Dialogues between official Astrophysics and the Yanomami knowledge and other cultures: is it casual what is common?

Abstract

The motivation for the reflections made in this article arises from the growing movements of denial of scientific knowledge, which was the theme proposed for the International Historical Philosophical Science Teaching Latin American (IHPSTLA) in 2023. In a world marked by great social inequalities and challenges caused by capitalist environmental exploitation, we seek to contribute with the potential that the field of History, Philosophy and Sociology of Sciences can bring to Science Teaching in confronting denialist movements. We start from approaches of possible points of convergence between knowledge about the preservation of living conditions in the forests of the Yanomami people and that of official Science, involving hegemonic cosmogenies and those of these original people, without treating the different productions of knowledge as unique or similar. By valuing other world perceptions, we promote teaching with greater social justice and that combats violations of the human rights of vulnerable people. The set of activities presented here, and still under development in a Physics degree course at a public University in Rio de Janeiro, emerged from a broader project aimed at the initial training of Science teachers integrating Science Education with Rights Education Humans. Since the theoretical-methodological construction has been happening in a dynamic and cyclical way, in addition to counting on the broad participation of all subjects involved in the process, we chose action research as the methodological reference for the development of the research project.  The activities, developed with the students, involved dialogue between cultures, discussions about the role of images and dreams in different forms of knowledge production and the development of pedagogical projects as a form of evaluation. In the projects created by students, we find recognition of actions that indigenous peoples take in favor of the environment in which they live and planet Earth more broadly. As a result, we highlight the emergence of pedagogical opportunities brought by the topic to discuss questions about the Nature of Science, since the recognition by students of knowledge other than the scientifically hegemonic is obscured by the rigid way in which scientific methodologies are commonly presented to them. We also emphasize that the relationships between knowledge from different cultural origins for Science Teaching need to be deepened and increasingly discussed within the scope of initial training and teaching practices.