Feeding pigs and looking for<i>güembé</i>: the local production of knowledge about the natural world of peasant and indigenous children in San Ignacio

Biology and Environmental education are increasingly important disciplines to be taught in rural settings, where indigenous communities frequently hold ownership of invaluable natural resources. However, the Mexican science curriculum does not cater for the specific educational needs of the country's numerous ethnic groups. Situated learning is a pedagogical alternative that affords the possibility of integrating the pupils' culture and ways of interpreting the world within the curricular aims. Nevertheless, there are no reports of its usage in indigenous schools. This paper analyses two 90-minute classes as examples of how situated learning can be used to introduce the concepts of biodiversity and ecosystems in indigenous Zapoteca tele-secondary science classes. The results suggest that using situated learning for these topics helped students understand the concepts, see the importance of what they were learning, and motivated them to learn further.

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Feeding pigs and looking forgüembé: the local production of knowledge about the natural world of peasant and indigenous children in San Ignacio

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

Latin American Educational Ethnography

Latin American Educational Ethnography

Working together, learning apart: a multicommunity study in rural Peru

Learning Biology With Situated Learning in Mexican Zapoteca Tele-Secondary Schools

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