LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – School year has started just a week ago and hopes remain vibrant that the urgency to continue revitalizing Indigenous Knowledge Systems in tertiary level curriculum in the country (IKS) be at par with the era of globalization.
Perhaps, the dominant theme to emerge from the current discourse about Indigenous People (IP) and Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICC) is removal of whatever barriers remain for their meaningful participation at the different levels and spheres of society and empower them to exercise their rights and duties as Filipino citizens.
Further, there’s this realization that IPs and ICCs are valuable individuals and entities having vital contributions in preservation of Filipino culture, heritage and economic growth, according to researchers in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) who conducted a study on the topic.
Importantly, the study was geared towards helping students in CAR to develop awareness, appreciation, understanding and respect to IPs and ICCs, while contributing to educators’ knowledge of approaches and strategies.
Integration of IKS into education has been initiated by Benguet State University (BSU) knowing fully well that it bodes well with education.
BSU is open-minded to the direction that any framework for IKS education be designed for flexibility to ensure that suitable content can be integrated systematically at a course and provides guidance around the sequenced progression of learning outcomes.
By integrating IP and ICC studies/education in the tertiary curricula, BSU curriculum planners and school administrators have shown empirical evidence that help effectively in teaching strategies in the integration of IPs/ICCs studies/ education in higher education curricula.
Experiences of BSU faculty members in integration of IKS in the curriculum has been encapsulated in the study titled, “The Integration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in the Tertiary Level Curriculum of Benguet State University La Trinidad Campus.”
Conducted by Gigy G. Banes and Kristine Baniqued-Dela Cruz, Institute of Social Research and Development, Benguet State University, their study was accepted by BSU’s prestigious Mountain Journal of Science and Interdisciplinary Research.
Even before the issuance of Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 02, series of 2019 ordering “Integration of Indigenous Peoples’ (IP) Studies/Education into the Relevant Higher Education Curricula,” some BSU faculty members already employed various initiatives in integrating IKS in their teaching methodologies.
Specifically, BSU’s IKS integration was evidently buoyant in the social sciences and community development subjects, the researchers found out.
Understandably, BSU mentors encountered challenges in their experiences of implementation of “in-depth integration” of IKS at tertiary level curriculum due in part to previous prevailing situation where there was absence of explicit university policy/memorandum and monitoring scheme on IKS integration, teaching methodologies and pedagogies that impeded sustainable integration of IKS in different subjects.
Other BSU mentors’ experiences was hurdling were limited reference materials/resources on IKS, limited knowledge, exposure and appreciation of IKS that tended to weaken hope for the faculty to integrate IKS in teaching.
Despite said challenges, BSU faculty members rallied by doing in-depth integration of IKS in the subjects they handled as reflected in the teaching pedagogies over the succeeding years.
BSU teachers showed and proved without doubt that IKS integration in the curriculum was still a “teacher’s initiative and cultural advocacy,” the endeavor helping students develop awareness, appreciation, understanding and respect to IPs and ICCs.
Looked at, by hindsight, the early actions of the BSU faculty members are considered sound approaches to IKS integration education, even before the CHED Order came out.
Then CHED Memorandum Order No. 02 series of 2019 was released, which states in part in paragraph 2 of the memorandum: “All public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) are enjoined to offer IP Studies/Education in their respective curricula and for the CHED regional offices to closely monitor its offering.”
At BSU, some faculty members from the seven colleges and two institutes implemented Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP) integration in the different subjects and degree programs prior to the CHED memorandum, the study particularly noted.
BSU faculty members knew for fact that IKS or IKSP compose a wide body of knowledge, processes and practices developed, used and acquired by local communities as they interact with their environment across generations.
Establishing indigenous people’s education in the county has a sound and certain legal basis. Article 14 of the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People states: “Indigenous people have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also protects the rights of indigenous people to education.
Sections 15,16 and 17 of the Philippine Constitution identified the role of the state in protecting the rights of indigenous cultural communities and how these rights become the basis for developing national plans and policies that support the preservation and development of their cultures, traditions and institutions.
Enactment of Republic Act 8371 or IPRA in 1997 laid down the legal framework for addressing the indigenous people’s plight, while recognizing and promoting their rights as a people.
On the flipside of a coin, implementation of Republic Act 10908 (An Act Mandating the Integration of Filipino-Muslim Indigenous People’s History, Culture and Identity in the Study of Philippine History in Both Basic and Higher Education) in 2016 decreed basic and higher education shall incorporate the history, culture and identity studies of IPs.
Hence, IP education and indigenous studies are supported by the Philippine Constitution and legal mandates.
Other Higher Education Institutions (HEI) initiatives to incorporate indigenous knowledge have been recorded by researcher Banes, like BSU semestral cultural presentation showcasing indigenous knowledge on native cuisines, songs and dances in their Social Sciences 12 and 16.
Photo exhibits on IK, gender and social issues every 1st week of Women’s Month have also been conducted. IKSP were regularly published in the school’s newspapers like Agshan and Mountain Collegian.
At Ifugao State University, it offered elective subject on Ifugao IK, localized and contextualized and the Ifugao state institution was successful in having produced an IK instructional material titled, “Ifugao Indigenous Knowledge Workbook.”
For Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC), the researchers found the college offered general education subjects on IKSP, introduction to Indigenous People’s Education (IPEd) and Rural Development.
MPSPC also offers masteral degree in IPEd and has its own IPEd Research Journal which publishes IK researches of students and faculty. “It is the lone state university in CAR with School of Living Traditions managed by its Tadian campus and funded by the National Center for Culture and the Arts,” the study specifically revealed.
On the other hand, Pines City Colleges (PCC) holds semestral cultural presentations involving international students while Saint Louis University established its Museum of Arts and Culture and showcasing Cordillera artifacts, the museum curator always there to give lectures to students and visitors on history and IK of CAR, study stressed.
The University of the Philippines UP-Baguio is also a pioneer in incorporating IP studies and education in its respective curricula.
University of the Philippines, Baguio (UP) faculty members and students conduct qualitative researches of which these are disseminated through lecture series or published materials through the Cordillera Studies Center. UP-Baguio also gives emphasis on IP concerns through discussions, fora or seminars. It also has its Museo Kordilyera.
All told, universities in CAR have experienced IK integration in their curriculum.
However, the study revealed educational institutions integrating IKS in formal education encounter varied challenges, some problems like teachers facing lack of teaching materials or momentarily stonewalled with the problem of students having different indigenous knowledge.
There’s also this clash between religion and the spiritual aspects of indigenous knowledge. Different religious beliefs and ideologies impact change of perspectives of IPs regarding their cultural practices. Often, there is a clash of religion and culture.
For example, religion taught them that indigenous cultural practices are evil and promote paganism and respondents in the study revealed that “religion taught them that can֮ao or pattong is unholy and indigenous songs of tribal people in Cordillera are interpreted by religion as paganism.”
These religious perspectives prevent the IP students who became respondents in the study to carry out their cultural practices. BSU faculty members who encountered such a problem have had to give them alternative requirements.
Despite the challenges, IK teachers forge ahead, comforted by the fact that education plays a significant role in transmitting culture to the next generations. Presently, school or academe is one of the best avenues in integrating cultural expressions or indigenous knowledge to students amidst modernity, migration and globalization.
The study quoted Neil Smelser, a renowned American sociologist who said: “Education’s main function is to transmit culture. . . It also fosters change. Education walks a narrow line between conservation and innovation. It preserves cultural values and passes them from one generation to the next. At the same time, it contributes to social change by inventing new technologies and questioning traditional values.”
It is the belief of the researchers that the advocacy to incorporate indigenous studies in the curriculum is one positive way to transmit and preserve ancestors’ cultural practices, traditions and value systems to the young generation for socio-cultural and community development.
