The phrase or term “Indigenous Learning” or Indigenous Learning Style” has received much attention in the last decade. Indigenous academics, fighting for a place within western. and global academic institutions, have attempted to introduce this new idea into the mainstream foray of general education with the goal of shedding new light on both its history, meaning and importance.

One of the first academic articles I encountered on this subject was from a Cree professor by the name of Willy Ermine, who captured the dichotomies between western education and indigenous education by looking deeply at the epistemological traditions that separated them and their assumptions. One of his main assertions is that Western epistemological traditions focused mainly on finding knowledge in the outer physical realm of existence while indigenous societies, especially before colonialism, were often concerning themselves with questions of a more philosophical inner realm. Furthermore, he argued that pursuing knowledge only on a physical plane of existence, often lead to a “fragmentary world view” and “atomism”. The attempt to find knowledge by studying only its parts and not the entire system.

In our text, the authors discuss 2 concepts that briefly overlap with indigenous learning principles and that provide a very introductory sense of how this manifests itself. These 2 ideas are embodied learning and spiritual learning. While the inclusion of these ideas are informative and help draw some links to indigenous learning, it is still placed within a context of western rationality and requires further elaboration.

Indigenous knowledge systems and philosophies have have faced centuries of colonial assault. Religion, the prohibition of ceremony and practice, legislated educational policies that implemented cultural genocide, and the need to hide and mask traditional ways of thinking have not been easy on indigenous learners and the old ways. Even the authors of our text, in their assessment of the origins of philosophy state that its origins are western. That small P philosophy (philosophy as a general concept related to knowledge and its deeper meaning and origin) is born in Greece. In fact most of the authors historical references revert back to the origins of human learning and education as being born in Western civilization as if knowledge production could not occur in other societies.

So what is indigenous learning styles and what are they grounded in. Perhaps a discussion of the word community can serve as an example. In indigenous Mapuche knowledge systems, the word lof which means community or communal space includes not only humans in a specific geographical space but the entire scope of the natural world, and super natural world. This means it includes the birds, the rivers, the mountains, the trees, and the spiritual beings that live in those spaces as well. Obviously, for an atheist, the idea of spirituality and knowledge are mutually exclusive– a knowing that in and of itself speaks about the differences in how the universe is understood and why we should be concerned.

How then does this idea apply to learning and how can it make sense to those unfamiliar with this philosophy. The main concept here is not about deconstructing an object to examine its parts, but to embrace holism as a larger philosophical purpose. Its about understanding indigenous learning as a larger value and the need to open debates about cosmovision and the reason for human purpose and existence. That holism be a practice and not simply a concept. If we insist learning must only be tied to economics, then our entire existence will be affected and will be played out in our societies goals. If we apply the idea that humans are part of a community that includes all life, our goals in learning will change drastically.

Ermine, W. (1995). Aboriginal Epistemology. In M. Battiste, & J. Barman, First Nations Education in Canada:The Cirlce Unfolds. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2014). Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Pactice. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass: A Wiley Brand.