Month: April 2024

Troy Shaffer

Dr. Hildebrandt

CODE122

20 March 2024

Summary of “Faculty and Students disrupt…”

The School of Education faculty and students are part of a movement called Critical Quantitative Theory, which is trying to un-separate quantitative and qualitative data in research. This approach known as CritQuant aims to use data and statistics more equitably, particularly with social justice issues. The Critical Quantitative Research Forum was established in 2023 and consists of faculty and students who meet regularly to discuss and implement CritQuant methodologies. This forum has projects such as examining the racial wealth gap’s impact on educational inequities using quantitative methods from critical race theory. Members of this forum talk about the importance of acknowledging researchers’ biases and subjectivity. Additionally, they discuss practical challenges, like conducting quantitative research with small subject groups and incentivizing participation. Overall, the forum is providing a space for collaborative exploration and use of these methodologies in educational research.

Analysis of “Faculty and Students disrupt…”

I believe that the point of this article is to inform and educate people about the Critical Quantitative Theory, or “CritQuant”. The article shows the efforts of how the faculty and students are actively trying to use CritQuant in their research. I also believe that it is trying to show the limitations of traditional research strategies when looking at issues of social justice. The author is trying to argue that CritQuant is a step in the right direction in trying to make

research methods more inclusive. This article is helpful to us because it helps broaden our understandings of these research methods and gives us the possibility to try to work with them.

Summary of “An interview-like conversation with Indigenous Native Americans”

This video shows the importance of integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with contemporary environmental conservation strategies. This is challenging the conventional approach that seeks to separate human activity from nature. The video shows the experiences of tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest, and advocates for a relationship between humans and ecosystems, which is grounded in thousands of years of sustainable living practices. By using TEK with modern scientific research and education, there can be a more holistic and sustainable approach to environmental management. It also talks about the need for collaboration and the need to learn from diverse knowledge systems to address environmental problems we face today.

Analysis of “An interview-like conversation with Indigenous Native Americans”

I believe that the argument of this video is that the usual approach to conservation is just not relevant anymore. There are deep connections between indigenous communities and nature. So, this is why TEK is trying to be integrated, because indigenous communities have kept their environments perfectly fine for thousands of years. So, the argument is that we need conservation strategies that benefit both nature and people. This relates to our class because we are working on including indigenous knowledge within the herbarium.

Bibliography

Humboldt PBLC. “Traditional Ecological Knowledge & Place-Based Learning Communities.” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Aug. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=liKV74avPso.

Walls, Martin. “Critquant: School of Education Faculty and Students Join a Movement to Disrupt Traditional Research Methods.” SU News, 6 Dec. 2023, news.syr.edu/blog/2023/12/06/critquant-school-of-education-faculty-and-students-join-a-movement-to-disrupt-traditional-research-methods/.

Troy Shaffer 

Dr. Hildebrandt 

CODES122 

20 February 2024 

Summary 

     The Karuk Tribe lives in Northern California, and they like to create healthy landscapes by using small fires. Unfortunately, there were colonial settlers who interrupted this practice by outlawing it. Wildfires and droughts have started to damage the Karuk tribe’s land. So, the Karuk Tribe has started collaborating with academic researchers to focus on four of their culturally significant plants. The collaboration combines indigenous knowledge with scientific methods. They started this collaboration in 2008 and they also have a focus in emphasizing the need for support to restore cultural practices. The article shows the importance of collaboration and how Indigenous knowledge combined with western science is very effective for conservation. 

Analysis 

     This article was written to bring awareness to the problems that the Karuk Tribe has been facing and show the work that is being done to fight these problems. So, the audience of this article could be anyone but is probably more aimed towards people interested in indigenous knowledge and cultural preservation. This article shows how the colonization and creation of new laws in Northern California affected the Karuk Tribe and their practices. But it also showed the importance of collaboration as the Karuk tribe worked with scientists to create solutions to the new problems that the Karuk tribe faced. This source is important to us as it shows us how effective collaborating with Indigenous communities can be. This can lead to indigenous communities getting more recognition and more inclusion in botanical research.  

Bibliography 

Hoorn, Roxanne. “Indigenous Knowledge Guides the Conservation of Culturally Important Plants.” Mongabay Environmental News, 5 Dec. 2022, news.mongabay.com/2022/12/indigenous-knowledge-guides-the-conservation-of-culturally-important-plants/.  

Troy Shaffer 

Dr. Hildebrandt 

CODES122 

19 February 2024 

Highs and Lows: How climate change is affecting people and plants in the Himalayas 

Summary 

The Missouri botanical garden is conducting research in the Himalayas to look at climate change and its effects. They are doing this research in China, Bhutan, and Nepal. This research has been going since 2005 and they are actually collaborating with the local communities where they are doing the research. Their research being climate changes effects on mountain plants, which includes lower elevation plants moving higher due to temperatures rising. The overall goal is to inform people on adaptation strategies and find substitutes of threatened plants.  They are also involving local communities in their studies and having them be advisors and monitors in the work.  

Analysis 

This source was made to inform people on what work Missouri Botanical Gardens is doing and in my opinion is also made to make MOBOT look better, like a PR piece. The source was obviously written by Missouri Botanical Gardens about MOBOT, so I feel like there is a bias. This source was published on December 8^th, 2023, and I also find it interesting that National Geographic Society was a sponsor of the work. But I believe the main point of the information in the article is to provide insight on the effects of climate change and how we can grasp and live with the effects. I think that this source is important to us because it is obviously a direct connection to MOBOT, but it also shows us that they have and are willing to collaborate with local communities. This is important to my group specifically as we are working on Indigenous knowledge and the lack of in MOBOT.  

This Library takes an Indigenous approach to categorizing books 

Summary 

          The Xwi7xwa Library is at the University of British Columbia and is challenging the Dewey Decimal Classification system, with the goal of decolonizing the organization of information. Indigenous books and information are usually placed in the history section, which causes a bias and limits accurate representation. The library hires Indigenous librarians and uses an adapted version of the Brian Deer Classification system to be able to reflect Indigenous perspectives better. They are organizing books by geographic location, as Native communities have connections to different places.  There is also a dedicated section for books with harmful stereotypes, which they call the “Yuck shelf”. Xwi7xwa wants to create productive conversations and awareness about bias in library systems. The library is a resource for Indigenous studies and is correcting decades of misinformation. 

Analysis 

     The point of this article is to show how the Xwi7xwa library is trying to decolonize classification systems in libraries. This article was written in March of 2019. Libraries typically create a bias by organizing indigenous knowledge in the history section, so the article is speaking out against it and showing a way to stop doing it. I believe this is important to our work as it has a connection to our work on Indigenous knowledge and how it is classified/not classified at Missouri Botanical Gardens. The library corrects decades of information, so if we follow the lead of the work done at Xwi7xwa, we can help make changes at MOBOT.  

Bibliography 

“Highs and Lows: How Climate Change Is Impacting People and Plants in the Himalayas.” Edited by Catherine Martin, Missouri Botanical Gardens, 8 Dec. 2023, discoverandshare.org/2023/12/08/highs-and-lows-how-climate-change-is-impacting-people-and-plants-in-the-himalayas/.  

Worth, Sydney. “This Library Takes an Indigenous Approach to Categorizing Books – Yes! Magazine Solutions Journalism.” YES! Magazine, 22 Mar. 2019, www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/03/22/decolonize-western-bias-indigenous-library-books.  

Troy Shaffer

Dr. Hildebrandt

CODES122

16 April 2024

Mixed Methods Lab

            Our final lab for our research team was broken into two parts, we made a survey about Indigenous Knowledge in Missouri Botanical Gardens (MOBOT), as well as did a focus group with several members of the staff also about Indigenous Knowledge in MOBOT. Unfortunately, with our surveys, we did not get the number of responses we aimed for, with only 7, but 7 is better than none. I would say that the focus group was definitely a better experience overall and helped us get better responses to our questions, due to the fact that we were face to face. When you are face to face, you aren’t given much time to think about the perfect answer, like with an online survey, so with the focus group interviews, I feel like we got more raw honest answers

Our focus group interviews were supposed to fill in the gaps from the questions in our surveys, however our surveys did not do well. So, we had to reword some questions to help us get more information that was lacking from our survey responses. The picture below is a word cloud from one of our interviews. One obvious pattern was seen with our focus group interviews, and it was with our last question, “What knowledge should be honored or protected within the information gathered?”. Almost all of the staff responded said something along the lines of that everything is voluntary, and all information is accurate. We got good responses from everyone we interviewed, but at some points it sort of felt like they were media trained with their answers.

            Our surveys were a struggle. It took forever for us to get responses, only to end up with seven total. But our survey was directed towards staff members at MOBOT, and asking them about Indigenous Knowledge and its place at MOBOT. One of our questions was “How have you seen the garden portraying Indigenous Knowledge?”. One response we got was quite interesting, “We could be doing more, I actually have a hard time thinking of examples when the Garden has handled this topic well. I can actually think of more examples of times the gardens missed opportunities to present local knowledge very well through social media and local TV/radio spots (Kwanzaa, Indigenous Peoples Day, and Japanese Festival)”. This just shows that one of the biggest problems and issues is actually acknowledging the problem.

Troy Shaffer

Dr. Hildebrandt

CODES122

7 February 2024

MOBOT Lab Write-Up

The renowned Missouri Botanical Gardens is in St. Louis and has a large collection of plant specimens from all over the world. Our recent visit of the Missouri Botanical Gardens (MOBOT) was to look into the archives in search of plant specimens that could give us indigenous knowledge. We were not very successful.

At MOBOT, each plant specimen is stored in a folder, it has a tangible part of the plant and information about the plant. The information includes the botanist’s name responsible for the discovery, when and where the plant was discovered, the plant’s common uses, scientific and common names, and more that I am probably missing. However, we noticed that there is an absence of indigenous knowledge in these plant specimens.

Unfortunately, these plant specimens only have a singular perspective. Victoria, our herbarium assistant, called these a snapshot of the plant frozen in time, with only the viewpoint of one person. In our observations, Indigenous knowledge and voices were absent and silenced from the herbarium. To unsilence these voices would not be difficult. All we need is botanists to provide more effort, instead of just doing their traditional research strategies.  By engaging with and seeking collaboration with indigenous communities during their research trips, botanists could bridge the gap, and finally have a more inclusive representation of knowledge within the herbarium. The Missouri Botanical Garden has the potential to not only preserve plant specimens but also give voices to communities from which these plants originate, which would only lead to the herbarium being a better resource for people around the world.

This is a plant sample that we looked at first. We used this as our example to look at everything that these show and tell us.