Reviving Knowledges through Play and Resistance: The Case of Navajo Conceptions of Space

Abstract

The authors explore a possible cause of epistemicidal predispositions of the dominant Eurocentric curricula. They posit that one way to determine a plausible contributing factor of this increasing devastation is to consider epistemicide through the lens of intellectual development. To do this, the authors examine parallel patterns of behavior in the domains of developmental and cognitive psychology. The authors then discuss an alternative framework to the Western conception of space within formal K-12 education by presenting the Navajo conception of space and play. Throughout the paper, the authors argue that all students—and especially those living in poverty in commercially constructed, large urban areas—deserve, and need, an educational framework that expands rather than constricts their schema of space and facilitates their agency to renew and regenerate their environment.

Keywords

• curriculum epistemicide
• cognition
• human development
• spatial thinking
• play
• resistance