The cultural validity of a psychological or educational theory is a function of its sensitizing and heuristic power for a given task addressed by a given community. African universities have inherited from the West a number of institutionalized arrangements for learning that tend to decontextualize the learning process by extracting learners from…

This article considers the comprehension of tense-aspect markers remote past BIN and habitual be by 3- to 5-year-old developing African American English (AAE)-speaking children and their Southwest Louisiana Vernacular English (SwLVE)-speaking peers. Overall both groups of children associated BIN with the distant past; however, the AAE-speaking…

Background/Context: Culturally authoritative texts such as Text Revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV [DSM-IV-TR](American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2004) describe literate impossibility for individuals with disability labels associated with severe developmental disabilities. Our qualitative research challenges the…

This paper concerns my own reflections on ethnographic research with Indigenous students studying at university. I began the research by using the methodology of interpretive ethnography to discover what constitutes success for Indigenous students studying at university. But after some unflattering critiques of my initial interpretation of the…

After nearly two centuries of denial within Western education institutions, the indigenous knowledge systems of Alaska's Natives are being recaptured through the work of the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative. These knowledge systems, coupled with the best of Western science, form the foundation for a new type of education--one that is place-based,…

The Navajo calendar is a means of educating people to thrive in their surroundings, realize their individual potentials, and perpetuate their society. Describes in Navajo and English: the Navajo calendar, ceremonies and activities appropriate to each month, the moccasin game and string game (played in winter), and the significance of the number…

This article describes an action research project undertaken in Australia to confront Eurocentrism in our social work curricula. Our aims, action, and reflections are discussed. Further, we explore the legitimacy of non-indigenous teachers taking action to reconcile indigenous knowledges in curricula. The findings have relevance for international…

This paper explores the professional experience of an Anishnabe educator working in various organisations teaching Indigenous knowledge issues in both Aboriginal and primarily non-Aboriginal settings. The reflections span a number of years of teaching Aboriginal worldview and knowledge issues courses and include formal evaluations from both…

This paper will discuss some personal philosophies and rationales in approaching and delivering Indigenous Australian studies--approaches that have been influenced and informed by experienced and knowledgeable educators both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. It doesn't aim or pretend to be unique or innovative in its arguments or approach; instead,…

In this paper, the author describes the reactions and review of two reporters who attended the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in 2004. One reporter, Marc Fisher, said "The museum feels like a trade show in which each group of Indians gets space to sell its founding myth and favorite anecdotes of survival." Another,…

New Zealand has had free, state, secular education since 1877, but just what is meant by secularism is changing. Since the 1980s the growth of Maori education initiatives has mushroomed and these place emphasis on Maori values and beliefs, including spirituality. In addition, in 1999 a definition and statement on spirituality appeared in the…

There is a growing recognition of the need to change current dietary patterns and of the value of traditional foodways. The Center for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment, based at McGill University in Montreal, is a research and education resource for Indigenous Peoples created by Canada's Aboriginal Leaders to support traditional…

This article explores the impact of worldview on a people's approach to dealing with conflict and compare the worldviews underlying specific Western and Indigenous approaches to dealing with conflict. It suggests that power imbalances in conflict resolution research and practice perpetuate colonization through ontological violence, marginalizing…

The past two decades has witnessed the mushrooming of Islamic schools in Europe, the United States and South Africa. Initially, these schools were concerned essentially with providing an Islamic ethos for learners. More recently, however, they have begun to focus on the process of Islamization. The Islamization project was initiated in the United…