Indigenous Knowledge and Education: Sites of Struggle, Strength, and Survivance

This book brings together essays that explore Indigenous ways of knowing and that consider how such knowledge can inform educational practices and institutions. Indigenous Knowledge is resiliently local in character and thus poses a distinct contrast to the international, more impersonal system of knowledge prevalent in Western educational institutions. In the words of Mik’maq scholar Marie Battiste—a leading proponent of Indigenous Knowledge and a contributor to this volume—Indigenous Knowledge expresses “the vibrant relationships between the people, their ecosystems, and the other living beings and spirits that share their lands.” Indigenous Knowledge and Education argues that such knowledge has much to offer schools and students in the United States and beyond. The volume examines a wide range of Indigenous cultures and educational settings, including Native American, Haitian, Mexican, African, and Australian. The essays are grouped into three themes that exemplify many Indigenous cultures: struggle, strength, and survivance—the latter a notion of survival that emphasizes remembrance, regeneration, and spiritual renewal. Each of these themes is explored in a rich array of articles and capped with new essays by Marie Battiste, Gregory A. Cajete, and Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy.