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Cultural Diversity and Evolution: Looking for a Dialogical Teaching Perspective

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Evolution Education Re-considered

Abstract

Evolution education has not sufficiently explored the cultural and contextual aspects related to learning. In this chapter, we discuss the possibilities of teaching evolution using an intercultural dialogic approach. We worked with indigenous students in the Mayan Highlands in Mexico exploring their current knowledge about domestication of maize (a process of artificial selection ) and reflect on how knowledge about domestication of maize could be relevant for learning evolution . Indigenous people in Mexico managed to domesticate maize’s wild ancestor (teosinte) to produce an enormous diversity of maize, and this process is still performed in Mexico. Bringing this knowledge to the fore in the classroom generates opportunities to discuss the relevance of indigenous/traditional knowledge , as well as to find ways to make evolution more relevant for students. We present results from an exploratory study that illustrate the complexities of the task and shed light on issues that should be considered in order to teach evolution considering contextual and cultural diversity .

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Tsotsil is the language spoken by one of the indigenous groups in Chiapas Highlands. It is spoken by over 400,000 people and is the largest ethnic group, only after Tzeltales.

  2. 2.

    The type of schools we worked in are telesecundarias. This is a particular system in Mexico, where there is only one teacher per group (in regular secondary schools there is a teacher for every subject). The creation of this type of school was seen as a solution to reach distant populations through technological support.

  3. 3.

    Mestizos is the name that is used to identify non-indigenous people.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to students in the Chiapas Highlands, their teachers, and the reviewers of this chapter. This work was supported by grants SEP/SEB 2013, No. 231425 y SEP/SEB 2014-01, No. 240192, CONACYT, México.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad Monterrey, Cinvestav, Monterrey, Mexico

    A. A. Gómez Galindo

  2. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana—Cuajimalpa, Mexico City, Mexico

    Alejandra García Franco

  3. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Leonardo Gonzáles Galli

  4. UdeG, Guadalajara, Mexico

    José de la Cruz Torres Frías

Authors
  1. A. A. Gómez Galindo
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  2. Alejandra García Franco
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  3. Leonardo Gonzáles Galli
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  4. José de la Cruz Torres Frías
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. A. Gómez Galindo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education at Kiel University, Kiel, Germany

    Ute Harms

  2. Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK

    Michael J. Reiss

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Gómez Galindo, A.A., García Franco, A., Gonzáles Galli, L., Torres Frías, J.C. (2019). Cultural Diversity and Evolution: Looking for a Dialogical Teaching Perspective. In: Harms, U., Reiss, M. (eds) Evolution Education Re-considered. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14698-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14698-6_13

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