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I critically consider Portland State University’s Environmental Science and Management (ESM) department’s strategies in presenting Western scientific and Indigenous knowledge in regard to environmental management and interaction through the ESM department’s core curriculum. I conduct qualitative primary research through semi-structured interviews with two faculty members from the ESM department, an ESM student, and a faculty member in the Nation Studies department. The interviews illustrate the gap in the ESM’s core curriculum where multicultural perspectives are not represented. My research works to understand this gap by considering the historical, political, and economic constructs for the ways in which knowledge systems of the subaltern are marginalized. Finally, this thesis prescribes the integration of Native American traditional ecological knowledge through a focused course offered in the ESM core curriculum to counter these systems. Acknowledgment I would like to dedicate my thesis paper to my father. Thank you for giving me the strength, commitment, and ability to think about and question the world around me. Your untremoring support and belief in my ability as a writer and thinker instilled the motivation I needed to finish this. I would like to acknowledge my advisor, Lindsay Skog, and the guidance she offered me throughout this process. Thank you for challenging me. You were incredibly supportive and patient throughout this process. Thank you for introducing me to Political Ecology; you have changed the way I think about the world. Lastly, to all of my friends and family who helped with the editing process, thank you. KNOWLEDGE SPACES & Kramer 2 THE POLITICS OF PEDAGOGY Introduction In 1987, The World Commission on Environment and Development outlined goals situated within global institutional frameworks that set precedent to incorporate indigenous and tribal groups’ local knowledge systems into global policy agreements, in regards to environment and development (United Nations, 1987). Yet, policy-makers continue to face challenges in incorporating indigenous knowledge into global agreements. For example, The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an environmental treaty that institutes an agreement across nations that sets out to combat climate change. A politics of knowledge systems plays out at the negotiation table where Western states of the Global North maintain stronger negotiating power than countries of the Global South (Gough, 2002). A funneling effect occurs where powerful industrialized states discuss and determine commitments, the ways in which climate change mitigation and adaptation will develop and how the agreement will be financed, held to and accomplished (Ibid). Gough (2002) exposes the ethical implications behind the production and dissemination of knowledge systems in the global approach to combat climate change: “If global warming is understood as a problem for all of the world’s people, then we need to find ways in which all of the world’s knowledge systems can jointly produce appropriate understandings and responses” (1226). Gough illustrates that at the conjunction of power and knowledge, the UNFCCC Parties with more power bolster their knowledge system, which creates an effect where those with less institutional power see their own knowledge system marginalized. A politics of knowledge systems sees those with power legitimize their own knowledge system (Western knowledge) and worldview, while disempowering and silencing other knowledge systems. The scheme laid out at the UNFCCC — constructed by intertwining systems of power and knowledge — ultimately determines the ways in which the KNOWLEDGE SPACES & Kramer 3 THE POLITICS OF PEDAGOGY world approaches climate change mitigation and adaptation. The lack of recognition of Indigenous knowledge (IK) and Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) at the UNFCCC and its exclusion in global decision making processes is indicative of a larger omission that begins in our education system. If western scientific knowledge is the way in which Environmental Science and Studies majors are trained to interact with the world, we must consider: Upon what culture and what set of social constructions is Western science built up in? How does the legacy of colonialism shape education in the U.S.? How have and how do western scientific knowledge systems continue to impact indigenous people? What sorts of environment/society interactions, new societies, and secret knowledge based systems are we missing out on when the knowledge systems, worldviews, and socio-environmental interactions of indigenous cultures are not discussed in the college classroom? How could studying IK and indigenous worldview inspire future environmental managers and activists to imagine new societal organizations around the ways in which we interact with the environment? Turnbull (1997) examines the production, transmission, and utilization of Western science and contends that the production of knowledge is a social process – a social construct. Since knowledge is socially constructed, Turnbull postulates that there are “knowledge spaces,” and argues that a third knowledge space must be created where Western science and marginalized knowledge systems may coexist. Indigenous perspectives on environmental interaction and management represent a knowledge base that is in stark contrast to the dominant structures of capitalist society. This indigenous knowledge base is imbedded in a way of life that acknowledges the interconnection between ecosystems and human society. TEK contains ecological knowledge of the interaction KNOWLEDGE SPACES & Kramer 4 THE POLITICS OF PEDAGOGY between the community and its land for thousands of years (Berkes, 2012). In the academic setting, learning from TEK would not romanticize the ways of pre-colonized peoples; rather, it would acknowledge the cultural resilience of indigenous communities across the world, the ways in which they are affected by modern day society, and consider how TEK may be incorporated into future communities (Simpson, 2004a). Thesis statement & research questions. I center my research around two primary research questions: 1) How does the politics of knowledge systems shape the relation between Western science and Indigenous scientific knowledge systems? 2) How can Native American TEK be incorporated into environmental higher education curriculum to encourage multicultural perspectives? I identify the political and historical background to understand the forces behind the ways in which Native American knowledge systems are rejected, marginalized and underrepresented in science education. I argue that Western scientific knowledge systems have a stronghold in education and policy because they appear to be detached from their cultural context. When deconstructed, the culture that constructs Western science becomes apparent and dominant. The fact that Western scientific knowledge stands to be detached from its cultural context is representative of Western culture. The domination of Western scientific knowledge systems paves the ways in which societies progress, solve problems and adapt; and the marginalization of indigenous knowledge systems disallows other societal forms to materialize — systems that may be more resilient and sustainable in the face of climate change. To combat the marginalization of indigenous knowledge systems in environmental higher education at PSU, I prescribe the ethical integration of a required course within the core curriculum (offered to both Environmental Studies and Science majors) that considers Native KNOWLEDGE SPACES & Kramer 5 THE POLITICS OF PEDAGOGY American scientific knowledge systems and worldviews that are represented in Native American TEK. Through my primary and secondary research I contend that the ethical integration of a course on TEK entails that the course: 1) be taught by a Native American faculty member or be co-taught by an ESM faculty member and a Native American faculty member, with elder participation; 2) have tribal consensus; 3) consider the historical and political background of TEK; 4) include a portion that considers the politics of knowledge systems; 5) incorporate worldviews and knowledge production process; and 6) evade dichotomizing Western scientific knowledge systems and Indigenous scientific knowledge systems. Case study and interviews. Using PSU’s Environmental Science and Management (ESM) department as a case study, I sought to determine the prevalence of multicultural perspectives in PSU’s Environmental Science and Studies core curriculum. I focused on Native American TEK because it’s most relevant to PSU’s campus location in Oregon, USA. Additionally, focusing on Native American knowledge systems pays respect to the sacred land that PSU’s campus occupies and provides a tangible example for ESM students to examine the ways in which systems of power and knowledge marginalize Native American communities in Oregon: socially, intellectually, economically, spiritually, and in terms of loss of land and displacement. Methods. I conducted the research for my honors thesis in the Winter quarter of the 2016 2017 academic year. My methodologies for data collection were qualitative and were conducted through semi-structured interviews. The study had a total of four participants: two ESM department members, one Native American Nation Studies faculty member, and one Native American ESM student. I sought out the particular ESM faculty members because they both teach courses that are offered to both Environmental Science and Studies majors through KNOWLEDGE SPACES & Kramer 6 THE POLITICS OF PEDAGOGY the respective core curricula. Also, it is in these two courses — Applied Environmental Studies II: Environmental Program Solving (ESM 221) and Introduction to Environmental Management (ESM 335) where I saw a seamless and natural integration of multicultural per

Knowledge Spaces and The Politics of Pedagogy: Politicizing Portland State University’s Environmental Education Paradigms