1 Blue Crab Does Run Full Moon: Using Indigenous (Aboriginal/Native) Ways of Being, Knowing, and Doing Science to Enrich School Science Curricula. By: Laila N. Boisselle A thesis submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education The University of Sheffield Faculty of Social Sciences School of Education November 2016 2 ABSTRACT The study investigates the nature of the science of the First Nations people of Trinidad, and then integrates it with western science into a mini-curriculum. This ethnographic, exploratory case study utilised a variety of data collection strategies. Semi-structured interview of their Elders provided the primary data for analysis. Small amounts of participant observation and document analysis were used to gain entry to the research site, and to better understand the context of the study. Email interviews of expert science educators informed the introductory chapter. A reflexive researcher’s diary also contributed at various stages of the study. A complex adaptive theoretical system (as opposed to mixed methods) was able to accommodate the contradictory, yet interacting, theoretical positions of western and indigenous science. Mixed methods would account for the contradiction between theories but not for their interaction. The First Nations science of Trinidad was found complex adaptive; empiricist/positivist; hypodeductive; relational; holistic; to view self-actualisation as the primary aim of scientific knowing; and was focused more on the intervention methods of science, as opposed to depicting those methods as theories or other representations. The evolution of scientific knowledge via paradigmatic shifting was not seen in the nature of the science of the participants. The findings were then used to inductively derive the curriculum using a connected model of integration. Continued investigation is suggested into: the nature of indigenous science, its relationship with western science, and the use of complex adaptive systems as a theoretical framework to do so; ethical research procedures for Indigenous (Aboriginal/Native) Caribbean peoples; the development of accepted oral research reporting formats; refinement of the interview protocol; and pilot- testing and expansion of the mini-curriculum via a complex adaptive method of integration (e.g. a networked or immersed model). The nature of Trinidadian science may also be a worthwhile continuation of this study. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 List of Tables, Figures, and Common Abbreviations 11 Disclaimer 12 Acknowledgements 13 Dedication 14 Chapter One: Introduction 15 1.1 Aims of the Chapter 15 1.2 Statement of the Issue 15 1.2.1 Defining science 15 1.2.2 Indigenous science 21 1.2.3 Trinidadian science 22 1.2.3.1 How science grows in colonial/postcolonial countries 22 1.2.3.2 Impact of colonialism on the nature of Trinidadian science 23 1.2.3.3 The integration of native-indigenous science into school science curricula: Justifying a multicultural science education 26 1.3 Participants: The Santa Rosa First Nations Community of Trinidad 32 1.4 My Purpose 36 1.5 Research Questions 38 1.6 My Positionality 38 1.7 Significance of the Study 42 1.8 Chapter Summary 44 1.9 Layout of the Document 45 4 Chapter 2: Literature Review 1 – How We ‘Know’ 46 2.1 Introduction to the Literature Reviews 46 2.2 Aims of the Chapter 46 2.3 Experiencing and Knowing the World 47 2.3.1 Knowing through metaphysics 48 2.3.2 Knowing through empiricism/positivism 48 2.3.3 Knowing through hypo-deduction 50 2.3.4 Knowing through falsification 51 2.3.5 Knowing through paradigm shifts and scientific revolutions 52 2.3.6 Knowing through representations and interventions 54 2.3.7 Knowing through quantum theory 54 2.3.8 Post-positivist views of knowing 55 2.3.9 Relational ways of knowing 57 2.3.10 Ways of being, ways of knowing, ways of doing 58 2.4 Noetic Science: Negotiating a Peace Accord between Western and Indigenous Sciences May Help to Grow Scientific Knowledge 62 2.5 Border-crossing, Collateral Learning, and Scientific Literacy 66 2.6 Chapter Summary 70 2.7 The Next Chapter 70 Chapter 3: Literature Review 2 – The Use of a Complex Adaptive System as a Curriculum Integrating Framework and as a Methodological Framework 72 3.1 Aims of the Chapter 72 3.2 Introduction to the Chapter 72 3.3 What is a Complex Adaptive System? 74 3.4 The Role of a Complex Adaptive System as a Theory for Caribbeanness and the Trinidadian Experience 82 3.5 Why a Complex Adaptive System Might Be a Useful Curriculum Framework 86 3.6 The Model of the Proposed Unit of Work 89 3.6.1 The unit’s audience 89 3.6.2 The unit’s complex adaptive model/frame 89 5 3.6.3 How the unit was integrated 91 3.7 A Complex Adaptive System (CAS) as the Theoretical Methodological Framework 92 3.8 Chapter Summary 96 3.9 The Next Chapter 97 Chapter 4: Methodology 98 4.1 Introduction to, and Aims of, the Chapter 98 4.2 Design and Methods 98 4.2.1 The research as ethnography 98 4.2.2 The research as exploratory case study 100 4.2.3 Participant observation 100 4.2.4 Document analysis 101 4.2.5 Reflexive researcher’s diary 101 4.2.6 Interviewing, and instruments to measure the nature of science 102 4.2.6.1 The Nott and Wellington instrument 104 4.2.6.2 The Pomeroy instrument 105 4.2.6.3 The VNOS (Views of Nature of Science) instrument 105 4.2.6.4 The CLASS (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey) instrument 106 4.2.6.5 The VOST (Views on Science-Technology- Society) instrument 107 4.2.6.6 The Thinking about Science Survey Instrument (TSSI) 108 4.2.6.7 Why develop a new interview instrument? 109 4.2.6.8 Developing the interview protocol 111 4.2.6.9 Justifying the structure of the semi- structured interview 111 4.2.6.10 The content of the interview protocol 113 4.3 Carrying out the research: Pilot-testing, gaining access, and administration of the semi-structured interview 114 6 4.3.1 Pilot-testing and gaining access 114 4.4 Ethics: Telling the Truth and Doing No Harm 122 4.4.1 Data aren’t butterflies 122 4.4.2 Data butterflies and methodical nets: Securing ethical practice 125 4.4.2.1 Adhering to regulations and institutional compliance 126 4.4.2.2 Triangulation 126 4.4.2.3 Peer review and Member Checking 127 4.4.2.4 Anonymity 129 4.4.2.5 Methodological considerations 130 4.5 Chapter Summary 130 4.6 The Next Chapter 130 Chapter 5: Resolving the Research Questions 1 – Generating Answers to the Research Questions, and Extracting and Analysing Data 131 5.1 Aims of the Chapter 131 5.2 Generating Answers to the Research Questions: Justifying the Semi- structured Interview Protocol 131 5.3 Extracting Answers to the Research Questions: Mining the Interview Transcripts 138 5.4 Framing a Response to the Research Questions: Forms of Re-presentation and Issues of Translation 140 5.5 Responding to the Research Questions: Introducing the Participants 142 5.6 Chapter Summary, and the Next Chapter 144 Chapter 6: Resolving the Research Questions 2 – Responding to Research Question 1 145 6.1 Aims of the Chapter 145 6.2 Response to Research Question 1a 145 6.2.1 Science is individualistic and personal 146 6.2.2 There is only kind of knowledge 147 7 6.2.3 Scientific Knowledge that Protects the Community, Entities therein, and their Holism is considered to be Epistemologically Robust, Valid, or Good Knowledge 148 6.2.4 Knowledge gathering is an egalitarian affair and is open to anyone capable of accessing it 149 6.3 Response to Research Question 1b 151 6.3.1 Metaphysics 151 6.3.2 A case for utility – A creole of empiricism/positivism, hypo- deduction, falsification, and representing and intervening 153 6.3.3 Relationality and holism 154 6.3.4 Ways of being, knowing, and doing 157 6.3.5 Constructivism and other theories of knowledge 157 6.3.6 Scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts 158 6.3.7 A collective a posteriori code: Complex adaptive systems 158 6.4 Response to Research Question 1c 158 6.4.1 Scientific knowledge (elements/contents and methods/strategies) can be revealed or acquired 158 6.4.2 Scientific knowledge(elements/contents and methods/strategies) is acquired from knowledgeable elders or mentors via a lived experience or the oral tradition 160 6.5 Chapter Summary, and the Next Chapter 162 Chapter 7: Resolving the Research Questions Part 3 – Responding to Research Question 2 164 7.1 Aims of the Chapter 164 7.2 Responses to the Interview Question: “If you had to put the science of the First Nations Peoples of Trinidad onto science school curricula, what would you include?” 164 7.3 The Curriculum: Integrating the First Nations science of Trinidad with western science 166 7.3.1 Philosophy of the curriculum 167 7.3.2 Misconceptions 167 7.3.3 The pedagogic creed of the curriculum 167 8 7.3.4 Aims chosen to govern the curriculum at the international level 168 7.3.5 Aims chosen to govern the curriculum at the national level 169 7.3.6 Goals created to govern the curriculum at the local level 169 7.3.7 How the curriculum secures the 4Rs (richness, rigor, recursion, relations); border crossing; collateral learning; and connected integration 170 7.3.8 Lesson one of the mini-curriculum 172 7.3.9 Lesson two of the mini-curriculum 174 7.3.10 Lesson three of the mini-curriculum 176 7.3.11 Lesson four of the mini-curriculum 178 7.4 Chapter Summary, and the Next Chapter 180 Chapter 8: Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 181 8.1 Aims of the Chapter 181 8.2 Responding to Research Question One 181 8.2.1 Unexpected anomalies in the findings to research question one 183 8.3 Responding to Research