Abstract
Native Hawaiian students often develop extensive ecological knowledge through informal and non-formal cultural and subsistence practices. This knowledge seldom connects to mainstream school science developed for middle-class students in the continental USA. Displacement of indigenous knowledge, values, and practices may contribute both to the underrepresentation of Native Hawaiians in science and the decline of sustainable social-ecosystems. Four elements of a Hawaiian cultural model of sustainability provide the framework for professional development oriented to sustainability: (1) a Hawaiian sense of place, (2) Mālama, active care for a familiar place; (3) kuleana, responsibility; and (4) active inquiry situated in real-world issues. Place-based lessons incorporating these elements orient science learning to sustainability, a fundamental cultural goal. Teachers often transform their instruction when they recognize that students’ informal and non-formal knowledge and practices are resources for science education. This chapter concludes that reestablishing Mālama I Ka 'āina, Sustainability, as a Hawaiʻi State science standard would connect formal to informal and non-formal science knowledge, support systems thinking, and engage students in problem-solving and civic action for the common good.
Research supported by Award No. S362A090012 under the Native Hawaiian Education Act, United States Department of Education.
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Chinn, P.W.U. (2014). Educating for Science Literacy, Citizenship, and Sustainability: Learning from Native Hawaiian Perspectives. In: Mueller, M., Tippins, D., Stewart, A. (eds) Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility). Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education, vol 41. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2748-9_23
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