American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Recent years have witnessed an expansion of culturally relevant education programs for American Indian youth. These programs, which are a response to underachievement in scientific and technical fields, focus on curricula and methods that render science more accessible to Indian students. They do so by adapting to the "learning styles," the interactional and social patterns, the common knowledge, and the community needs that may distinguish Indian students from their non-Indian classmates. Many of the resulting programs are impressive, showing monumental dedication and tremendous creativity on the part of their staff. Indian science education has taken a giant step. Now, however, there is an opportunity to take another step. This article, while applauding the achievements of culturally relevant science programs, suggests that many such programs may carry with them unintended consequences. In order to clarify this assertion, I first examine some assumptions which tend to characterize mainstream science classrooms and some of the contrasting assumptions which may appear in various American Indian traditional thought systems. I discuss some specific examples of culturally relevant science programs, showing that the tendency is to overlook or deemphasize the differences just explored. I then argue that the outcome of such neglect is likely to be that American Indian traditional knowledge is severely damaged, even destroyed. I close by considering what science programs might look like if they pressed innovations in culturally relevant programming toward a second and more dramatic step that more explicitly insists upon the legitimacy of traditional American Indian models of inquiry into the natural world.