Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Imaginary Subjects: School Science, Indigenous Students, And Knowledge–Power Relations, Joanna Kidman, Eleanor Abrams, Hiria Mcrae

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

The perspectives of indigenous science learners in developed nations offer an important but frequently overlooked dimension to debates about the nature of science, the science curriculum, and calls from educators to make school science more culturally responsive or ‘relevant’ to students from indigenous or minority groups. In this paper the findings of a study conducted with indigenous Maori children between the ages of 10 and 12 years are discussed. The purpose of the study was to examine the ways that indigenous children in an urban school environment in New Zealand position themselves in relation to school science. Drawing on the …