Traditional ecological knowledge, border theory and justice

Recent times have seen a growing preoccupation with diversity as a consequence of the newly intercivilisational encounters of our rapidly globalising world. Globalisation has meant that at the local level, the world’s peoples rub more closely together not only ensuring that diversity, plurality and hybridity have become the leitmotifs of the global age, but also raising some deeply vexing questions about their consequences for science education. For example, questions about the ways in which science knowledge should be conceptualised and represented by science education invite debate about the epistemological parity between western science and other non-western sciences or Indigenous Knowledges (IK), as well as our understanding of justice, and our visions for the future. On the one hand, globalisation brings with it an appreciation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as a form of indigenous knowledge while on the other, it sustains rather than challenges existing boundaries and their attendant hegemonic impulses (Li 2003).