Using AI to support Culturally Grounded Indigenous Education

Project Abstract: Research has shown that culturally grounded education for Indigenous community members supports engagement, wellbeing, and learning. However, implementing culturally grounded education effectively, particularly in remote areas, has proven difficult due to the lack of culturally grounded materials and the time it takes to create quality curriculum. Over the past 6 years our team has been able to develop and implement culturally grounded curriculum in rural Indigenous areas of Peru. However, it is a challenge to do this work at scale. Artificial intelligence (AI) shows promise for addressing this issue. To demonstrate that AI can create culturally grounded learning materials and curriculum based in community epistemologies, our team will train offline AI software to use community-led, collaboratively gathered knowledge, such as local plants, animals, and cultural practices to foster literary, numeracy, and critical thinking skills based in communities’ ways of thinking and being. This work will engage in community-based practices and follow First Nations OCAP ethical principles.

CORE RESEARCH TEAM

Principal Investigator: Professor Joseph Levitan

Associate professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University

Professor Catherine Potvin

Professor at the Department of Biology at McGill University. Trottier Fellow from the Trottier Institute for Science and Public Policy. Director, PFSS: Panama Field Study Semester. Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Mitigation and Tropical Forest (Tier 1)

Professor Bryan Leung

Associate Professor at the Department of Biology at McGill University. UNESCO Chair for dialogues on sustainability. Director of the McGill STRI, Neotropical Environment Option.

Carmen Moritz 

PhD Student in Anthropology at McGill University.

• Homilia Flaco, Teacher from the Emberá Nation

• Oliver Chamorro, Computer technician from the Emberá Nation

• Juanico Ortega, Emberá knowledge holder

• Daniel Zuniga, Peruvian collabotator