Complementary Worldviews Aligning: A Relational Approach to STEM Education

Abstract: Educators in Canada face federal and provincial mandates arising from the TRC Calls to Action (2012) to incorporate First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) perspectives across the curriculum. Yet it is not uncommon to hear K–12 educators as well as some university faculty asking, "How do I incorporate Indigenous culture into science? Is it even possible?" This paper not only describes how it is possible but also explains why it is necessary, providing a theoretical framework and practical examples of how Western approaches to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) knowledge can be braided with Indigenous treatments of these knowledge categories and disciplines. Historically, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and other Indigenous worldviews have been systematically and systemically dismissed by the sciences and primarily confined to the humanities. Therefore, to move beyond merely learning about Indigenous cultures and lean into learning from them (i.e., learn through the lens of Indigenous cultures), we must (1) teach Niitsitapi and other Indigenous stories beyond the humanities classroom; (2) better engage the etiological, ontological, epistemological, axiological, and practical traditions of Niitsitapi and other Indigenous Peoples; and (3) operationalize pedagogical and methodological models that acknowledge, respect, and embody Indigenous ways of knowing and being in STEM education.