Crossing the Gap between Indigenous Worldview and Western Science: Millet Festival as a Bridge in the Teaching Module

Abstract

The worldview within indigenous people's traditional knowledge and western science can be a world of difference. In order to help indigenous students cross the gap and develop a sense of cultural identification. Taking Bunun, one of the Taiwanese indigenous tribes, as our subject, this study aims to develop a teaching module through Bunun's Millet Festival and implement this module to analyze students' performance. To have a better understanding of the worldview of Bunun, we had individual interviews with tribal elders and compared the collective materials with literature. Millet Festival is a significant ceremony for Bunun for passing important cultural custom and knowledge. Thus, taking Millet Festival as centerpiece of this study, we tried to connect traditional indigenous knowledge with school science education during Reclaiming Festival, Seed Sowing Festival, Ear-Shooting Festival, Garnering Festival and by making tribal elders assist with school teacher in class. The result shows that this teaching module not only provides abundant materials related to scientific subjects, but also makes the students appreciate the value and meaning of their own culture more. In addition, they would learn to respect the tribal elders sincerely and therefore the cultural inheritance would be rebuilt.

The Relation of Form and Aspect of Non-Verbal Symbol of Gawai Dayak Ritual With Dayak Society Life Tradition and Its Use in Regional Literature Learning in West Kalimantan

“…Prayitno added that environment as a source of learning can origin from physical, social, demography, economy, politic, knowledge and technology, art and culture and religious elements (1999: 347). It is similar with a study of Chiang and Lee (2015) which discussed about Millet festival which is used as the teaching material to build traditional knowledge and to be integrated with western knowledge.…”

Supporting Indigenous Students in Science and STEM Education: A Systematic Review

“…Similar to the informal programs, during the formal classroom practices, students usually worked on nature-and environment-related topics. Only one study [33] was on classroom practice about an Indigenous traditional festival.…”

“…In some cases, such as Pugh et al [22] and Barajas-López and Bang [18], students learned and experienced Indigenous ways of knowing, including respect for the land, and reciprocal relationships with the environment and others. In other cases, student learning was embedded in the context of traditions and stories of Indigenous tribes, such as traditional festivals [33] and cultural activities [35]. There were also programs, such as Karagatzides et al [23], that engaged students in investigation of issues faced by the local Indigenous communities (e.g., management of natural resources).…”

“…Outdoor activities and cultural practice in these programs provided Indigenous students with opportunities to explore nature-culture relations and thus deepened their understandings of their own cultures. Six studies (25%), such as Lee et al [29], Rioux et al [30,31], and Chiang and Lee [33], reported that Indigenous students increased interest and pride in their heritage and culture knowledge. By interrelating with stories and traditional activities (e.g., festivals and ceremonies) in these programs, Indigenous youths strengthened connections to their communities, cultural inheritance, and Indigenous worldviews, and thus became prouder of their cultures and Indigenous personal identities.…”

The Development of Science Learning Document Grounded on STEM-Approach Integrated Ethnoscience

“…The results of the validation of learning documents in the form of learning materials are presented in Table 3. Teaching module not only provide abundant materials related to scientific subjects, but also makes students appreciate the value and meaning of their own culture [14]. It is suitable with the ethnoscience approach and module theme substance additives based ethnoscience effective improve learning outcomes and the entrepreneurial character of students [6] Learning that connect of local potential with learning materials would help the learner to achieve the learning objectives [15].…”