Indigenous Ways of Learning

Because Western psychology is such a dominating force in the field of psychology, it is often the standards and norms of the Western culture that are used when evaluating processes such as learning. Both Morelli et al and Hilger put forth in their articles that this may be an inaccurate way to evaluate different practices because cultural and environmental issues vary across groups and establish different ways and resources for learning. They further put forth that because of these variances, the Westernized template may not only fail in evaluating things like learning in other cultures but may also be detrimental to those cultures.

Hilger’s study looks at the way that Chippewa children learn. Although the Chippewa Indians live within the US, Hilger’s article allows us to speculate about the differences between the two groups. Of these there are two major differences. The first is that ‘A Chippewa child was not subjected to formal education,” which means that they learn skills through hands on practice and observation. This is unlike the Westernized practice of learning which requires children to go through formalized learning in a classroom for extended periods of time. This relates to the second primary difference. Not only is the setting different but so are the instructors. In Westernized culture children learn from instructors who are often strangers to them. In contrast, the Chippewa children learn from family and community members that they know and respect. These differences show how the Westernized standards may be an inaccurate was to gauge Chippewa children’s learning since their learning skills aren’t necessarily something that can be measured by Western standardized tests.

Hilger’s article also shows how applying Westernized learning to Chippewa children can even be detrimental to their culture. Today formalized Western education is offered on a lot of reservations, such as the Lac Courte Orielle Reservation. Because of this the Chippewa way of learning through observation and hands on practice is deteriorating which is detrimental to the Chippewa way of life and cultural practices. “As a young lad I had often watched my father make canoes and in that way learnt how to do the fine details…no one today wants to help me or learn.”

Unlike Hilger’s implied above comparisons, Morelli et al took their study one step further and actually compared the learning process and environmental components amongst Westernized and non-Westernized cultures. They came to the same conclusions. It was found that the Westernized groups studied from the US and the groups from San Pedro and Efe differed greatly in both the ways that they learned and the ways that they were treated in their communities. The Westernized groups learned through formalized training in the classroom with one instructor who was typically a stranger. Even in their day to day lives they were typically only around one adult who often engaged them in child-centered activities and conversations. Of the non-Westernized groups “The Efe have had little experience with formal schooling” and “schooling in San Pedro has become much more widely attended… although it is still seen as a ‘foreign institution.” These two groups tend to learn through observation and hands on training from family and community members. Morelli et al also found that very few of the children from these groups were engaged by adults in child-like talk. These children were often treated and talked to as adults and the play they engaged in usually emulated adult activities.

As seen from the research done by both Morelli et al and Hilger, there is more than one way for the learning process to occur and how this process is chosen depends upon the culture and the environment. Due to this it is unlikely that there is any single way that will appropriately gauge the learning process across all cultures. From the Westernized cultures looked at, focus was put on classroom learning in order to prepare children for jobs once they were adults that would help them to contribute to society. In the non-Westernized cultures in the two studies, hands on learning and observations helped the children to learn how to be treated as contributing adults to their communities. In either case all cultures chose a way of learning that best suited the children to become functioning and contributing adults in their societies.


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