SJE1925H
This seminar will examine Indigenous and marginalized knowledge forms in global and transnational contexts and the pedagogical implications for decolonized education. It begins with a brief overview of processes of knowledge production, interrogation, validation and dissemination in diverse educational settings. There is a critique of theoretical conceptions of what constitutes 'valid' knowledge and how such knowledge is produced and disseminated locally and externally. A particular emphasis is on the validation of non-Western epistemologies and their contributions in terms of offering multiple and collective readings of the world. Among the specific topics to be covered are the principles of Indigenous knowledge forms; questions of power, social difference, identity, and representation in Indigenous knowledge production; cultural appropriation and the political economy of knowledge production; Indigenous knowledges and science education; Indigenous knowledges and globalization; change, modernity, and Indigenous knowledges. The course uses case material from diverse social settings to understand different epistemologies and their pedagogical implications. Indigenous knowledge is thus defined broadly to local cultural resource knowledge and the Indigenous philosophies of colonized/oppressed peoples. The focus on local Indigenousness, that is, a knowledge consciousness that emerges from an understanding of the society-nature-culture nexus or interface.