Beyond Pure Forms: Appraising the Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Teacher Training

Abstract

Research and debate on the value and deployment of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has become contentious. While many agree that it is something that is both threatened and valuable, there are enormous conceptual difficulties encountered in framing what, exactly, it is that IK proponents should be fighting to preserve. This chapter uses insights from James C. Scott’s work on legibility and Bruno Latour’s work in the sociology of knowledge to privilege what we call relative epistemological performativity. This framework stands in contrast to attempts to privilege problematic essentialist views of “indigenous,” “Western,” or “scientific” knowledge. With this framework we are able to challenge some of the “antipolitics” implicit in educational development agenda that promote cultural and cognitive homogeneity as well as find space for hybrids like using ICT to strengthen IK. Finally, we conclude that the profound differences in conceptualizing the epistemology and ontology of IK should not detract from widespread agreement on the need for pedagogical practices that protect threatened local languages, cultures, and ecological knowledge.

Citation

Menefee, T. and Asino, T.I. (2014), "Beyond Pure Forms: Appraising the Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Teacher Training", Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2014 (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 25), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 23-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920140000025002