Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the social and environmental niches in which Amerindian children grow and how Amerindian relational epistemologies can inform alternative, outdoor and hands-on educational initiatives and help broaden their research base.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the social and environmental niches in which Amerindian children grow and how Amerindian relational epistemologies can inform alternative, outdoor and hands-on educational initiatives and help broaden their research base. The paper considers human learning and human development from the perspective of Amerindian sociality, with a special focus on the relationship between ontology, epistemology and states of mind and being. It traces learning environments, and the scenarios, tasks and attentions that constitute them, relating these to the development of attentional states and modes of perception that enhance biosocial diversity. The paper promotes holistic teaching and learning, that are transdisciplinary by default, and draws on two publications, “It takes a village: The learning environment, Amerindian relations and a poor pedagogy for today’s entangled challenges” (Chapter in Routledge’s, Anthropological Perspectives on Global Challenges) and “Formabiap’s Indigenous educative community: a biosocial pedagogy” (article in the Special Issue, Pedagogy and Indigenous knowledge and Learning, Oxford Review of Education).