(Re)membering Indigenous Spirituality in Engineering Education: A Narrative Literature Review

Austin Morgan Kainoa Peters

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY) Technical Session 5
Tagged Divisions: Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44625
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44625

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Austin Morgan Kainoa Peters Purdue University

visit author page

Austin Morgan Kainoa Peters was born and raised in Wailuku, Hawaiʻi where he attended Kamehameha Schools Maui (KSM). This private, Christian K-12 institution gives admission preference to children with Hawaiian ancestry and attempts to incorporate Hawaiian culture, history, and values into a Western-based curricula. Although KSM has many colonial influences, it taught Peters to see the benefits of his ethnicities, especially Native Hawaiian, within academia. Peters obtained his bachelor’s degree at the University of San Diego (USD) in Integrated Engineering. Assimilating to the culture of this predominantly white institution left Peters questioning if he could be an engineer and multiracial. Fortunately, the liberal arts emphasis of the school combined with research work in Engineering Education helped him to see his worth as a multiracial engineer. Peters’ current goal is to obtain a doctoral degree in Engineering Education at Purdue University to bring his cultural knowledge and values into Engineering.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Despite global and national calls and efforts to bring Indigenous knowledge and peoples into engineering and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, these populations continue to struggle in these fields because their ways of knowing are not recognized or legitimized due to settler colonialism. Consequently, Indigenous peoples view Indigenous knowledge and STEM education as two separate entities. Decolonization research is in the beginning stages to develop culturally relevant STEM education for Indigenous populations to heal their identities and bring back their knowledge and its motivations. This narrative literature review focuses on analyzing these implementations of reconnecting STEM education and Indigenous knowledge in North America using the research question: How has Indigenous knowledge of North America been (re)incorporated into culturally relevant STEM education? Using review procedures including specified database search terms and inclusion and exclusion criteria, I identified 20 articles focused around incorporating Indigenous knowledge into STEM education as a form of culturally relevant pedagogy. Using inductive coding and thematic analysis, I identified three themes: centering Indigenous ways of knowing, ensuring Elder involvement, and recognizing all knowledge holders. By comparing exemplary implementations of Indigenous knowledge into STEM education for all three themes, I illustrated the meaning and benefits of each. Finding the common thread between the three themes provides one answer for the research question. I propose spiritual knowledge as the binding thread that connects the themes and (re)connects Indigenous knowledge and STEM education. Spirituality can become a theorizing space to help with the decolonizing of engineering education by challenging the dominant knowledge types and bringing in other ways of knowing.

Keywords: Culturally Relevant Education, Indigenous Knowledge, Spirituality

Citation
Format

Peters, A. M. K. (2023, June), (Re)membering Indigenous Spirituality in Engineering Education: A Narrative Literature Review Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44625