitutional authority of curriculum standards and the evidential authority of what works well in culturally responsive or place-based Indigenous STEM education.

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These curricular constraints on innovation can be partially overcome by exceptional practitioners, such as the authors of Section III. But for the vast majority of competent teachers, curricular constraints will stifle innovations toward Indigenous STEM education. The politics cog (Fig. 1) will have stopped for them. Who in the research and education community will come forward and launch the political movement to drive research, policy, and practice simultaneously into renegotiating the content of school mathematics and science, so it becomes feasible to teach Indigenous STEM in a culturally responsive or place-based way? And who will hold current gatekeepers accountable? Euro-American STEM is currently facing a challenge in Canada; not only from the research and education community, but potentially from our Indigenous youth (Aikenhead & Sutherland, 2015).

References Aikenhead, G., & Michell, H. (2011). Bridging cultures: Indigenous and scientific ways of knowing nature. Pearson Education Canada. Aikenhead, G.  S., & Ogawa, M. (2007). Indigenous knowledge and science revisited. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2, 539–591. Aikenhead, G. S., & Sutherland, D. (2015). How grassroots indigenous movements can change the shape of STEM education. In B. Freeman, S. Marginson, & R. Tytler (Eds.), The age of STEM: Educational policy and practice across the world in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (pp. 151–160). Routledge. Aikenhead, G., Brokofsky, J., Bodnar, T., Clark, C., Foley, C., et  al. (2014). Enhancing school science with indigenous knowledge: What we know from teachers and research. Saskatoon Public School Division with Amazon.ca. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.ca/Enhancing-­ School-­Science-­Indigenous-­Knowledge/dp/149957343X Ball, P. (2013, December 16). Polynesian people used binary numbers 600 years ago. Nature. Retrieved December 20, 2015, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ polynesian-­people-­used-­binary-­numbers-­600-­years-­ago/ Bishop, A. J. (1988). The interactions of mathematics education with culture. Cultural Dynamics, 1(2), 145–157. Bishop, A. J. (2000). Western mathematics: The secret weapon of cultural imperialism. Institute of Race Relations. Retrieved October 3, 2014, from http://rac.sagepub.com Chinn, P. W. U. (2007). Decolonizing methodologies and indigenous knowledge: The role of culture, place and personal experience in professional development. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44, 1247–1268. François, F., & Van Kerkhove, B. (2010). Ethnomathematics and the philosophy of mathematics (education). In B.  Löwe & T.  Müller (Eds.), Philosophy of mathematics: Sociological aspects and mathematical practice (Texts in Philosophy 11) (pp.  121–154). College Publications. Greene, E. (2000). Good-bye Pythagoras? The Chronicle of Higher Education, 47(6), A16–A18. Greer, B., Mukhopadhyay, S., Powell, A.  B., & Nelson-Barber, S. (Eds.). (2009). Culturally responsive mathematics education. Routledge. Michell, H., Vizina, Y., Augustus, C., & Sawyer, J. (2008). Learning indigenous science from place. Retrieved December 20, 2015, from http://iportal.usask.ca/docs/ Learningindigenousscience.pdf

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Nova. (2015). Ethnomathematics. Retrieved December 20, 2015, from http://www.nova.org.au/ everything-­else/ethnomathematics Ogawa, M. (1995). Science education in a multi-science perspective. Science Education, 79, 583–593. Rukeyser, M. (1992). The speed of darkness. In K. Rukeyser (Ed.), Out of silence: Selected poems. Northwestern University Press.

Glen Aikenhead  is Professor Emeritus, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, where he worked between 1971 and 2006. He earned an Honours BSc (University of Calgary, 1965), Masters of Arts in Teaching (Harvard University, 1966), and a Doctorate in Science Education (Harvard University, 1972). Glen has always embraced a humanistic perspective on science, even as a young research chemist. His educational research studies over the past 25 years in cross-cultural Indigenous science education have emphasized the recognition of Indigenous knowledge in school science for all students. This has led to communitybased collaborative projects in: renewing the provincial curriculum, developing teaching materials, editing textbooks enhanced with Indigenous knowledge, producing teacher professional development programs, leading teacher workshops, and consulting/mentoring/supporting Indigenous scholars and their allies, locally and internationally. His homepage lists publications in various fields of interest: https://education.usask.ca/profiles/ aikenhead.php#top

Chapter 1

Utilizing Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Western Science in Science Education Daniel Lipe

Abstract  In this article I discuss the need to include Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) as its own science-based worldview, identify why it is important to include diverse perspectives in science and explore ways in which both systems can be utilized side by side. In general, Western science has become the worldview utilized in dealing with the many complex, multi-level issues of today. Research has shown that as issues increase in both size and complexity, so does the need for diverse cultural and intellectual frames of reference for identifying solutions to problems. By necessity Indigenous peoples have developed their own science-based understandings of the world. Passed on through oral traditions, Indigenous peoples have both maintained and expanded their understandings over time. Until recently, Indigenous worldviews have been removed and placed outside of science. Focusing on Indigenous stories as wells of scientific knowledge and storytelling as a vital means of transmitting that knowledge, I discuss science through my own personal story as an Indigenous science student, researcher, and educator. I do so to illustrate how connecting home cultures with those found in school settings can help engage underrepresented populations in science while providing diverse perspectives and understanding useful for all science education. Keywords  Indigenous knowledge systems · Cultural science · Storytelling · Diversity in science · Place based education

D. Lipe (*) Environmental Science and Management, Cal Poly Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 P. W. U. Chinn, S. Nelson-Barber (eds.), Indigenous STEM Education, Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education 30, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30506-1_1

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1.1 Science and Today’s Complex Multi-level Issues Over the years there has been much discussion regarding how Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and Western science systems cannot work together. To the contrary, however, my research, my professional work, and my life experiences have presented me with evidence that not only can IKS and Western science work together, but the world needs these diverse knowledge systems to solve the many scientific challenges we face. Therefore, in this article, I draw from both Western scientific research as well as Indigenous-centered research to demonstrate the utility of both knowledge systems. I begin with a discussion on why diverse perspectives are needed in natural resource education and management practices. I particularly draw from data and research gathered in a typical Western-centered style. I then share stories, which highlights an Indigenous pedagogy for transmitting Indigenous knowledge. In addition, I present stories to demonstrate the scientific content found within Indigenous stories. I provide these two culturally different pedagogical styles of teaching as a means to show that when we are able to utilize diverse perspectives and methodologies side by side in science education, we are able to develop a broader and more holistic understanding of how to go about education and resource management practices for a more sustainable future. Finally, I describe how I have been able to utilize Western science as well as Indigenous knowledge systems and pedagogies to learn and teach across various boundaries including but not limited to place, culture, and age. Specifically, I describe how I navigate and negotiate my role as a non-Hawaiian educator and scientist in Hawai‘i working with Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander populations.

1.2 Science and Rising Complex Issues All science disciplines deal with complex and multi-level issues. Natural resource sciences are no exception. Climate change, managing biodiversity, environmental issues, complex species interactions, effects of introduced exotic species, and human encompasses “science” has the task of addressing today. As human populations and technological innovations continue to increase, so too does the complexity of issues that we as a society face. In addition, as a society, we are becoming more and more surrounded by an engineered, concrete dominated landscape. As metropolitan concrete landscapes become larger and more enclosed, alienation to nature and environments outside these areas increases. As alienation from outdoor environments has increased, so too has Western society’s dependence upon a smaller percentage of society who are the “science” trained experts who are believed to have to have the the means to identify, prioritize, guide and solve the many complex issues facing society.

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1.3 Cultural Diversity and Science As natural resource issues increase in both size and complexity, so too does the need for culturally diverse intellectual frames of reference for identifying solutions to problems. Over the years, research has shown that groups working on complex multifaceted questions and issues benefit by having intellectual and cultural diversity (Mazur & Biatostocka, 2010). Diverse frames of reference allow individuals to see issues through multiple perspectives, increasing their ability to come up with more complete and encompassing answers. In describing multiple and diverse perspectives, Kincheloe and Steinberg (2008, p. 139) state, “In a sense, the single photograph of Cartesian thinking is replaced by the multiple angles of the holographic photograph.” Further, as Bohensky and Maru (2011, p. 3) argue, “Modern problems cannot be consistently solved with singular, mechanistic, science-centered solutions.” Therefore, it is essential that we find ways to bring diverse perspectives of knowing and understanding into our current scientific conversations.

1.4 Diversifying Science Through Education In order to prepare the next generation of scientists with diverse perspectives, we need to transform their educational experiences. Natural resource education and curricula that include culturally diverse perspectives are ways to provide future scientists – as natural resource managers and policy makers – with the tools required for making more holistic and informed resource management decisions. Bi-cultural education programs that teach the foundational values and practices of both Western and Indigenous sciences are necessary. Such programs can be useful for teaching students from different cultural backgrounds about the similarities and differences between Western and Indigenous scientific perspectives. In turn, these understandings can lead to identifying and utilizing multiple worldviews and knowledge systems to address the issues our world faces today.

1.5 Components of Indigenous Knowledge All Indigenous knowledge is not the same nor does it look or sound the same. However, there are some common components that are important to note. First, Indigenous knowledge, which includes Indigenous science, began a long time ago, necessitated by the need to know and learn about environments as a means of survival. Through scientific observation, trial and error experimentation, and hands-on interactions with nature, Indigenous peoples have developed their own ontological understandings of the world (Lake, 2007). In addition, Native American understandings of nature extend back to a time before European settlers and any other

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peoples immigrated to North America. Moreover, Native American ontological understandings and knowledge systems have co-evolved accordingly alongside and within the places and environments from which they are an essential component of.

1.6 Indigenous Pedagogies for Indigenous Knowledge In order to pass down the dynamic and extensive knowledge from generation to generation, Native Americans, along with many other Indigenous peoples, engage in a variety of pedagogies. One such pedagogy is engaging in oral traditions through storytelling (Prober et al., 2011). However, though Indigenous stories contain generations of scientific knowledge, they are not widely accepted as having any use in the modern western science education or practice of today. Therefore, one way to demonstrate the importance of storytelling as a useful form of teaching Indigenous science and thus expanding the knowledge utilized in the realm of ‘science’ is to engage in the practice of storytelling.

1.7 Teaching Science by Telling Stories I have come to understand much about who I am as a Native American educator, scientist, father, and son through storytelling. Through storytelling and the connections stories reveal, my responsibilities in those various roles have been made clear. In particular, the values I have learned through sharing and learning stories from my family, my mentors, and from my environment help guide me in my actions and ground me in my understandings of how to build relationships to the people of that place and the land itself, no matter where I am geographically located. This has been particularly important, as I have lived in many places throughout my life. To be specific, the Indigenous practice of storytelling has helped me to learn about and see the connections between Western science and Indigenous Knowledge. Further, I teach others about IKS and Western science and invite them into an Indigenous paradigm by telling stories. Therefore, to demonstrate this pedagogical approach, I share some of my stories with you. As you read my stories, I invite you to think about your own stories and how stories inform who you are as well as your teaching and learning, especially within the realm of ‘science.’

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1.8 My Genealogical Connections One purpose of Indigenous stories has been used to teach the fundamental values that shape Indigenous environmental land ethics. Among the many teachings found in Indigenous oral traditions and stories is a diversity of creation stories that connect each Indigenous people to their local place. Stories also teach us how we are related to the world around us and are used to guide us through the many relationships and responsibilities to place. As a registered Western Band Cherokee member who grew up in Oregon, my family lineage of both my parents traces back to Oklahoma. However, before the late 1830s my family could be found living within the foot hills of our ancestral homelands found within now Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. My parents first taught me about my connection to these places through our creation story that speaks of a time before there was any land and the earth was a giant body of water, back to a time when the great animals lived in the sky-vault high above the earth. As the sky vault became crowded the animals looked for another place to live. They sent Water Beetle down to the water below and asked him to help find land. Water Beetle took a big breath and dove down deep into the water and just before he ran out of air, he found the bottom and brought back a piece of mud to the surface. When the mud touched the surface, it began to spread out across the water and made what we now know as land. After some time, the animals sent down the great buzzard to see if the land was dry enough for them to live on. As Buzzard flew across the land, he began to get tired. He got so close to the still-drying land that his flapping wings hit the surface and created the very mountains and valleys that my family and people called home since time immemorial. In 1830 the US Government passed the Indian Removal Act, in order to acquire more land for incoming European settler colonizers. In 1838 began the forced removal of over 13,000 Cherokee that would alter the relationship to these homelands for future Cherokee generations.

1.9 Trail of Tears James Mooney (1992) describes what happened during that forced removal known as the “Trail of Tears.” In 1838 over 17,000 Cherokee men, women, and children in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee were forcefully taken and placed in stockades to await removal to Oklahoma country. Provided with 645 wagons, the removal of the more than 13,000 remaining Cherokee people began in October 1838 and ended in March 1839. Other Native American tribes were also forcibly removed. It is estimated that over 15,000 Indigenous peoples died on the Trail of Tears (Pevar, 2012). Mooney estimates that over 4000 of those who died were Cherokee. Many of those who survived the removal would begin build a new relationship within what was to be called the Oklahoma territory. These relationships were based upon the same ancestral norms and values of respect for the land and nature as

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generations past. However, over the next several generations many new stories and connections would be formed in this new place including stories that have been passed down from my family members. In 1896, my great grandpa David Lee Bigby was born in Oak Grove Oklahoma. He eventually married my great grandmother, Lettie Lee Thomas, also of Cherokee descent. Together they had seven children on the parcel of allotment lands that was not taken back from them by the United States government. My grandmother has continued to share stories about growing up on the land and being connected to her family farm. She often talks about growing up on her grandfather’s land and all of trees that her family planted and took care of. She grew up playing in on those trees and during the right time if season her and her family harvesting the many gifts those same trees provided our family and the other animals living within the area. Grandma often talks about the many chores she had in taking care of the area, but she also tells stories and tales of growing up on a farm that was capable of sustaining her entire family including her aunts and uncles, many of which built homes on her grandfather’s land. She tells of the giant cellar under her grandma’s living room that was filled with canned and processed goods from the farm. I remember being told many of these stories and adventures that my grandmother had when I was a youngster. Over the years I have lived and experienced many similar experiences both with my grandparents and my own parents. I now understand that these same cultural stories and values that grandmother passed to my dad, that he and my mother passed on to me, have been built upon the stories and connections that their parents and grandparents were raised with. Stories are one way of perpetuating important Indigenous values and practices. Making a very hard decision in 1942 at the end of the great depression, my Great Grandma and Great Grandpa moved to Oregon in order to provide for their family. Even though it was a hard decision to leave behind their farm, they took with them their stories, cultural values, land ethics, and practices. Through these various methods, the foundational Indigenous values were passed down to my father.

1.10 Connections None-the-Less I was born in Oregon, in 1971, and have spent the majority of my life learning our family stories and my connections and responsibilities to this earth. These are the lessons passed down through the many generations before me. Since I was twice removed from my ancestral lands by the time I was born, I have relied heavily on the values and practices passed down through our stories to maintain my connections and responsibilities. Our stories have guided my family’s connection to place, most specifically be teaching us the importance of engaging with our natural world. Most of what I think of as my formal scientific education came from years of identifying plants and animals in the woods with my family, rather than in a classroom reading a book or listening to a teacher talk about ideas that I could not touch, see, or relate to for

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myself. Some of my earliest scientific memories came from family activities such as hunting and fishing. I would sit in duck blinds and learn how to identify waterfowl by sight and sound. I remember blowing on duck and goose calls trying to figure out how to mimic calls of passing waterfowl well enough to lure them into our decoys. I also remember touching and playing with the ducks that my dad and mom had shot. My brothers and I learned about everything from the different types of feathers to the color and feel of body parts like webbed feet, wings, and eyes. My brothers and I spent hours observing and learning behavioral patterns and habitat requirements of most wildlife species within the Klamath Basin. We could identify almost every kind of migratory bird found within the Pacific Northwest when we were only in elementary school. At the same time, we learned about our relationships and responsibilities to care for the plants and animals that provided food for our family. We were taught the importance of who we were along with how we were connected to our surroundings. We never really talked about it as ‘science’ or ‘worldviews.’ It was just how we lived life day to day. There was an underlying respect that was evident in all our teachings, a value passed down through the stories. For example, as required by my father, we were not allowed to shoot any bird that we could not first identify by sight and sound. It was a matter of respecting the birds that nourished our family. When few ducks were flying, we were instructed to watch, listen and learn from other animals that we saw. We watched and learned from the hawks and eagles that hunted the same waters as we did. We also saw many different neotropical bird species that used the same vegetation as our duck blinds for homes. We were taught that we were all connected and that it was important to see the world through a holistic lens where everything has a purpose and is equally important. From a very young age we understood that we depended upon the plants and animals for survival and were not superior to or more important than any of them. My earliest memories are filled with lived experiences of being engaged with nature. Reflecting upon these experiences as I share these stories, I now realize that whether it was observing waterfowl, learning their anatomy when we skinned and cleaned them, or mimicking their calls, we were learning science. We were budding scientists.

1.11 Educational Disconnect It was not until college, however, that I was able to relate my home culture with my school culture. Throughout my elementary and secondary education, I struggled in science courses, eventually avoiding them altogether. My science teachers never asked me to share stories from home and they never taught science the way I had experienced it. There was a total disconnect between my school and home cultures and as a result I felt as if I had no place in school. When I first started college, I continued to avoid science, believing I was not smart enough to make it through science courses. It just seemed like everyone else

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in the classroom understood the material better than me. What I did not realize was that I had learned a great deal of science through cultural lived experiences growing up in the woods and along the rivers. However, my college professors again did not invite me to share about my own experiences learning science outdoors, did not engage me in any of the teaching and learning methods that I learned best in, and did not discuss the values that were so important to my family.

1.12 Making Connections Though my elementary, secondary, and many of my undergraduate years were very disconnected for me, I finally began to make connections between IKS and Western science through a support program for Native American STEM students at my university. In particular, the program connected me and other Native American students to Native American mentors. This was particularly important because I did not have one Native American professor and no non-Native professors who incorporated any IKS into the curriculum. Therefore, the relationships, conversations, stories, and IKS my Native American mentors connected me with validated my own IKS and the values and worldviews I brought as a Native American scientist.

1.13 Paying it Forward As I reflect on my own stories, experiences, and research, I have found that what I am passionate about is helping others, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to identify the connections between and utilize the knowledge within IKS and Western science. This is important to me for at least two reasons. First, as described in the first section of this article, multiple perspectives in science are essential to addressing the many issues the world faces. Second, inviting in and utilizing different knowledge systems creates meaningful educational experiences for students, which inspires further education and study. Therefore, I have spent the last 20 years of my life researching and trying to find innovative ways to utilize Indigenous Knowledge and Western science side by side. It has not been easy, but I draw on the strength of my past and present family and the many other Indigenous mentors and individuals who have paved the way before me. Much of what I have learned over the years has come from listening and learning from elders, hearing their words about the importance of making connections to science in order to teach all people about the importance of taking care of mother earth. Many of my Indigenous mentors were telling me to look closer at what was being taught, or more significantly not being taught, in the Western sciences. As a science educator in both K-12 settings and university classrooms, I recognized that there continued to be disconnects. There was a disconnect between the knowledge of the student’s home and the knowledge presented at school. There

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was a disconnect and often no connection between Western science and any other scientific perspectives, including Indigenous place-based knowledge systems and worldviews. In summary, nothing much had changed since I was a student. While recognizing that disconnects still existed, I also came to acknowledge that I could help bridge those disconnects. Prepared in both Western science as well as Indigenous knowledge systems and land ethics, I could speak both languages and make connections between the two. Because of this, I have been afforded opportunities to work with many communities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to help make connections and utilize knowledge from IKS and Western science. Working with and in various communities of which I am not an Indigenous member can be tricky business. However, in many ways, being twice removed from my own ancestral homelands helped to prepare me for my future work in various communities. Honoring the importance of stories, valuing the knowledge of the Indigenous people of place, engaging with the environment, working with practitioners, and always looking for sustainable ways to care for mother earth are underlying values that have helped me cross many borders and work with many populations. I never assume to be the expert of a new community or place that I enter into. Rather, I look for local and Indigenous experts of the area, form partnerships by establishing trusting relationships, invite students and other community members to tell their own stories, and help those storytellers to see the science and knowledge within their stories and life experiences. Therefore, my role as a science teacher has become that of facilitator, liaison, and partner. This has been key to bridging not only IKS and Western science but also the people who are the keepers of that knowledge. My approach to bridging scientific worldviews and knowledge systems was put to the test when I moved to Hawai‘i in 2005. There was half an ocean and an entire continent between me and my ancestral homeland. Almost everything was different than the environments I knew in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. The plants were different, the animals were different, and I was now surrounded by ocean. In terms of scientific content-knowledge of place, I was out of my comfort zone. Within months of moving to Hawai‘i, I was hired as a science and math teacher at a Hawaiian charter school. The school utilized student-driven, project-based education as a means to teach students. Specifically, we taught through connecting community, family, and Hawaiian cultural practices. Even though I found myself in a foreign place and I was a foreigner to my students and their families, we were able to connect. Through the sharing of my own cultural values and beliefs I was able to connect with students from Hawai‘i. What I found is that though the environments and cultures of Hawai‘i are unique and different than anything I was used to, our underlying values were similar. We have a deep love and respect for mother earth and want to find sustainable ways to take care of her. Even though my students grew up in the ocean and I grew up in the woods, we both love to engage with nature, whether it be hunting or fishing, hiking or surfing. I learned about our common values and our shared interests through conversations and storytelling.

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Once I knew my students’ stories and the knowledge systems they brought to our classroom, I could help identify that knowledge as science. For example, their understanding of the ocean dealt with physics and marine biology. Their ability to clean a fish and gut a pig was the same basics of biology and anatomy that I learned cleaning fish, waterfowl, and elk. In other instances, they had a background in Western science but did not see the utility or the relevance in their natural world. Therefore, I facilitated their learning by helping them make connections between different scientific knowledge systems and how the two can inform one another. Further, through conversations and spending time together, they shared stories of their land ethics and cultural practices that enhanced the Western scientific processes in which they also engaged. To further the development of both IKS and Western science within my students, I connected them with resources. Often times this meant connecting students with mentors from the community or other educational institutions. These mentors were both Western trained scientists and also cultural IKS experts. In order to connect my students with mentors, I have focused much energy on building community partnerships. Many of the relationships I have made have been with Hawaiian practitioners, scholars, resource managers, families, and community members who work with natural resource and land restoration. It is these individuals that I rely on to be the Hawaiian science content teachers. What I witnessed in these student-community partnerships is that all parties benefit. Indigenous students are hungry for learning about how to connect their cultural practices to the science they are learning in the classroom. At the same time, the community-based organizations and mentors are often looking for students who can apply the skills and knowledge learned in the classroom to help design, improve, and carry out different projects. While these relationships might seem natural, I have learned that they are not. Instead, the networking, partnering, and connecting of students to community organizations and experts often requires individuals who have the skills to connect them. What I have further learned is that the liaison, such as myself in this example, does not have to be the Indigenous person of that place. Instead, it takes someone who has values and has a deep respect for the Indigenous knowledge and people of the place and are willing to put the necessary time and energy into building relationships. Further, those liaisons, in the form of teachers, must acknowledge the Indigenous experts by involving them in the learning, teaching and dissemination of their knowledge.

1.14 Final Reflections I have worked in Hawai‘i in the area of Indigenous natural resource education for over 15  years now. Over the last three years I have worked at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oahu (UHWO) within the Sustianable Community Food Systems (SCFS) Bachelores of Applied Science (BAS) degree program. Through this position I have been able to apply my research and teaching endeavoures through the

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building of several courses and the development of hands on research projects that are teaching students how IKS and WS knowledge systems can work together in order to create more encompassing answers for the complexed and multifaceted questions we are faced with within the food systems arena. I continue to build relationships with my students and the people, communities, and places I work with through the sharing of stories that explain how my family and other Indigenous peoples build relationships and care for the land through lived experiences. I am committed to this work, because I believe that Western science needs diverse perspectives and knowledge systems in order to properly care for mother earth. At the same time, I also want diverse student bodies, including Indigenous students, to understand that the knowledge from their families, communities, and specific places is valid and important. With this said, I have primarily engaged in this work in communities outside of my own. Therefore, I will continue to work with and build community relationships through utilizing my own Indigenous cultural and Western understandings and experiences of science. I will also continue to engage and invite students to share their own knowledge through stories and lived experiences and help them understand how those experiences are essential for helping us understand how to live more sustainable both now and in the future. In my time as both a student and an educator, this has been the most powerful tool to bring light to different scientific knowledge systems and also to make connections between them.

References Bohensky, E. L., & Maru, Y. (2011). Indigenous knowledge, science, and resilience: What have we learned from a decade of international literature on “integration”? Ecology and Society, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-­04342-­160406 Kincheloe, J. L., & Steinberg, S. R. (2008). Indigenous knowledges in education. In Handbook of North American Indians; history of Indian-white relations (pp. 135–156). Sage. Lake, F. (2007). Traditional ecological knowledge to develop and maintain fire regimes in North Western California, Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion: Management and restoration of culturally significant habitats. Oregon State University. Mazur, B., & Biatostocka, P. (2010). Cultural diversity in organizational theory and practice. Journal of Intercultural Management, 2(2), 5–15. Mooney, J. (1992). James Mooney’s history, myths, and sacred formulas of the Cherokees: Containing the full texts of myths of the Cherokee (1900) and the sacred formulas of the Cherokees (1891) as published by the Bureau of American Ethnology: With a new biographical introduction, James Mooney and the eastern Cherokees. Historical Images. Pevar, S. L. (2012). The rights of Indians and tribes. : Oxford University Press. Prober, S. M., O’Connor, M. H., & Walsh, F. J. (2011). Australian aboriginal peoples’ seasonal knowledge: A potential basis for shared understanding in environmental management. Journal of Ecology and Society, 16(2), 12. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss2/art12/

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D. Lipe Daniel Lipe  is a member of the Cherokee  Nation, currently living in Northern California on the ansestral lands of the Wiyot people and working at Cal Poly Humboldt in the Environmental Science and Management Program.. He holds a PhD. in Education, Curriculum Studies with a Masters of Forestry and Bachelors of Fisheries and Wildlife. His research focusses on the intersection between TEK and WS and how to utilize both worldviews in environmental restoration projects.

Chapter 2

Voyaging Toward Equity Through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Mathematics Education Linda H. L. Furuto

Abstract  In an effort to address issues of equity in mathematics education, culturally sustaining pedagogy is explored through promising practices in Hawai‘i and beyond. This article begins with an overview of ethnomathematics that provides a framework for the central roles of: (1) values-based education and (2) building successful partnerships. Examples of these include a National Science Foundation funded Mathematics Center at the University of Hawai‘i  – West O‘ahu and the world’s first academic program in ethnomathematics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, both of which have been guided by the Polynesian Voyaging Society over the past decade. The Polynesian Voyaging Society’s Hōkūle‘a canoe recently circumnavigated the globe on the 2013–2017 Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage by celestial navigation and traditional wayfinding techniques grounded in STEM principles. Hōkūle‘a is a vehicle to navigate promising practices in culturally sustaining pedagogy as we continue to voyage with courage, vision, and hope toward equity in mathematics education. Keywords  Mathematics education · Equity · Ethnomathematics · Culturally sustaining pedagogy

2.1 Introduction and the Role of Ethnomathematics We are the stewards and navigators of Hawai‘i’s educational community. We believe that the betterment of humanity is inherently possible, and we believe our schools, from early childhood education through advanced graduate studies, are a powerful force for good. This is the voyage of our lifetimes, and we are steadfast in our commitment to achieve a profound transformation in education. We will transform our schools, empower youthful voices, and

L. H. L. Furuto (*) Mathematics Education, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 P. W. U. Chinn, S. Nelson-Barber (eds.), Indigenous STEM Education, Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education 30, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30506-1_2

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L. H. L. Furuto accept the responsibility of Mālama Honua—to care for Island Earth…the University of Hawai‘i’s 10 campuses have active programs and projects to achieve this goal such as… ethnomathematics and STEM learning [emphasis added]. We will share Hawai‘i’s gifts of caring and kindness as we circumnavigate Island Earth (PVS, 2023).

The opening quote is from the “Promise to Children” and was carried on Hōkūle‘a throughout the 2013–2017 Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage, a four-year circumnavigation of the globe. Hōkūle‘a is a traditional double-hulled Hawaiian voyaging canoe that also serves as a floating classroom for culturally sustaining pedagogy and practices. As highlighted above, the role of ethnomathematics and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning is central to the sail plan. In an effort to address issues of equity in mathematics education and work toward continuing to fulfill the “Promise to Children,” this article will explore two examples of promising practices through the lens of ethnomathematics at the University of Hawaiʻi – West O‘ahu (UHWO) and University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM): (1) values-based education and (2) building successful partnerships. According to D’Ambrosio (2001), the term ethno describes “ingredients that make up the identity of a group: language, codes, values, beliefs, community, and class” (p. 308). Mathematics is expressed as a “broad view which includes arithmetic, classifying, ordering, inferring, and modeling” (p.  308). Ethnomathematics unites a broad cluster of ideas ranging from distinct numerical and mathematical systems with identity, including race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and special needs (D’Ambrosio, 2001; Rosa & Orey, 2021). D’Ambrosio explains that it is generally not common to connect mathematics and identity. When a link is acknowledged, it is often a brief multicultural activity removed from that of the students’ backgrounds. Such activities usually refer to a culture’s past and to cultures that are removed from those of the students in the class. An important component for progress in mathematics education should be to reaffirm the individuality and identity of students. Rosa and Orey (2021) expand on the definition of ethnomathematics as the mathematical practices, procedures, and techniques developed by the members of distinct groups in accordance with their social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental contexts. As students, educators, and policymakers experience schooling in this manner, they develop a greater respect for other ways of processing, interpreting, assessing, and utilizing mathematics (Furuto, 2018; Kana‘iaupuni et  al., 2017). Over the past four decades, this work has been termed “culturally appropriate” (Au & Jordan, 1981), “culturally congruent” (Mohatt & Erickson, 1981), “culturally responsive” (Cazden & Leggett, 1981; Howard & Terry, 2011), “culturally compatible” (Vogt et  al., 1987), “culturally sustaining” (Paris, 2012), and “living mathematx” (Gutiérrez, 2017). The UCLA Center X (2008) documented, “Culture matters when it comes to teaching and learning…every child enters a classroom with rich cultural knowledge and lived experiences that help them learn each day” (p. 1).

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According to the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics, National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in a joint statement: The current system of mathematics education is not working for all students. The global pandemic in 2020 and 2021 highlighted the persistent inequities within the system. Mathematics educators and leaders continue to face pressures, challenges, changes, and opportunities that influence the teaching and learning of mathematics (e.g., the adoption of new mathematics curricula, technology tools, state or provincial standards and assessments, or district policies). For mathematics educators to collaborate with others is vital to meeting the needs of each and every learner (NCTM, 2021 p. 13).

The mathematical ideas of the Pacific region have often been overlooked, particularly in STEM. In Pacific as well as other communities, it is key to understand how space, time, and place are contextualized (Chauvin, 2000; Finney, 1979). This is evident when we study groups whose behavior is intimately related to the sea and to navigation. Pacific communities relied heavily on voyaging to survive in the past and produced culturally sustaining STEM pedagogy that still resonates today as will be explored in this article (Baybayan et al., 1987; PVS, 2023). When these types of inventions, experiences, and applications of mathematics are realized and respected, all students are given equal opportunity for access and achievement (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995; NCTM, 2021). Hawai‘i’s population is among the most diverse in the nation. Nearly a fourth, 23.7%, of Hawaii’s population identified as multiracial during the 2011–2015 period. The five largest “race alone or in combination” groups are as follows: White (43.0%), Filipino (25.0%), Japanese (22.1%), Native Hawaiian (21.3%), and Chinese (14.1%). An estimated 57.0% of the total population was non-White (U.S.  Census Bureau, 2023). Hawai‘i is the only statewide school district in the nation, and operates a single public higher education system at the University of Hawai‘i (UH). Within the Hawai‘i State Department of Education (HIDOE), 47% of students receive free and reduced lunch from a range of schools classified as urban, suburban, and rural (HIDOE, 2023). The UH system is comprised of 10 campuses, including three universities and seven community colleges. The data and context make Hawai‘i a valuable study and provide a significant lens into the future of diversity and equity in mathematics education in the U.S.

2.2 Values-Based Education The first promising practice this article will highlight is the centrality of values-­ based education to the development of the mathematics program at the University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu (UHWO). In Fall 2007, the UHWO campus moved into a new phase of growth with the transition from a two-year upper division to a four-­ year, liberal arts university. UHWO additionally opened a new campus in Fall 2012.

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This was an especially critical period to support and retain traditionally underrepresented populations, particularly in STEM disciplines. The author was hired as the first and sole full-time UHWO mathematics faculty between 2007–2013 to build the mathematics program. In Spring 2008, the author applied for and received a National Science Foundation grant to open UHWO’s first Mathematics Center. The Mathematics Center has a threefold purpose of providing academic mentoring, personalized tutoring, and research experiences in ethnomathematics, all of which are key to achieve the goal of increased student success in college and future careers. The UHWO Mathematics Center has allowed UHWO to effectively address and work toward accomplishing the strategic plan in terms of immediate, intermediate, and long-term mathematics goals. Tutoring has serviced the immediate needs of assisting students enrolled in mathematics courses and the intermediate and long-term goals have been accomplished to develop bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and mathematics education and prepare future mathematics teachers. Values-based education has been the backbone in working toward the goals of the UHWO Mathematics Center and building the mathematics program. The UHWO Mathematics Center has learned, through ethnomathematics, how deeply cultural values can impact curriculum and instruction and how mathematics education can then affect political and social dynamics and policies in development of the schooling process. Values-based education grounded in ethnomathematics empowers students and educators to implement teaching and learning pathways that foster engagement and achievement via real-world applications embedded in a sense of purpose and a sense of place. The UHWO Mathematics Center was founded on the following six values: • Mālama: to care for—each student is cared for within and outside of the classroom (Bok, 2006; Su, 2020). • Aloha: to show kindness/compassion—love and care are the foundation to achieve program and institutional goals (Berry, 2023; Furuto, 2018). • ‘Imi ‘ike: to seek knowledge—worldviews are honored through designing and implementing instruction that affirms students’ identities as authors of mathematics (D’Ambrosio, 2001; Goffney & Gutiérrez, 2018). • Lokomaika‘i: to share—exchanging ideas in research, theory, and praxis are important for nurturing continual growth (NCTM, 2014; Paris, 2012). • Mahalo: to show gratitude/respect—amplifying students’ voices and strengths fosters a positive environment conducive for appreciating and respecting mathematical ideas (Kana‘iaupuni et al., 2017; Powell & Frankenstein, 1997). • Na‘au pono: to nurture a deep sense of justice—cultivating a sense of purpose and a sense of place through place-based learning is a source of curriculum and instruction (Bang & Medin, 2010; Greer et al., 2009). • Olakino maika‘i: to live healthy—collaborative classroom communities support the health and well-being of all members (Gutstein & Peterson, 2006; NCTM, 2014).

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• Laulima: to work together—understanding connections between past, present, and future generations includes responsibilities to each (Nicol et al., 2019). These are Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) values, but they are also universal values. Their impact instills in students a sense of civic responsibility and stewardship to mālama honua—to care for Island Earth and all people and places like ‘ohana (family).

2.2.1 Mathematics for Elementary Teachers Curriculum and Instruction The course MATH 111 Mathematics for Elementary Teachers is designed for prospective elementary school teachers to enhance their mathematical skills and pedagogical practices. The student learning outcomes are aligned with the UHWO institutional learning outcome to demonstrate critical thinking skills by applying information to make well-reasoned arguments and to see the beauty, power, clarity, and precision in solving real-world problems. The following MATH 111 Mathematics for Elementary Teachers course assignment and assessment were developed with support from the UHWO Mathematics Center. They show how specific mathematics concepts and ethnomathematics learning journeys were connected through values-based education. An example of a MATH 111 course assignment was to design a lesson plan based on ethnomathematics, including an experiential, place-based learning journey. The topic and approach were the student’s choice and reflected the content and grade level the student planned on teaching. The lesson plan included state and federal standards and benchmarks such as Mathematics Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Students’ lesson plans covered topics such as “Transformations in Tribal Tattoos,” “Exploring Ocean Waves with the Sine Curve,” “Modeling Linear Functions with Lei,” and “Cartesian Coordinates and Lauhala Weaving.” In the lesson on “Discovering Central Angles and Arcs Using Traditional Navigation,” author Ashley Deeks was able to complete the activities with 11th–12th grade algebra III/trigonometry students in her observation practicum course. The students discovered central angles and their arcs through the use of stars in traditional wayfinding and celestial navigation. They looked for geometric shapes and patterns in the Hawaiian star lines of nā ‘ohana hōkū ‘eha (four star families) while discussing the movement of stars with the use of Stellarium and photos of star trails (http://www.stellarium.org/). Students worked in groups to see how far one individual star traveled in star trail photos and brainstormed how to approach this problem through what they already knew about circles. Each group was equipped with protractors, compasses, and the natural environment, which they used to trace or draw the circle with arcs and radii. Together the class discovered that central angles

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were equal to their subtended arcs in degrees. The relevant CCSS were “Identify and describe relationships among inscribed angles, radii, and chords, including the relationship between central, inscribed, and circumscribed angles” along with Mathematical Practice 2 “reason abstractly and quantitatively” and Mathematical Practice 4 “model with mathematics.” In addition, students made connections to the Nā Honua Mauli Ola Cultural Pathway (2023) ‘Ike Hoʻokō “helps generations attain academic, social and cultural excellence through a supportive environment of high expectations.” The following time-lapse photo of the stars in the night sky in Hawai‘i was given to students with the accompanying essential questions: • What do you observe about how the stars move through the night sky? Go outside and describe what you see from your home. • How are the essential components/parts of a circle interconnected? • What is the relationship between the central angle and its subtended arc? • How might that help a navigator find their way? What do you think happens when you can’t see the stars (Fig. 2.1)? The lesson plan was implemented in a HIDOE high school algebra III/trigonometry class and upon completion the 11th–12th grade students provided the following feedback: • “For kids, this kind of experience allows all of us regardless of our background an entry point. We can all participate and feel safe and valued and important.” • “No matter our cultural background, everyone learns and is able to take away something that we want to share with our friends and family.” • “We all have a stake in the culture of Hawai‘i and the land that we live in, whether we are originally from here or not, which means in turn that we also have a responsibility for taking care of it.” • “Relevance evens out the playing field.”

Fig. 2.1  Time-lapse photo of the stars in the night sky as part of the lesson plan on discovering central angles and arcs using traditional wayfinding and star trails. (Source: Ashley Deeks)

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2.2.2 Ethnomathematics Learning Journeys As another example of values-based education at the UHWO Mathematics Center, each semester students embarked on a mathematics learning journey that drew on classroom content and real-world applications. Ahupua‘a is a term to describe a large socioeconomic, geologic, and climatic subdivision of land. The ahupuaʻa consists of a piece of land stretching from mountain to ocean often following the boundary of a stream drainage. As Native Hawaiians used the resources within their ahupuaʻa in ancient and present times, they practiced the values of mālama (to care for), aloha (to show kindness/compassion), ‘imi ‘ike (to seek knowledge), lokomaika‘i (to share), mahalo (to show gratitude/respect), na‘au pono (to nurture a deep sense of justice), olakino maika‘i (to live healthy), and laulima (to work together). Native Hawaiians believe that the celestial heavens, mountains, ocean, and nature are interconnected and provide balance in life. Sustainability is guided by the seasons for fishing, farming, voyaging, and resource management (Baybayan et al., 1987; PVS, 2023). UHWO students studied mathematical relationships and content that related to different parts of the ahupuaʻa over the course of the semester. Then, a part of the ahupuaʻa was selected, such as slopes, ratios, and derivatives as rates of changes in water flow leading from mountain to ocean through a fishpond. The students examined ways to create and maintain the fishpond, and why this was important for environmental conservation and living well on islands. In Keʻehi Lagoon, between Honolulu Harbor and the International Airport, lies the 10-acre Mokauea Island. Mokauea Island is the site of Oʻahu’s last Hawaiian fishing village, and one of the only two left in Hawaiʻi where hundreds such villages thrived in pre-European times. These villages were a repository of a significant body of social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental knowledge. The fishing village at Mokauea is a learning center that allows students to learn about mathematical skills and the perpetuation and practice of Hawaiian fishing and seafaring culture (https://www. mokauea.org/). As students participated on learning journeys such as to Mokauea Island Fishing Village, they gained valuable first-hand experiences that extended beyond the classroom. Students took an active service learning role in preserving, protecting, and caring for ocean and marine life. At the end of this learning journey, one student commented: To me, ethnomathematics means ‘ohana [family]…it’s a way of bringing people together to learn, grow, and make the world our classroom. I used to hate math, I thought it was so boring. Today I learned that it was actually a way of life and a way for you to conjure your thoughts up and explain human interactions, and natural things happening in the world like trigonometry and fishing! As a student, it makes me want to come to class. As a career, I want to go into math education so I hope I can inspire my students just as I’ve been inspired to take learning outside of the classroom (A.  Banta, personal communication, April 13, 2013).

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2.2.3 Assessment Assessment was also supported by the UHWO Mathematics Center and exhibited the importance of values-based education. In addition to traditional paper/pencil exams, students were required to complete other assessments such as a final project. The final project consisted of a written report and presentation based on a real-world application of mathematics of the student’s choice from course content. Students often used the learning journey as a guide for incorporating values-based curriculum in their final projects. Final projects have included: “Analytic Geometry and Mathematical Fishing Through the Pacific,” “Solar Hawai‘i: A Business Proposal for Building the New UHWO Campus in Kapolei,” and “The Impact of Bioacoustics on Environmental Conservation in Kāne‘ohe Bay.” Students were encouraged to do research within their communities and interview kūpuna (elders) about their kuleana (responsibilities, rights, privileges) to the land and people. Assessment was based on not only mathematics content, but also UHWO institutional learning outcomes such as effective communication, cultural awareness, critical thinking, and community engagement. The grading rubric below showed students that their culture and values were essential for academic success (Fig. 2.2). Students were able to use relevant information to communicate clearly and effectively through mathematical content and application. They demonstrated knowledge of culture through the study of history, literature, and cross-cultural research. They understood how to apply information in order to make well-reasoned arguments and solve problems. Moreover, students engaged with campus life and the broader community through participation in service learning as they completed their class assignments. The UHWO Mathematics Center is the backbone for mathematics at the university and plays a key role in student success inside and outside of the classroom. According to the University of Hawaiʻi Institutional Research and Analysis Office, student enrollment in UHWO mathematics courses increased over 1400% in the six-year period between 2007–2013 (UH IRAO, 2023). The overall passing rate in UHWO mathematics courses of 80.6% almost doubled the average passing rate for the UH system of 42.8% (UH IRAO, 2023). This led to the development of 11 new mathematics courses tied to institutional learning outcomes, accreditation, and graduation requirements, all of which are grounded in ethnomathematics. In alignment with research by Astin and Oseguera (2005) and Berry (2023), values-based education catalyzes lasting positive change in the school and greater educational community.

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Culture-Based Application

Mathematical Knowledge

CATEGORY

4

3

2

1

Mathematical Reasoning and Real-World Problem Solving

Uses exemplary mathematical reasoning to identify the issue and key facts through an array of real-world contexts and situations.

Uses competent mathematical reasoning to identify the issue and key facts through an array of real-world contexts and situations.

Uses developing mathematical reasoning to identify the issue and key facts through an array of real-world contexts and situations.

Uses beginning mathematical reasoning to identify the issue and key facts through an array of real-world contexts and situations.

Mathematical Concepts and Content

Explanation shows complete understanding of the mathematical concepts and content used to solve the problem.

Explanation shows substantial understanding of the mathematical concepts and content used to solve the problem.

Explanation shows some understanding of the mathematical concepts and content needed to solve the problem.

Explanation shows very limited understanding of the underlying concepts and content needed to solve the problem.

Analyze Information Appropriately and Accurately

Makes exemplary judgments and connections based on analyses relevant to the situation.

Makes competent judgments and connections based on analyses relevant to the situation.

Makes developing judgments and connections based on analyses relevant to the situation.

Makes beginning judgments and connections based on analyses relevant to the situation.

Apply CultureBased Examples and Data

Collects and organizes exemplary culture-based examples and data to frame conclusions (e.g., community leaders, elders).

Collects and organizes competent culturebased examples and data to frame conclusions (e.g., community leaders, elders).

Collects and organizes developing culturebased examples and data to frame conclusions (e.g., community leaders, elders).

Collects and organizes beginning culture-based examples and data to frame conclusions (e.g., community leaders, elders).

Draws somewhat appropriate and relevant conclusions based on the evidence by considering implications, recommendations, and/or future developments through values-based education.

Draws limited appropriate and relevant conclusions based on the evidence by considering implications, recommendations, and/or future developments through values-based education.

Draws very few appropriate and relevant conclusions based on the evidence by considering implications, recommendations, and/or future developments through values-based education.

Draws significantly appropriate and relevant conclusions Relevant and based on the evidence Appropriate by considering Conclusions implications, through Valuesrecommendations, Based Education and/or future developments through values-based education. Total Possible Points: /20

Values-Based Education

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Fig. 2.2  UHWO assessment for mathematics assignments

2.3 Building Successful Partnerships A second promising practice is building successful partnerships through culturally sustaining pedagogy and practice. After six years as the sole UHWO mathematics faculty, the author began a new path at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) College of Education. The UHM College of Education was the home of the University of Hawai‘i Ethnomathematics and STEM Institute (2013–2018) yearlong professional development for P–20 educators, which ultimately became the world’s first academic program in ethnomathematics (2018–present). Teacher participants represent all of the HIDOE 15 complex areas and seven districts with extended reach to the Pacific and North America. Partners include cultural practitioners, community organizations, and research institutions: Hawai‘i P–20 Partnerships for Education, Pacific American Foundation, Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, Polynesian Voyaging Society, University of Hawai‘i Systemwide Office, and Hawai‘i State Department of

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Education. With support from partners, the UHM Ethnomathematics Graduate Certificate officially began in 2018 with the author as director of the program. Moreover, in an unprecedented move, the Hawai‘i Teacher Standards Board, which licenses teachers throughout Hawai‘i and U.S. affiliated Pacific Islands, officially approved ethnomathematics as a field of licensure in 2018 (https://www.hawaii.edu/ news/2019/01/11/ethnomathematics-­licensure-­approved/). This approval indicates that program assessments, rubrics, and frameworks aligned with the Council of Chief State School Officers’ model core teaching standards (CCSSO, 2013).

2.3.1 Polynesian Voyaging Society and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Through working together with partners, the educational experience in culturally sustaining pedagogy is enhanced. For example, with a legacy of ocean exploration as its foundation, the Polynesian Voyaging Society is committed to undertake voyages of discovery and respect while learning from and perpetuating heritage through practice. Hōkūle‘a is a traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe renowned for rekindling non-instrumental wayfinding techniques that include celestial navigation, meteorology, wind dynamics, and marine science knowledge based in STEM principles. At the time Hōkūle‘a was launched in 1976, it had been more than 600 years since the last traditional voyaging canoe. From the brink of extinction, we have now sailed over 160,000 nautical miles around the world and engaged with thousands of students and teachers in over 150 ports and 23 countries and territories, including the 2013–2017 Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage (Finney et al., 1986; PVS, 2023). The author was part of the first international leg from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti, and subsequent legs to American Samoa, Samoa, Olohega (Swain’s Island), Aotearoa (New Zealand), Virginia, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Preparations are ongoing for the 2023–2027 Moananuiākea: A Voyage for Oceans, A Voyage for Earth (https://www.hokulea.com/moananuiakea-­voyage/). Hōkūle‘a provides a powerful and innovative vehicle to explore real-world applications for teacher participants in the UHM Ethnomathematics Graduate Certificate by demonstrating resourcefulness, inventiveness, and wisdom. As an example of culturally sustaining pedagogy, teacher participants in the UHM Ethnomathematics Graduate Certificate learn about relationships between mathematics and celestial navigation pathways based on the Hawaiian star compass. The canoe is oriented to the rising and setting points of stars, and the horizon is divided into a compass comprised of 32 equidistant directional points. Each point is the midpoint of a directional house; hence the 32 houses of 11.25° each divide and organize the 360° circular horizon into equally placed houses that the stars reside in (Fig. 2.3). The Hawaiian star compass is mathematically grounded in symmetries, reflections, and symbolic representations. Excluding the names of the four main cardinal points, the seven remaining names reflect each other in all four of the divisional

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Fig. 2.3  Hawaiian star compass. (Source: Polynesian Voyaging Society)

quadrants. A star rising in one house travels a path that parallels the celestial equator. It never crosses and it sets in the same house on the opposite side of the compass. For example, a star rising in the house of ‘āina ko‘olau sets in the house of ‘āina ho‘olua. Ocean swells travel in a direction that moves from one horizon passing through the canoe and exiting in a direction that is directly opposite. For example, a swell that travels from the house ‘āina ko‘olau moves in a direction that passes through the canoe and exits the horizon in the compass house of ‘āina kona. Knowing the rising and setting points of the many different celestial bodies combined with knowledge of swell patterns and their placement within the Hawaiian star compass helps the navigator, teachers, and students orient themselves and the canoe. The Polynesian Voyaging Society has worked with UHM Ethnomathematics Graduate Certificate teacher participants to design and implement curriculum on the Hawaiian star compass and other STEM principles. Among the products of the partnerships is an array of educational curriculum for the worldwide voyage and online resources. The resulting products are professional conference presentations and publications, including the Ethnomathematics Curriculum Textbook: Lesson Plans in Symbolic Reasoning and Quantitative Literacy (2023) and the UH Ethnomathematics Program Curriculum Library. The online UHM Ethnomathematics Program Curriculum Library is searchable by learner level, NCTM content standards, NGSS domains, and keywords (https://coe.hawaii.edu/ethnomath/curricula/). The publications and online curriculum database engage current and prospective STEM educators by continuing dialogue on significant themes in mathematics, supplementing curriculum, and enriching in-service and pre-service teacher training materials.

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According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Position Statement on Access and Equity in Mathematics Education (2023), a culture of equity depends on the joint efforts of all participants in the community of students, educators, families, and policymakers. The school community acknowledges and embraces all experiences, beliefs, and ways of knowing mathematics…High expectations, culturally relevant practices, attitudes that are free of bias, and unprejudiced beliefs expand and maximize the potential for learning…All students have access to and engage in challenging, rigorous, and meaningful mathematical experiences (p. 1).

Such practices empower students to build a relationship with mathematics that is positive and grounded in their own cultural roots and history. All members of the classroom group must accept the responsibility to participate and support one another throughout the learning experience (Nicol et  al., 2019; NCTM, 2021). Through first-hand experiences on land and sea, UHM Ethnomathematics Graduate Certificate teacher participants have come to understand how the importance of culturally sustaining connections, partnerships, and equity in mathematics education.

2.4 Further Discussion There has never been a more critical time to cultivate conditions that advance equity in mathematics education. Culturally sustaining pedagogy framed by ethnomathematics has proven to be effective in the communities we are endeavoring to serve. As examples of promising practices, this article highlighted values-based education and successful partnerships. Specific examples included the UHWO Mathematics Center and the Ethnomathematics Program at the UHM College of Education. Through implementing promising practices, the UHWO Mathematics Center has fostered an environment where diverse students receive support and experiences that are relevant, meaningful, and contextualized. Student work is aligned with course syllabi and rubric, graduation requirements, and institutional learning outcomes at UHWO and is articulated within the UH system. The UHWO Mathematics Center is the backbone for mathematics at the university and plays a key role in student success inside and outside of the classroom. This is evidenced by student enrollment in UHWO mathematics courses increasing over 1400% with an overall passing rate almost double the average passing rate for the UH system in the six-­ year period between 2007–2013 (UH IRAO, 2023). Over the past decade, research and development led to the UHM Ethnomathematics Program being officially established as the world’s first program in ethnomathematics in 2018. Teacher participants come from all of the HIDOE’s 15 complex areas and seven districts with extended reach to the Pacific and North America. Moreover, the Hawai‘i Teacher Standards Board, which licenses teachers throughout Hawai‘i and U.S. affiliated Pacific Islands, approved ethnomathematics as a field of licensure indicating that program assessments, rubrics, and frameworks align with the

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Council of Chief State School Officers’ model core teaching standards (CCSSO, 2013). It is imperative that educators, policymakers, researchers, and communities engage in communication that allows us to collectively examine how culturally sustaining pedagogy and practices lead to equitable mathematics education. In order to navigate voyages ahead, we must continue to create assets-based structures of success, build accessible paths to resources, and implement innovative opportunities that lead to systemic improvement that draw on the strengths of students’ backgrounds and identities. To do so, may we be guided by the wisdom of the Hawaiian star compass and expand our perspectives to intentionally wayfind 360° with courage, vision, and hope.

References Astin, A., & Oseguera, L. (2005). Degree attainment rates at American colleges and universities. UCLA Higher Education Research Institute. Au, K., & Jordan, C. (1981). Teaching reading to Hawaiian children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution. In H. Trueba, G. Guthrie, & K. Au (Eds.), Culture and the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography (pp. 69–86). Newbury House. Bang, M., & Medin, D. (2010). Cultural processes in science education: Supporting the navigation of multiple epistemologies. Science Education, 94(6), 1008–1026. Banta, A. (2013, April 13). Personal communication. Baybayan, C., Finney, B., Kilonsky, B., & Thompson, N. (1987). Voyage to Aotearoa. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 96(2), 161–200. Berry, R. (2023, May 11). Three ways being a ‘warm demander’ is culturally responsive and supports students’ mathematical identity and agency. Retrieved from https://corwin-­connect. com/2021/03/three-­ways-­being-­a-­warm-­demander-­is-­culturally-­responsive-­and-­supports-­ students-­mathematical-­identity-­and-­agency/ Bok, D. (2006). Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton University Press. Cazden, C., & Leggett, E. (1981). Culturally responsive education: Recommendations for achieving Lau remedies II. In H. Trueba, G. Guthrie, & K. Au (Eds.), Culture and the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography (pp. 69–86). Newbury House. Chauvin, M. (2000). Useful and conceptual astronomy in ancient Hawaii. Astronomy Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Astronomy, 1, 91–125. Council of Chief State School Officers. (2013, April). InTASC model core teaching standards and learning progressions for teachers 1.0. CCSSO. D’Ambrosio, U. (2001). Ethnomathematics link between traditions and modernity. Sense Publishers. Finney, B. (1979). Hōkūle‘a the way to Tahiti. Dodd, Mead, & Company. Finney, B., Kilonsky, B., Somseon, S., & Stroup, E. (1986). Re-learning a vanishing art. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 95(1), 41–90. Furuto, L. (2018). Knowledge and action for change through culture, community, and curriculum. In G. Kaiser, H. Forgasz, M. Graven, A. Kuzniak, E. Simmt, & B. Xu (Eds.), ICME-13 invited lectures (pp. 103–114). Springer Publishing. Furuto, L. (2023). Ethnomathematics curriculum textbook: Lesson plans in symbolic reasoning and quantitative literacy. Retrieved from https://math.hawaii.edu/~mchyba/documents/syllabus/Math499/Ethnomath/EthnomathematicsCurriculumTextbook2013.pdf

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Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, & practice. Teachers College Press. Goffney, I., & Gutiérrez, R. (2018). Annual perspectives in mathematics education: Rehumanizing mathematics for black, indigenous, and Latinx students. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Greer, B., Mukhodpadhyay, S., Powell, A., & Nelson-Barber, S. (2009). Culturally responsive mathematics education. Routledge Press. Gutiérrez, R. (2017). Why mathematics (education) was late to the backlash party: The need for a revolution. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 10(2), 8–24. Gutstein, E., & Peterson, B. (Eds.). (2006). Rethinking mathematics: Teaching social justice by the numbers. Rethinking Schools, Ltd.. Hawai’i State Department of Education. (2023, May 11). Media kit. Retrieved from http://www. hawaiipublicschools.org/ConnectWithUs/MediaRoom/MediaKit Howard, T., & Terry, C. (2011). Culturally responsive pedagogy for African American students. Center X Change. Kana‘iaupuni, S., Ledward, B., & Malone, N. (2017). Mohala i ka wai: Cultural advantage as a framework for indigenous culture-based education and student outcomes. American Educational Research Journal, 54(1S), 311S–339S. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34(3), 159–165. Mohatt, G., & Erickson, F. (1981). Cultural differences in teaching styles in an Odawa school: A sociolinguistic approach. In H. Trueba, G. Guthrie, & K. Au (Eds.), Culture and the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography (pp. 105–119). Newbury House. Nā Honua Mauli Ola. (2023, May 11). Hawaiian cultural pathways for healthy and responsive learning environments. Retrieved from https://hawaiiteacherstandardsboard.org/content/wp-­ content/uploads/2017/05/NHMO2_CulturalPathwaysBrochure.pdf National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2014). Principles to actions: Ensuring mathematical success for all. NCTM. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2021). Continuing the journey: Mathematics learning 2021 and beyond. NCTM. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2023, May 11). Position statement on access and equity in mathematics education. Retrieved from https://www.nctm.org/ Standards-­and-­Positions/Position-­Statements/Access-­and-­Equity-­in-­Mathematics-­Education/ Nicol, C., Archibald, J., Glanfeld, F., & Dawson, S. (2019). Living culturally responsive mathematics curriculum and pedagogy: Making a difference with/in indigenous communities. Brill Sense. Paris, D. (2012). Culturally-sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. Polynesian Voyaging Society. (2023, July 5). Polynesian wayfinding. Retrieved from https://hokulea.com/polynesian-wayfinding/ Powell, A., & Frankenstein, M. (1997). Ethnomathematics: Challenging eurocentrism in mathematics education. SUNY Press. Rosa, M., & Orey, D. (2021). Ubiratan D’Ambrosio: Celebrating his life and legacy. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, 11(2), 430–450. Su, F. (2020). Mathematics for human flourishing. Yale University Press. U.S. Census Bureau. (2023, May 11). Census demographic profile. Retrieved from https://census. hawaii.gov/home/data-­products/ University of California, Los Angeles Center X. (2008). The role that teachers’ beliefs about mathematics play in bringing about change in the elementary mathematics classroom: A professional development model. UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. University of Hawai’i Institutional Research and Analysis Office. (2023, May 11). Institutional research and analysis office enrollment projections. Retrieved from https://www.hawaii.edu/ institutionalresearch/home.action Vogt, L., Jordan, C., & Tharp, R. (1987). Explaining school failure, producing school success: Two cases. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 18, 276–286.

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Linda H.  L. Furuto, PhD is a Professor of Mathematics Education and director of the world’s first program in ethnomathematics at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Research interests include: quantitative methodology, mathematics achievement, access, and equity. Dr. Furuto has been an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Head of Mathematics and Science at UH West O‘ahu, Visiting Scholar of Mathematics at the University of Tokyo, research-practitioner with Harvard University, and a secondary school mathematics teacher in Fiji. She also serves as education specialist and apprentice navigator with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, including the recent worldwide voyage by celestial navigation and STEM.  

Chapter 3

Ko kākou Kula, Ko kākou Home, pāhana Inoa Hale Kula: Our School, Our Home, a Place-Based Curriculum Project on School Building Names Shawn Māpuana Kobashigawa Abstract  This place-based, culturally sustaining curricular project occurred over a period of two semesters in two school years at a high school serving a predominantly Native Hawaiian student population. Place-based theory suggests learners develop a sense of place associated with care and responsibility through place-based education. PBE was applied to learning about the historical and cultural significance of the school buildings to see if students would develop knowledge and feelings of connectedness and care for the campus and its history. Pretest and posttest assessments, teacher observations, and teacher and student reflection journals gathered throughout this curriculum project, suggest that the place-based curriculum project had a positive effect on students’ awareness of history, culture, and sense of place, supporting place-based theory. Keywords  Place-based · Inoa · Pilina · Culture I am a Hawaiian language teacher and have been employed at a high school predominantly serving a Native Hawaiian student population since 2001, first as a substitute teacher, then as a staff member in 2002 and finally as a Hawaiian language teacher in 2003. Although I have been employed there since 2001, my interest in the building names did not grow until 2004. Out of my confusion over the many buildings and their names and locations, a colleague shared with me the way the buildings were purposefully named. I first learned that the boys’ dormitories were named in order of the reigning monarchy men, Kamehameha I, Kamehameha II (Liholiho), Kamehameha III (Kaleiopapa), Kamehameha IV (ʻIolani), Kamehameha V (Kapuāiwa) and Lunalilo (first elected king after the Kamehameha reign ended). They were built for the part of the campus enrolling boys. S. M. Kobashigawa (*) University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 P. W. U. Chinn, S. Nelson-Barber (eds.), Indigenous STEM Education, Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education 30, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30506-1_3

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I was amazed at how well I was able to remember the names and locations once I made the connection of the building to the person it represented. Once I learned this, I was interested in learning about the girls’ dormitories, which were built on the site for the school for girls. There was also a purposeful order to the naming of the girls’ dormitories. The buildings were named by the ranking of the chiefly women. Placed at the highest point on the campus is the dormitory named for the highest, most sacred chiefess Keōpūolani. Each dormitory below descends in rank, Kapiʻolani Nui, Kekāuluohi and Kīnaʻu. I learned that an addition was made to the girls’ dormitories and it was placed higher than Keōpūolani dormitory. Naming the newest dormitory caused a slight dilemma because there was no chiefess higher in rank than Keōpūolani. What would this new dormitory be named? The new and higher dormitory was  also named Keōpūolani but to distinguish the different units and floors, they renamed it Keōpūolani Lani (Keōpūolani “towards the heavens”), Keōpūolani Uka (Keōpūolani “towards the Uplands”) and the original building was renamed, Keōpūolani Kai (Keōpūolani “towards the sea”) (Mitchell, 1993) Dilemma solved. In learning this, I also realized how seriously and thoughtfully Hawaiians approached names and naming practices. As I learned more about other building names, I realized that there was a connection of the placement of the building to the cultural and historical status of the person. Because the actual physical place was fully as significant as being named to honor the person, the intersection of place, name, history and culture helped me to easily remember the locations and names of the buildings because the buildings themselves became more personified. I realized that an important benefit of learning about the buildings and their names was contextualizing that knowledge  with Hawaiian history, world view, and cultural practices. As a Hawaiian language teacher, I noticed students mispronouncing building names, using shortened nicknames for the buildings or simply calling the building by its use or purpose rather than its given Hawaiian name. For example, Kekūanāoʻa means the standing of the house rafters or the side of a rock wall. However, the students and staff mispronounced this name as Kekuanaʻoa or the standing of the ʻoa, which is a species of banana. Students also did not know the relationships hidden within the names and placements of the buildings. For example, Kekūanāoʻa was the father of Ruth Keʻelikōlani, the woman who gave Pauahi most of the lands from which the school benefits. He was also Pauahi’s hānai (informally adoptive) father. Another significant erasure of history and culture is found in referring to our Industrial Arts building as the Tech building by the majority of our staff and students. Its significance is found in the naming of the Industrial Arts building after Kapoukahi, who was a seer of omens. He prophesied that Kamehameha could unite the islands if he rededicated the heiau at Puʻukoholā to honor his war god, Kūkāʻilimoku, and offered a human sacrifice. His prophecy came true. Similarly, our gymnasium which was named for Kamehameha’s war trainer, Kekūhaupiʻo is commonly referred to as Keku. Improper shortening of names could change the meaning of the name. Keku means to shove away or repulse. Kekūhaupiʻo, on the other hand could mean to defeat or overcome weakness, or to teeter. I am uncertain which meaning is the proper one but by giving nicknames, you can

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unintentionally alter the meaning of the name. However, one thing is for sure, his name is not Keku, just as it is not appropriate to refer to the school using a single syllable. Another problem that I noticed on campus was littering and vandalism. It showed a lack of caring and pride for the campus. It is a privilege to be at this school and the respect and appreciation was not apparent. I thought to myself, if the students knew about the buildings and the person it represented, they might treat it with more care and respect. Fast-forward 10 years to January 2014 while in a Place-Based course at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, I learned of Place-Based Education (PBE). We had an assignment to write about our “place.” I enjoyed learning and sharing about my place that I have a deep connection to, my home, Kaʻalaea. This helped me realize that our campus could possibly be a great place-based project for my students. This was the birth of this place-based curriculum project. First and foremost, I designed this curriculum project to benefit my own students. However, it has the potential to benefit the entire campus as well as those interested in learning the Hawaiian history and cultural protocols involved in the naming of our buildings. It also has the potential to serve as a model for teachers interested in incorporating place-based lessons in their classrooms.

3.1 Motivating Questions This curriculum project was motivated by the following questions: 1. Can a place-based project on the names of our buildings and the history of the naming of the buildings promote a “sense of place” at this campus? 2. Will this project help our students connect to our campus and our Hawaiian history and people? 3. Will learning about the naming of the buildings help to improve the proper use of the names and proper pronunciation of the names? When embarking on this project it was my hope that perhaps a “sense of place” and feeling of connectedness to the campus could help to solve some of the place-based issues that had bothered me a decade earlier, e.g., littering and vandalism. I had multiple professional goals for this project: to improve pronunciation and proper use of names, to increase knowledge of the campus, and to help promote a sense of place leading to attitudes of responsibility and caring. According to David Sobel (2004), Place-based education uses the local community and environment to teach concepts in various subjects across the curriculum. It emphasizes hands-on, real-world learning. It increases academic achievement, helps students develop stronger ties to their community, enhances students’ appreciation for the natural world, and creates a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens (p. 7). When students learn about their community, they tend to care about it. When they care about the community, they look for ways to improve it. I wanted my

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students to care about their school and want to improve the campus and their language and understanding of the names. According to John Dewey, place-based education seeks to break down the isolation of school from daily life by emphasizing ‘place’ as a guiding principle in the choice of curriculum content and teaching practices (Dewey, 2001). The ultimate goal of PBE is developing a “sense of place.” (McInerney et al., 2011). A sense of place is easier to appreciate in an area that is beautiful and an area that has no prejudices and where you are not disadvantaged or oppressed (Somerville, 2007). According to our school’s policy, up to 25% of new spaces are reserved for applicants who are identified as orphaned or indigent. I don’t know if my students have a connection with their home areas. However, if not, hopefully our school could be their “home away from home.” It is my hope that my students feel a connection to our people and history, thereby increasing their respect for the campus. Other goals of this project are correct pronunciation and the association the buildings have to the person they are named for. This attaches a personal identity to the structure, and in most cases, since the buildings are named after prestigious people associated with Hawaiian royalty, this persona is strong. According to Mary Kawena Pukui, there were few personal possessions in ancient Hawaiʻi. However, the most precious of them all was a person’s inoa, or name (Pukui et al., 1972). Naming in Hawaiian society was done very carefully and with lots of thought and consultation. This type of consideration was also used when the building names were chosen and the students were tasked with finding that connection. There are various types of names, such as inoa pō, or a night name. This name was given in a dream. An inoa ʻūlāleo is a name that was heard. An inoa hōʻailona is a name given in a sign. An inoa kūamuamu is a defiling name. An inoa kūpuna is a name to honor and remember an ancestor. An inoa hoʻomanaʻo is a name to commemorate an event or life of an aliʻi (Pukui et al., 1972). The buildings on our campus definitely fall under the category of inoa hoʻomanaʻo and perhaps inoa kūpuna as well.

3.2 Instructional Setting and Students The setting for this curriculum  project is in my Hawaiian language courses at a school that supports the education of orphans and others in indigent circumstances. Our school’s mission is to improve the capability and the wellbeing of the people of Hawaiian ancestry. The campus is located on a slope that supports the naming of the school’s buildings. The names of each building reflect Hawaiian history.  The campus includes approximately 65 buildings including a swimming pool, an athletic stadium and complex, two gymnasiums, boarding dormitories, tennis courts, a chapel, a living museum, and two libraries as well as a Hawaiian cultural center. This project includes my students from two consecutive years. I piloted this placed-based project in Spring 2014 with 70 Hawaiian 1 students. I also did the same project with my Hawaiian 4 students in Fall 2014, totaling 49 students.

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My students ranged from grades 9–12. Some came from neighboring islands such as Hawaiʻi, Molokaʻi, Maui and Kauaʻi. However, the majority of my students were residents of Oʻahu’s diverse ahupuaʻa. One third of my students were male and the rest were female. The students’ years of attendance at the school ranged from 1 to 13 years.

3.3 Methodology I chose to do a Plan B curriculum project for my M.Ed. in Curriculum Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As part of my usual classroom instruction and as a way to evaluate the outcomes of my new, place-based curriculum, I gathered some informal assessments of my students’ understanding and appreciation of various place names on our campus before and after implementing the project. My goals and criteria for success of this curriculum were: 1. Knowledge: Did their knowledge of the campus improve? Did they learn from each other? 2. Appreciation: Do they have a better appreciation for the campus? 3. Pride: Do our students have pride in their sharing about the campus? 4. Sense of place: Do they want to improve the school? 5. Overall: Does this place-based curriculum project  have a positive effect on students?

3.3.1 Pretest Prior to beginning the curriculum project, I administered a pretest on the student’s knowledge of the building names and the people the buildings represented. I had a hunch that my students did not know much about the school buildings but was not sure. In the pretest, I only included buildings that were located on the high school campus because some students had attended the high school for under a year. The buildings are listed in the pretest in Table  3.1. The pretest was a list of building names and a space was provided for a brief description of the person. For example, any of these brief descriptions are acceptable for Pauahi: founder of the school and/ or Bishop Museum, great granddaughter of Kamehameha or daughter of Pākī and Kōnia. The pretest was not graded. However, I gave my students class participation points for taking the pretest. The first test was given in March 2014 with all 70 of my Hawaiian 1 students. This was my pilot test. I also administered the pretest to all my Hawaiian 4 students, totaling 49 in October 2014. The pretest results are listed in Table 3.1.

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Table 3.1  Building names and pretest results for school year 2013–14 & 2014–15 Building name Pākī Kōnia Kekūhaupiʻo Liholiho Keʻelikōlani Kaʻahumanu Lunalilo Kapuāiwa Kaʻiwakīloumoku Kaleiopapa ʻIolani Keōpūolani Keōua Kekāuluohi Kalaniʻōpuʻu Kapiʻolaninui Koaiʻa Kūnuiākea Kekūanāoʻa Kīnaʻu Kapoukahi

Pretest, n = 70 Hawaiian 1 students % correct 65% 45% 32% 35% 8% 22% 8% 5% 0% 5% 5% 4% 1% 4% 2% 1% 1% 0% 1% 0% 0%

Pretest, n = 49 Hawaiian 4 students % correct 80% 59% 41% 39% 34% 61% 14% 18% 14% 2% 2% 11% 32% 2% 27% 0% 2% 2% 18% 27% 0%

As I expected, my students did not know much about the buildings and whom they represented. The numbers are a bit saddening to me. Only two buildings showed that at least 50% or more of my students knew who the buildings were named for, Pākī (Pauahi’s father) at 72.5% and Kōnia (Pauahi’s mother) at 52%. Shouldn’t more of our students know who her parents were? Other names that they were familiar with were Kaʻahumanu at 41.5%, Liholiho at 37% and Kekūhaupiʻo at 36.5%. Names that I felt students should definitely know are the buildings that were named for her great grandfather, Kamehameha. Some of his other names were Kaʻiwakīloumoku and Kūnuiākea. However, only 7% knew him by Kaʻiwakīloumoku and only 1% knew him by Kūnuiākea. Another person who played a very important role in Hawaiian history is Ruth Keʻelikōlani, Pauahi’s cousin. When she passed, she gifted Pauahi over 350,000 acres of land. This generous gift allows for the school to be in existence today. It is because of her generosity and Pauahi’s vision that we are able to attend or work for a great educational institution. However, only 21% of my students knew of Keʻelikōlani. For both years of the pretest, no students knew of Kapoukahi and only a few knew of Koaiʻa, Kekūhaupio’s war trainer. Less than 1% of the total students knew of Kapiʻolani Nui, a devout Christian who tried to convince Hawaiians to convert to Christianity by publicly defying Pele in order to prove that Pele was a false god and that the Christian God was the only one and almighty God.

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During the pretest, observations of reactions and comments were noted. Several students looked at the test with widened eyes, threw their hands in the air with palms up and said, “What is this?” “I don’t know any of these people.” “Oh my goodness!” “Kumu, I fail!” Worry came over the majority of the students, “Kumu, is this graded?” I assured them that it was only a pretest to assess their knowledge and it wouldn’t be graded. All the students took the test and throughout the test, comments were made, laughter could be heard, students shook their heads in amazement of how little they knew. “Kumu, I did bad.” I reassured them, “It’s okay, and I am not grading this. I just want to measure what you know.” “I don’t know anything.” A few students felt bad about their results. The word shame came up in several comments. One student expressed it by saying, “Auē!” It seemed as if this pretest also motivated some students to learn because they realized how little they knew about our history. One such comment was, “Kumu, I promise I will do better on the post-test.” Martyn Shuttleworth explains that the lack of information that is revealed by a pretest may change your attitude toward the subject (Shuttleworth, 2009). In this case, I felt that students were more motivated to learn.

3.4 The Curriculum Project My students started their research for our place-based curriculum the day after the pretest. My Hawaiian 1 students were in groups of three. The students grouped themselves together by choice. Students in my Hawaiian 4 were in groups of two. They had to partner up with someone on their table. I chose this approach so that they would always be next to their partner when it was time to work on their project and I wanted them to work with new people. For both Hawaiian 1 and 4 students, I randomly selected the building that each group would research. When they selected their partners, I pulled a number from a “hat” and the number corresponded with the building on the pretest list that the group would be responsible for researching. The requirement for the research was that students needed to include the person’s genealogy, significant contributions, legacy, connections to other buildings and the connection of the building to the person and why they felt this person represented the building. They were required to have a minimum of three sources, one being a primary source such as Samuel Kamakau or David Malo. They were also advised to use the book about the campus which was written by Donald Mitchell entitled, Kū Kilakila ʻo Kamehameha. Their third source could be of their choice. The students then created a video project to present their information to the rest of the class. Once all presentations were shown, students took the posttest and shared some thoughts on their feelings about the project. The entire project from beginning to end was 2.5 months starting with the pretest and including their research, a paper written in both Hawaiian and English, a video project presentation in both Hawaiian and English and finally ending with a posttest and reflection taken from their project journals.

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During the research phase of this curriculum project, the majority of the students were engaged in their project. I saw a few lights go on in their heads as they were researching as reflected in these comments, “You mean Kūnuiākea is Kamehameha?” “Wow!” “All this time I thought Koaiʻa was a woman.” “Now I get it, the buildings on the 9/10 campus were named for boys because it was originally the Boys’ School and the buildings on the 11/12 campus were named after girls because it was on the Girls’ School.” One student was very sad as she learned about her aliʻi, Keʻelikōlani and she commented, “Kumu, kaumaha au (I am sad). Makemake au e uē (I want to cry).” She learned that her aliʻi was surrounded by sadness such as the passing of her mother during childbirth, the passing of her hānai mother when she was young, and the passing of her own children, her first husband and her hānai child. What added to this great sadness was a marriage to a Western man who treated her badly, was involved in adultery and was rumored to have broken her nose. However, my student was very proud to learn that her aliʻi was firm in her cultural beliefs. Although she understood and spoke English well, Keʻelikōlani refused to speak English. Therefore, Westerners had to use a translator if they wanted to speak to her. This made my student very proud of her aliʻi. Other examples of engagement were comments such as, “Kumu, this is fun.” “This is the best project we did all year.” Only a few students needed to be reminded to stay on task, due to being on social media. After researching about the buildings, my Hawaiian 1 students presented their research in a video. However, my Hawaiian 4 students shared with their classmates about what they learned. During their sharing, their comments also showed engagement in the activity. The majority of the students were taking notes and asking clarifying questions. What they learned was having an effective result on other students. When Keʻelikōlani’s story was shared, three students immediately said, “Makemake au e hana e like me Keʻelikōlani, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi wale nō (I want to be just like Keʻelikōlani and speak only Hawaiian).” When the students found out that our Administration Office was named after a man who helped in the overthrow of our Hawaiian monarchy, they all were upset. “Why do we have a building named for him?” “Let’s change the name!” “Yes!” However, within 5  min, another student commented, “Well, we don’t like Smith for helping in the overthrow but we also don’t like to go to the office because that’s where you go when you’re in trouble.” The class laughed and agreed. “Yes, I guess it’s an appropriate name for the office.” More laughter was heard. Other connections were made that stirred emotion in my students. One girl commented that after Pauahi’s father Pākī passed away, she moved into her parent’s home to help care for her mother, Kōnia, during her last two years of life. She made a connection by saying, “We also spend our last two years in Kōnia  building.” “Whoa, that’s deep,” responded another student as other students agreed. Although that connection was not the original reason it was named as such when it was built in 1950, the students are still creating relationships between the names of the building and the people the building represents as it connects to them in the present time.

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Students made all sorts of connections from one building to another. It was like connecting the dots. “So, Koaiʻa trained Kekūhaupiʻo who trained Kamehameha or Kūnuiākea and these are all training facilities on campus?” “Hoihoi, (interesting).” Not all feedback was favorable. One group explained that their building was named for a male because it was a boys’ dormitory. The class looked with disapproval and one student said, “That’s dumb.” The class thought that the group didn’t put much thought into their reasoning. This showed me that the students were engaged and were looking for meaningful connections from their classmates. Once the research and mini sharing was done, the students wrote their feelings about the project on a questionnaire. Because I wanted to know if this project had any effect on them, the questions were direct. I wanted to know if this project changed the way they felt about the campus, the buildings, the school, our history or naming practices. Most of the answers were similar and positive. Words like meaningful, respectful, appreciative, pride, mana (power) and connections came up in their journals under all categories. One student shared that the school holds many secrets and hidden meanings. He sees the buildings less as buildings and more as people with their own story to tell. Another felt as if the aliʻi are there with her wanting her to do well and be the best that she can be. One student said that the mana in the name transfers to buildings. While one student was learning about the buildings, he said his love for the school grew. Another student made a personal rededication to ʻike Hawaiʻi or Hawaiian knowledge to interweave the past with contemporary ideas. Overall, comments like this verified that this project had a positive effect on the majority of the students. However, a few students remained unchanged after the project. A total of 10% were unchanged, while 90% were positively changed. After the mini sharing, I asked the students if they felt that this was a valuable project. All of my students felt that this project was valuable and that it would be beneficial to all students. They suggested ways that this information could be shared, which included plaques, flyers, homeroom news broadcasts or at class meetings. One student suggested the information be shared in all subjects, such as teaching the history of the buildings in Social Studies classes, calculating area and perimeter of the building in Math classes, writing essays of the building in English classes, drawing the historic figures in art classes, teaching about various building materials in science classes for the preservation of the buildings and learning about the meaning and correct pronunciation in Hawaiian language classes. Two students in different classes said that if the students knew of the rich history of the buildings and the person they represented, we might not have people littering and vandalizing the campus. I tried not to show emotions when the students said this, but I was thrilled. This is exactly the same way I felt. However, these statements were coming from them and others were agreeing. I didn’t even have to say it to them. Students were beginning to care about the campus and were looking for ways to improve it without me asking them to do so.

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3.4.1 Posttest The posttest was the same test as the pretest to determine if the students’ knowledge increased. Results in Table 3.2 show the improvement from pretest to posttest in both years. The people I felt that our students should definitely know about were Pauahi’s parents, Pākī and Kōnia, her cousin, Keʻelikōlani, and of course, her great grandfather, Kamehameha and his various names, Kaʻiwakīloumoku and Kūnuiākea. The people my students knew the most about on the pretest besides Pauahi’s parents were Kaʻahumanu, Liholiho and Kekūhaupiʻo. On the other hand, the three people that they knew the least about were Kapoukahi, Koaiʻa and Kapiʻolaninui. On the posttest, the people the students knew the most about were the same as the pretest. However, the numbers increased by 24% for Pākī at 96.5%, 40.5% for Kōnia at 92.5%, 38.5% for Kaʻahumanu at 80%, 41.5% for Liholiho at 78.5% and 43.5% for Kekūhaupiʻo at 80%. Increases were seen for the people that they should know about such as Keʻelikōlani up by 26% at 47%, 33.5% for Kūnuiākea at 34.5% and 36% for Kaʻiwakīloumoku at 43%. The people they knew the least about showed Table 3.2  Building names and Post-test results for school year 2013–14 & 2014–15

Building name Pākī Kōnia Kekūhaupiʻo Liholiho Keʻelikōlani Kaʻahumanu Lunalilo Kapuāiwa Kaʻiwakīloumoku Kaleiopapa ʻIolani Keōpūolani Keōua Kekāuluohi Kalaniʻōpuʻu Kapiʻolaninui Koaiʻa Kūnuiākea Kekūanāoʻa Kīnaʻu Kapoukahi

Pretest n = 70 Hawaiian 1 students % correct 65% 45% 32% 35% 8% 22% 8% 5% 0% 5% 5% 4% 1% 4% 2% 1% 1% 0% 1% 0% 0%

Post-test n = 70 Hawaiian 1 students % correct 96% 87% 75% 78% 46% 70% 47% 42% 21% 54% 51% 38% 48% 33% 20% 45% 55% 30% 36% 51% 54%

Pretest n = 49 Hawaiian 4 students % correct 80% 59% 41% 39% 34% 61% 14% 18% 14% 2% 2% 11% 32% 2% 27% 0% 2% 2% 18% 27% 0%

Post-test n = 49 Hawaiian 4 students % correct 97% 98% 86% 79% 58% 90% 58% 58% 65% 24% 37% 61% 46% 31% 29% 18% 41% 39% 39% 50% 27%

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increases, up by 40.5% for Kapoukahi, whom no one knew about at all, 31.45% for Kapiʻolani Nui at 31.5% and the highest increase was for Koaiʻa up by 47.5% at 48%. In the posttest, Kalaniʻōpuʻu was the person the fewest number of students knew about at 24.5% but still an increase from the pretest of 10% from 14.5%. All numbers showed an increase in knowledge of all buildings, therefore the project was successful in increasing knowledge and everyone improved their scores.

3.5 Discussion Did the results of the place-based curriculum project answer the questions that motivated it? Can a place-based project on the names of our buildings and the history of the naming of the buildings promote a “sense of place” at this campus? Will this project help our students connect to our campus and our Hawaiian history and people? Will learning about the naming of the buildings help to improve the proper use of the names and proper pronunciation of the names? During the sharing, I asked the students if they felt the project was valuable. All students agreed that it was valuable, and they felt that every student should know this information. Some people might argue that the students may have responded in the way they thought I wanted them to. Perhaps they were afraid to answer truthfully. Would their answers have been the same if another teacher asked them in my place? Possibly. However, I did spend time away from my students on a business trip and students were on task in their research, even in my absence. In addition to my students, other staff members commented to me that they felt the project was not only valuable for the students but for all workers on campus. When I went around to ask staff to take the pretest, most were embarrassed to take it because they didn’t know much about the campus. They said that they need a project like this so that all staff could learn and that this should be shared during the new teacher orientation. Another issue or question would be the longevity of the effective results. How long will these feelings of pride and connectedness last? For this group of students, I am able to find out once again at the end of the school year while they are still my students. I can also do an interview the next year because some of my language students are also in my homeroom. One student commented that this information is valuable especially when she leaves for college. She feels that when she goes to the continent and someone asks her about her culture, her history and her school, she will be well equipped to share without hesitation. I would like to know how she feels in a couple of years when she goes to college. Does she still have the pride and confidence to share? A satisfying result of this project was that students were beginning to realize on their own some of the same concerns that I had, such as littering, vandalism, lack of appreciation for campus, calling the building by its purpose rather than its Hawaiian name and improper pronunciation and abbreviation of building names. Throughout this project, I have witnessed students take ownership of their learning because it was student-centered and directed as opposed to teacher-directed.

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Students then became the teachers and shared what they’ve learned. Students were assessed in various ways such as student comments, reactions, evaluations and journals rather than just a test result with memorized information. Students were more engaged because the subject was their school. Students also learned on their own without teacher instruction. I believe students would benefit more by branching out and sharing the information with other students, staff members and extending out to other campuses that share the same building names and layout. Some of the information the students found are linked to the interactive campus Google Map. The map includes the names and locations of the buildings on our high school campus, along with illustrations, text and related links that explain the significance of each building name. The map, which can be found at: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid= 1t5YrOhT-0eRdCb1jp8cNNDFbElyiWnw&usp=sharing continues to be a work in progress. It is our hope that we and others will continue to add to, build upon, and extend this map as we learn more about “Ko Kākou Kula, Ko Kākou Home” (Our School, Our Home).

3.6 Conclusion The comments made by the students and their posttest results suggest that a curriculum based on the building names would be a successful addition to our syllabus. My feelings early on in my career about how the students would treat the campus with respect, if they knew more about the people who the buildings were named for, were validated by some of the comments and reactions of the students. The sense of pride the students have in being a part of the school’s history, leads to a feeling of deep admiration for the aliʻi and the campus structures. This particular aspect, the personification of a structure and its placement with relationship to the whole creates a bond, a personal connection to place and history between them that will lead to the proper use of the building names and in some cases may increase the use of the Hawaiian language. The fact that the students are starting to see the buildings as entities, not just four walls and a roof, and speaking their names is an excellent beginning to having the students treat the campus with the honor it deserves.

References Dewey, J. (2001). The school and society and the child and the curriculum. Dover. McInerney, P., Smyth, J., & Down, B. (2011). Coming to a place near you? The politics and possibilities of a critical pedagogy of place-based education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39, 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866x.2010.540894 Mitchell, D. D. (1993). Kū kilakila ʻo Kamehameha: A historical account of the campuses of the Kamehameha Schools. Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate.

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Our Admissions Policy. (n.d.). Kamehameha Schools. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://www. ksbe.edu/apply/our_admissions_policy/ Pukui, M. K., Haertig, E. W., & Lee, C. A. (1972). Nānā i ke kumu: Look to the source. Hui Hanai. Shuttleworth, M. (2009, November 3). Pretest-posttest designs. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/pretest-­posttest-­designs Sobel, D. (2004). Place-based education: Connecting classrooms & communities (2nd ed.). Orion Society. Somerville, M. (2007). Place literacies. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 30(2), 149–164. Shawn Māpuana Kobashigawa lectured in Hawaiian language at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa after receiving her bachelors in Hawaiian Studies. She earned a Professional Diploma in Elementary Education and taught kindergarten and first grade as a Hawaiian immersion teacher before becoming a high school  Hawaiian language teacher.  Her place-based master’s plan B curriculum project at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa enabled students to see that the names of their school buildings are  connected to  Hawaiian history, cultural practices, and language. Māpuana is from Kaʻalaea, Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu and enjoys Hula and Hawaiian crafts.  

Chapter 4

Changes in Students’ Science Concepts and Discourse: A Case Study of Place-­Based Education in Rural Thailand Nantana Taptamat Abstract  This paper discusses the use of Place-based education (PBE) in a classroom at a rural high school in Thailand. Grounded in social constructivist perspectives, this study proposed the effects of PBE on students’ concepts of the ecosystem, classroom discourse, and attitudes towards PBE lessons. Data were collected over 8-week study period through multiple-choice tests, essay questions, open-ended interviews, field observations, questionnaires, videotaping, and students’ artifacts collection. The results demonstrated student development of scientific understanding, oral and written discourse, engagement and attitudes towards learning in PBE settings. Additionally, how Thai culture may play in learning science through PBE was also discussed. Finally, this paper addresses concerns regarding enacting PBE framework to learning science. Keywords  Place-based education · Context-based science · Project-based approach · Socio environmental based learning · Rural science Although science education is emphasized in Southeast Asia, proficiency levels in science-oriented education and problem-solving skills remain below standards according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) report. Science education in Thailand, in particular, is not as developed as in  other countries in the region (Ussavasodhi, 2009). For example, the National Institute of Educational Testing Services (NETS) found that over 12 years (2005–2016), a majority of Thai students scored less than 50 percent in the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-NET). For instance, out of 100 ONET test scores, on average students scored 32.19 (2011), 38.09 (2012), 37.95 (2013), 38.62 (2014), 37.63 (2015), and 34.99 (2016) (NETS, n.d., online). N. Taptamat (*) University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 P. W. U. Chinn, S. Nelson-Barber (eds.), Indigenous STEM Education, Sociocultural Explorations of Science Education 30, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30506-1_4

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Several investigations on Thai students in science education made some thought-­ provoking observations. For example, Rose Colangelo and her colleagues (2009) reported that students were engaged in the hands-on lab activities related to their daily lives but seemed to lose interest when asked to give opinions or explanations. Moreover, students gave very brief answers or copied from other students when responding to short-answer question tests. The researchers also noted that limited time for learning, the lack of learning materials and active learning methods were the main stumbling blocks for teaching pupils in Sakorn Nakhon province, Thailand. Some challenges in teaching and learning science in Thailand are based on the researcher’s observations over 12  years of teaching. She found that some of her students faced difficulties in learning science due to the belief that science was complicated and difficult, so they came away with the feeling that science was not for them. Moreover, students did not participate in classroom discourses or challenge teachers by asking questions. Reasons contributing to this passive participation might be their cultural upbringing and the inherently hierarchical educational system in Thailand. The economy in northeastern Thailand is substantially dependent on agricultural activities. These activities greatly relied on environmental conditions such as flood, drought, and infertile soil that made farming in this region unsustainable. Many farmers were forced to seek employment in the industrial centers found in the larger cities (Thai Baan Researchers, 2005). The slums that developed from their migration to cities significantly diminished the quality of life and health of these once rural people. Poverty, population, and the environment are closely interrelated (Mink, 1994). Inculcating an attitude of care towards the environment especially when economic pressures are involved is not easy and takes a very long time (Parnwell, 1988). Therefore, environmental awareness should be taught at an early age (ibid). Solving environmental problems needs the integration of scientific knowledge and the understanding of how science is interpreted and enacted in society (Finucane, 2009). Everyone is required to cooperate in solving such problems through activities that should be collaboratively carried out at every level: individual, local, national, and international. In response to this need, as members of society, students should be trained to understand and take environmentally friendly acts. In conclusion, problems in science education found in Thailand fall into three broad categories: the absence of appropriate learning skills; a limited understanding of science concepts; and poor attitudes towards learning science. Factors contributing to these results are low levels of classroom participation by students, poor ability to relate science concepts and theories to their lifeworld leading to minimally positive attitudes towards science. This study asked if these problems could be reduced by providing students with place-based experiences where they could comprehend fundamental science concepts from the world around them and use that knowledge to explain and make meaning about the world. In this study, students learned through using the resources of their local community. Next, in a small or large group, they shared, argued, and contributed knowledge with friends before

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constructing personal understanding by writing their concepts and understandings in journals, writing assignments, and self-reflections.

4.1 Theoretical Perspective This case study used social constructivist theory in combination with Place-based education (PBE) to establish an active learning environment. Social constructivists emphasize that a person constructs knowledge by merging personal experiences with prior knowledge using social processes as transitional agencies of cognition (O’Donnell et al., 2018). The process of forming science knowledge is not limited to only making sense of observable phenomena but includes a social and cultural construct (Kawasaki et al., 2004) which is a result of negotiation of meaning through verbal discourse (Baker et  al., 2009). Briefly, a social constructivist perspective embraces knowledge as a human construction that is also socially and culturally situated (Kim, 2001). Some educators argue that language-based learning involving listening, talking, reading, and writing skills can be used to strengthen the knowledge construction processes (Rivard & Straw, 1999).

4.2 Place-Based Education Despite being called by different names, place-based education is used all over the world with a similar fundamental philosophy: students’ involvement in learning through using their local environment and community (Smith & Sobel, 2014). In their 2005 report, the Rural School and Community Trust defined place-based education as: Learning that is rooted in what is local-the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place. Student work focuses on community needs and interests, and community members serve as resources and partners. This local focus engages students academically, pairing real-world relevance with intellectual rigor, while promoting genuine citizenship and preparing people to respect and live well in any community they choose.

This definition includes two crucial aspects of this pedagogy. First, it emphasizes the pedagogy’s applicability to any subject area. Second, it pays attention to the roles of community in educating the learners. It includes transference of knowledge from a variety of experts in the community to learners (Smith & Sobel, 2014). David Sobel (2004), defined PBE as: the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum. Emphasizing hands-on, real-world learning experiences, this approach to education increases academic achievement, helps students develop stronger ties to their

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According to his definition, Sobel connected the need for real-world problem solving and opportunities for student learning in their community to positive results for the students and the community. Clayton and Opotow (2003) find that learning through the use of local community and environment as resources improves students’ environmentally responsible behaviors. Through engaging with local resources, students may develop their senses of being an owner and contributor to activities affecting their environments. The corollary to this development of a sense of belonging is that their commitments to sustain their local environments also increases. Kuwahara (2011) believes that without a moral involvement with a place identity, changes in behaviors are unlikely to occur. Research has shown that PBE can promote studentsʻ academic performance (Libermann & Hoody, 1998), environmentally friendly behavior (Kuwahara, 2011), social and personal skills (American Institutes of Research, 2005, and attitudes towards science (Punyain, 2008). Bartosh (2004) compared 77 pairs of schools with similar demographics using standard tests and a survey that evaluated the teaching and learning environment. He found that the schools with systematic environment education (EE) programs were more likely to have higher test scores in math, reading, writing, and listening across the 1997 to 2002 study. EE schools also utilized natural resources more in instruction and received more support from parents and community. Libermann and Hoody (1998) studied the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning (EIC) program in 40 schools in 12 states. The findings suggested that students in EIC schools had higher scores on standardized tests in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and GPA. EIC students showed better performance on 36 of 39 measurements compared to the traditional program students. EIC programs appeared to reduce classroom problems, increase engagement in learning, and foster positive student self-attitudes. The American Institutes of Research (2005) studied the effect of Outdoor Education Programs on social and personal skills, stewardship of the environment, scientific understanding, and advantages for learning English. Results showed that the treatment groups had higher science scores and increases in students’ self-­ esteem, conflict resolution and relationships with peers, engagement in learning, and positive behaviors. However, there was no significant change in environment stewardship scores. Punyain (2008) used the Constructivist Thematic Science Program at Chiangmai Zoo (CTSPZ), Thailand to engage students in hands-on/ minds-on activities. The findings suggested that student scientific attitude, attitude towards the environment and their constructivist learning skills were statistically higher after participating in the program. She also suggested that the program could significantly develop science process skills of students who got low scores but not of those who already had high scores.

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In conclusion, a review of the literature suggests PBE has the potential to help students connect their learning in science classrooms to real-world settings. It is appropriate to the needs of the national curriculum and community because it is a learner-centered approach and consistent with a student’s problems and needs and applicable to use in real situations. Therefore, this study applied PBE concepts to teach ecosystem concepts through using students’ local communities. Then in a small or large group, they shared, argued, and contributed knowledge, then constructed personal understanding through writing.

4.3 Classroom Discourse Learning is by nature a social fundamental dialogic based activity. We do not only interact but also ‘inter-think’ when working together (Mercer, 2001). Collaborative discourse provides students the collaborative reasoning experience in which teachers and students dialogue together to explore ideas, compare alternative explanations, test and evaluate ideas, and exploit reasons involving ideas and evidence. Through social interactions, students might challenge one another to express their opinions, to negotiate an understanding of a subject matter, and to elaborate evidence-­based reasoning which may support thinking and reasoning skills of each student (Gillies et al., 2014). The cumulative ways of thinking, using language and acting in the classroom were referred to as classroom discourse in this study. Classroom discourse refers to the language and interaction that teachers and students practice in the classroom. Increasingly, many educators study classroom discourse to investigate what might happen that might make a difference to progress in learning. Teachers use students’ talking as a primary way to evaluate students’ understanding of lessons on an ongoing basis. Mark Hackling et al. (2010) noted that discourse in science classrooms could develop students’ scientific concepts, improve scientific thinking skills, increase performance of science practices, raise problem-solving ability, and provide more learning opportunities. Conversely, several studies point out the difficulties of stimulating discourse in the science classroom, due to a scarcity of discourse practices that promote students’ capacity to inquire and investigate and the lack of students’ discursive participation. There are also other challenges, for example, many classrooms practice triadic dialogue or the IRE pattern—Initiate-Response, Evaluation (Lemke, 1990). In the IRE pattern, teachers initiate questions (I), students respond (R), and teacher evaluates (E) the responses. Such practice normally leads to teachers dominating the classroom conversations, consequently, limiting the opportunity for students to share their ideas, and teachers’ abilities to evaluate and support students’ understandings using how pupils communicate a topic. In conclusion, studying students’ discourse is imperative because it enables teachers to evaluate students’ knowledge as well as helps students to seek, share, and broaden their knowledge and develop their social skills. Hence, this study

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wished to explore scientific understanding and discourse in the science classroom, specifically through place-based learning inquiry.

4.4 Research Aims and Questions The intervention of this study was centered on the belief that students should pursue knowledge individually, then share and enhance that knowledge by working collaboratively with their peers. That is, it focused on developing activities that supported student construction of knowledge while promoting science discourses. In examining the influence of the intervention on student scientific understanding and their discourse, the study addressed three research questions as follows: RS1: How did PBE activities impact students’ understanding of local ecosystems? RS2: How did PBE activities impact classroom discourses and engagement? RS3: What were the students’ attitudes towards PBE activities?

4.5 Location of the Studies and Participants The study took place in a public high school located in northeastern Thailand, about 700 km from Bangkok. This province is well-known as “a city of Buddhists.” It is rich in natural, intellectual, cultural, and traditional resources. One of the resources for learning science included aquatic organisms, e.g., fishes, insects, and plants from the Songkhram River Basin that floods extensively during the rainy season. This unique ecosystem is found only in this region, similar to the Amazon Basin. This local reserve helped students develop ecosystem concepts and scientific inquiry skills more relevant to their lives and made learning more meaningful.

4.5.1 Participation Recruitment and Selection This case study aimed at developing activities focused on local ecosystems to engage students in inquiry discourse using their lifeworld resources to construct scientific understanding. The study recruited a teacher with 32 years teaching experience and students in his grade ninth science classroom. These students, 37 girls and 3 boys were in the top performing class meaning their academic performance was above average compared to other six classes in the same cohort. The students all spoke Northeastern dialects—Phu-Thai, and Lao—as their primary language. At home, students spoke their dialects; at school, they also used their dialects with friends but used central Thai with teachers, which was the school

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norm. It was believed that students and teachers should use central Thai at school to raise language proficiency and increase students’ confidence in using the language. Some teachers did not allow students to use the local language with them at school. All of them lived in the rural district, where the school was located. Additionally, the majority of students had at least one classmate from the elementary school that was located in their villages. Of 40 students, 39 were born and raised in this town. Only one student had recently moved there. Most of the students’ parents were farmers; some were vendors, and a few were government officers. 4.5.1.1 Students’ Behaviors and Opinions About Classroom Talk Before Intervention According to field observation notes, and a survey of students’ opinions, students in this class were likely to enjoy talking while in class, but not for academic purposes. Additionally, only three students said that they did not have problems talking about their opinions in class whereas the rest said they had a problem talking academically in class. Interestingly, some students were afraid of discussions because of class environments. For example, they were worried that what they said would be different from peers and teachers and then would be laughed at. Laughter was not considered as discrimination or inappropriate behaviors in the classroom for those who laughed at their peers. Thai people use laughter to ease an awkward situation, both for themselves and others. They laugh when feeling nervous, uncomfortable, awkward, or even sad. For example, if a friend fell while trying to have a seat, the class including the one who fell would laugh automatically. Anecdotally, it is commonly seen in Thai classrooms that peers laugh at a classmate when he or she gives the wrong or unusual (in their opinions) answers. Survey results suggest that students were also scared of being questioned while giving their opinions; they were afraid of being wrong. Most teachers expected only one correct answer for each question; some teachers even punished students who gave wrong answers. Being punished when giving the wrong answer had been adopted in Thai classrooms from the time education was taught in the temples. It could be seen more often as punishment in the past, and it was once a cultural belief that a good teacher was the one who could control the classroom and keep it neat and quiet. Some older generations still firmly believed that punishment was the way of discipline for children as seen in a Thai proverb, “If you love your cow, tie it up; if you love your child, beat him (Spare the rod, spoil the child).” Although punishments were no longer recommended, to punish a child physically was prohibited by law, some teachers still did it, and many parents agreed with that. The teachers’ perspectives regarding punishment might differ from those of children. Teachers may see it as the way to encourage students in learning whereas students might see it as a discouragement to their learning. Also, when laughing at their friends, even when students did not mean to abuse their friends’ feelings,

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rather than being amusing, being laughed at might feel threatening at some level. As a result, it made sense if students were afraid of being punished both physically and emotionally and avoided these punishments by becoming quiet. In conclusion, observations before starting the intervention show that the students who participated in this study seemed to be talkative, but they did not talk for academic purposes.

4.6 Methods This case study aimed to determine the impacts of PBE activities on ecosystem understanding and classroom discourses of 40 ninth graders at a high school in Thailand. This research was designed and conducted by the author who collected and analyzed all data. However, the lessons were designed by the team of science teachers and reviewed by the curriculum committee at Khamtakla Rachaprachasongkhora School. While one science teacher taught all designed activities, a researcher observed and recorded the class activities. After class, the lesson developing team discussed the implemented activities and revised lesson plans for the next classes. Data collection spanned 8-weeks, consisting of 1  week of class observation prior to intervention and pre-tests, a 6-week intervention, and a final week of posttest and peer discussion about the findings and interpretations. Findings were analyzed by the researcher to determine how PBE impacted students’ learning and what they thought about PBE activities. Data collection methods used included multiple-choice tests, short essay-­ questions, student artifacts collection, questionnaires, interviews, field observations, and videotapes. Table 4.1 shows how data from each method was employed to address the research questions for this study. Table 4.1  Relationship among research questions, methods, and evidence sought Research questions 1. How did PBE activities impact students’ understanding of local ecosystems? 2. How did PBE activities impact classroom discourses and engagement?

3. What were the students’ attitudes towards PBE activities?

Methods Multiple-choice tests Short essay questions Student artifacts Questionnaires Interviews Field observations Videotapes Student artifacts c Questionnaires Interviews

Evidence sought Changes in pre and posttest scores Changes in pre and post Questionnaire rankings Statements and observations indicating an understanding of science concepts on ecosystems and students’ discourses

Changes in pre and post Questionnaires rankings Statements and observations suggesting students’ attitudes towards lessons

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Students’ conceptual understanding of the local ecosystems was assessed by multiple-choice tests, short essay questions, and student artifacts. Classroom discourse was examined by questionnaires, field observations, videotapes, and student artifacts. Student attitudes towards the lessons were measured by questionnaires, interviews and student artifacts. Lastly, student engagement in learning was considered through field observations, interviews, videotapes, and student artifacts. Students and parents were asked to sign a consent form before videotaping, and all tapes were to be erased after data analysis was completed.

4.6.1 Pre-post Assessment Form: Multiple-Choice Test A 40-question multiple-choice test was validated by three experts in science education. The questions were adapted from those publically used in international, national, and regional assessments. A set of 20 test items with a Pearson correlation coefficient of more than 0.80 were selected for use in the study. Selected multiple-­ choice pre and posttests included 20 items with ten items measuring isolated or straightforward concepts, and another ten addressing integrated or relational concepts. The multiple-choice tests were administered before and soon after the instruction.

4.6.2 Short Essay Question Three short essay questions asking explanations of phenomena in the real world relevant to ecosystems were also administered before and soon after the experiment. One of these questions had been used in prior studies, the other two were constructed by the researcher and science teachers. Student responses to all of these questions were typed and given a code number to conceal both the identity of students and the time of testing to reduce the possibility of scorer bias. The validity of the essay questions was established using an expert panel composed of three science teachers. The students’ responses were scored by three different scorers who were trained for the scoring task.

4.6.3 Student Artifacts Student artifacts included student reflections on class content and concepts, students’ comments, essays, individual evaluation for group activities, and worksheets. They were analyzed for content knowledge, written discourse, and attitudes towards lessons.

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4.6.4 Questionnaires 4.6.4.1 A Science Classroom Survey Before instruction, the survey asked students about their ideal science classroom. The survey began with the instruction informing students that their honesty was most appreciated; their responses would be used to establish future learning environments, and their answers must be kept confidential and would have no adverse effects on their learning. The next part of the survey included questions about what affects the students’ understanding of science concepts and their discourses. It asked students about their language preferences in classroom—standard Thai, Northeastern-Thai dialect (their first mother tongue), and others. Classroom activities were designed based on these students’ answers. 4.6.4.2 A Science Learning Survey The science learning surveys provided evidence of student attitude towards lessons and classroom discourse. The same survey was used before and after the intervention. It was modified from Punyain (2008). This survey included questions based on a five-point Likert scale: Almost Never, Seldom, Sometimes, Often, and Almost Always. The survey contained 32 questions categorized into five subgroups asking students how often they: (1) learned by connecting science in the classroom to their real-world setting; (2) spoke out what they are thinking; (3) were involved in designing their lessons; (4) discussed science concepts with their peers; and (5) expressed their enjoyment in learning science. Additionally, the surveys also included five open-ended questions asking about the exciting activities in science classrooms.

4.6.5 Field Observations At each meeting, a researcher observed the students and immediately wrote observations in a notebook. She then summarized events and experiences after the meeting. The data from field observations may support the data from videotapes as they were concurrently made during which the observer was engaged in classroom activities.

4.6.6 Interviews There were five student interviews and three teacher interviews including thirteen students and five teachers. Of five student interviews, three were group interviews, and two were individual interviews. Of three teacher interviews, one was an

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individual interview, and the remaining four were group interviews. The data from interviews provided insight into the students’ understanding of course content as well as their attitudes towards lessons. Interviews were conducted by a researcher before, during and after interventions. One of the limitations in using data collected from interviews arises from the fact that in Thai culture students were very respectful; they rarely spoke negatively about their teachers. Furthermore, as a researcher was one of teachers at the school, the students appeared to be respectful and interested in supporting the research goals. The favorable answers received may reflect a bias in the study. Another factor that might create bias was that Thai people rarely expressed negative feelings that might make interlocutors feel uncomfortable. Furthermore, when asked individually, students rarely talked or expanded their answers. Consequently, the researcher tried group interviews and found the students to be much more comfortable in explaining their answers. As Thai culture and students’ characteristics might affect the study, the researcher attempted to avoid potential bias by triangulating data and by asking questions of different students in informal settings.

4.6.7 Videotape and Audiotapes of Focus Group Sessions The video data provided insight into what the students did and, primarily, how they interacted with one another—provided the real-time face-to-face interactions that aided measuring their understanding and discourses. To interpret the findings objectively, the researcher worked with the teacher in examining classroom activities. Watching videotapes together allowed the researcher and teacher to be able to answer the research questions through a variety of researcher perspectives.

4.6.8 Data Analysis The researcher looked at a variety of data sources to answer each research question. To ensure validity and trustworthiness in analyzing the collected data, the author triangulated data from different sources, maintained her reflective journal, and used member-checking with whom she shared selected collected data and some analysis. Only the researcher could fully access all collected data. However, a science teacher who taught the class could access some data such as video and audio recordings of classroom activities when discussing the implementation. Additionally, the team designing the activities also could access a summary of lesson implementations to revise the next lessons. In answering the first and second research question—how PBE may impact students’ ecosystem concepts and discourses, the researcher primarily undertook descriptive statistics and paired sample t-tests of pre and posttest of multiple-choice tests and essay tests. Then, she considered student artifacts, e.g., essays,

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short-­answer responses, comments, interviews, field observations, and videotapes. In answering the third research question—what students think about PBE activities, the student artifacts collection and surveys were analyzed. The survey data were analyzed by SPSS software to determine the means and modes for each question, each component, and the overall data. The content analysis was used to investigate student comments and reflections.

4.6.9 Role of Researcher The role of the author as a researcher in this study is as an observer in all classroom activities as well as the person who collected and analyzed research data. However, the author collaborated with science teachers to develop place-based activities. All lesson plans were drafted prior to the implementation. After each class meeting, the researcher discussed the teaching and learning with the teachers and revised the next lessons accordingly. Participatory observation allowed the author to witness classroom interactions in depth and to construct an understanding of the participants’ responses in particular contexts. In order to maintain validity and minimize her bias, the researcher used different strategies and techniques, including: triangulation, member checking and researcher self-reflection as discussed above.

4.7 The Place-Based Activities The ninth grade ecosystem unit set up the context for this study. In addition to core ideas, concepts, themes, and skills stated in Thailand’s core curriculum, the lessons were conceptualized to be relevant to Songkharm Flooded Forest ecosystems. For example, besides studying about broad global ecosystems from their science textbook, students studied local ecosystems from documents based on the research once conducted by local people and resident scholars awarded grants by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In these projects, the scientists and researchers from international organizations worked with local fishers in studying the Lower Songkram Basin ecosystem. In fact, the school was one of the partners in these projects. Students also interviewed elders about the 50 years of changes in this community. Students participated in a field trip to study diverse ecosystems that had not been addressed in standard science textbooks. In the light of the social constructivist and PBE perspectives, classroom activities included five steps: (1) identifying learner needs, (2) planning instruction and assessment, (3) place-based activities, (4) small group/whole class discussion and (5) writing task-individual cognition. The PBE activities consisted of the field visit, folk wisdom interview, lecture attendance, peer group discussion, literature research, lab activities, worksheet, simulations, and a variety of reading and writing tasks. The purposes of these activities were:

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Table 4.2  PBE activities Meetings 1st – 3rd 4th – 6th 7th – 8th 12th – 14th 15th 16th – 18th Total

Contents Ecosystems and local ecosystems Relationships among living things in ecosystems Population Flooded forest ecosystems Flooded forest ecosystems Humans and environmental resources

Activities Field visit, lectures, discussions Lectures, game, field visit, experimentation Experimentation, field visit Game, lecture, reading, discussion, video presentation, field visit Field trip, experimentation Video presentation, discussion, game, expert visit, presentation and writing

Duration (hours) 4 4 3 4 1 day 4 23+ 1 days

1. To actively engage students in discourse enabling them to construct the scientific concepts relevant to their local ecosystem and 2. To promote thinking and abilities in applying science concepts in their explanations of everyday phenomena. The students explored six topics, including ecosystems and local ecosystems, the relationships between living things in ecosystems, population, biodiversity, flooded forest ecosystems, and humans and environmental resources. The classroom activities are shown in Table 4.2.

4.8 Findings To examine the effects of PBE activities on the students’ understanding of the local ecosystems, data on student discourse and attitudes towards the PBE activities were collected. Each research question is discussed separately based on the relevant data, analyses, and interpretation.

4.8.1 Research Question 1: The Impact of PBE Activities on Students’ Understanding of Ecosystems Data from a variety of sources were collected to determine the students’ understanding of ecosystems. First, multiple-choice test scores were analyzed to examine the students’ basic and advanced understanding. Second, the students’ responses to short essay questions were analyzed to determine their perspectives on ecosystem management and environmental problems. Finally, five writing tasks were reviewed to evaluate whether the students correctly grasped the concepts presented.

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A paired-samples t-test indicated that multiple-choice test scores were significantly higher for the post-test (M = 13.43, SD 2.36) than the pre-test (M = 9.63, SD 2.64), t(39) = 9.46, p