Epistemic agency, Indigenous knowledge, and the school science curriculum: reflections from Aotearoa New Zealand

In this article, we take up ongoing questions about relationships between epistemic agency, Indigenous knowledge, and the school science curriculum. We were brought together as curriculum advisors to provide guidance in the form of a conceptual framing for teams working on updates to Aotearoa New Zealand's national curriculum and assessment frameworks. We contribute, therefore, to this critically important discussion from within the context of an ethical and political imperative that is currently driving curriculum reform in our context: he mana & omacr;rite m & omacr; te m & amacr;tauranga M & amacr;ori (equal status for M & amacr;ori knowledge). It is from this context that we share how we have arrived at a 'multiple knowledge systems' approach to science curriculum reform. We argue that a science curriculum for the Anthropocene must afford teachers the creative space to bring together multiple knowledge systems in the form of a local curriculum, supporting students' inventiveness, empathy, and epistemic agency.