Collaborative Research: Learning In and From the Environment through Multiple Ways of Knowing (LIFEways)

许多紧迫的环境挑战，从土壤退化和水污染到全球气候变化，都深深植根于复杂系统如何影响人类福祉，以及人类如何与自然和彼此联系。通过多种方式了解环境（LIFEways）的前提是，土著管理自古以来就在这些土地上维持社区。该项目由土著教育研究所和俄勒冈州州立大学STEM研究中心共同领导，与Native Pathways和Reimagine Research Group，Swinomish Indian Tribal Community，俄勒冈州科学与工业博物馆，世界林业中心以及太平洋西北部的国家公园网络合作。这种伙伴关系的目的是加深非正式学习领域的了解，了解土著人的认知方式目前或可以被纳入户外学习环境，如公园，自然保护区和部落土地。该项目将分享以土著世界观为中心的实践，以建立对其价值的认识，并加强户外环境中的STEM学习。这些方法使土著社区成员继续他们的传统知识和做法，并帮助非土著受众以真实、尊重的方式从环境的动态相互关系中学习。传统的户外教育大多基于西方的“保护”和“保护”概念，将人类与自然分开。这项服务于实践的研究项目将确定“明智的做法”，尊重荣誉的认识方式，并调查目前的能力，障碍和机会，在户外教育中放大土著的声音。一个由土著和非土著研究人员和从业人员组成的团队将借鉴土著和西方的研究范式。方法包括谈话故事对话、使用全国调查的景观研究、案例研究和关系圈来解释和传播研究成果。LIFEways还将记录伙伴关系流程，以继续建立部落和非部落组织之间的诚信合作框架（Maryboy和Begay，2012年）。LIFEways项目的调查结果将通过一系列网络研讨会、地方和国家会议、大会和出版物广泛分享。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划共同资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深入学习的理解。在地球科学理事会（GEO）研究、创新、协同、教育（RISE）计划的共同资助下，该项目将进一步推动传统生态知识在地球科学中的应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many urgent environmental challenges, from soil degradation and water pollution to global climate change, have deep roots in how complex systems impact human well-being, and how humans relate to nature and to each other. Learning In and From the Environment through Multiple Ways of Knowing (LIFEways) is based on the premise that Indigenous stewardship has sustained communities on these lands since time immemorial. This project is collaboratively led by the Indigenous Education Institute and Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center, in partnership with Native Pathways and the Reimagine Research Group, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, World Forestry Center, and a national park network in the Pacific Northwest. The aim of this partnership is to deepen the informal learning field’s understanding of how Indigenous ways of knowing are currently or can be included in outdoor learning environments such as parks, nature preserves, and tribal lands. The project will share practices that center Indigenous worldviews to build awareness of their value and enhance STEM learning in outdoor settings. These approaches engage Native community members in continuing their traditional knowledge and practices, and help non-Native audiences learn from the dynamic interrelationships of the environment in authentic, respectful ways. Conventional outdoor education is mostly grounded in Western concepts of “conservation” and “preservation” that position humans as acting separately from nature. This Research in Service to Practice project will identify “wise practices” that honor Indigenous ways of knowing, and investigate current capacities, barriers and opportunities for amplifying Indigenous voices in outdoor education. A team of Native and non-Native researchers and practitioners will draw upon Indigenous and Western research paradigms. Methods include Talk Story dialogues, a landscape study using national surveys, case studies, and a Circle of Relations to interpret and disseminate research findings. LIFEways will also document partnership processes to continue to build on the Collaboration with Integrity framework between tribal and non-tribal organizations (Maryboy and Begay, 2012). Findings from the LIFEways project will be shared broadly through a series of webinars, local and national meetings, conferences, and publications. This project is co-funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. With co-funding from the Directorate of Geosciences’ (GEO), Research, Innovation, Synergies, & Education (RISE) Program, this project will further advance efforts related to the application of traditional ecological knowledge to the geosciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.