Epistemological Dominance and Social Inequality

Experiences of Native American Science, Engineering, and Health Students

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5337943
AutoresE A Cech (0000-0001-6913-7150, University of Michigan, autor correspondente), Anneke Metz (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA), Anneke M Metz (0000-0001-5877-6010, Southern Illinois University Carbondale), Jessi L Smith (0000-0001-6439-1336, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA), Karen Devries (0000-0001-8935-2181, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA)
Ano2017
Volume42
Fascículo5
Páginas743-774
Data de publicação2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243916687037
OpenAlexW2568299305
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas59

Can epistemologies anchor processes of social inequality? In this paper, we consider how epistemological dominance in science, engineering, and health (SE&H) fields perpetuates disadvantages for students who enter higher education with alternative epistemologies. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Native American students enrolled at two US research universities who adhere to or revere indigenous epistemologies, we find that epistemological dominance in SE&H degree programs disadvantages students through three processes. First, it delegitimizes Native epistemologies and marginalizes and silences students who value them. Second, in the process of imparting these dominant scientific epistemologies, SE&H courses sometimes require students to participate in pedagogical practices that challenge indigenous ways of knowing. Third, students encounter epistemological imperialism: most students in the sample are working to earn SE&H degrees in order to return to tribal communities to "give back," yet, because the US laws regulating the practice of SE&H extend onto tribal lands, students must earn credentials in epistemologies that devalue, delegitimate, and threaten indigenous knowledge ways to practice on tribal lands. We examine how students navigate these experiences, discuss the implications of these findings for SE&H education, and describe how epistemological dominance may serve as a mechanism of inequality reproduction more broadly

Biology · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Indigenous · Inequality · Social science · Sociology · Traditional knowledge · Career Development and Diversity · Evaluation of Teaching Practices · Higher Education Practises and Engagement · Philosophy · Ecology