Interfacing indigenous knowledge and climate change education in Nepal: Experiences of school teacher

Developing countries like Nepal are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and Nepal has recently recognized the importance of climate change education. It has revised its school curriculum to include... [ view full abstract ]

Developing countries like Nepal are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and Nepal has recently recognized the importance of climate change education. It has revised its school curriculum to include courses on climate change, but unfortunately, the curriculum is solely focused on the technical aspects of climate change. Indigenous knowledge is not part of the curriculum in Nepal.  This is despite the acknowledgment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of its importance in building climate resilience, and demonstrations of its efficacy in various studies. More fundamentally, indigenous knowledge has been used by villages in Nepal for generations to manage the forest, natural resources, and ecosystems in a sustainable manner despite changes in climate. 

Given the importance of indigenous knowledge to the livelihoods of the rural communities, I explored how it was considered by community teachers.  Using the paradigm of interpretivism as narrative inquiry, I explored through stories and experiences, how six climate change teachers in different schools in Lamjung District in Nepal, have dealt with indigenous knowledge within the limits of the climate change curriculum. I wanted to learn whether and how they have linked technical knowledge with indigenous knowledge. I learned how some used local examples from their parents to link the knowledge to their everyday lives, thus contributing to the transmission of the knowledge to younger generations.  I discuss how this linkage is necessary in order to serve the emancipatory interest of education, which strives for social justice and transformation, and to escape the hegemony of the western system of education.